User:TaskenLander99/Action film

Women Directors in the Genre

The past few decades in cinema have seen an increase in opportunities for American women action directors. The most successful and impactful ones being Kathyrn Bigelow (Point Break, The Hurt Locker), Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman), Mimi Leder (The Peacemaker, Deep Impact) and most famously, The Wachowskis (The Matrix series, Speed Racer).

Female characters and actors

Female actors with major, active roles in action films include Gal Gadot, Brie Larson, Elizabeth Olsen, Lucy Liu, Michelle Yeoh, Cynthia Rothrock, Yukari Oshima, Moon Lee, Cynthia Khan, Michelle Rodriguez, Milla Jovovich, Kate Beckinsale, Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Uma Thurman, Sandra Bullock, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hamilton, Sanaa Lathan, Geena Davis, Halle Berry, Emily Blunt, Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Q, Keira Knightley, Charlize Theron, Demi Moore, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Lawrence, Annette O'Toole, Jennifer Connelly, Brigitte Nielsen, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lori Petty, Jessica Alba, and Jamie Lee Curtis. After a successful career in stunts, Zoë Bell has recently crossed over to become an action star in her own right and Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano have both come from a mixed martial arts background to action roles.

Increasing numbers of films starring women as the action heroes are being produced. These are celebrated by Artemis Women In Action Film Festival which honors women who work as actors, stuntwomen, and directors in action films. Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media works to document the onscreen time and representation in women in all film types with a view to improving the equality of work for actresses. Analysis of the lines spoken in action films shows many recent films in this genre are dominated by male dialogue. Analysis of the lines in 2016's biggest blockbusters show that despite much hype about the lead female in Rogue One, and the female characters in Suicide Squad and Captain America: Civil War, these characters still had limited share of dialogue.

Some male actors appear to champion the cause of women in action films. Tom Cruise has been applauded for his asexual onscreen relationships with recent female co-stars, Cobie Smulders in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow. Tom Cruise has been honored with an Artemis Action Rebel Award for his work in championing strong female heroes in film.

Female action stars of Asia

Another notable early female star in the action genre is Meiko Kaji, who slashed her way up and down cinemas in Japan in the early 1970's and was a major influence on American director Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill' films. While she may be mostly remembered as the icy-eyed, virtually mute, revenge-seeking Nami Matsushima in the Female Prisoner Scorpion series, it is undoubtedly her title role in the 1973 film adaptation of the popular manga series, Lady Snowblood, that has garnered her the most recognizable global fame.

Despite the action movie genre once being a “man’s game” –numerous female actors have long since come around and broke the mold (such stars as Linda Hamilton (Terminator), Sigourney Weaver, (Aliens), Uma Thurman (Kill Bill), most recently Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) initially spring to mind). However, no country perhaps more than South Korea has seen such a modern explosion and revitalization of the female action hero in recent memory.

In the wake of the feminist movement that began to gain traction in 2015 with women’s organizations pushing for, in part, better, more equitable representation in the entertainment business, South Korean film and TV studios began to listen and thus started producing a slew of projects that featured a strong, iron-clad female protagonist dead and center. Such notable, modern action women-driven films as “Villainess, “A Special Lady”, “No Mercy” and “The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion” has made a serious impact at the South Korean box office as of late and has helped paved the way for future would-be female actors looking to break into the action genre.

The integrating (and acceptance) of women into the action genre in South Korea

Despite the action movie genre once being a “man’s game"⁠—numerous female actors have long since come around and broke the mold (such stars as Linda Hamilton (Terminator), Sigourney Weaver, (Aliens), Uma Thurman (Kill Bill), most recently Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) initially spring to mind). However, no country perhaps more than South Korea has seen such a modern explosion and revitalization of the female action hero in recent memory.

In the wake of the feminist movement that began to gain traction in 2015 with women’s organizations pushing for, in part, better, more equitable representation in the entertainment business, South Korean film and TV studios began to listen and thus started producing a slew of projects that featured a strong, iron-clad female protagonist dead and center. Such notable, modern action women-driven films as “Villainess, “A Special Lady”, “No Mercy” and “The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion” has made a serious impact at the South Korean box office as of late and has helped paved the way for future would-be female actors looking to break into the action genre.

Opportunities for women behind the camera of the genre in South Korea.

Unfortunately, in the South Korean film industry, opportunities for female directors (or scriptwriters) to work on big-budget action films are very limited. According to a research report released by the Korea Film Council in June 2020, no female director has produced action genres – period drama, western, adventure, war, science fiction – in the past 10 years (Korea Film Council, 2020, 40). Changing the gender of action film protagonists requires deconstructing the ‘male default’ bias and reframing action film narratives. It also requires the work of seeking to change the aims of narratives and spectacle, as well as the representational strategies they employ.”