AW: Japanese women directors

J.sharp j.sharp at hpo.net
Sat Dec 23 07:15:42 EST 2006


>Hamano claims that her films differ from those of >male pink directors
because of her different >approach towards female sexuality and their
>'feminine visuality'. I can't detect this >difference, however, but think
that many of her >films just serviced the male audience. I at least >don't
see in the fact that the woman is on top a >sign of feminine sensitivity or
gender awareness.

I am inclined to disagree with you Roland here - I've only seen the two
films by Hamano bearing the Yaritai Hitozuma label ('Wives who Want to do
it', or perhaps better translated by a producer friend at Shintoho, the
company who produced them, as 'Hungry Housewives'). Clearly these films are
made with the aim of pleasing male audiences, and few women would ever see
them, but the female characters are quite literally voracious in these films
- while they are writing on top, it is the men screaming 'yada!' beneath
them. It may not be particularly progressive, but it is a refreshing view of
female sexuality compared with the multitude of near-rape fanatasies put
forward by male pink directors. The women are clearly in control here, more
so than in the films of modern pink directors like Mitsuru Meike and Shinji
Imaoka who make films "about" women.

Jasper



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