I just watched this film for a film class. This is what we went over, and I hope it helps:
1. Everything in the last 20 minutes is Aoyama's dream, basically everything after they get to the hotel, she shows him the scar, they are about to have sex. The only "reality" is when he awakens. Then again, more of the film is probably subjective than it may seem, such as when it appears the man working at the restaurant and hearing the conversation about the audition is judging them. He appears later in the film, in the room with the man in the wheelchair. Aoyama fills in all the blanks about Yoshikawa in his mind.
2. Aoyama seems like the nice guy, but is he really? Think about how he speaks of women. He says he wants someone confident, but he's infatuated with the obedient, passive girl. He held an audition to pick out a wife, asking and listening (from his friend) to a number of pretty degrading questions. Then he chooses which one he "wants". Do you see the darker misogyny and misuse? It's something that's laughed about in romantic comedies, the way women are treated. But this film examines it from another angle.
3. He doesn't treat any of the women in the film well at all. He's pretty rude to them, actually. His secretary, who it's hinted he's slept with and ignored. The girlfriend of his son. Really any woman he comes in contact with.
4. The dreams, the fears, are his projections. The sickness of them...perhaps his own sadistic sexual desires. Remember when the son's girlfriend is giving him a blowjob in the dream, and at first he succumbs to it, but then pulls away all "This is wrong, this is wrong"?
5. His opinions about life (Enjoy the pain, that's life...which comes back to haunt him in the dream sequence....Life is beautiful) contradict, as again do his views on the ideal woman.
I don't think the film is a warning, I think it's a reflection on the role of women in Japanese society and how they are viewed/treated, as well as the concept of the female as the monster put into question.
Who is really the monster here?
reply
share
saramokus
13 years ago
You might be right, but only if you take the european and american standards here. But you must take into consideration, that this is a completely different culture here, and needs to be treated accordingly.
The way that men behave with women, and generally the state of women are completely different in asian countries. The idea of an audition to choose a wife might seem completely ok for an asian, as most of the marriages were arranged, and are even today, through agencies or whatever. The idea and idealization of a woman, of a wife, just applies to this. Like choosing a wife from a catalogue. They are just used to that. If you live in a society that has had the custom of arranged marriages (even of completely strangers) for 2000 years, it wouldn't seem strange to you either. (and one might take other arguments here, like the medieval society of japanese and all that stuff)
This is the same to the 'rudeness' you said- asian people, especially japanese, tend to keep a great distance, they are rather cold.
However, your 5. argument has something in it! Aoyama has been repeating "enjoy life, enjoy pain" stuff too much, his dream must have had some reflection to this! Apart from this, i wouldn't think he might be a monster, or at least not in his own, japanese context.
reply
share