Female Rage: They're Killing Men Aren't They?
NOTE: This post was originally posted on So’s substack — The Moon is Reaching For You.
Still from ‘Jennifer’s Body’
I guess it’s very on brand for me to be gravitated towards work that’s focused on female rage. I’m Korean after all and K-rage is one of our most powerful and (probably) definitive trait we share with our ancestors. It pulses through our blood and reminds us of where we’ve been and who we are. I’m not as angry as I was in my teens but I know anger is a powerful motivator. Safe to say, I’m in my zen era now but that doesn’t mean I don’t love everything that female rage entails.
And from all the media I’ve been consuming on female rage, it seems like that the main contributor to the rage is the patriarchy, men, and misogyny. Ain’t that the harsh truth. So here’s some of the books, films, and more that I’ve been consuming over the last few months that focus on very angry women getting revenge against really, really, bad men.
READING: Junji Ito’s TOMBS and TOMIE
I’ve heard about Junji Ito’s work for years but never got around to even reading a single book until now. I started with TOMBS which is a series of short stories. The stories are short yet immersive, layered, and haunting. Some of my favorite stories of his are Slug Girl, The Window Next Door, The Thing that Drifted Ashore. His stories are vast and varied and I love that none of the stories ended the same way.
Now, TOMIE. Tomie is the work he is best known for. I always saw Tomie’s creepy, distorted face (pictured above) on people’s inspo boards as halloween costumes, tattoos, etc, so I was extra excited to learn more about her. Who was this mystery woman everyone seemed to love?
So she’s a girl who possesses ungodly beauty and makes both men and women equally insane? Simple enough but her origin story is much more sinister.
MINOR SPOILERS: Tomie Kawakami is on a school trip with her classmates when they overhear her talking to her married school teacher, who she’s having an affair with. The argument escalates and he pushes her off a cliff, leading to her death. He then convinces the entire class to cut her up into pieces and hide her body. The next day, Tomie returns to school casually as if nothing happened. She starts to have regenerative abilities and lives her life taunting men to do her bidding which inevitably backfires when they become so enamored with her that they kill her. (Why am I not surprised?)
The book is comprised of many stories and they all follow a similar story pattern where they fall in love with Tomie, kill others on her behalf and then they inevitably kill her. This happens over and over again and while the story does expand, after a while, the story becomes stagnant. After all, how many more stories can I read of men brutally killing this girl even though she does come back to life?
Despite her being a victim and a result of the abuse and toxic obsession by the hands of men, she is painted as a villain that destructs everything in her path (as she should). She is the epitome of everything men want in their dream woman but it’s also the main reason why they turn on her and kill her.
I saw this on reddit and I agree. Thank you MrFingerKnives.
All this to say, damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t, so she might as well do her thing. And to that, I say, you go girl!
Monika Kim’s MOLKA 👁️
I talked about Monika Kim’s debut novel, THE EYES ARE THE BEST PART, last year and it was one of my favorite reads. She’s now back with her second book, MOLKA.
While South Korea’s technology lives in the future, unfortunately, their culture and people live very much in the past and still embody very deep-seated misogyny and sexism hence why even in this modern era, there is an epidemic of molka cameras.
molka (n): the Korean term for spy cameras secretly and illegally installed, often to capture voyeuristic images and videos.
What I do like about Monika’s work is that we (women) get to experience an alternate universe where we actually get revenge against the very people and systems that harm us. I love that all of her characters and circumstances are rooted in reality and not some hypothetical situation. It can sound so far-fetched but hidden cameras installed in public restrooms, hotel rooms, and public spaces, is a very real reality that most Korean women have to deal with every single day (Note: Try avoiding using airbnb in Korea). And in a country like South Korea where women so often get punished for speaking out, Kim’s work allows us to be in the driver’s seat, creating our own fate, no matter how detrimental it may be.
I will say now having read two of her books that I did enjoy THE EYES ARE THE BEST PART slightly more but nevertheless, I’m glad MOLKA exists. I hope it can spark change to a society where surveillance is rampant and hopefully the perpetrators get punished to the full extent of the law. Here’s to hoping (crossing fingers).
WATCHING: Iris Shim’s THE HOUSE OF SUH
I’ve been holding off watching HOUSE OF SUH for years and years for obvious reasons (ie: trauma, murder, etc).
HOUSE OF SUH is a chilling exploration of the tragic history of the Suh family and the murder that shocked America - when the picture perfect son, Andrew, shot and killed his sister's fiance at her bidding.
I may be one of the few people who is not into true crime. Sure, I can read and watch fiction/scripted stories about murder mysteries but when it comes to true life, it hits too close to home.
My family has had a long history of gun violence so naturally, true crime makes me extremely queasy and repulsed. I’ve had my share of watching compelling and beautifully told true crime movies and series but now I have a list of media, HOUSE OF SUH included, that I will simply not re-watch ever again.
I watched HOUSE OF SUH on Tubi and going in, I was already preparing myself for the worst. A murder involving a Korean American family? A sister convincing her little brother to kill her fiance? It’s already too much to bear. But even with my apprehension, I pressed play. The deeper we went down the rabbit hole, the more physically sick I felt. Oh how naive I was to think that this was a straight forward true crime story.
HOUSE OF SUH focuses on Catherine, the eldest daughter of the Suh family. Without spoilers, I can say that Catherine was a woman with unfiltered rage and sorrow that bled into mental illness. As someone who understands Korean family dynamics and female rage well, I felt deeply for Catherine. She must have felt so lonely and misunderstood for so long. But also, her actions were incomprehensible and depraved. But who am I to judge? Would any of us have turned out differently given the circumstances?
Several years prior, I made it my mission to try to bring my film, LIQUOR STORE DREAMS to the mid-west like Chicago. I teamed up with the Hana Center to put on a community screening. Little did I know, I would meet Andrew Suh there.
Me and Andrew Suh, 2023
Looking back and now having watched the film, I regret how casual I was when meeting Andrew for the first time. I didn’t understand the entirety of his story and if I have a chance to meet him again, I would like to do-over and offer my deepest condolences to him.
That’s all folks! I think I’ve had my share of murderous women for the time being. But I know there are a plethora of media that cover this subject so I welcome all suggestions and recommendations for when I need my appetite to be satiated again.
In real life and fiction work alike, I think women need to be more angry and learn how to express their anger in healthy ways. Had I not learned how to cope and learn how to process anger, I would probably have an autoimmune disease by now which is so prevalent in women, about 80% of those who suffer from autoimmue dieases are women. The body does keep score and eventually it will bleed out to real life. So as a former angry woman, I say this, BE ANGRY. BE VERY VERY ANGRY. It’ll save your life, in many ways than one. Just try not to kill anyone while you’re at it.