The Representation of Masculinity and the Politics of the Gaze in the Film Adaptation of Hanalei Bay

Abstract

This article examines the gender representation in Hanalei Bay (Matsunaga Daishi, 2018), a film based on Murakami Haruki’s 2005 short story of the same title. Whereas Murakami’s story has been considered one of his "female narratives," in which the subjectivity of the female protagonist takes center stage, the film magnifies the role of a young male character in the narrative, with its middle-aged heroine shown as being under masculinist protection. However, an analysis of dramatic irony in the film’s dialogue reveals that the heroine is unaware of either the youngster’s understanding of her tragic background or his tacit support. Her limited knowledge is also manifested visually through the film’s editing scheme, whereby the classical eyeline match is undercut and the heroine is presented less as an agent than object of gaze. This makes a stark contrast with Murakami’s short story, in which the events are depicted as being seen through the eyes of its female protagonist. By situating this film adaptation in the context of Japan’s cultural representation of delinquent youths called "yankee" since the 1980s, this article demonstrates that the film adaptation has imposed upon the narrative Japanese conservative gender roles based on patriarchal values.