A FEMALE-DRESSED MAN SINGS A NATIONAL EPIC: THE FILM MALE KISAENG AND THE POLITICS OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN 1960S SOUTH KOREA

A tall man with a muscular body loves knitting, needlework, and doing laundry. Provoking the abhorrence of his company president due to his effeminacy, he is fired. Working in a kisaeng house in female masquerade to make ends meet, he eventually becomes its most popular entertainer. Still beset with guilt over his “immoral” lifestyle, he abandons his newfound profession to marry his girlfriend and begins a proper life as a cosmetics salesman. This is the storyline of the comedy film Namja kisaeng (Male Kisaeng), produced as part of a boom in the genre of what I call “gender comedy films”