scholarly journals Heroes and Representations of Masculinity in Thai Action Films

MANUSYA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-53
Author(s):  
Natawan Wongchalard
Keyword(s):  
Hegemonic Masculinity ◽  
Cultural Construction ◽  
Symbolic Order ◽  
Action Films ◽  
Action Film ◽  
Historical Films ◽  
Social Backgrounds

This paper contextualises a cultural construction of hegemonic masculinity and discusses ways in which Thai action film heroes in historical and Muay Thai films are represented. Traditionally, the quality of nakleng is desirable for Thai action heroes along with having mastery in a particular skill. In the moral realm, the idea of gratitude or khwam-katanyu in Thai, is prioritised and highly regarded to be the inevitable requisite for good men, which includes action heroes. This sense of gratitude extends to one’s ideological obligations to one’s motherland or matuphum, which is often thematically portrayed in Muay Thai and historical films through the struggle of the hero. Based on a reading of the two exemplar films, Ong Bak (Muay Thai Warrior 2003, dir. Prachya Pinkaew) and The Legend of King Naresuan: The Elephant Duel (2014, dir. Chatri Chalerm Yukol), the different social backgrounds of the two heroes, their hegemonic masculinity, autonomy and lack can be explained in relation to the discourse of Buddhist spirituality. In addition, the ways in which the two heroes are differently depicted is a cinematic device with the aid of which, in addition to the observance of filmic verisimilitude, the representations are designed to cater to segmented subject/citizen audiences. In psychoanalytic terms, each hero from the two films is similarly made to acquire autonomy and experience ‘lack’ in different realms of the symbolic order.

Making enemies: A theoretical approach to antagonism and emotion in the contemporary American action film

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lennart Soberon
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Essential Component ◽  
Action Films ◽  
Action Film ◽  
American Action

Conflict and adversity form an essential component of many American action films. Not only are these spectacular blockbuster films often grafted on forms of contemporary geopolitical warfare, moreover, the violent deaths of the film’s villains arguably form one of the genre’s key pleasures. Utilizing Laclau and Mouffe’s concept of antagonism, this article deconstructs how within the action film, discursive articulations of enemyhood attempt to structure heroic violence as just and the lives of villains as ungrievable. The action films Lone Survivor (2015) and London Has Fallen (2017) will operate as case studies in elucidating how antagonistic frontiers between the hero self and the enemy other are cinematically drawn and strengthened.

The Landscape Cultural Construction

2016 ◽  
pp. 142-168
Author(s):  
Isabel Sousa Rosa ◽  
Joana C. Lopes ◽  
Ricardo J. Ribeiro
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Cultural Construction ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Cultural Sustainability ◽  
Urban Settlements ◽  
Gis Environment ◽  
Land Use Plan

The interdependent relation between urban settlements and their environment has been broadly neglected over the last two centuries, particularly near major urban centers. This reflects in an unbalanced and often inadequate occupation of the territory, leading to the deterioration of quality of human life by loss of ecological and cultural diversity. In this sense, it was carried out a research to develop a Potential Land-Use Plan for the Portuguese territory to assess the land suitability for the installation of multiple human activities. The concept proposed for this chapter, will be based on a reinterpretation of tradition, following the current concepts of ecological and cultural sustainability, concerning the historical occupation of the Portuguese territory focusing on the Roman period using a GIS environment.

scholarly journals Masculinity in Numafung, a Film Directed by Nabin Subba

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-70
Author(s):  
Asmita Bista
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Hegemonic Masculinity ◽  
Cultural Construction ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Feature Film ◽  
Male Characters ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Asymmetrical Power ◽  
Gender Practices

The prevailing gender practices in the Limbu culture promote asymmetrical power relations not only between males and females but also between dominant males and subordinated males. This practice is portrayed in the feature film Numafung by Nabin Subba. Thus, the paper aims to investigate how the practice of hegemonic masculinity has affected the life of individuals, both males and females in Limbu community in the film. It scrutinizes what sort of problems do the conventional masculine roles bring in the characters’ lives. This paper also intends to assess the reasons that force the males to perform the conventional gender roles. To analyze the text, R.W. Connell’s and Michael Kimmel’s idea of masculinity theory has been used as an approach. These theorists propose that masculinity is a constructed entity that is achieved through constant performance: a series of cues observed, internalized and repeated over time. Illuminating the gender practices in the Limbu culture, Numafung unfolds the cultural dynamics of the Limbu society in the light of hegemonic masculinities. The paper concludes that cultural practices such as ‘sunauli- rupauli,’ ‘mangena’ and ‘jari’ keep their hegemonic masculinity intact. The paper further concludes that the male characters of Numafung embrace hegemonic masculinity because gender is a socio-cultural construction; being part of that society, one hardly can escape from the socially enforced gender roles.

The Landscape Cultural Construction

2015 ◽  
pp. 788-812 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Sousa Rosa ◽  
Joana C. Lopes ◽  
Ricardo J. Ribeiro
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Cultural Construction ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Cultural Sustainability ◽  
Urban Settlements ◽  
Gis Environment ◽  
Land Use Plan

The interdependent relation between urban settlements and their environment has been broadly neglected over the last two centuries, particularly near major urban centers. This reflects in an unbalanced and often inadequate occupation of the territory, leading to the deterioration of quality of human life by loss of ecological and cultural diversity. In this sense, it was carried out a research to develop a Potential Land-Use Plan for the Portuguese territory to assess the land suitability for the installation of multiple human activities. The concept proposed for this chapter, will be based on a reinterpretation of tradition, following the current concepts of ecological and cultural sustainability, concerning the historical occupation of the Portuguese territory focusing on the Roman period using a GIS environment.

Berlin

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 366-378
Author(s):  
Susan Ingram
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Spatial Dimension ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Action Films ◽  
Urban Imaginary ◽  
Historical Films ◽  
Film Style ◽  
The City

Historical films about Hitler and Nazi Germany are perennially popular both within and beyond the academy. However, even in films not set in, or in any way involving, Nazi Berlin but rather only filmed on location in the city, material memories of the city’s fascist spaces can be shown to exert their influence. In comparing the eerily similar geo-aesthetic styles of two relatively obscure, relatively recent science fiction action films—Kurt Wimmer’s Equilibrium (2002) and Karen Kusama’s Aeon Flux (2005)—this contribution seeks to understand how the historically inflected spatial dimension of its urban imaginary has translated into a discernibly dark and spectacularly gendered film style.

scholarly journals Jews, Mobility, and Sex: Popular Entertainment between Budapest, Vienna, and New York around 1900

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 220-242
Author(s):  
Susanne Korbel
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
Cultural Construction ◽  
The Other ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Popular Entertainment ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
The One

AbstractThis article investigates the coinciding of the mass migration from Europe to the Americas and the emergence of mass culture, two developments that shaped everyday life, popular entertainment, and Jewish and non-Jewish relations at the turn of the twentieth century. Jewish actors and actresses were among the most prominent performers who staged in Orpheums, Varietés, and vaudevilles on both sides of the Atlantic. In their performances they drew on the notion of a new quality of mobility that society was experiencing, utilizing it to negotiate issues such as of the cultural construction of identities and Jewishness, or to critically reexamine antisemitic and nationalistic attitudes. On the one hand, mobility enabled negotiations of controversial issues. On the other hand, mobility led to accusations against popular entertainment, both legitimate and erroneous—for example, that vaudevilles functioned as covers for clandestine prostitution. Therefore, the article examines the question of how mobility influenced popular culture. What were the controversial issues that mobility raised, and what accusations did these evoke? In what ways did actors and actresses in popular culture address gender and Jewishness? To answer these questions, the article analyzes the spaces of popular entertainment in Budapest, Vienna, and New York through close examinations of newspapers, manuscripts, playbills, and records of censorship.

scholarly journals Unequal Promises

2011 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aditi Bagchi
Keyword(s):  
Simple Form ◽  
Economic Community ◽  
Common Experience ◽  
Special Value ◽  
Social Backgrounds

This essay explores the nature and implications of a type of inequality that is widespread, but largely ignored. Promises deliver important ethical value, and commercial promises, because they are our most common experience of promise with strangers, are of special value; but not all commercial promises generate that value equally. This paper makes the following claims: (1) while some retail promises are promises either to deliver a good or service, or to pay some compensation, other retail promises are simple promises to deliver a good or service; (2) retail promises in high-end markets are more likely to have the simple form, while retail promises in low-end markets are more likely to be conditional; (3) bifurcated promises that create less certainty and less entitlement are inferior to simple promises to deliver a good or service; and (4) inequality in the quality of retail promise has implications for how members from different social backgrounds relate to others in their political and economic community.

scholarly journals Research on the Cultivation Path of College Students' Innovation and Entrepreneurship Psychological Quality From the Perspective of Campus Culture Construction

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongmin Wang ◽  
Zheng Jing ◽  
Rui Hou
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Nursing Students ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Intervention Group ◽  
Cultural Construction ◽  
Campus Culture ◽  
College System ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Innovation And Entrepreneurship

Objective: To explore the ways and methods of cultivating college Students' quality of entrepreneurship and innovation. Methods: Based on the investigation of nursing students of grade 2017 in Zhengzhou SIAS University, the preliminary questionnaire and interview outline were formulated. 58 nursing students of grade 2018 were pre experimented, and the questionnaire and interview outline were modified and improved. Then intervention research was carried out on 260 nursing students of Zhengzhou SIAS University in 2019. Results: Through the construction of college system and the application of positive psychology, the psychological quality of the subjects in the intervention group was improved better, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion: the influence of campus culture on the cultivation of college students' entrepreneurship and innovation is very obviousand the application of academy system makes the related cultural construction better and more deeply penetrate into students' daily life, learning and practice. The application of positive psychology can effectively improve students' willpower, resilience and other psychological qualities closely related to the practice of entrepreneurship and innovation, and promote students' positive mentality and tenacity Will to participate in related activities.

Brand Wagon: The Courtship of Multiplex Audiences and the 2003 Asia Extreme Roadshow

Extreme Asia ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 92-121
Author(s):  
Daniel Martin
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Brand Identity ◽  
Fan Culture ◽  
Film Festival ◽  
Marketing Tactics ◽  
Marketing Campaign ◽  
Action Films ◽  
Multiple Strategies ◽  
Action Film ◽  
The Uk

This chapter charts a key moment in the consolidation of the Asia Extreme label: the 2003 touring film festival and aggressive marketing campaign to court a wider audience by screening seven films exclusively in multiplex cinemas in the UK. This chapter considers Tartan’s marketing tactics, the critical reception of these films, as well as Tartan’s multiple strategies to consolidate a strong brand identity, which included shrewdly appropriating the pre-Asia Extreme fan culture through its assimilation of the Japanese cult auteur Shinya Tsukamoto. Finally, a fan’s response to the festival is examined, as the overarching analysis begins to address the increasing anxieties of fans and experts at the commodification and mainstreaming of ‘their’ niche passion. The revitalization of the Hong Kong action film is discussed, in relation to Asia Extreme’s appropriation of the genre and the legacy of John Woo’s ‘Heroic Bloodshed’ action films, as well as the controversial reception of A Snake of June (2002).

Communicating identity through wearable technologies: The case of the action film

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-313
Author(s):  
Kristina Stankevičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Wearable Devices ◽  
High Price ◽  
Niche Market ◽  
Wearable Technologies ◽  
Action Films ◽  
Action Film

Abstract The wearable technologies market claims to be growing continually, and yet the question if wearables have actually assumed an indispensable place in fashion and mass consumerism remains. Apart from a number of practical problems such as high price, poor design and numerous reservations over privacy, wearable technologies also seem to give rise to identity issues. Leaning on research conducted by Natalia Berger of Inholland University (the Netherlands) on mass media texts and the manner in which they communicate the idea of smart fashion/wearable technologies to the mass consumer, the article attempts to look at the field of action film and the message that this specific genre communicates to its audiences about wearables. The argumentation focuses on the issue of identity and how wearable technologies participate in its creation within the realms of real life and the fictional reality of action film. The findings of the discussion concur with those of Berger, i.e. that, to enhance the popularity of wearable technologies and devices in real life, action films, like other mass media, must apply an inclusion policy, rather than communicating them as a niche market for minorities, such as a special, elitist group like government agents or superheroes. Following recommendations from experts and enthusiasts in the field, the article suggests that wearable devices be communicated as empowering their users in everyday life.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document