Research reading, the definition of female films

The difference of female films between Chinese and western was growing within culture and social ideology. The fable from Milton’s <Paradise lost> explained the origin of women as a rib of man which is wild accepted in the western world. Thus it can be seen that the social status of men and women was delivered by the religious belief. French psychologist Lacan Jacaueo summarized it as the famous “Phallogocentrism”: The privileging of masculinity in the construction of meaning; phallocentrism with a view to logocentrism.” The Chinese folklore indicates that human beings were created by a goddess called ‘ nv wa’, she was kind-hearted and selfless, when there appeared a big hole in the sky, she scarified herself to fill it up. It can be regarded that the women was respected and admired in some way in ancient China. As time passed the system of enfeoffment had taken root in China, women were gradually placed in asymmetry, imparity and adverse position. Man dominated the society while women were on a passive position and be imprisoning in the structure of morality. In the 1900s the world was concussed by the feminist trend of thoughts, promote gender equality and oppose the perpetuation of gender discrimination in economic, political, legal, and social structures.

British feminist film theorist Laura mulvey came up with her analysis of female film in her thesis “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” as: “ Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of the Look ”. In her opinion, the pleasure films give us was due to the scopophilia. “There are circumstances in which looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as, in the reverse formation, there is pleasure in being looked at …Woman displayed as sexual object is the leit-motif of

erotic spectacle: from pin-ups to striptease, from Ziegfeld to Busby Berkeley, she

holds the look, plays to and signifies male desire. Mainstream film neatly combined

spectacie and narrative.” (1). Briefly speaking, female characters work as the function as a  ‘decoration’ in western films, for the gaze of male spectators.

In the history of Chinese film the definition of female film is controversial. Nowadays most think that a female film ought to signify Equality consciousness, express the evaluation and desire of women. Although many of male directors such us Xie Jin and Zhang Yimou( represent the 5^th generation director in the mainland China) has created many classic female characters such as Juer ( Red sorghum) and Judou ( Judou), some critics deemed that only female directors can transmit the “keenly-felt pain” as a woman to viewers.