| Mistress Ai-Li |
My favorite femme " 'The essence of the femme fatale," as one observer put it, "lies in transition, and disparity -- in the wise woman's use of leverage, as in jujitsu, to dominate a larger, even stronger (mere brute strength), opponent... ' " "The first such character that comes to mind is the female lead role in Madame Butterfly. In some portrayals, Madame Butterfly, of course, is the stereotypical passive, Asian female. Yet as written by David Henry Hwang, the Chinese opera star uses those very traits in order to seduce and ruin a Frenchman. In the end the Frenchman realizes the Chinese opera star is in fact a man. Here we certainly have the concept of using disparity in order to gain control. "The second person who popped in my head was Sister Thirteen, played by Sandra Ng in the Hong Kong movie Young and Dangerous. I grew up watching the Young and Dangerous action series. It is about the Hong Kong triads. Sister Thirteen is the only female boss who is shrewd and intelligent and rises to the top of the Chinese triads. I always thought it was exciting to watch a movie largely based on the reality of Hong Kong triads, a society predominately ruled by men and see a female leader and boss.
|
