Japanese film serves as a lens through which one observe Japan’s shifting culture in the era of the post-war period; specifically one can trace the changing social perceptions and obligations of women. Departures is a prime film to examine the role of women within Japanese society due to the variety of women it offers up for analysis within and outside of the film. While Departures has a male director and is not overtly dealing with women, Daigo is consistently guided and influenced by the women in the film, who are featured much more prominently in both major and minor roles. This film speaks to large universal themes and questions such as death and family, however Takita uses specific Japanese customs and filial traditions to frame these …show more content…
Within Departures, the female characters are given power over their situations and are their own key figures in terms of changes. Mika makes the decision to leave Daigo, as does Yuriko with her family. While these decisions are not necessarily celebrated within the film, the difficulty of them is what gives the women agency. I their breaking from societal roles for women, they are declaring their freedom. Characters such as BLANK from Late Spring, however, is an example of a major female character whose entire plot is centered on the idea of her eventual forced conformity to becoming a wife. Similarly, Tomi from Ozu’s Tokyo Story had her narrative driven by her role as a mother while Noriko’s contribution to the film was to solely act as her loyal …show more content…
While still acting within a male paradigm, given the film’s director is a man, Departures still manages to give its female characters the space and time necessary to create depth and a strong, essential narrative. While the film does the work of deconstructing the bias against women in film, the view is left to absorb these characters and appreciate them as the strong figures they are without reducing them to or denying them of their womanhood. This turn towards modern feminism represents a trend of post-war Japanese film towards globalization and anticipating the role of international film festivals in the films demographic. While Takita sets up the film against the universally accessible themes of death, honor and questions of womanhood, he also teases the specifics out with predominantly Japanese cultural references. The end product is a film that resonates with everyone, but rings particularly true to Japanese culture, while nodding its head to the changing nature of Japanese womanhood and all that
Akira Kurosaw’s Seven Samurai is a film that encompasses various ideologies in order to allow the audience to understand the lives of Japanese people during the 1600’s. The film delves deep in social issues of the roles of the people within the society, the expectations as well as the obligations within the respected castes and elements within groups of ; suffering, working together, protecting family and working for the better good of the community.
Laura Mulvey claims that the camera is almost always masculine and that all women in these films are objectified and punished if they don’t please the male characters by obeying gender roles. Carol Clover, however, believes that there is more to Mulvey’s claim. Clover argues that the boys of the film also die, insinuating that punishment does not just fall on the women. She also argues that the camerawork and the film itself are about gender fluidity; both boys and girls can identify with any character of the film, be it the killer, a boy, or the final girl. Sexual ambiguity, especially in regards to the first-person camera work, are the focus of the films. To some extent, I believe both women’s claims. However, I believe there is more truth in Clover’s argument due to the fact that retributions are inflicted upon all characters regardless of gender. Yet, it does seem that women in horror films have a special place in terms of their sexuality and roles for the film. The women have ambiguous gender rules as evident by the final girl. Her act of fighting is considered a masculine activity. These masculine activities performed by females seem to be more acceptable in these films than if a male was actively portraying something feminine, such as cowering in fear. This gives validity to the argument that being masculine or
Film making has gone through quite the substantial change since it’s initial coining just before the turn of the 19th century, and one would tend argue that the largest amount of this change has come quite recently or more so in the latter part of film’s history as a whole. One of the more prominent changes having taken place being the role of women in film. Once upon a time having a very set role in the industry, such as editing for example. To mention briefly the likes of Dede Allen, Verna Fields, Thelma Schoonmaker and so forth. Our female counterparts now occupy virtually every aspect of the film making industry that males do; and in many instances excel past us. Quite clearly this change has taken place behind the lens, but has it taken
Other research has devoted to unveiling the origins and the development of their stereotyping and put them among the historical contextual frameworks (e.g., Kawai, 2003, 2005; Prasso, 2005). Research has shown that those stereotypes are not all without merits. The China doll/geisha girl stereotype, to some degree, presents us with a romanticized woman who embodies many feminine characteristics that are/ were valued and praised. The evolving stereotype of the Asian martial arts mistress features women power, which might have the potentials to free women from the gendered binary of proper femininity and masculinity. Nevertheless, the Western media cultural industry adopts several gender and race policing strategies so as to preserve patriarchy and White supremacy, obscuring the Asian women and diminishing the positive associations those images can possibly imply. The following section critically analyzes two cases, The Memoirs of a Geisha and Nikita, that I consider to typify the stereotypical depictions of Asian women as either the submissive, feminine geisha girl or as a powerful yet threatening martial arts lady. I also seek to examine
Gender and the portrayal of gender roles in a film is an intriguing topic. It is interesting to uncover the way women have been idealized in our films, which mirrors the sentiments of the society of that period in time. Consequently, the thesis of this essay is a feminist approach that seeks to compare and contrast the gender roles of two films. The selected films are A few Good Men and Some Like it Hot.
Empowering women continues as the Old Women’s story progresses where Saikaku articulately shows how women can fulfill their own desire and not give into what men expect of them. Old Woman’s young self choosing the exceptional letter writer samu...
In Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata, the four members of the Sasaki family are intimately followed after a tragic event affects the father early in the film. Due to the catastrophic nature of the event, the audience is quickly exposed to the individual secrets of the Sasaki family and how a family’s values could be perceived as decomposing in modern Japan. As the story progresses, each family member encounters or exposes their own obstacles in life, leading to a conclusion which, is ultimately left open to the viewer’s perception.
These movies allowed female characters to embody all the contradictions that could make them a woman. They were portrayed as the “femme fatale” and also “mother,” the “seductress” and at the same time the “saint,” (Newsom, 2011). Female characters were multi-faceted during this time and had much more complexity and interesting qualities than in the movies we watch today. Today, only 16% of protagonists in movies are female, and the portrayal of these women is one of sexualization and dependence rather than complexity (Newsom, 2011).
Led by Laura Mulvey, feminist film critics have discussed the difficulty presented to female spectators by the controlling male gaze and narrative generally found in mainstream film, creating for female spectators a position that forces them into limited choices: "bisexual" identification with active male characters; identification with the passive, often victimized, female characters; or on occasion, identification with a "masculinized" active female character, who is generally punished for her unhealthy behavior. Before discussing recent improvements, it is important to note that a group of Classic Hollywood films regularly offered female spectators positive, female characters who were active in controlling narrative, gazing and desiring: the screwball comedy.
...s often the stubborn majority, as it is difficult to simply change a characteristic so widely embedded in the framework of cinema. Therefore, it is not my objective to say that all movies must pass the radical Bechdel test or include the presence of a strong, independent female character; rather, we as a society must recognize that we are inherently biased in the topic of gender and must make an effort to exhibit a more conscientious and sympathetic portrayal of women in cinematic media. The simplest resolution can begin with clothing, where an audience’s viewing is not diverted by the lack of clothing from either male or female characters. The task of reinventing cinema is to reinvent a century of subconscious thinking, and only by taking one step at a time can both men and women watch a movie where all characters, both male and female, can be represented equally.
One of the most prominent aspects of identities that we observed from Hayao Miyazaki’s films is how he constantly attempted to revert the conventional notions of feminine qualities by creating female protagonists who are empowered with an unusual strength and determination denied in reality. Mothers, not only in Japanese society, but in most of the cultures, are expected to show caring and loving nature towards their children. Those who sacrifice their lives for the sake of their husbands and children are often glorified through media as a role-model for all mothers to look up to. In the mid 1890s, along with a formation of a nuclear family, the society started to regard the nuclear family as the basic unit that comprises the foundation of
The division of people, due to social class and political belief, is clearly a main theme in Lina Wertmuller’s film Swept Away. The film portrayed class and gender conflict brutally, honestly, and graphically, but not without validity. The fact that a woman directed it just adds another level of realism as well as a different perspective.
Dollase, Hiromi Tsuchiya. 2011. “Choosing Your Family: Reconfiguring Gender and Familial Relationships in Japanese Popular Fiction.” Journal of Popular Culture. Vol. 44, No. 4, 755-772.
This is a writing of an interview of woman’s name Misao Kawabata. This autobiography depicts Misao and her life during pre-World War II, and other Japanese women in rural areas. She describes women’s life as it relates to all facets of life concerning Japanese women such as marriage and extended family relationships, to living on farms, and the state of education in these rural areas.
...ama Elena in Chocolate, and departures influence women to display an honourable degree of strength – birthing, reanimating, and recovering – in the novel. The departure of characters in Sailor, however, enables Mishima to explore Japanese in a moral and cultural decline when Emperor Hirohito surrenders. The misery that washes over Fusako after Ryuji’s departure projects her character as an epitome of the artificiality and absurdity of life in post-WW2 Japan. Nevertheless, Fusako’s development as the powerful and oppressive breadwinner of the household establishes recognition of the invincibility of women. In the eyes of this analyst, I can conclude that in times of hardship, female characters are the ones advocating values of their own with utmost control, and to that extent, successfully approach and react to the event of departure with determination and empathy.