kwAIdan

by: Quan Zhang , February 6, 2024

In the ‘Black Hair’ segment of the film Kwaidan (1964), screenwriter Mizuki Yōko extends Lafcadio Hearn’s original folk story and raises a haunting question: is the samurai’s torment rooted in a vengeful ghost seeking retribution or his own guilt for abandoning his wife? The title, referencing the cultural symbolism of Japanese long-haired ghosts, initially seems to hint at a supernatural presence. Simultaneously, it skilfully strengthens an alternate perspective: are we merely witnessing a man spiraling into madness?

In the landscape of horror films, a prevailing convention has been the exploitation of the female psyche, often manifesting as the portrayal of ‘crazy women.’ This trope has consistently positioned female characters as the vessels for mental distress, their experiences of psychological turmoil serving as both spectacle and source of terror. However, in Kwaidan, the filmmaker’s choice to depict a male character on the brink of a psychological breakdown offers a compelling opportunity to challenge conventional gender dynamics. What lies beneath the fragile male psyche, and how does it relate to broader notions of identity, desire, and spectatorship?

My video aims to expand this cinematic exploration, and contemplate on this central question of ‘vengeance or guilt’. To put this query to the test, I substitute the samurai’s image with that of women generated by AI. By doing so, I hope to invite viewers to reevaluate their interpretations and to challenge cultural and gender-related expectations. It asks a simple question: can the ‘long-haired ghost’ archetype still hold cultural significance if the haunted character is portrayed by a female? I long for this to serve as a spark, igniting a myriad of nuanced explorations of the film’s themes and the ever-changing nature of interpretation. Furthermore, I seek to discuss the complexities of desire, spectatorship, and gender exploitation prevalent in the horror genre, through intentionally exposing the underlying mechanisms of fascination and objectification, particularly within the context of technology.

In today’s growing world of AI, while discussions often focus on its broader impact on society, in reality, a significant portion of computational power is dedicated towards producing idealized and alluring female aesthetics, often associated with pleasure and potentially erotic content. For example, the ‘1girl’ tag, originally popularised on platforms like Danbooru to categorise single-female-character-centric artwork, has become not only a common feature within online art communities but also a notable presence in AI-generation prompts. Across the globe, numerous AI models are ceaselessly being trained at any moment to fabricate the image of beautiful and youthful female faces and bodies. These are faces without identities, faces with an absolute and singular purpose: to please. In my work, I deliberately selected one of these ‘beautiful’ models to assist in the imaging process and readily embraced the ‘1girl’ tag as prompt input. This allowed for the creation of a body for these ‘faces without identities’, which were more specifically rendered as male. The result was striking to witness: these ‘faces of pure pleasure’ utilising the samurai as a vessel for their manifestation. In these faces, I perceive rage and the desire for vengeance in a manner that unexpectedly resonates with the film’s thematic intentions.