>Marina Frants
>I love that movie! I think it's a perfect example of what animation
>can achieve when it's not limited by the kind of mindset that >requires
cute talking animals and funny songs. I thought that the >ending, while
dark, had a hopeful note to it that kept it from being >completely
downbeat. I had a much bigger problem with Shiro's >attempted rape of
Leiqunni earlier in the film. I can see why that >scene was there, it
was important to both Shiro's and Leiqunni's >characterisations, but it
disturbed me a lot. Which, of course, it >was meant to do.
Anyone even passingly familiar with Japanese film knows that rape
scenes are distressingly common. However it is not presented to disturb
western audiences and has its roots deep in Japanese culture.
While it is a complex issue, essentially in Japanese film, rape
becomes the the purification of the sexual female through blood and
pain.
This can be related all the way back to the pain,sex and purification
Shinto rituals and the overpowering Archtype of the Mother figure in
Japanese films. The power of a woman's sexuality is viewed as a natural
impurty (a male point of view), and one that cannot exist along side
with maternal devotion (who wants to think of mom as being sexual?). So,
through pain and blood the impurities are bled away.
In reality, what these scenes illustrate is desperate fear of
masculine inadequacy. That rape is an issue of power and not a sexual
one shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but in Japanese film they
are surprising upfront about this, the male rapist often finishes the
deed by offering an agonized confession that he is impotent with women
and this is the only way that he can derive satisfaction. In the films,
this is the que for the maternal instict of the victim to reassert
itself and she often winds up comforing her attacker.
(IMHO) In WoH, Shiro feels impotent both to effect his own life and to
affect the larger events that are happening around him. His attempt at
raping Leiqunni is his attempt at regaining some control over at least
one aspect of his life.
But Leiqunni, while in some ways an innocent, is also a mother figure
(hence why the rape doesn't succeed) to both Shiro and the young girl in
her care (daughter/sister?). As a mother she is expected to know Shiro's
fustrations and, as a caring, forgiving mother figure, is expected to
forgive him. Which is exactly what she does.
Please keep in mind that these views are based on my own observations
of Japanese film (both anime and other) and the book "A Japanese Mirror:
Heroes and Villians of Japanese Culture" by Ian Burama. I am not in any
way trying to cast any Dispersions upon the Japanese people or anyone
else. If I have offended anyone I am truely sorry .... and if I am wrong
about any of this please let me know.
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"its not the thing you fling ... its the fling itself"
~Northern Exposer~
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