THE CULTURAL-ECONOMIC LOGIC OF CONTEMPORARY ACTION HEROINE CINEMA: (POST)FEMINISM, POSTMODERNISM, AND THE CONSUMPTION OF SPECTACLES MAO CHENGTING NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2013 THE CULTURAL-ECONOMIC LOGIC OF CONTEMPORARY ACTION HEROINE CINEMA: (POST)FEMINISM, POSTMODERNISM, AND THE CONSUMPTION OF SPECTACLES MAO CHENGTING (M. A., Wuhan University) (B. A., Wuhan University) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND NEW MEDIA NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2013 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is my original work and it has been written by me in its entirety. I have duly acknowledged all the sources of information which have been used in the thesis. This thesis has also not been submitted for any degree in any university previously. Mao Chengting 24 January 2013 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Hoofd, Ingrid Maria, for her inspiring guidance, invaluable suggestions and considerable understanding, not only during the thesis writing process, but also throughout my entire PhD years. Her impressive grasp of feminist theories, postmodernism and techno-culture has been acting as a beacon light for me in my reading and thinking. She is generous of her intellectual support balanced with critical questions and illuminating advice, which in many ways challenge my earlier perspective and help push my arguments up to a higher level. Her dedication to the research of gender issues, representation, and philosophy of technology has been inspiring me to pursue an ever more sophisticated level of critical thinking, which is crucial in conducting research in humanities. Her consistent friendliness and patience always make it a pleasurable and rewarding experience to interact with her. And my sincere gratitude also goes to my former supervisor, Prof. Chung Peichi, who used to work in Department of Communications and New Media. She is the one who gave me tremendous courage in continuing the research on my current topic, without whose support I would be nowhere in my first two years of candidature. I am also grateful for the opportunities provided by her to work as a research assistant, which not only helped relieve my financial burden as a self-supported student, but also broadened my academic view to a larger landscape. In this regards, I want to specially thank Prof. Zhang Weiyu as well, who not only offered research assistant ii positions that challenged and exercised my research skills, but also guide me in writing and successfully publishing a paper, the topic and method of which is different from that in my comfort zone. I also want to thank her for sharing her experience, views and ideas in doing research, for helping me not only in academia but also in life and career. Many Professors, staff, colleagues in Department of Communications and New Media have been helpful in the process of walking through my study and research. I thank Prof. Cho Hichang, Prof. Leanne Chang, Prof. Denisa Kera for their intellectual support. I thank Retna for her spiritual support and generous help in many ways. And many thanks to Yuanying, Shasha, Wanchao, Chi Hong, Cheryll, Wang Rong for your company, help, and friendship. Last but not least, this dissertation is dedicated with utmost thanks to the consistent support from my family. My heart-felt thanks to my husband, Dr. Xiong Chengjie, who not only takes the financial burden of all my tuition fees and daily expenditures, but also whole-heartedly encourages me to pursue what I want, and sustains me with trust and love; without his support, I will not be able to have this dissertation done. And thanks to my parents and parents-in-law; you might not be able to read your daughter’s work, but it is in important ways dedicated to you for your long-time understanding and trust while I am not around. Mao Chengting July, 2013 iii Table of Contents Chapter 1 The Rise of Action Heroine Cinema......................................................... 1 Introduction: The Action Heroine Phenomenon ........................................................ 1 Past Images: A Change of Rules ................................................................................ 4 Chapter 2 Action or Heroine? .................................................................................. 10 Feminist Film Theory ............................................................................................... 11 Feminism vs. Postfeminism ..................................................................................... 29 Chapter 3 The Cultural-Economic Logic ................................................................ 44 Reproduction of Technological Images: .................................................................. 45 Blockbuster, Special Effects and Technology.......................................................... 67 Spectacle versus Narrative ....................................................................................... 89 Chapter 4 The Action Heroine Cinema Consumed .............................................. 106 As the “Composite Commodity” ........................................................................... 107 As the Spectacles of Technology ........................................................................... 137 The Spectacular .................................................................................................. 150 The Technology-Themed Spectacles .................................................................. 169 As the Spectacles of Heroines’ Bodies .................................................................. 184 Subject or/and Object ......................................................................................... 184 The New Apparatus ............................................................................................ 204 As the Idea of Feminism ........................................................................................ 237 After the Orgy ..................................................................................................... 239 Metastasis and Trans-state .................................................................................. 252 Chapter 5 The “Logical” Predicament: Feminism and Postmodernism ............ 277 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 284 Appendices ................................................................................................................ 302 iv Summary Featuring sexually attractive women as the central action figure, contemporary action heroine cinema has brought opposing interpretations from the feminists and postfeminists. To disentangle the root of their bifurcation, this dissertation intends to look at the extra-textual cultural logic that forms and transforms the way audiences are engaged with the action heroine films now. Navigated by Jean Baudrillard’s theories of postmodernism, particularly of semiurgy, sign value, simulation, implosion, and consumer culture, I argue that watching these films is purely a consumptive process, and a multiple process in which the action heroine cinema is consumed as the composite commodity, as the spectacles of technology, as the spectacles of the heroines’ bodies, and as the idea of feminism. In a cultural logic where representations become free-floating media simulacra, any political engagement with the image is thus diluted and invalidated – a situation that puts feminist engagement with cultural representation in a chaotic dilemma. v List of Figures Figure 1 Number of Genre Films across Years ........................................................... 95 Figure 2, 3, 4 ................................................................................................................ 96 Figure 5 ........................................................................................................................ 97 Figure 6 ........................................................................................................................ 97 vi Chapter 1 The Rise of Action Heroine Cinema Introduction: The Action Heroine Phenomenon Ever since the advent of Hollywood blockbuster in the late 1970s, action cinema has been the staple production representing the “blockbuster-ing” effect. With its wide commercial appeal, this movie genre mainly served as a strategic move to wrestle off the pressuring competition from television and other home entertainment1, such as cable TV, VCR, or DVD. As computer and Internet, which is capable of rendering almost everything in downloadable digits, enters the household, this competition becomes even more imminent and intense. However, the film industry has appropriated its own blessing from this digital revolution. Ensured by the speedy development of computer-supported filmmaking technology, action cinema, increasingly incorporated with science-fiction and fantasy elements, has carried the blockbuster tradition forward quite well to recent decades. “Traded in the fare of contemporary ‘high concept’ cinema – elevated ‘B’ movie genre materials, episodic plots, breathtaking visual spectacle of the post-Matrix combat stunts, amazing digital effects and computer generated imagery variety and tie-in friendly musical soundtracks” (O’Day 201) – such action-sci-fi-fantasy films have shown a 1 This is to state that this thesis will employ several parts of my previous publication “Just Look at it: The