As I was reflecting on all the films we watched in class, I
can confidently say that gender politics, especially the role of women, and
their place in this world, played a significant role in driving the plot,
making a major impression on me. I could not help but to question the place of
women and their depiction in society in each of the films, especially in Asia. In
many of the films, women were seen as merely an object to satisfy the desires
of men, fulfill traditional roles, or play the role of damsel in distress
waiting to be saved men. The portrayal of women through these movies
unintentionally or possibly intentionally belittled the existence of women, and
shaped them to be a certain way. To fulfill the desires of men, they are put
into a certain place in the society. I’ll be analyzing how women are oppressed and put into a certain status in the society by men through Fists of Fury, Raise the Red
Lantern, Farewell My Concubine,
and Sandakan 8.
Fists of Fury:
Damsel in distress
In the film, Drunken
Master, women did not take on a significant role. However, it is clearly shown how women are not treasured nor appreciated even from the
minor role of women. In the film, Chao Mei is the only women figure
in the household. She cooks, washes their clothes, and does all the work around
the house. She takes care of the family and looks after them. However, when
Chao Mei’s brothers go missing by Hsaio Mi and his workers, she has no other
choice but to rely on Cheng Chao-an. However, Chao Mei’s problems and concerns
are the last thing on his mind when he is promoted in the factory he is working
at. Also, because the society emphasizes that only men has to be masculine,
needs to go out to work, and provide for the family and women needs to stay
home. From this, Cheng Chao-an doesn’t have the power and experience to go out to look for
her brothers herself. Also, since she always relied on her brothers to bring in
the money for the household, she is lost in how to go on and live her life. Also,
when Chao Mei’s brothers are ultimately killed off by Hsaio Mi’s men, they
decide to save Chao-Mei’s life. This is not because they considered her life
more valuable than her brothers. Her life was only saved for a life of a
servant, prostitute or possibly both.
It’s unfortunate that Chow-Mei has no other choice but to accept it
because she has no power to fight or stand up for herself. She has to accept it
as her fate, and just go with it. Later on in the film, Chow-Mei is saved from
Hsaio Mi’s house working as a prostitute by Cheng Chao-an. She plays the damsel
in distress and is saved by the “hero” from the villain. She relies on a man
figure to come save her from her misfortune. Women in the society is portrayed to be
powerless and lost without men, and that it seems acceptable to label women in
different costs and sell them off prostitutes.
Raise the Red Lantern
Out of all the films we watched, I believe that the film, Raise the Red Lantern, is the one film
that accurately depicts how tradition and role of men powerfully affects the
women both psychologically, emotionally and physically. Raise the Red Lantern tells a story of a master who has 3 different
mistresses in his household, and welcomes his 4th mistress,
Songlian, into his family. His household is strongly influenced by traditional
beliefs, and these beliefs are greatly enforced on all the mistresses, slowly
affecting and changing their beliefs and values as well. In the beginning, Songlian starts off as an
educated women attending college. However, when her father passes away, her
step-mother encourages her to get married. In the scene where Songlian is
talking with her step-mother about marriage, she says she would marry into a
traditional, established household. Her mother interrupts by saying that if she
marries into a rich household, she would only be a concubine. Songlian responds
by saying “let me be a concubine, isn’t it a women’s fate?” Even from the very
beginning, the place of women in the society is already shaped in a certain
way. It seems like women’s role is life
is to get married into a rich family in order to better their lives. They are
not given any other choice, but to just accept as their fate. So, Songlian is
also very well aware that she has no chance of going back to college and
continuing her education without her father, which I assume was her support
system. During her marriage ceremony,
she refuses to take the “traditional” wedding procession and walk to her
husband’s home, which shows that Songlian’s values and actions are separated
from tradition and that she would not follow the orders of tradition. From the
different camera shots, you can see that the home is very isolated and enclosed
from the outside world. This made it seem like women was taken as a property
and they were owned by the master. The women were completely cut off from the outside
world, and caged inside as the property of the master. On the very first night, the face of the
master is never shown. By not showing the face of the master, it put all the
focus on the women, displaying the domineering gaze on them by the master which
shows the power of men that they have on the men. On their first night, the
camera view is always in the point of view of the master. He orders
Songlian to stand up, lifts the lantern close to her face, and quickly observes her. He
finally orders her to lay on the bed. Even without having a conversation with
her, or even closely looking at her face indicates that wives were just another
part of the culture to him. By reinforcing traditional beliefs on having a son
was a way for them to use women merely an object to fulfill their needs and
wants. The master is never shown in the film other than spending the night with
the wives, which further proves that the master only wanted the wives to
fulfill his emotional and physical pleasures.
Even though Songlian seemed as she would not obey into the
traditional ideas and values of China, she becomes brainwashed just like all
the other concubines in the house. All of the wives became obsessed with the
power and feeling of acceptance through having the lantern hung outside their
room and getting foot massages. The feeling of being chosen by the master made
them think that they were powerful and important. However, they did not realize
that the lantern was only an item that was solely enjoyed by the master, and it
was a source of entertainment for him while that lantern was leading his wives
to destruction. This created tension among the wives, and ultimately led to death among some of them, and destruction to others.
Farewell My Concubine
The film, Farewell My
Concubine, also had one woman with a major role who was a prostitute. Juxian
is a woman worked at the House of Flowers where men go to have fun with women. While
Juxian is getting harassed by bunch of men, she is saved by Shitou. Here, Juxian also plays the role of damsel in
distress by having Shitou come and save her from getting harassed by other men.
Her placement in society is very low and all she can do for a living is to sell
her body to other men. She ultimately marries Shitou, and lives a short, happy
marriage with him. She devotes her life into supporting him, and even loses her
baby when he is running through the crowd to save his life. However, despite
all the things she did for him, he easily betrays her and sells her out to the
communist party to spare his own life. He blatantly tells the communist party
that she is a prostitute and he never loved her. His betrayal eventually leads
to Juxian’s suicide. Shitou’s betrayal to Juxian to save his own life shows
that he only looked her as a source for emotional comfort and physical
reliance.
Sandakan 8
Sandakan 8 was a film
that represented and showed the mistreatment, and exploitation of women during
the early 20th century in Japan. A woman named, Osaki is sold into
prostitution in order to support her brother back at home. She is given no
other choice but to sacrifice her own body just to send all of her earnings
back home to her brother. But after she comes back home, she is welcomed by
judgmental eyes and whispers of gossip and shame. Her brother gives her the
cold shoulder even though everything he owns is gained by Osaki sacrificing
herself to other men. She is even betrayed by her own son when he tells her to
go back to her hometown because he is ashamed of her past. The circumstances
these women were put into to support their family gives them no reason to be
treated in the way they were treated. They were repaid with hatred, but they
should have been welcomed back into arms of respect and recognition. This movie
thoroughly how women were only used and sacrificed to support men, but later
betrayed depite all the things they did for them.
In these films we watched in class, the power of men is
constantly exercised in terms of money, and power. I feel as though the films
belittle women by portraying them as being powerless without men, giving them
no other choice but to sell their bodies as prostitutes. Also, they are used as
a source of entertainment to fulfill men's needs and wants and later betrayed
and thrown away when they are all fulfilled with what they needed. The place of
women can be question in these films because these films portray women as
solely being an object that is powerless and an source of entertainment for
men.