Revenge Through Haunting: Expression of Women’s Anger in the Movies, Tookaidoo Yotsuya Kaidan and Sundel Bolong

Rouli Esther Pasaribu; Meilia Widya Ananda

doi:10.22146/jh.68223

Revenge Through Haunting: Expression of Women’s Anger in the Movies, Tookaidoo Yotsuya Kaidan and Sundel Bolong

https://doi.org/10.22146/jh.68223

Rouli Esther Pasaribu^(1*), Meilia Widya Ananda⁽²⁾

(1) Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia
(2) Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

Tookaidoo Yotsuya Kaidan (1959) and Sundel Bolong (1981) are horror movies from Japan and Indonesia, respectively, about women who are oppressed by men and subsequently take revenge on them after their deaths. The key similarity between these two movies is that they have central female characters who turn into ghosts in order to express their anger towards their male oppressors. This study aimed to see how women's anger is depicted in Tookaidoo Yotsuya Kaidan and Sundel Bolong, using verbal and visual text analysis and the concept of power by Heilbrun, male gaze by Mulvey, and monstrous-feminine by Creed to read the meaning behind woman’s anger as it is expressed in the form of a ghost in these movies. The research found that these women cannot express their anger in the real world, which is controlled by the patriarchal order. Life after death is the only space where they can express their anger. Both movies can consequently be interpreted as cultural texts that internalize patriarchal ideology in Japanese and Indonesian society.

Keywords

ghost, women’s anger, power relation, patriarchy

Full Text:

PDF

References

Agustiningsih, D.D. & Rostiyati, A. (2019). Konstruksi perempuan dalam film hantu Sundel Bolong. Jurnal Penelitian Sejarah dan Budaya 5 (1), 58-76.

Akiyama, M. (1985). James and Nanboku: a comparative study of supernatural stories in the west and east. Comparative Literature Studies 22(1), 43-52.

Bargen, D.G. (1997). A Woman’s Weapon: Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji.University of Hawaii Press.

Boggs, J.M. & Petrie, D. W. (2008). The Art of Watching Films. 7th Edition. McGraw-Hill.

Bunge, M. (1998). Philosophy of Science: From Problem to Theory. London: Routledge.

Connell, R.(1987). Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics. Palo Alta: University of California Press.

Creed, B. (1993). The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. Routledge.

Dasgupta, R. (2000). Performing masculinities? The ‘salaryman’ at work and play. Japanese Studies 20 (2), 189-200.

De Bary, T., Gluck, C., Tiedemann, A. (2001). Sources of Japanese Tradition. Columbia University Press.

Felluga, D. (2011, January 31). Modules on Kristeva: on the abject. Introductory guide to critical theory. https://cla.purdue.edu/academic/english/theory/psychoanalysis/kristevaabject.html

Hayward, S. (2013). Cinema Studies: The Key Concept. 4th Edition. Routledge.

Heilbrun, C. G. (1988). Writing a Woman’s Life. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Hermawati, T. (2007). Budaya Jawa dan kesetaraan gender. Jurnal Komunikasi Massa, 1(1), 18-24.

Horne, Elinor C. (1974). Javanese-English Dictionary. Yale University Press.

Kaplow, S. (1973). Getting Angry. http://www.feminist-reprise.org/docs/kaplow.html

Kristeva, J. (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Columbia University Press.

Lee, H. (2018). Transformations of the monstrous feminine in the new asian female ghost films. Diogenes 62 (1), 100-114.

Mansi, R. (2018). Tōkaidō Yotsuya kaidan’s Oiwa: Analysis of a kabuki vengeful ghost. [Master Thesis, Leiden University]. https://studenttheses.universiteitleiden.nl/

Meyer, M. (n.d). Kuchisake onna. https://yokai.com/kuchisakeonna/

Meyer, M. (n.d). Yuki onna. https://yokai.com/yukionna/

Mulvey, L. (1975, 1999). “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. Eds. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford UP, 833-44.

Nakagawa, N. (Director). (1959). Tookaidoo Yotsuya Kaidan. [Film]. Shintoho.

Pangastuti, A. (2019). Female sexploitation in Indonesian horror films: Sundel Bolong (A Perforated Prostitute Ghost, 1981), Gairah Malam III (Night Passion III, 1996), and Air Terjun Pengantin (Lost Paradise – Playmates in Hell, 2009). [Master Thesis, Auckland University of Technology]. https://openrepository.aut.ac.nz

Putra, S.G. (Director). (1981). Sundel Bolong. [Film]. Rapi Films.

Scherer, E. (2014). Haunting gaps: gender, modernity, film and the ghosts of Yotsuya Kaidan. Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese 12 (1), 73-88.

Shiddique, S. (2002). Haunting visions of the Sundelbolong: vampire ghost and the Indonesian national imaginary. Axes to Grind: Re-Imagining the Horrific in Visual Media and Culture, 22(2), 24-33.

Shimazaki, S. (2011). The end of the “world”: Tsuruya Nanboku IV’s female ghosts and late-Tokugawa kabuki. Monumenta Nipponica, 66(2), 209-246.

Sorgenfrei, C.F. (2015). ‘Supernatural soliciting’: pathways from betrayal to retribution in Macbeth and Yotsuya Kaidan. New Theatre Quarterly 31 (1), 28-32.

Suryakusuma, J. (2011). Ibuisme Negara-State Ibuism: Konstruksi Sosial Keperempuanan Orde Baru. Komunitas Bambu.

Tyson, L. (2006). Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide 2nd Ed. Routledge.

Van Heeren, K. (2012). Contemporary Indonesian Film: Spirits of Reform and Ghost from the Past. KITVL Press.

Wee, V. (2011). Patriarchy and the horror of the monstrous feminine: a comparative study of Ringu and The Ring. Feminist Media Studies 11(2), 151-165.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/jh.68223