And then there is the unconscious, almost fetishistic Japanese consumption at the moment. I'm reading Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood, bought the films Japanese Story and Tokyo Story from Borders, and had a craving for udon noodles. But how can one exotic want another, and other itself further? I'm watching a female Australian geologist explore the contours of a Japanese businessman's body. The music is tragically beatiful. Tragic because I know how the film ends. Beautiful because the traditional male gaze of Hollywood cinema is reversed, if not subverted. Would it have been possible if the male body was white? Therein lies another story.
2 comments:
Yes, that's a good question. The performance of gender gets reversed, but by calling on some cultural stereotypes. Here's Olivia Khoo in Realtime on the matter.
Thanks for the link to Khoo's article. I noticed the Toni Collette character putting on the pants of her Japanese partner (if he can be called a partner) as an obvious feminisation of the Asian man. Will try and get to the docos mentioned at the end of the piece.
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