Misandric Marmite: a review of Su Hui-Yu’s ‘The Women’s Revenge’ — Film Friday

This film immediately struck me as feminist by design, with, if I may say, undertones of misandry.

After receiving a press pass from the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) for the February 2021 edition of their annual week-long event, I have written reviews for Bournbrook magazine of entries to the festival’s Ammodo Tiger Short competition, many of which are experimental in design, and play with a range of cinematic forms and ideas.

The Women’s Revenge, a short film by Su Hui-Yu, is definitely a challenging film. The story consists mainly of a group of cowering men in their vests being chased and murdered in stylised fashion by a group of weapon-brandishing, steely women. This film immediately struck me as feminist by design, with, if I may say, undertones of misandry. With gendered abuse being the theme which is running through most of the shorts on offer at the IFFR this year, the content of this film was, all things considered, not surprising. 

With this film being surely too bloodthirsty for many, I have been told that, in making this film, Su Hui-Yu is bringing back to life the spectres of Taiwanese film history by way of re-enactment. He is apparently paying homage to the controversial sexploitation films of the 1980s and so-called Taiwan Black Movies, a brand of ‘social realist’ crime films which often featured female avengers. 

Credit: IFFR

The film reminded me instantly of Coralie Fargeat’s 2017 feminist rape-revenge thriller entitled simply, Revenge.

Similarly, this film paid homage to its cinematic antecedents in featuring a 1980s-style electronica soundtrack and the blood-and-gore pandemonium which characterised the controversial video nasty films of that same era. Fargeat’s film tells the story of a woman who is attacked by three men and then left for dead before stitching herself up and seeking bloodthirsty revenge on said men. 

Depending on your personal filmic tastes and your gender political standpoint, The Women’s Revenge presents itself rather like Marmite. You’ll either love it or hate it.