Sex, Survival and Samurai
By Kirby Winslow
War changes people and not just the those involved with the fight itself. War has a rippling effect on everyone, even the friends and family left behind at home. In the 1964 film entitled Onibaba translated as “Demon Hag”, writer and director Kaneto Shindo tackles the hardships of wartime on the homefront in this iconic japanese horror drama. It can easily be considered as an antiwar film, but after a closer gander and a deep dive, one can see that this film is touching on so much more.
Within the setting of medieval japanese wartime, Shindo addresses femininity, social stigmatization, sex, self preservation, spirituality, control, internal conflict and so much more that I couldn’t fit into one …show more content…
Now, I would like to be clear that I’m don’t believe the film is saying women can’t do anything on there own rather in this situation, war and the manipulation war has on man can hinder females. So like I mentioned before the women are able to fend for themselves just through savages means for example they ate a dog! It is important to mention that what the women end up doing (killing and robbing wandering warriors) is out of their character, this is what they have resorted to, the problem is though they have any remorse. The mother sees this as “business as usual” and because of the war the women have lost their humanity like men of war; It’s just about survival.
These are women, known for nurturing and giving life that are also farmers (another parallel for life grower) who are now taking life within the vast field of tall restless susuki grass. A visual representation of this in the film would be the big, gigantic, black hole. Personally while watching the film, I connected the black hole to the woman's vagina. At the start of the film text read, “The hole… Deep and dark… It’s darkness has lasted since ancient times.” I read this as the film setting up the it’s exploration of the dark unraveling of the female species, all because of the war and men of …show more content…
The two main leads are not named. I think this conveys the sexism and discrimination women face in society especially during war. It’s even worse for the mother because to society she is obsolete so her jealousy that is directed toward her daughter in law is not in vain it’s also is developed by societies discrimination. The mother really does have no other options other than to kill and control others. She has no leverage in man’s society, not even the power of her sexuality (like the daughter in law
By Kirby Winslow
War changes people and not just the those involved with the fight itself. War has a rippling effect on everyone, even the friends and family left behind at home. In the 1964 film entitled Onibaba translated as “Demon Hag”, writer and director Kaneto Shindo tackles the hardships of wartime on the homefront in this iconic japanese horror drama. It can easily be considered as an antiwar film, but after a closer gander and a deep dive, one can see that this film is touching on so much more.
Within the setting of medieval japanese wartime, Shindo addresses femininity, social stigmatization, sex, self preservation, spirituality, control, internal conflict and so much more that I couldn’t fit into one …show more content…
Now, I would like to be clear that I’m don’t believe the film is saying women can’t do anything on there own rather in this situation, war and the manipulation war has on man can hinder females. So like I mentioned before the women are able to fend for themselves just through savages means for example they ate a dog! It is important to mention that what the women end up doing (killing and robbing wandering warriors) is out of their character, this is what they have resorted to, the problem is though they have any remorse. The mother sees this as “business as usual” and because of the war the women have lost their humanity like men of war; It’s just about survival.
These are women, known for nurturing and giving life that are also farmers (another parallel for life grower) who are now taking life within the vast field of tall restless susuki grass. A visual representation of this in the film would be the big, gigantic, black hole. Personally while watching the film, I connected the black hole to the woman's vagina. At the start of the film text read, “The hole… Deep and dark… It’s darkness has lasted since ancient times.” I read this as the film setting up the it’s exploration of the dark unraveling of the female species, all because of the war and men of …show more content…
The two main leads are not named. I think this conveys the sexism and discrimination women face in society especially during war. It’s even worse for the mother because to society she is obsolete so her jealousy that is directed toward her daughter in law is not in vain it’s also is developed by societies discrimination. The mother really does have no other options other than to kill and control others. She has no leverage in man’s society, not even the power of her sexuality (like the daughter in law