New Woman? and a Neutral Space

This film comes into my life at just the right time--in Chinese Cinema, we just watched the movie A New Woman, which depicts a woman author struggling (without the help from others) to save her sick child under the critical eye of a harsh 1930s society. This film brings up several questions: what does it mean to be a New Woman; who is the new woman in this film? In the discussion we had in this class, one topic seemed to be brought up several times. Is the film trying to discourage society from becoming a New (modern) Woman by depicting the pains that are inevitable in this process, or is the film critiquing society which shows that it is not ready for a New Woman?

The interesting difference between A New Woman and Blue Swallow is that Blue Swallow is set in the time in which A New Woman actually takes place.

Blue Swallow starts off with an almost ironic statement, seemingly detached from the rest of the content of the film: "Our parents hated Japan occupation but we loved it because of the ninjas." Next we trace the main character, Park Kyung-won, as she works hard as a female student in flight school and an employee as a cab driver. This in itself is full of this neoliberal idea of working hard in one field in order to conquer some goal, with discrete steps, etc. The film is full of blatantly colonial/political ideas--the Korean Red Fellowship, the presence and question of Korean identity in Japan, and of course the fact that Park Kyung-won can only fly if she waves Japanese flags.

But what is interesting to me is what is under the surface, mostly about gender. Just because Park is doing a job/hobby that is typically masculine, her femininity is not taken from her (proven through her feminine look, her relationship with Ji-Hyuk, etc.). Parallels the nation--just because a nation is being occupied, does not mean that the nation's identity is being stripped from it.

One more quote interested me that suggested a transcendence of gender/politics/etc: Park says, "When you're up in the skies, it doesn't matter whether you're a man or a woman, a Korean or Japanese..." This is striking, in that it could imply that the only way to escape these issues is to literally leave earth--quite a statement. As if the sky is the only neutral territory.