Gender Roles and Popular Films - Essay Example

Topic 2: Gender Roles and Popular Films The film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, whose director is Ang Lee, is one of the biggest international movies ever produced in the world since its release to the present day. The film fetched 120 million dollars during the first four months of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s opening. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did not stop there, it went ahead to win several awards from both the “Academy Awards” and the “Golden Globes. An example of an award won by this film is “best foreign film 1.” Roger Ebert, a popular film reviewer, describes Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as the most elating martial arts film he has ever seen. Ang Lee, when making this movie, he knew from the word go that this film was to capture the attention of all sorts of audience, an ambition that was partially accomplished due to Lee’s diverse technical-know how in various film markets. Utilizing his childhood years, Lee nicely combined his kung-fu style movies knowledge with famous Hollywood visuals and themes. He then blended all these styles together with Chinese actors and set the film in an amazing landscape all over the China’s mainland, hence making Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon relevant to all audience across the world. However, reviews have shown that this disingenuous blend was not the cause for the widely diverse attraction of the film by the audience. Normally, the stereotypical dominant male hero is associated with Kung-fu and he goes out to save the day for the female figures who are not only weak but also gentle. On the contrary, the characters in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon do not follow this formulaic schema at all. Instead, the female figures dominate Lee’s film. Lee attracted a large number of audiences to his film dubbed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by using challenging and conventional social gender norms to portray the characters in the film. The traditional views of these gender norms have to be intensively explored before the discussion of characters in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The traditional Chinese norms viewed women as gentle, emotional, incapable and weaker sex that depended entirely on a stronger and more agile man for protection. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was set in the late 1700s when Chinese women were not strong enough to have full control of power as far as their lives were concerned. For instance, no opinion was considered from a bride-to-be during marriages, instead the Chinese conventional women were to maintain their silence and accept their fates without defiance or complaints. Therefore, it was inevitable that the traditional Chinese norms stereotyped women as weaker sex hence could not defend themselves against the stronger and bigger male counterparts. On the other hand, the Chinese traditional norms had certain socially defined standards, which the male figures were to live by. According to the traditions, the males were to be strong and tough thus any display of emotions would be despised since the Chinese society links emotions with weakness in men. The Chinese traditional men heroes were never vulnerable but were strong, self-sacrificing and independent. Jilian Sandel, in his article, describes masculinity as a factor that has ambivalent relations as far as domination and power are concerned. Consequently, this domination and power linked to men is undoubtedly seen in several martial arts movies such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In his article, Sandel emphasizes the action genre, which is dominated through display of the men’s bodies and their hyperbolic performances to bring out what it means to be a man. Through this action genre, you get to understand the current anxieties about social roles and gender. According to Sandel’s implication, the traditional views that exerted the pressure and gave men the power to act like a “man” gradually became the root to break free from the traditional customs and introduce males to a modern society. In summary, all of these ceremonious gender roles for both women and men are nothing but stereotypes, to imply, although, they are in existence they can be challenged. In the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, each main character goes against certain aspects of these traditional norms. Crouching Tiger has reinforced and challenged the gender roles of female fighters. An example of a female character who displays such contrasting gender roles is Yu Shu Lien, a role played by Michelle Yeoh. Although, when born Yu Shu Lien is weak and incapable, she becomes a popular warrior in the world of Giang Hu. Shu Lien is stereotypically weak and dependent but after the death of her father, she becomes strong enough to take over her father’s martial arts headquarters. Moreover, she adopts new gender roles, becoming a swordfighter as well as a master martial artist thus capable of keeping away any opponent easily as opposed to the past. This is evident in the Crouching Tiger’s first scene when the male guards are unable to stop the masked thief from Green Destiny Sword. Shu Lien pursues the thief and catches him successfully. The film uses Shu Lien to display a different gender role as opposed to the normal stereotyped traditional roles of Chinese women. Although, the traditional Chinese women were stereotyped to be dependent, weak and incapable, Yu Shu Lien is the exact opposite of these qualities. Crouching Tiger gives Shu Lien the traits of a male hero who is independent, respectable in the Giang Hu community and strong. Shu Lien is the epitome of the wise and older female warriors as spelled out in the film. Before, her father’s death, Shu Lien plays a silent and humble role, which suddenly changes after the death of his father. This is evident through her words “Fighters have rules too: Integrity, trust and friendship. We would not survive for long without rules.” Although, Shu Lien becomes emotional when her father dies, this gradually changes and it is seen when she is not in a position of expressing her love to Li Mu Bai, a lead male character. It is until Li Mu Bai’s eventual death that her emotions become evident. Another example of a character having contrasting gender roles in Crouching Tiger is Jen Yu, a role played by Zhang Ziyi. Jen, although is a young and fierce fighter, she is forced to hide her talent because she is the daughter of the governor (Wing-Fai and Willis 66). Prompted by the overwhelming desire to be free, Jen becomes motivated to learn the ways of the Wudang fighting styles. As per the traditional norm of the late 1700s where the female figure is to remain silent while the arrangement of the wedding is ongoing, Jen disagrees with this idea. She sees it as oppression, as pointed out in her conversation with Shu Lien. She says, “It must be exhilarating to be a fighter, to be completely free (…) soon I will be married, although I have not lived the life I wanted to (…).” The first scenes of the film portray Jen as a humble and disciplined woman who abides by her father’s rule. This is not the case both in the middle and towards the end of the movie; she transforms to be rebellious and defiant. Jen does not know how to fight since the traditional norms depict conventional women as weak and incapable. This is not the case as the movie continues; one unforgettable scene in the film sees Jen take on at least twenty large men in a restaurant single-handedly. Armed with a powerful sword of Li Mu Bai, Jen almost bring down the entire building after defeating all the men in the restaurant. The audience did not expect such a character since Crouching Tiger depicted Jen as a conventional woman who strongly obeys her father and abides by the Chinese traditional norms. In summation, endorsing and contesting the gender role assisted Lee attract a huge crowd of audience to his film. Lee also showed that society is dynamic and one is forced to adapt to the frequently changing circumstances in order to survive by reinforcing and challenging the roles of these two characters. Reinforcing and challenging the gender roles also made the movie unique and removed boredom where women are obliged and stuck to the traditional ways from the beginning to the end of the movie. Reinforcing and challenging the gender roles have made Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon an art full of masterful of work that will be appreciated by both female and male in the entire world without ceasing. Work Cited Leung, Wing-Fai, and Andrew Willis. East Asian Film Stars. , 2014. Print. Read More