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Where the Violence Lies: Re-reading Rape and Revenge in Freeze Me (Takashi Ishii, 2000)

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The Forgotten Victims of Sexual Violence in Film, Television and New Media

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Abstract

This chapter presents an alternative reading of rape in the Japanese film, Freeze Me. Freeze Me initially appears to be a typical rape-revenge film with graphic sex and violence: when a young female office clerk, Chihiro, is attacked in her apartment by three men who had raped her 5 years earlier, she fights back and kills them.

However, the author reads Chihiro’s rape on different terms. Namely, the author constructs its violence as stemming from not only male sexual attacks on the female body, but also social apathy and institutional failure. Rape-revenge in Freeze Me thus exposes the oppressive social and cultural expectations for women in a still-traditional East Asian society. In turn, this discussion pays timely attention to the discourse of rape in intersectional experience. It also spotlights the consideration of women and their social roles in Japanese cinema. Together, they reflect where rape and its violence truly lie.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Some scholars (e.g. Balmain 2008, 13; Schubart 2008, 26) translate the Japanese term of roman porno as an abbreviation of “romantic pornography.” Conversely, Sharp (2011) argues that roman porno is derived from the French term roman pornographique (“pornographic novel”) “to lend it more literary associations as opposed to… pink film” (208).

  2. 2.

    This story comes from the multi-volume tome of Collected Tales of Times Now Past (Konjaku Monogatarishū). However, the publication date of Collected Tales is unclear beyond being somewhere in the twelfth century and author unknown (Davisson 2015, 31).

  3. 3.

    These films starring Kaji would be, respectively, Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion (1972) and Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972); and Lady Snowblood (1973) and Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance (1974).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media, University of York, York, UK

    Jenna Ng

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  1. Jenna Ng
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Correspondence to Jenna Ng .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Calgary, AB, Canada

    Stephanie Patrick

  2. Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Mythili Rajiva

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Ng, J. (2022). Where the Violence Lies: Re-reading Rape and Revenge in Freeze Me (Takashi Ishii, 2000). In: Patrick, S., Rajiva, M. (eds) The Forgotten Victims of Sexual Violence in Film, Television and New Media. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95935-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95935-7_10

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-95935-7

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