Title: Ghostly vengeance, historical trauma:<i>The Lonely Ghost in the Dark Mansion</i>(1989)
Abstract: ABSTRACTThis article examines Hei lou gu hun/The Lonely Ghost in the Dark Mansion (Mu Deyuan and Liang Ming, 1989), which played a pioneering role in exploring the subject of ghosts and developing Chinese horror cinema at a time when this type of film could easily be censored. Divided into three parts, this article studies the film's unconventional image of the monster in relation to female ghost figures in Chinese supernatural literature and ghost films; it explores the relationship between the ghost and the female protagonist in terms of the motif of the double (or doppelganger); and lastly it discusses the ways in which The Lonely Ghost presents an historical allegory of the national trauma of the Cultural Revolution and asserts female agency in the historical narration. Through a close analysis of this largely neglected film this article demonstrates its strong feminist perspective and political subversiveness.KEYWORDS: ghostChinese horror cinemaGothicthe Cultural Revolutiongenderhistorical allegory
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 2
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