Love in Shadow: The Narrative of East Asian Mother-Daughter Relationship in Contemporary Films

Abstract

The value and morality that dominated East Asian societies for centuries have forged a unique and oriental-featured mother-and-daughter relationship. This relationship explains how the parent and domestic relations within the basic structure of an Asian family have finally become an unbearable burden for the daughter. The case study on the two films' figure settings and their narratives further demonstrates how the virtue of filial piety alongside other traditional values is working on the reproduction of the mother-and-daughter relationship for modern families. The most typical example is the unconditional sacrifice of parents for their children and the unconditional obedience of children to their parents after receiving these profits. To regulate this long-term relationship between parents and children, Confucianism uses "filial piety" to restrain and regulate. It is argued that in East Asian societies, thousands of years of cultural underpinnings have caused women to grow up with much confinement and pain. The stubbornly patriarchal social system behind human beings is the root of the problem.