The gender dynamics in The Crazy Boy

I rather appreciate how ambiguous the power dominance could be presented in Crazy Boy – there seems to be two levels of power exchange: through sex and violence. Because of this flow of gender dynamics the audience have a constantly reforming and deforming viewing experience.

The crazy boy is in the center of this power change. He could be the powerful dominant hero, fully showcasing his “maleness” at the same time the timid shy manager who is literally “good for nothing” – the problem is that his power is almost always gained by exercising violence; whereas his women counterpart by their sexual appeal, to an extreme point the audience might question The crazy boy’s sexual ability. Of course it might be assuming to analyze the psychological activities taken by both sex, but the generic pattern is clear: women fully and consciously utilize their sexual leverage to gain attention and power; whereas it seems the crazy boy is somehow forced to be violent due to some legitimized cause. Then when the problem comes, namely the sexual assault, one would have the conclusion that “the girls ask for it” and the guy doesn’t go for trouble but have clean up some other people’s mess– the reluctant hero.

I don’t want to go into the depiction of women this time (enough feminist rant, to whom this blog might concern), but the mirror reflections in the film. There are several scenes where the cameras first shoot from the ceiling mirror or from the glass floor, reflecting her legs – often somehow shaken and distorted. At first I thought it was the hint of power switch: the climax of her gaining sexual dominance over man/audience, but then I realized it was quite the opposite. Reflections, especially the shaken ones are the disfigured and weakened images of the original, meaning she actually loses the essence of  “being”, deprived of her authenticity.

I compare this to the concept of “transculturation”. Although the subordinated/marginal groups could always add unique interpretations to the transmitted materials (by the dominant), the reflection nature of “transculturation” decisively determines it would always be the weakened distortion, even if at the surface it might appear as the reassertion of power and identity.

These are ideas not fully developed – for example is this power (in the film as gender dynamics) structured as linear or pyramidal? Say in the reading the emulation among Japan, Hongkong and South Korea (sometimes also Hollywood) – do the adaptions impose the same cultural capability and influence?t