Representation of women in J horror

[Clawz114]

Hi guys, im new to the forum.

Im about to start a media studies research project and ive picked women and film for my topic area, and because i have recently started to watch some Japanese horror i decided to base my research of this.

I think i am going to go for the representation of women in east asian horror but i apparently need a more narrow focus than just that :confused:

Just wondering if anyone in here could point me to some good sites or if anyone could give me some ideas on what i could base the research around. I was thinking about cultural issues and maybe differences between eastern and western horror but at the moment im not doing too well :(

Any help/advice/contribution would be greatly appreciated.

So far ive found this site which seems to be fairly detailed

http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/7.2/Iwamura.html

And film wise i currently have the following films; Dark water, a tale of two sisters, phone and audition.

Thanks in advance guys

Dan

[Clawz114]

well this all depends on whick films and women of asia you are talking about ...korean ...thai...japanese...chinese...what ? and in what roll as a victem or a hero ? please let me know and i will try to help

Hi, i was going to mainly concentrate on the films i currently have (listed in my first post) and i was going to do just asian films in general but if i need to be more specific on the locations then i would probably pick japanese seeing as the films i currently have are japanese (i think :rolleyes: ) As for roles i was probably thinking about the spirits and or victims as they almost always seem to be female spirits or "bad" people with female victims. If i had to pick one then it would be spirits/bad people.

Thanks :)

Dan

[Doc Faustus]

You're underequipped without reading traditional Japanese ghost stories. Kaidan by Lafcadio Hearn would be a nice start. Japanese cinema has a much closer dialogue with its folkloric traditions than films from most countries do. Ringu, for example is a film that follows traditional Japanese ghost story logic. Betrayal of one's wife or family is a horrendous crime and one that nobody gets away with for the Japanese. It has a lot to do with the tradition of venerating ancestors. Wronged women sort of end up as the judges. For an American example, look at Kill Bill. It's also worthy of note that Kill Bill doesn't just draw from the Bride Wore Black and Kung Fu movie tradition, it draws from a legacy of female vigilantes in Asian culture. Victim, Revenant and Vigilante are what you're mostly looking at when it comes to Asian horror's portrayal of women. You might also want to look at Japanese movies with female crime bosses, which I recently found out is sort of a subgenre. The character of O-Ren from Kill Bill is taken from these, and like Uma Thurman's character, becomes a prime example of a ferocious lady vigilante.

[Papillon Noir]

If you want to do women in horror films, I would stay away from the asian movies and stick to american horror only because you do need a background in asian culture (which can greatly differ depending on location with asia) to really grasp the background to where these stories and roles of women came from.

Women's roles in american horror, I think have been a little more linear. You could explore how women went from the damsel in distress victim to the herione and even the villan. There have been many books written about these topics which can give you directions and ideas from people who have already seen hundred of these types of films versus trying to watch them all yourself.

I would stick to something that you know, it makes it a lot easier to write about. Otherwise, you will spend your whole time researching the project and not giving yourself time to write the paper, and possibly getting a poor grade on it.

[The Flayed One]

If you're going to stick to Japan, you'll probably want to get some films with drastically different portrayals of women so you can compare and contrast. If you can watch it, Guinea Pig: Flowers of Flesh & Blood (faux snuff) & Ichi the Killer (extremely violent black horror/comedy) are going to give you different messages than traditional Japanese ghost stories. I'm not trying to bring you down, but you're probably going to want to watch 10+ J-Horrors before you're ready to start comparing.

Also, you're going to need to define what you mean by 'Western Horror' You'll find that stuff like the Italian Giallo genre are going to FAR differ in their treatment of women as apposed to some US/Canadian flicks.