Hong Kong Masculinity:
Fists of Fury
In
Fists of Fury Bruce Lee is shown as a
manly man, not only to audiences in Hong Kong but with American and Western
audiences as well. Lee was swift and a
great fighter in Fists of Fury, with
that he was able to make it as an American action star as well. Lee started the
trend that many Asian leading men followed.
Men
in this film are shown as tough guys that solve their problems with beating up
others and frightening others. Lee
fights with the other characters as a way to get out his anger. In the process
of him being a masculine man in audiences around the world he is also hurting
others and being overly violent. The new
wave of masculinity in Hong Kong men could’ve caused the use of heavy violence
and multiple deaths in this film.
Drunken Master
Jackie Chan is an action icon, most people have seen a
Jackie Chan film or have at least have heard of a Jackie Chan film. The film
that starred Jackie Chan and began his journey of a leading man was Drunken Master.
Chan stars as a young man that is often
getting in trouble because of his violence. Chan is showed as a tough and
masculine man. He is a good fighter which is what gets in trouble in the film.
In the film Chan is beaten in a fight by a woman, his aunt. This puts a damper
on his ego and makes him feel weaker. Chan’s character may even feel like his
masculinity was taken away after a woman beats him in a fight.
A
Better Tomorrow
This
film shows a new type of masculinity versus what we saw in other films. This
film involved guns, gangsters and a taste of urban life. Gangster and gun
fighting is introduced to us in this film, since previous films showed us
kung-fu fighting and more combat and fighting without weapons.
Though
this film shows masculine men it also shows the intimate and close personal
friendships that men share. Ho and Mark are more affectionate than other male
friendships shown in American films. This
had audiences question if Mark and Ho had a homosexual relationship. Both the men are very masculine, great
fighters and tough. These men have such a close friendship and some even say
they act more like a family. The question is if they are so affectionate with
one another can they be masculine men? Masculinity in many cultures is being
tough and not having many emotions. When Ho and Mark interact they talk to each
other with love, both men care deeply for each other and share emotions during
their exchanges.
In
Stringer’s chapter she discusses the use of male relationships in A Better Tomorrow as a basis to her
study on masculinity in the films of John Woo. Stringer talks on the
relationships between not only the men we see on screen but on the
relationships between violence and suffering and how men react to it.
The
article “The Man’s Film” discusses the rareness of seeing men in intimate
relationships in American cinema. A
Better Tomorrow is one of the central points of this article and is brought
up as a film that shows the intimate friendship between two men. Gates
discusses the relationship with Ho and his brother Kit, versus’ Ho’s
relationship with Mark. Gates discusses how emotional the conversations between
Ho and Mark get, and how their eyes fill with tears. In my Gender, Ethnicity
and Communication class we discussed crying and how men often never cry in
front of people. The fact that these men cry during their interactions show how
much they care for one another. It is rare to see a man cry in a film in America,
crying is often associated with being weak. The fact that tears were shed in a
gangster film fascinated me and made me look at the film differently.
Fallen
Angels
This film has a female lead which is
a rare thing in films from Hong Kong. The role of the agent, a woman changed
the dynamic of the film. The agent added a more emotional aspect to the film
given her attachment to the hit man Wong. The agent has some masculine
qualities as in her lack of constant communication (something that is proven in
studies that I have read in my Gender, Ethnicity and Communication class). After
reading about masculinity in films in the Asian world I realized that the term
masculinity makes me think about men right away, eliminating women. Masculinity
is meant to be associated with men but women can also have masculine qualities
as well.
The agent is emotionally invested in
Wong. She really cares for him and wants to be with him in some way. Her
investment in him is slowly damaging her and ruining her judgment. Wong is not
emotionally invested in the agent at all, he does not want to be connected to
her and proves this by sleeping and being with Blondie. Wong is a manly, tough
masculine man like other men that we have seen in this class.
We also see the mute, Ho Chi Moo and
his relationship with Charlie. Ho Chi Moo is a mute and displays signs of
minimal responses, something that we have discussed in my Gender, Ethnicity and
Communication class as well. Obviously it is not Ho Chi Moo’s choice to be
unable to communicate, but he shows classic displays of being more masculine.
When we first see Charlie and Ho Chi Moo together, she is crying and resting on
him and he looks disinterested and uncomfortable. He resists showing his
emotional interest at first, which may be because he wanted to appear a
masculine man. After they develop a relationship the roles reverse and Ho Chi
Moo is more emotional and Charlie becomes more masculine.
All
Films
All of the Hong Kong films that our
class watched this semester features one thing, violence. Violence plays as
much of a character as the actors and is an integral part of the story. Violence
is shown as a component of being masculine, not only in Hong Kong films but in
American films as well. The violence in all of these films was mainly a product
of the leading men trying to show their masculinity. The violence in these
films lead to severe injuries and in some cases death. In my Gender, Ethnicity
and Communication Class we talk about how men communicate differently with
other men and in general. We have talked about how men are more aggressive not
only in their speech but in their physical actions as well.
Women are rarely used in films that
we have viewed in class. In Fists of Fury
we see women treated poorly by men and as unequal characters to the men. Chiao
Mei is seen as a damsel in distress, she is constantly being belittled and is
in need to being rescued throughout the film. Hsiao Mi is also shown as an abuser to women and uses them as
sex-objects and as slaves in some sense. In one scene a girl is serving Hsiao
Mi tea and spills some water on the table. After this Hsiao Mi flicks cigarette
ashes on the girl and burns her. He did this to show off not only his financial
power as a sign of financial status but also to show off how he was a strong
and masculine man. This film also opens up with a woman being assaulted in the
first five minutes. This sets a tone that the men were a bit arrogant and
selfish and that the women were weaker and more submissive.
Overall
these films show how masculinity has changed in Asian films and how masculinity
is represented in films that we have watched. All four films feature men,
violence, power and control. I have learned a lot from these films and I plan
on looking at masculinity in East Asian cinema in future films that we watch.
