Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses Kumashiro Tatsumi's Woman with Red Hair. It attempts to challenge the film's reputation as being feminist by addressing misogynistic elements found in the film text. It also traces Kumashiro's career as a director and situates Woman with Red Hair as a crucial turning point.

Paper long abstract:

The subject of this paper is Kumashiro Tatsumi's Nikkatsu Roman-Porno film, Woman with Red Hair ("Akai kami no onna," 1979). Widely regarded as an auteur representative of Roman-Porno, Kumashiro also has a reputation as a filmmaker who excels in depicting women. On many occasions, critics have even labeled his work as "feminist" for its focus on strong-willed female characters, and Woman with Red Hair, one of the most-acclaimed films of his as well as Roman-Porno's, has often been regarded as a typical feminist oeuvre of Kumashiro.

This paper, however, aims to challenge such existing discourses through close reading of the film text and paratexts. Adapted from Nakagami Kenji's short story "Red Hair" ("Akagami"), the screenplay of Woman with Red Hair was written by Arai Haruhiko. Though the finished film is fairly faithful to the original story, it exhibits misogynistic tendencies that distinguishes itself from both Nakagami's story and Arai's screenplay. Through detailed analysis of a number of crucial sequences, this paper addresses misogynistic elements found in the film text and attempts to establish Woman with Red Hair as a "man's film." It is a "man's film" not only in the sense it is designed to appeal to a (heterosexual) male audience, but also in the sense that women in the narrative exist for the sake of catering for the needs of male characters and of male viewers.

To this day, Kumashiro is remembered as one of the most important figures of Roman-Porno. Academically, however, there has been virtually no attempt to throw light on his entire career as a director. Therefore, in conclusion, this paper traces common thematic threads in Kumashiro's films and further points out that Woman with Red Hair marked a turning point in his career.