Fallen women at the edge of the empire: Shimizu Hiroshi's Yokohama films and the image of imperial Japan in the 1930s

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article examines the cinematic representation of the ‘fallen woman’ in Japan during the 1930s, imagined on the border of the nation state within the upheaval of the capitalist economy and the Japanese imperial project. In this transitional period, the radical transformation of the image of femininity reflects the contradictions in the expanding global economy both in the private and public realms. To illustrate this controversial image of the new woman, I examine the films of Shimizu Hiroshi that depict the ‘fallen woman’, focusing on those set in the port city of Yokohama. In these films, Shimizu depicts the body of the ‘fallen woman’ as the site of conflict and negotiation between the global economy and the nation state. Through an analysis of the motifs and narrative structure of these films, this article aims to shed light on the Japanese ‘fallen woman’ as a mirror image of the economic and political situation in East Asia.