Serdar | Genji Press

At this point Japan has filmed most of its national legends not just once but several times, and with each retelling comes the perspective of its director and the era of its making. Few tales are as widely known or retold as Chushingura, known in the West as the “Tale of the 47 Ronin,” and there have been no less than five different movie versions that I know of in Japan. One of the most popular was Hiroshi Inagaki’s 1962 version, which featured Toshiro Mifune in a key supporting role; another was Kon Ichikawa’s 1994 version, with samurai-movie regulars Renji Ishibashi and Ken Takakura. Each of them put their own distinctive feel on the material. Swords of Vengeance, from 1978, was directed by none other than Kinji Fukasaku, who has given us everything from Battle Royale to Satomi Hakkenden and everything in between.

There is a scene early in Woman is the Future of Man that is, to me, the key to the way the film works. Hyeon-gon has returned to Korean from studying in America, and is hanging out in a Chinese restaurant with his professor friend Mun-ho. Mun-ho has been talking about how he no longer sees his wife as a “wife” or a “woman”, but simply a friend. Then he leans forward and tells Hyeon-gon, in no uncertain terms, than if he ever gives her another “Western-style hug” in public, he will have no choice but to beat the snot out of him. “You’re not a Yankee,” he snarls, and gets up and storms outside for a smoke.

This is a very funny scene. What makes it all the funnier—along with what makes Woman itself both very funny and very sad—is that the characters themselves, of course, do not see the inherent humor, or tragedy, in their situation. They react, but they don’t understand, especially when it comes to women. They seem women as conquests, or puzzles to be solved, or opportunities, but never once as people—no, not even when they proudly tell their friends so over Chinese food. They want to be seen as right, but they have no idea how to be right.