Bechdel Day 2025 celebrates K-dramas, films that rewrite rules for female characters

Posters of dramas selected for the Series category of the Bechdel Choice 10 / Courtesy of respective broadcasters

Bechdel Day 2025, a two-day event organized by the Directors Guild of Korea to reflect on gender equality representation in Korean media, will take place in Seoul this weekend, coinciding with Korea’s Gender Equality Week, which began Monday and runs until Sunday.

Now in its sixth year, the festival honors the legacy of American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, whose Bechdel Test concept from the 1980s drew attention to the scarcity of women’s narratives and female characters in media. Launched in Korea in 2020, Bechdel Day has expanded into an annual program and awards ceremony evaluating gender representation in Korean films and series.

In addition to the test’s original three rules — two named women characters, talking to each other, about something other than a man — Korea’s Bechdel Day introduced four more criteria, including female representation among key production staff and the avoidance of discriminatory portrayals of women and minorities.

Each year, based on this framework, the organizers announce the Bechdel Choice 10, the top 10 most gender-equal Korean works.

Shifting media landscapes

Progress, the organizers emphasize, remains uneven. Independent cinema continues to produce daring and diverse works, while commercial films — once buoyed by female-led blockbusters before the pandemic — have shown hints of regression in recent years.

“Through events like this, we want not only to encourage better practices in the industry but also to discover and highlight the creators and works that are already leading the way,” said film journalist and festival programmer Lee Hwa-jung.

If the film sector is faltering, however, the Korean drama scene tells a different story. With the proliferation of streaming platforms and their original series, audiences are encountering female characters that look nothing like the cliches of the past. Bold, ambitious and layered, these women embody traits long associated with male protagonists, and viewers have embraced this shift with enthusiasm.

“It’s been heartening to see not just the characters themselves, but also the audience’s strong response to them,” Lee observed.

Posters of films selected for the 2025 Bechdel Choice 10 / Courtesy of their respective distributors

Festival highlights

This year’s main event is the “Bechdelian Talk,” a live gathering of the creators behind the Bechdel Choice selections. More than an awards stage, it is meant to be a candid exchange about how filmmakers and showrunners work to steer their stories away from bias, what kinds of barriers they faced when tackling gender-equal narratives, and how they found ways to represent not only women but also minority voices in an industry often constrained by conservative structures and market pressures.

There will also be a special program titled “Gender Equality in Competitive Spirit.” This session expands the discussion beyond cinema and drama into the realm of popular variety entertainment. Producers and cast members from hit reality shows featuring all-women casts will take the stage to discuss how women’s stories — and their competitive spirit — are being rewritten in spaces once perceived as male territory.

“In the past, when women openly expressed their ambitions or fiercely fought to win, such behavior was often cast in a negative light and the media tended to restrict these portrayals,” Lee said.

That perception is quickly changing with shows like “Street Woman Fighter,” a survival reality program where all-female dance crews compete for the top spot; “Kick a Goal,” which follows teams of female celebrities as they clash on the soccer field; and “Iron Girls,” where women stars train and fight in the boxing ring.

“Shows like these have emerged as full-fledged series and are receiving tremendous support. Women speak out, assert themselves and channel their energy without hesitation, whether that means scoring a goal on the field, battling in the boxing ring or dancing with their whole body onstage.”

A scene from SBS variety show "Kick a Goal" / Courtesy of SBS

Call to action

What makes this shift significant is its ripple effect on storytelling at large.

“If mainstream variety programs can now embrace women who are bold, competitive and unapologetically expressive, then surely scripted dramas and films can follow. Writers and directors gain more space to create female characters who pursue their desires with the same drive, and audiences, having already welcomed these images on unscripted TV, are ready to receive them in fictional narratives as well,” Lee said.

The Bechdel Day committee stresses that the festival has always aimed beyond simply checking off criteria within the stories themselves. Each year, the event not only assesses gender representation on screen but also looks deeper at representation behind the camera.

Actor Lee Hye-young, left, is seen in a scene from the film "The Old Woman with the Knife." Courtesy of NEW

In earlier decades, men overwhelmingly dominated production roles. By incorporating female participation among the main staff into the enhanced Bechdel Test 7, the event created a framework for evaluating whether women are contributing equitably throughout the creation process.

“Directors have told us that when they apply the expanded test, they start asking questions like, 'How balanced is my cast of characters?' and 'How equitably am I representing men and women?' They rethink whether they’ve unconsciously slipped discriminatory or hostile language into dialogue,” she said.

“That kind of reflection — both creative and ethical — is one of the most meaningful legacies of Bechdel Day.”

This year’s Bechdel Choice 10 selections in the Series category are “Good Partner,” “Miss Night and Day,” “Our Unwritten Seoul,” “Friendly Rivalry,” “The Tale of Lady Ok,” “Doubt,” “Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born,” “A Virtuous Business,” “Doubt” and “Hyper Knife.”

The Bechdelian Award for director in the Series category went to Jung Ji-in for “Jeongnyeon,” the writer award to Park Ji-sook for “The Tale of Lady Ok,” the actor award to Park Bo-young for “Our Unwritten Seoul” and the producer award to the producers of “A Virtuous Business.”

Park, who was highly praised for her dual role as Mi-rae and Mi-ji in “Our Unwritten Seoul,” said she was drawn to the story as the twin sisters took control of their own destiny rather than depending on others.

“Although the twins thought they understood each other well, they actually did not know each other deeply. I was attracted to the characters because they do not lean on anyone else for their problems, but instead lead their lives through independent and proactive choices,” Park explained.

The 2025 Bechdel Choice 10 for the Film category includes “Dark Nuns,” “Blesser,” “Concerning My Daughter,” “Lucky, Apartment,” “Revolver,” “Victory,” “My Best, Your Least,” “The Old Woman with the Knife,” “Hi-Five” and “Because I Hate Korea.”

Poster for Bechdel Day 2025 / Courtesy of Directors Guild of Korea

Actor Lee Hye-young was recognized with the Bechdelian Award in the film category for her role as Hornclaw, a once-legendary killer in her 60s, in “The Old Woman with the Knife.”

The noir action film, traditionally considered a male-dominated genre, was subverted through a female perspective, serving as a project to renew and transform the genre’s barren terrain.

“The character Hornclaw is not marginalized or doubted for her abilities like typical elderly figures in films. Instead, she carries a powerful presence rooted in the resilience of a survivor and the depth of her past life,” Lee said.

“While the character might be teased for her age, she never faces unfair treatment simply for being a woman. Surviving in a dark world, she refuses to give up on life and challenges herself to start anew,” she added.

She credited director Min Kyu-dong for shaping the character with feminist ideas.

“My character is the result of an expansion of feminist ideas embedded in director Min’s consciousness. It represents a new discovery of a character transcending gender and generational boundaries.”

Bechdel Day 2025 will hold special talk sessions and free screenings of some films selected for the Bechdel Choice 10 at KU Cinema in Gwangjin District, Seoul, this weekend.