Li Ko Ran : Object of Violent Affection

アイ ノ ハケグチ トシテノ リ コウラン ニホン ト タイリク ヘ ニジ ノ カケハシ オ イロドル ユメ ノ ジョオウ

Watts, Cragun

オオサカ ダイガク ニンゲン カガクブ シャカイガク ニンゲンガク ジンルイガク ケンキュウシツ

英語

映画

プロパガンダ

ジェンダー

暴力

FILM

GENDER

MANCHURIA

PROPAGANDA

VIOLENCE

The Manchurian Film Cooperative was established in 1937 for the production of propaganda. Most of the films produced by the Cooperative were made in Chinese for Chinese audiences. The effectiveness of propaganda exported to Japan by the Cooperative, however, should not be overlooked. Li Ko Ran, the Cooperative's first and only star, gained explosive popularity in Japan, igniting a "China Fever." At the 1942 Tokyo concert "Li Ko Ran Sings," a crowd estimated at up to 100,000 broke into rioting. Li represented a 'beautified" image for the Mainland. Her screen romance with Japanese idol Hasegawa Kazuo in "China Evenings" served as an allegory of the "ideal" Japanese-Chinese colonial relationship. In the film, after being literally slapped to her senses by Hasegawa, Li, representing China as female, falls in love with the Modern Hasegawa who represents Japan as male. Violence is portrayed as a necessary means, an act of love. Following the success of "China Evenings", Li appeared in films with similar themes. Idealistic young Japanese heroes cross over to the Continent to exercise their Modern professions: architects, doctors, engineers. By contrast, the beautiful, singing Li is coded artistic, emotional, cultural, and natural. She captivates the hero who must display his masculinity before choosing her. The union, however, is never consummated. Typically the hero dies fighting for his country, a fight to which Li has grown completely loyal. The Li Ko Ran films serve as propaganda to justify Japanese violence on the Continent, and parallel male violence against women. The popularity of Li and her films among Japanese men at the time suggests an anxiety concerning the adequacy of Japanese masculinity. The Li Ko Ran films worked as popular propaganda, enabling confused Japanese men to confuse violence with love--in other words, enabling them to become the soldiers the State demanded of them.

英語