Remember how to look at a film through a feminist lens? Choose a five-minute scene in Ringu and examine the role of women and how they are portrayed in your selected scene and in the film as a whole. How does the director show us? Be sure to discuss this topic CINEMATICALLY. Back up all of your statements with evidence from the film. Your response should be 3 well-developed paragraphs. You must reference one of the big names (from feminist film criticism) such as Tania Modleski, Laura Mulvey, and Molly Haskell. You must state the title of the essay and use at least one quote. I have plenty of books in the library to help you with this.
Part one of Ringu can be found here. Part two is here.
Due: Wednesday, 9/24
While watching Ringu, I do not believe that any feminist would be angry with how Hideo Nakata represents women throughout the movie. Nakata uses cinematic elements that show both the weaknesses and the empowerment of women in the film as a whole. Laura Mulvey says in her essay titled “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” that within a film’s narrative, “Women [are] displayed as a sexual object” and that women are just a projection of the “determining male gaze.” However in Ringu one could say that this idea is not present at all, adding much more depth to female characters like Asakawa, making them much more than a “passive female” character, they are the backbone supporting characters of this story. A scene that shows this perception of depth very well is the scene in which Asakawa is lowered into the well and finds Sadako’s body.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of this scene, we see several medium shots that show Asakawa pulling up the buckets of water that her ex-husband is filling up down in the well. During these shows we see a singular light in the darkness on her left typically, a faint and dark image of Asakawa, surrounded in dense black. The singular light creates low-key lighting during the scene, which shows how Asakawa is experiencing fear and anxiety, and how she is afraid of her death approaching her, as she frantically searches the dark room under the cabin. After she collapses from exhaustion from lifting all those buckets filled with water, she is viewed from a few high angle shots, having the effect that at this moment she feels weak and vulnerable. However this is not necessarily so. Throughout the entire length of the film Asakawa is very brave in moving forward into discovering the truth behind this mysterious video. She is brave in exploring further into the video in order to find some way of saving her life, and later her son’s. After her son watches the video, she becomes even more determined to finding the secret behind the video. However in this moment she seems to be portrayed as scared, afraid, anxious and seemingly trapped in this situation of fear and anxiety by the darkness around her. This creates a contrast in her character, being both brave and being capable of experiencing intense fear. However she is also trapped by the darkness that surrounds her in these shots and so this darkness could represent what is entrapping her in this situation: fear of her and her son dying. With such a character that has so many levels of depth, one could not make the assumption that she really could be just a “sexual object” of a male gaze. Nothing about the cinematic elements of the scene depicts her in any such way. They show her as being brave even though she is afraid for her life. So you could say that this film so far shows woman very highly, rather than films that Laura Mulvey is describing. Next we have a shot of Asakawa being lowered into the well in an extremely high angled shot, showing that as she is lowered into the well she is becoming more and more vulnerable. Also the well makes the frame closed, entrapping her even more than the darkness did. So from this shot we can say that Asakawa is being lowered into an area that gives off more fear and anxiety, however her character is brave to enter it in order to save her son. She is willing to be trapped down in the well by the frame, as long as it is a chance to save her son. There also is a shot that is supposed to be a point of view shot of Asakawa’s, but it cuts to a black and white image of what was once the point of view of Sadako when she also was in the well. This match cut shows a similarity between Asakawa’s and Sadako’s character, making us both feel sympathetic towards them. Sadako was put into a similar situation of fear and anxiety when she was hit over the head and shoved down into the well. So we defiantly can’t associate Sadako as a sexual object, but we feel sympathic towards her character, even though we haven’t met her.
After Asakawa is pulled out of the well and is driven home by her ex-husband, the shots that she is in are very similar. The shots are now typically open framed shots, giving her more of a sense of freedom from her fear and anxiety. She is alone in the frame in the parking lot, and even though it still is dark out, she feels like a weight is lifted off her shoulders and she can go home without having to be afraid of anything anymore. Also when she is sitting alone in her room, the lighting on her face is a lot softer, being high-key lighting, that shows a sense of relief on her face. So at the end of this 5 minute scene we can see that she really is a character that has a lot of depth to her personality, as shown by the cinematic elements. So a feminist would be able to watch this film and think highly of how Asakawa is being treated and portrayed in this scene. You could not argue in any way that Asakawa is being portrayed as a sexual object in this scene after all the emotions and feelings being shown on her through the various cinematic elements. So in conclusion, one could say that women are very empowered during this film, even when they are victims like Sadako.
ReplyDeleteRingu, a japanese horror film by Hideo Nakata, when analyzed through a feminist lens, shows a lot of favoritism towards women versus men. In Ringu all of the main characters are female, as well as a majority of the supporting roles, the exceptions to this includes Zoichi, the ex husband, and Sadako’s father- all of which either die, or are saved by the lead role Asakawa. The main roles are Asakawa, Sadako- the spirit killing everyone, Sadako’s mother, Shizuko-the subject of the film, or Tamoko- the schoolgirl who died at the beginning of the movie and starts the entire problem about the spreading of the mini movie shown throughout the narrative.
ReplyDeleteAsakawa is the protagonist who finds the solution to the curse and is the first person to avoid being killed by Sadako. The fact that she survives but her ex-husband dies with the belief that the curse has been lifted portrays men under a veil of ignorance. As well as being ignorant, the men are deceptive and short tempered, as demonstrated through the father of Sadako and the audience of Shizuko’s test of ESP. ON TOP of all of this, everything that the women did in the film was considered just. Sadako was exacting revenge on people who used her mother for entertainment by filming her mother and then killing anyone who watched the video and did not spread it (because the only way to survive the curse is by duplicating the movie and then showing it to someone else, dooming all of society to eventually be cursed), and then Asakawa who was trying to save her son’s life- as well as her own. The men were almost always in the wrong- the housekeeper who spied on Shizuko, the ex-husband who implicitly cheated on Asakawa with a student, and Sadako’s father who tries to use Shizuko to make money by making her famous and later kills Sadako because she’s too powerful, these are seen as selfish and corrupt of the men- describing all men as shallow, corruptible, and evil in nature.
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DeleteJack--You need to remember to not rely on PLOT in your response. You must back up your statements with cinematic evidence!!! And you did not reference a quote from one of the essays.
DeleteRingu, a Japanese horror film by Hideo Nakata, took the feminist film theory in a slightly unusual way. In where most film in the past couple decades subconsciously put women a rung or two below men on the power (be it psychological or physical) ladder, this film gives women power over men in a couple different ways. The power manifests itself in this form in almost an accidental way in one instance, and another quite literally. The men in this film all suffer a tragic death, except for the ones saved by the female protagonist, Asakawa. Interestingly enough, the director and screenwriter actually changed the gender of the protagonist to fit more in with the feminist theory they were making this movie through.
ReplyDeleteSadako is the spirit character, who was killed by her father when she was a child, and is seeking revenge on those who watch this film. She is one of two females who's actions control those of the men in the film. A quote in Laura Mulvey's essay titled “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” says "The power to subject another person to the will sadistically...is turned on to the woman". A bug theme in movies using this theme is woman hurting others to sate their power hungry urges. Sadako does just this. She seeks revenge on everyone simply for the evildoings of her father.
Cinematically, this is shown very well in the final scene, when Sadako comes out of the TV, and kills Ryuiji. The shots start off looking at Ryuiji through the staircase, showing him cinematically trapped behind the bars of the inevitable death he will soon come to. At this point, he looks back, to see the TV on, and the infamous video playing, also viewed through these same bars. After he keeps watching, Sadako walks toward him, getting closer, and soon coming out of the Television. The shots slowly go from medium to close-up closed shots, switching between him and the TV screen, signifying him feeling locked up in panic. In terms of the feminist theory, what's interesting is that there are no defining characteristics that Sadako is a female. Her face is covered by long black hair, her nails are clawed off (besides lack of feminine nails, also adds to the scare factor) and she is wearing a nondescript white gown. She lacks a gender, making her simply a human, and maybe going as far as to make her the manifestations of Ryuji's fears of women, mostly unknown up until here. As Mulvey says in the aforementioned essay, "But in psychoanalytic terms, the female figure poses a deeper problem. She also connotes something that the look continually circles around but disavows...a threat of castration and hence unpleasant". It takes form of a underlying fear of women that feminist theory states that all men have, deep down.
The Japanese movie Ringu, created by Hideo Nakata in 1998, was a film that dealt with many horrors or fears at the time. However, by looking through a feminist theoretical lens, other issues can be excavated from this films narrative. The typical female character is described by Laura Mulvey as “something on screen that provides visual pleasure for the viewer and makes the male character act the way he does.” By this theory, women do not and should not play any important role in the story other than “eye candy”. Hideo sways away from this theory by making Reiko, a young single mother who does just fine by herself with her journalism job. She is very beautiful but also a very powerful character and woman, which is a very common thing among women in real life in the 1990’s as well. With this said, though, Reiko is not completely independent, especially towards the end of the film. She eventually needs assistance from her ex-husband to find the solution to the problem.
ReplyDeleteTo understand the movie better and how it fits into the feminist lens, you first have to go into the life of the main character that causes problems in the movie. The character goes by the name Sadako, who was a very young girl who had a very extraordinary supernatural power, which ostracized her from society. Also, this led to her brutal demise by the hands of her father as he pushed her down a well to her death. The first scene where we get to see Sadako is in Reiko’s flashback, where we see a bunch of men gathered around to see her mother “perform”. The men start to criticize and yell at Sadako’s mother, and out of retaliation, Sadako kills one of them using her powers. The male dominated society (including her father) are what led to her death, and the video tape is something she uses to enact her revenge against them, although she kills ANYONE who watches.
The theme of trying to break away from this male dominated society is shown completely in the final scene of the movie when Ryuji is in his apartment alone and encounters Sadako. Throughout the film, Sadako was seen only through the gritty screen of a TV, which can almost be taken as degrading to her and her story. That was the intention of her father doing what he did – to make Sadako forgotten from the world. In this scene, though, Sadako emerges from the screen to a full human form. The costume makes her seem almost inhumane though: the long, filthy gown, her body almost being contorted as if she was possessed, the extreme close-up on her eye that will forever scar my mind, and the creepy stumble-walk that she does. Although she is portrayed in this way, and you know her intent in coming out to the screen to encounter Ryuji, Nakato does a very good job in making a sympathy effect for such a hideous looking creature. To see this amount of power in a woman to cause such a masculine character such as Ryuji to tremble will always bring sympathy, and the power is always in the hands of the females in this film: Reiko has the power to change the course of this video because she has found out how to lift the curse, and Sadako is able to enact her revenge of the people who rejected her.
The scene I will be examining is the scene where Takayama and Asakawa go under the hotel to excavate Sadako’s buried body. Initially, it seemed that the film poorly represented women, through a very narrow look at the fact that a few of the women in the movie are shown to be wearing kimonos (a garb that seems to be worn by domestic house wives), the fact that the antagonist is a woman, the fact that Asakawa wasn’t strong enough to pull the bucket as long as Takayama would have liked, etc. Upon further inspection, however, it would seem that this initial analysis would be incorrect.
ReplyDeleteThe scene starts with Asakawa calling Yoichi in order to say goodbye to him before leaving on her last leg of trying to save herself. Even though Takayama is evidently taking charge of the situation, and aggravated by the fact that Asakawa is “wasting” time with a phone call, the fact that Asakawa can make the phone call is a testament for her value. For all of the nobility and strength Takayama exudes, Asakawa has what truly matters, in this case a loving family of not only a child but grandparents that care for and she can go to in times of need, while Takayama has no such person. Throughout the scene, Asakawa spends a lot of time sitting in the foreground of the screen, showing the segment’s importance, while Takayama muddles about in the background doing menial taks. As the two enter the car to head toward Sadako’s body, Takayama and Asakawa maintain pretty equal headspace and screen presence, possibly even tilting in Asakawa’s favor as her figure is closer to the camera and thus a little bigger than Takayama’s. Next, Asakawa and Takayama are made to be equals when they find the well that Sadako’s body is in, Asakawa and Takayama both touch the top of the well, and both share a vision of Sadako’s murder. While the two kneel in front of the well, there is a shot where the two adults’ arms and torsos are present. The two completely mirror each other, taking up exactly the same amount of screen space, holding the same stance, and are dressed in complimentary colors. Also, they hold hands together in the direct center of the screen, solidifying the equality they share. Normally only Takayama would experience these visions, as he has ESP, but Asakawa is equal with him here. Also, women are favored in the vision itself as this vision clears Sadako’s name as a motiveless monster and shows the reasons for her grief. At the same time, men are put down, as the man who murdered her was her own father. After viewing this, Asakawa is knocked down by the shock of the crime she just witnessed, again showing her emotional strength, while Takayama is not visually phased. Again, Asakawa is superior to Takayama. As Takayama begins to pry the lid off of Sadako’s well, he needs Asakawa’s help to remove the lid completely. Soon after, Takayama and Asakawa are working together in order to try and drain Sadako’s well to find her lost body.
Asakawa’s strength fails her, and Takayama must climb out of the well in order to take her place in raising the buckets out of the well. It would seem that this would be an attempt to raise male strength over a womans, but this is once again denounced on further analysis. When Asakawa is lowered into the well, she begins having psychic visions on her own, without any help from Takayama. With these visions, Asakawa is able to completely empathize with Asakawa and her horrendous plight, to the point where Asakawa brings Sadako’s skeletal remains out of the well water and embraces them, with the skeleton seeming to embrace her back. This is just one more way that the movie places the importance of emotional strength and understanding above basic physical strength. Also, as Asakawa is beginning to empathize with Sadako, rays of light fall into the well, as if to represent the enlightenment that is taking place. When Asakawa looks at the skeleton, an ooze drips out of the eyes, representing the deceased Sadako’s grief and sadness. Also, when Asakawa is in the well, her whole scene is brighter than Takayama’s was.
DeleteIn 1975, Laura Mulvey wrote an essay suggesting that films are created in a fashion that reflects positivity in masculinity, and use women solely as a source of a pleasurable visual experience for men. I would say that Ringu would disagree with this statement, as there is little emphasis on masculinity, the women of the film, for the most part, are not objectified, and also the main antagonist of the movie is a gruesome woman who is anything but pleasurable to look at.
Hideo Nakata uses cinematic elements in Ringu to portray women as more of an active force and having the ability to become more of a dominant presence instead of being an erotic object thrown into the film. Laura Mulvey stated in her essay that “ Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium… ”. However, this is not the case in Ringu at all, and when looking at how women are portrayed in this film cinematically and through mise-en-scene, it can be inferred that sexual implication was not the intention of the director (especially in Sadako’s case). The scene that most emphasizes this would be the scene where Ryuji is killed by Sadako.
ReplyDeleteAt the start of the scene, there are two appearances by Reiko on camera, where she is shown sitting on her bed and looking out on the terrace. The lighting on her face is very low-key and not as intense, making her seem calm and relieved after having lifted her curse, but what stood out most was her apparel, in these two references to her, she is wearing an all-black long sleeve, hiding her skin and her feminist features, and throughout the movie she is only seen wearing suits or things that cover her body completely. This wardrobe choice by the director helps to mask the erotic feel given off by women portrayed on camera, and adds more substance to Reiko’s character. Also, when she’s in the apartment, her face draws the attention of the viewer due to the fact that she is dressed in all black, and is another example of the director’s intent to draw attention away from her body. Now, when we get to Ryuji, his room is much more darker than Reiko’s room, hinting that he’s not quite out of the water yet. The only real source of light is the lamp on his desk, which is very harsh and helps to emphasize the approaching darkness behind him. In the shot behind his back, there are bars in the way of the frame, and it sort of projects his imprisonment (like a prison cell), and that he no longer has anywhere left to run. As he starts to hear the signature Sadako sound present throughout the movie, and moves towards the television screen, his back is turned to the light, and he begins to enter the darkness. Sadako resides in the darkness at this point, and the darkness becomes a looming portrayal of her dominance. The darker Ryugi becomes, the more dominance Sadako gains over him. As Ryugi gets closer to the tv, it looks like the light of the tv is blinding him, again showing that the power Sadako (a female) has over him (a male) is overwhelming him at this point. When the phone continues to ring, Ryuji heads for the light for protection, but ends up on the floor in the darkness, emphasizing the fact that he cannot escape his fate.
The director continually uses darkness throughout this scene to make Sadako’s impulse more prominent, but the most interesting thing related to the anti-feminist portrayal of women in the film is the way Sadako looks when she comes out of the tv. First off, Sadako is completely shrouded in darkness as she makes her way towards Ryuji, making her look like the main source. The way she looks and even how she’s dressed is Nakata lashing out against the sexual portrayal of women. Sadako is very unattractive: she has pale skin, her hair is covering her appearance, and she lacks sexual features due mostly to the fact that her entire body is covered in long, drenching robes. She is stripped of anything and everything that gives her feminism, even her nails. Ryuji tries again to seek protection in the light by making his way over to the window, but when Sadako stands up, he falls right back into the darkness, and her dominance is yet again established. Finally, as Ryuji crawls away into the darkness he is filmed at a lower angle, while Sadako, standing up, is at a higher angle. The viewer can concur at this point that Ryuji has lost the battle against Sadako, and his fate becomes the same as Sadako’s other victims. Nakata effectively utilized lighting, shot composition, and the look of the characters to show how women can be portrayed cinematically as a powerful force, and not a pleasurable/passive object.
ReplyDeleteActually Ryuji is filmed at a high angle, and Sadako a low angle. I got the two mixed up, sorry.
DeleteThe scene I chose comes near the end of the movie. At this point Reiko and Ryuji believe they have figured out the curse of the tape and have returned home. My scene begins with Ryuji in his apartment, and ends with his death. I chose this scene because it is a pivotal one to the film, and also incredibly haunting. I also chose it in order to focus on analyzing the female monster in this movie, rather than the female protagonist. To start at the very beginning of the scene it must be noted that Ryuji makes a comment about the notes his student/lover has made on a problem on the writing board. In a feminist light this is an interesting additional dynamic the filmmakers have included. Ryuji and Reiko have been portrayed as a duo, with a solid partnership throughout the film but we are reminded in this scene that that was temporary, and that they really are not so deeply connected to one another. He has this relationship with a much younger woman, and he only cares for Reiko to the extent that she is the mother of his child. It is important that Ryuji has been given a lover and Reiko’s only interactions with other male characters are as platonic co-workers and with her son. She is shown many times in her home alone, in very empty looking shots, even her son gone at school or asleep.
ReplyDeleteMoving on to the actually death sequence, looking through a feminist lens, the feeling toward the girl in the tape seems to be pity, and slight fear, but interest, until she leaves the television when the feeling turns to disgust, and pure fear. This is accomplished in part because the girl in the tape is wearing white; she is childlike, furthering her representation as a victim that was established by the abusive men involved in the story they have uncovered about her. She is in an empty field, which illicit the pity, she is all alone. She is scary, yes, but in a sad way.
The peaked interest might be explained by the 1975 essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” by feminist film theorist Laura Mulvay. stated that “in a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy on to the female form which is styled accordingly.” We see the tape; we see her coming out of the television from a point of view shot of Ryuji. This is interesting because even though perhaps he has a good reason to be very scared, he doesn’t want to look away, he’s interested in looking at this monster, following the Laura Mulvay school of thought, because it comes in the shape of the female form. Although this seems like an innocuous choice by the filmmakers it is actually a strong message. The audience is to identify solely with the man at this point. He is disgusted and frightened by her causing the viewer to be as well. Because of this choice we forget about the sympathy we’d had for her sad story and we hate her. That is why when she leaves the TV we identify more and more with him. There are no more cut-aways, editing speeds up. It goes back and forth between a shot of him backing up, and looking frightened, and his point of view shot of her walking toward him. We can see his eyes, that is key. Eyes are important to human connection, and her eyes are not visible until the end and then they are not very human. In this scene she is the female counterpart; she is also a non-human monster.
Ringu, directed by Hideo Nakata is a film that is mostly dominated by women as far as the main characters are concerned. I feel that feminists would not be offended by this movie because it shows the women characters of this film in both power and weakness, making them human and on the same level as the male characters. Also, the main character of the film is put in power for the most part showing the strength of women and at the end of the film she figures out how to save her son and to lift the curse, so she is put in power and this is proven through the last scene of the film where she finds out how to save her son. She figures out that the only way to lift the curse is to copy the tape and show someone else, and the only way for that person to live is to show another person, and then another person and it never ends. Sadako, the girl in the movie who is the girl who made the cursed video is coming out of the tv to kill people who don't show the video to someone else does this because she wants her horrific story of her life to get spread around and to raise awareness for it. Going back to feminism, Laura Mulvey wrote in her essay “ Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium… ”, but in this film I feel these two things stated are not true and she is the main character for more reasons than for sexual appeal from the male audience.
ReplyDeleteThe last five minutes of the movies are great examples of the main character being in power because of the lighting and the camera angles. When she is in the car on the way to show her father the tape to save her son, and the voice over of a conversation about the tape is playing, the camera is showing a medium shot of her and it is a high angle shot of her. This shows that she has power and it makes the audience look up to her because she solved the mystery of the tape and how to lift the curse and save her son from the curse of Sadako. This shot is also well lit and the sun from outside is out lighting up the shot. This is interesting to note because the entire movie has been on a dark, cloudy day, or a rainy day, or at night, making the entire film seem dreary and creepy. However, on this day it is finally sunny because the problem is over and she figured out how to break the curse and her problems are now over. Also the very last shot of the film is her driving off in the distance while a static camera of a long flat road goes off into the distance. This shows that her long journey of figuring out the origins of the tape is finally ending, but the fact that the road continues shows that the road of the tape is only beginning. The road represents the never ending journey of the tape, but the fact that the car goes off in the distance shows that her journey with the tape is finally over. Lastly, in the second last and the last scene, she is wearing very dark and unrevealing clothing. This is done I feel to draw the audiences attention away from her body and to her face to show off her facial expressions and this proves my earlier statement that this is a film that feminists would not find offensive. There is a large use of close ups a well to further make the audience pay more attention to her face and not her body.
The wardrobe choice and the lighting are used to take attention from the body features of the women in the film and more on their facial expressions and put more of an emphasise on their facial expressions. This shows that through a feminist lens, the director tried to put less emphasis on the fact that the movie is mainly women, but that they are people. This scene and the shot choice is not a film that would upset Feminists.
The 1998 Japanese horror film, Ringu, by Hideo Nakata, places a lot of favoritism on women over men. The protagonist, Reiko, is portrayed as a hero throughout the film. She is fairly independent and does not rely on many other people to help her with the investigation of the deaths. Reiko is conveyed as the hero to the audience, and can be seen as a role model to female viewers. Her strong, independent nature is displayed to the audience through cinematic language.
ReplyDeleteThe scene I chose begins with Reiko in the bottom of the well. She goes down to look for Sadako's body, dead and left there many years ago. This is the female spirit that has been haunting and killing all of these people. Reiko is alone at the bottom of the well. It is very dark and grimy down there. But, although her surroundings are dark and shadowy, her face is very bright. The lighting on Reiko's face shows that she has overcome her fear, and that she is ready to face the spirit. This gives the audience a sense of hope. Most of the shots throughout this scene are level medium shots. This is important, especially when Reiko finds the body. She remains calm throughout the entire scene. The level, steady camera reflects Reiko's level head. She does not freak out, and the steady, balanced shots reflect that. She appears strong. Reiko is a very strong character. Towards the end of the scene, Reiko takes the dead body in her arms and hugs it. Still, the lighting is placed on her body. It is warm and comforting. Just like how she is comforting the spirit. She is not afraid, she has overcome any fear or doubt. She remains calm even while her ex-husband is screaming at her. Nothing can phase her emotion because she is her own person. The lighting and camera placement are very crucial to portray that to the audience.
"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female form which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness." This is a quote that I found from Laura Mulvey's essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975)." Although this quote may be an accurate depiction of most movies during that time, Ringu does not seem to fit the description. The women portrayed in Ringu are all very active, while the men seem more passive. Most of the main characters in Ringu are women. They are seen as the heroes, and are not there for the soul purpose of sex appeal. They add depth to the story line and are all round characters. While the men are more flat. I think that Ringu defied the normal social stereotype, by giving the most important role to a female.
Hideo Nakata's film "Ringu" uses various cinematic elements to place the women of the film in a position of dominance rather than as a somewhat submissive presence that would be a subject of (typical) male scopophilia. This can be seen right from the very beginning of the film. A majority of the strong characters are female, with the leading male characters being portrayed as, ultimately, extremely vulnerable. I believe the scene in which Reiku and Ryuji are in the well attempting to find the body of Sadako to lift the curse. This is one of the (rare) instances in the film where a male character demonstrates his superior physical strength, putting the female character on a lower pedestal. However, by the end of the scene, the female character had been strategically placed in a position to in a sense "redeem" herself. Initially, Reiku embodies a sense of hopelessness, one that really isn't seen elsewhere in the film. She knows she's running out of time. The music quickens. Close up POV shots of her watch reveal that it's nearly 6pm. A medium shot of Reiku pulling up the bucket and falling to the ground reveal her tiredness. But still she returns to continue to pull up buckets. Two medium-close ups reveal her pulling a bucket up until her arms give up and she cannot pull any longer. She has literally exerted all of her physical strength for the cause. While this may be an instance of general feminine weakness, perhaps her inability to pull sets the stage for Reiku being in the position to pull up the body herself. Before this occurs, however, Reiku exhibits her state of weakness by crying that all their work may be for naught. The camera pans in, bringing the audience closer to the characters as her ex husband slaps her across the face, quieting her emotional self and, unfortunately, forcing her into active submission. She is hoisted down into the well and continues to fill buckets with water. A few scenes later, she begins to look for the body. Being underground in a well, we are in a very confined environment. It is just us and Reiku searching for a body that may end up saving her, her son's, and her ex's lives. A close-up shot of her face reveals the complete sense of relief and subtle emotional elation she feels upon discovering the body. The shot lasts for several seconds before we switch to a shot of the skull itself. A medium shot shows Reiku pulling the skeleton close to her for an embrace. She has found the body, even though she had to work tirelessly for the cause. It was her determinism, her refusal to allow her ex husband to take over for her, that allowed the two to reach this point. And at this point in the film, it seems as though she has found the body and has lifted the curse. Her character as a whole serves as a strong presence, almost a role model, "going far beyond highlighting a woman's "to-be-looked-at-ness." As a whole, "cinema builds the way [a woman] is to be looked at into the spectacle itself." (Laura Mulvey's "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", 1975). Reiku's perseverance and general capacity for both adventure and determinism can serve as an inspiration for feminists and others alike.
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