Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook - Current Issue

For many years, Black female representation of women in mainstream movies has been lacklustre at best. Most Black female leads have been misconstrued as one-dimensional, stereotypical beings portrayed for the world to see. The decade of 2010–20 proves to be pivotal for cinematic portrayals of Black female leads. A narrative thematic analysis is used to examine Black female lead characters represented in romantic relationships. Fifteen films were chosen in the genres of romantic comedy and romantic drama. Stereotypes are found to still exist. Yet, the relationships of the characters are nuanced, and movies provide more in-depth development for Black women characters than seen in the past and offer more variances of romantic relationships that better reflect those actually existing in the real world. Finding love is not without its obstacles; however, Black female leads tend to still find a Hollywood happy ending.

This article follows the transformation of Estella into Cruella de Vil from the movie Cruella, directed by Craig Gillespie, from a screenplay by Dana Fox and Tony McNamara, and a story by Aline Brosh McKenna, Kelly Marcel and Steve Zissis. This transformative process is analysed through two perspectives. The first one is the sociocultural and political background of London in the 1970s, during the rise of the punk aesthetic and its anti-elite subversive resistance ideology. The second interpretative line requires the theoretical background from the book Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters by Jack Halberstam – extraordinary academic work focused on analysing the political, social and economic technologies and fears that are in the background of the production of the monstrous body. Through the analysis, I will also refer to the work of Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Michel Foucault, Mikhail Bakhtin, Jacques Lacan, etc. These two interpretative lines – the more general political and ideological technologies for producing the monster and the particular sociopolitical context in which the character Estella/Cruella is struggling – have proven equally important in the process of unravelling the societal, cultural and economic nets that create the monster, casting it out as a threat, but also in showing its potential to build a new system of power, that is a form of compromise between the former power and the resistance.

This article aims to describe how historical characters are represented in cinema through the case of Hypatia of Alexandria in the film Ágora by Alejandro Amenábar (2009). After delving into the debates about the verisimilitude and authenticity of the words-and-sandals films, the film is analysed considering its production context and its aesthetic line to determine how the vindication of women is articulated in history and popular culture. Moreover, the case study is presented as a paradigm of the uses of historical cinema as it is linked to the present. Finally, it concludes with the understanding of the filmmakers’ creative licences in commercial movies in order to obtain historical films more appealing for the audiences.

Jomo Menmo, the yogini of Cherku village, her disciple Mingma Yangzi and the goddess Palden Lhamo are three fictional female characters in the video game Cursed Mountain (2009, Sproing Interactive and Deep Silver Vienna). They play a key role in the rescue mission undertaken by Eric Simmons on the cursed mountain of Chomolonzo. This article aims to analyse the female characters of this game, their role, intention and place in Eric’s adventure. The actions of various characters are explained through some terms present in Chöd Buddhism. The relationship between the hypotext, the hypertext and urban folklore is also briefly explained. The methods of analysis and synthesis should help to better understand the role of the female characters in this game and how they are framed in the storyline.

This research aims to explore the relationship between the film La Sinfónica de los Andes (2020), directed by legendary Colombian documentarist Marta Rodríguez, and the folkloric practices of the Nasa, an Indigenous community located in the south-western Andes mountains of Colombia. The film has a relevant presence of female reflection through Nasa women who work to protect their culture, defend their native language, vindicate the value of working on the land and resist the Colombian armed conflict that significantly affects this part of the country. This documentary summarizes the anthropological work that Rodríguez has carried out for more than 50 years in this region and her cinematic observation of folkloric practices in these populations. This qualitative research includes a film analysis of the documentary and an in-depth interview with Marta Rodriguez, where she expresses her main motivations, as well as her narrative and cultural concerns in making this film.

This study examines contemporary interpretations of the ‘walled-up woman’ topos within south-east European folklore, focusing on the motif of foundation sacrifice. Analysing cultural perceptions surrounding Rada’s Bridge in Kratovo, North Macedonia, and the Kadin Bridge in Nevestino, Bulgaria, the research highlights how these structures symbolize the sacrificial role of women in overcoming communal crises. The Kadin Bridge is viewed through its supposed maternal healing abilities, aiding fertility and nursing, whereas Rada’s Bridge is associated with a curse demanding continuous sacrifices, linked to cyclical accidents and the legend of Rada. This article explores the integration of these beliefs into local culture, reflecting on their significance in contemporary society and their role in perpetuating ancient sacrificial motifs.

This research investigates the spectrum of female representation and the narrative trajectories of female characters in five influential Asian films: two Chinese films, Ang Lee’s (2000) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Jia Zhangke’s (2013) A Touch of Sin; two Korean films, Park Chan-wook’s Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) and The Handmaiden (2016); and one Taiwanese film, Yang Ya-che’s (2017) The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful. Through comparative film analysis, this interdisciplinary study examines how these films portray female agency, resilience and societal roles, offering critical insights into how Asian cinema both challenges and reinforces traditional gender norms. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon explores the tension between physical prowess and gender expectations, reflecting the conflict between personal freedom and cultural constraints. The Handmaiden disrupts conventional depictions of female sexuality, presenting a radical challenge to gender norms through its layered narrative. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance investigates the complexities of victimhood and empowerment, while The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful delves into power dynamics and corruption, revealing female agency within morally compromised environments. Lastly, A Touch of Sin critiques societal inequalities, focusing on women’s resilience against systemic injustice. This study illuminates the evolving landscape of female representation in Asian cinema, contributing to broader discussions on gender, culture and narrative within film and cultural studies.

Hayao Miyazaki, the acclaimed Studio Ghibli director, has long been known for crafting complex portraits of women and girls in his films. Arguably, the most popular and compelling of these characters is Princess Mononoke’s self-determining San, a monstrous woman who has attracted scholarly attention in work from scholars like Rayna Denison. However, a more overlooked figure in Miyazaki’s pantheon of female characters is Ponyo, the ningyo star of the titular film who transforms into a human and causes a spectacular tsunami in Miyazaki’s reinterpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’. In this sense, Ponyo is a fascinating re-evaluation of this fairy tale character, altered from a symbol of pubescent curiosity and feminine irresponsibility to a powerful figure that serves as a rare female example of the feral child in fiction (Brodski 2019). In doing this, Miyazaki transforms the character into a feminist symbol of girlhood joy and agency, diverging from conventional male depictions of feral children. This article examines the history of the fictional feral child and Ponyo’s deviation from this tradition, particularly in the context of animation and Ghibli’s own oeuvre. Utilizing narratological theories and aspects of adaptation studies, this work seeks to position Ponyo as an especially disruptive figure in the Ghibli canon, with a feminine trajectory all her own.