找尋台灣獨立影像中的女性情慾主體－以《自溺》、《不可名狀的纏繞》、《等待月事的女人》以及《私角落》影片為例

一、前言：
在主流商業電影中的女性形象總是成為「他者」（The Others）並塑造為依附／服膺男性權力的弱勢角色；並且電影也常藉由鏡頭、剪接、語言、表演、以及敘事結構等父權所建構的電影語言操弄女性情慾的展現，好／壞女孩更常被父權賦予被動／主動表現情慾二元對立的評價，但是，無論是父權所定義的好女孩還是壞女孩，在影像中仍是難逃「被觀看」的命運－如此地「被影像中的男性角色觀看」以及「被慣以男性視角的觀眾觀看」；難道女性情慾在電影呈現中無法展現其主體性？或許必須另尋現今其他影像途徑，才得以試圖建構台灣女性情慾的主體性，因此本研究希望從已舉辦至今十屆的女性影展的台灣影像作品中，試圖建構台灣獨立電影中女性情慾的主體性。

在研究文本裡，主要選自九屆女性影展（1993-2002）所參展的台灣女性獨立影片，一方面女性影展以女性導演創作且具有女性意識的影片為參選標準，應較能找到女性情慾的主體位置；另一方面獨立影像的製作，去除依附商業性考量，常使得導演的創作理念更能完整呈現，並且在影像形式題材上更形多元、更具實驗性，相對地也提高了建構女性凝視（female gaze）以及女性情慾主體性的可能性。

筆者篩選出九屆女性影展中具有女性情慾內容之作品，並且依創作風格以及情慾展現，分為女性情慾意象以及具像表現之兩類作品，意象表現則多描寫女性內心情感的真實感受，以《自溺》、《不可名狀的纏繞》兩部作品作為影片分析文本；具像表現則以影像實際突顯女性身體性慾圖像，以《等待月事的女人》以及《私角落》兩部作品作為影片分析文本。

在研究方法上，主要以影片分析法，解析影片中女性情慾表現之鏡頭、音像組合、以及音樂等影像元素，並綜合整理其女導演處理女性情慾題材的共通性；同時也引用法國女性主義學者依蕊格萊（Luce Irigaray）的女性形構學理論，希望能建構出台灣獨立影片中女性情慾主體的可能性。

二、女性情感書寫

在傳統父權的電影語言呈現下，內心情愛的描繪大多運用角色語言、神情以及行為動作來表達，然而在女導演的獨立製作影像中，筆者發現喜歡運用「意象」表現女性內心幽微情感與慾念，以試圖找尋或建立女性情慾影像語言。

（一）《不可名狀的纏繞》影片分析
因為不可名狀，或是無法用父權建構的影像語言呈現，因此更不願以父權理性的「敘事結構」來訴說，所以她只能借用相對於傳統父權影像語言之外的「實驗風格」－明暗的影像詩，嘗試以其他影像元素，如色彩、失焦或晃動影像、迴旋式的攝影機運動、女性囈語式的發聲、以及搖晃模糊的女體訴說著纏繞在心中的情緒。

影片約略分為四段，其中＜喜悅的河與自虐的河＞主要表達女性情感狀態，因此以此段作為主要影片分析，影片中的女人閉上眼輕輕觸碰自己的雙頰，享受著青春的肉體，既而如女巫般的狂歡，女人舞動著身軀，再配以愉悅的女聲，影像旁散發不甚連貫的語句－她和他~軀體和軀體相互碰撞~她的思想是隻蝴蝶~他厭棄她就好像他厭棄這個世界~她厭棄他就好像她厭棄這個世界~在影像末端呈現「I LOVE YOU」字樣。女人的自由心靈自在飛翔，自戀女人自己身體的性感，並探索兩人身體碰撞可能激起的火花，彼此的厭棄成了絕對「愛」的表示。

（二）《自溺》影片分析

自溺，像是「為賦新詞強說愁」的自瀆之作，它也的確將以往形容女性情感表達之負面觀感，加以擴大成為女性情感的特質；同時也對於不解女性情感的異性，提出強烈的控訴；就像影片中小小不起眼的字幕中訴說著：我是否在人來人往的月台上大哭，才能讓你明白我是如此投入~看著鏡中的自己，我覺得我很可憐~殺了我自己，你會愛我嗎？~自溺是否可能成為自我解放前的一種儀式~世上有一半的人，並不理會我們的討論~你悲傷嗎？你悲傷嗎？~你並不了解我的悲傷。此片深刻描繪女性在情感失去之後，心情的沈重以及苦痛，甚至願意放棄自己的主體性而卑微求愛，對於愛情的重視所帶來的強大慾望，強度是如此令人震驚憾動不已；並且也突顯女性失戀後的悲傷，是男性不願或不能了解的。

在影像表現上並沒有運用太多影像效果以及攝影機的運動，反而以一種人工化／去自然的劇場化的氛圍展現，讓影片中的人物表情、行為能以純粹的形式散發自溺氣味，也如依蕊格萊所稱以女性擬仿（mimicry）的方式，解構女性天生自然的迷思：一開始，女人喝了口水，慌張地奔跑到人來人往的月台，彷佛在找尋什麼？此時影片主題字幕先出現大大的「溺」字，之後從天而降的「自」字，雖比「溺」小，卻以重力加速度般的重重落在「溺」字上，兩個字頭尾相連，明白傳達女性「自」己情愛感受上大大地「溺」，接著觀者看到女人在象徵離別／重逢時刻的月台，放聲嚎啕大哭，似乎原只是在人生旅程相遇的過客，卻在心底留下銘刻的印記；在其間，水如傷心女人的眼淚也如女人的情愛，當未能關閉（即時收回的）水龍頭繼續流出水（情愫），女人的情愛是如此感傷不再復回；再者，女人看著鏡中的自己自憐著，一身素白，左右搖晃身體，眼神斜視，露出怨氣且戲謔表情，進而搏倒在旁的東西，是無意識的自怨自艾表現；接著地下道一景，女人盛裝如參加儀式般的嚴肅，在哀傷心痛如紅色的背景下，連續兩次將頭埋入水中自溺並起身看著觀者，自溺的情緒在觀者的心中凍結；最後以悲傷紅畫面結束。

本影片以非常利落的剪接﹝事實上部份受限於僅有的一些畫面﹞，不斷使用非常象徵的手法表達常見的個人情緒，場景從火車站、地下道而完全黑暗的密室，只使用一個演員以強烈的情緒表演許多重複的動作：將自己的頭栽進水盆中，配合斷斷續續如絮語般的法文旁白，演繹關於「自溺」這常見的情境所延伸出來的多種思考。配樂部份，值得一提的是以法語本身的語言特性﹝輕聲低語、具音樂性的﹞作為音樂或影片節奏進行的一部份，讓音樂與視覺表演同時形成影片的雙軸前進，交互詮釋私密而普遍的情緒經驗，同時讓語言文字來來回回地自我辯證著[1]。

三、女性情慾書寫
台灣九○年代女性獨立影像創作，也開始以真實情慾場景直接訴諸影像表現，但是如何避免異性戀父權所建立的男性凝視及男性觀者的偷窺慾望，同時又能建立影像中女性情慾的主體性，的確是女性創作者須面對的課題。

（一）《等待月事的女人》影片分析

這部影片為導演簡偉斯在美國就讀電影研究所的畢業作品，距今近十年的光陰，為女性影展第二屆參展作品，可稱為台灣獨立製作女導演處理女性情慾的起步，在那台灣女性主義思潮初始的年代，以影像討論女性獨有的月經與其歷史、性別的關係，並且也間接觸及女性情慾部份，主要突顯女性情慾的劇情有兩個部份，都是劇中主角中明因月經的疼痛而躺在床上的回憶，第一部份主要描述女性在成長歷程中可能遇及的同性情慾，旁白為：十四歲時與慧淑手牽著手，但曾有一星期不敢與慧淑講話，自從她親吻我的額頭，記得二十歲時，我做了一個夢，夢到與慧淑做愛，仍不願與男朋友做愛，我還記得夢醒後的急促心跳….

此段呈現女性在青春期對於同性的愛戀，常以拒絕、害怕而將同性情愫深藏心底，但日後這情愫仍油然竄起，在那釋放情愫的夢醒後與同性的做愛激情猶存；在影像的表達上，先以光影代表記憶、時間、也是對於同性愛的模糊不解，再以兩個女性舞者的相視、相依偎的靜態黑白圖片呈現，鏡頭緩緩移動，黑白純淨影像，如天使般的幸福。

第二部份主要描述與男友的第一次性行為，旁白為：我記得那是個難忘的一天，我們在你房間，你緩緩地走向我，我覺得有什麼事即將發生，我記得我當時又緊張又害怕，你顫抖的手，我僵直的身體，我記得你解開我襯衫的扣子，一個接著一個，我記得你房裡的靜默在我耳邊轟然作響，我記得我們裸著上半身在床上翻滾，我記得我不讓你解開我牛仔褲的扣子，我記得你一直試了五小時，結果什麼也沒發生，我記得當我們終於起身，你的手臂環繞著我，我們什麼話都沒說，我還記得你皮夾克上的菸熏味，我記得你房裡的默然，在我身邊轟然作響，如果當時我們做愛，那是什麼滋味？我會經驗到什麼？

此段展現女性與異性第一次做愛的心情，突顯了女性對於性事的恐懼，既緊張又害怕，唯獨聽覺、嗅覺感官得以靈敏，言語無法溝通，兩人身體的碰觸也變得無味，總在事後又喚回對於性的好奇，但於事無補；在影像的呈現上，仍以黑白的回憶基調，不帶主角顏面表情的鏡頭是為了避免觀者的情色遐想，以中明作為主體的觀者，看著走近他的男友，男友示意一切不需言語，特寫鏡頭兩人交纏的雙腳，以及中明不願被脫下牛仔褲的兩人手部還拒動作，之後兩人起身的中景鏡頭，男友環抱中明，她的頭依偎在男友肩上；兩人背對觀眾的鏡頭設計，似乎也減少兩人之前的激情。

就該片兩段呈現女性情慾的段落，皆呈現了女性情慾的主體性，一為以女性自白，掌握整體敘事權，而男性的聲音不存在，取而代之的是陰柔的蕭聲；另一為以緩慢運鏡、黑白影像、無女性表情的鏡頭，以及女性或是中性視角影像的表現，塑造一種柔美、沉重卻理性的風格，如此也有意與男性情慾為主體性的A片影像運用，如彩色、快速跟拍、女性激情表情、男性視角等，作一明顯區隔。

（二）《私角落》影片分析

該影片所欲呈現的題材環繞在台灣同志無家／放迫離家失根的處境，以及對於同志情愛受到主流價值觀的批判提出強烈控訴，這家叫做「Corner’s(角落)」的gay bar，在即將關閉前兩個月，在老闆阿龍的提議下，開始拍下角落的最後角落。影片跳脫一般紀錄片的格局，嘗試以詩意的感覺，來補捉一種愛情的感覺，和對生命的思索。導演Zero 真正深入的層次，不是酒吧內流動的氤氳氣息，而是以影像見証女性的肉體歡愉情欲，那種傲氣與自信，其實是同志（男女皆然）長期受到世俗道德壓抑踐踏下非常少見的意識自覺與行動勇氣[2]。

在女性情慾的呈現上，導演周美玲將台灣女同志情慾，以極其直接的方式迫使觀者無法進行異性戀父權式的窺淫，只能直視地接受，影像理直氣壯地呈現社會最禁忌的部份－同志做愛；因為她希望把「禁忌」看得清楚，在心理的魔障便能煙消雲散，所以，當她與被拍攝者溝通時，更獲得她們的認可與投入，皆同意並願展現那美好的同性性愛，是如何地歡愉與崇高，並且也相信觀眾有能力懂得並分享這一份感動[3]。因此，在這部影片中，女性（女導演）將父權所規範為私領域的女性情慾，主動以極其赤裸的方式呈現於公領域的影像媒體裡，這標示了兩個意義，第一為女性已打破父權對於女性情慾展現的框架，第二是向來在父權社會隱而不談的女同志情慾，終於可以女性獨特的方式如詩意、音樂式的語言、音調發聲，緩緩道出同性之間彼此的極其愛戀並建立了主體位置。

在影片中，有三段主要呈現女同志的情慾的表現，第一段的旁白敘說了女體與女體之間的微妙愉悅：意識~自己卡在夾縫中~意識自己所愛慕的是另一個同性的靈魂與身體~接觸她的時候，我覺得就是幸福降臨~很強烈進來我生命裡面的時候，我覺得這種強烈非常非常的大~為一種啟示、召喚~強到我覺得光一打出來後，整個是曝光的~女人的身體是相當敏感的，有許多部份可以開發~在影像表達上，先以中景靜格女性身體部份，如胸部、腰、腳、屁股、陰部等，接著是泡在水裡的女體，晃動、模糊的女體影像漸漸靠近，一女以手碰觸另一女的陰戶，兩個女體肌膚相親、相互愛撫，其間兩人陰戶不時接觸，如同Corner’s的雙頭燈與其燈下的凹洞，形體相同且互為生命共同體，而兩人交相擁吻、雙腿交媾是愛戀彼此的展現。

第二段則是直接觸及女同志做愛的場景，在旁白中再次讚嘆女體交歡的歡愉：我們的愛，不只是美麗而且幸福~幸福感超越快感~但~歧視從何而來~感動於身體交纏的繁複儀式~超昇於姿態靜止的單純昇華~我們在身體的愛情之中~呼喚高處的神秘幽靈~在一片無以名狀的混沌時空，如同獻祭~肉體與靈魂的渾然一體，高度給予~藉著祭上肉身，呼喚天頂之靈魂~與你交纏在一起~在那交纏之境~身體靜止，靈魂攀高~那愛情的姿態，瞬間闡述大地~那愛情的姿態，瞬間闡述大地~ 在影像表達上，女體交相接觸的靜態圖片以及如漩渦狀女陰不斷迴旋般的手繪圖樣，再配以潮浪聲，加上鏡頭Zoom In/Out以及Tilt Up/Down的不斷重覆運鏡技巧，試圖描繪出女同志間情慾如高潮波浪般永不靜止；同時女人幫另一女人身體如手、腳、胸等部位特寫式的攝影，接著把女人的內褲脫下，也突顯了女人對於女體的愛戀以及直接的愛慾表達；在靜態圖片裡呈現兩兩女體胸部肌膚相親、手插入陰戶、以及兩兩女體相互擁抱，如此呈現在靜止之中讓觀者直視女同志的情慾，似乎試圖將異性戀社會刻意隱形化的同志情慾建立一個現身的可能性。

第三段於影片的片尾，女人（導演／被攝者）望向遠方，轉頭看著鏡頭（攝影者／觀眾）露出幸福的笑容（特寫／靜止），此時旁白說著：幸好我能愛你，無上的幸福，跳動的神經，為你顫動，如此地音影對位組合－旁白的動態性與影像的靜態感，似乎凝結並已把握了這得來不易的幸福感；同時，其中也展現了影像中女性情慾的自主性，她不再只是被注視的客體，而是主動凝視、具有發聲權的主體敘述，並且顛覆了導演＝主體，觀眾＝被動接受訊息的客體，將導演權力釋放給觀眾，使客體也能主動出擊（拍攝導演）。而後女女做愛的失焦、抽格影像表現，配以如此的旁白：凝視你，最後落在你的掌心，然後，能在這片飄蕩的波濤上，安然地沈沈睡去，更明白標示同志情慾間的幸福－縱使在這片父權社會飄蕩的波濤上，同志之愛看似抽格、失焦般的恍惚，但這因愛而得之的幸福卻能使同志得以安然地沈沈睡去，也突顯了同志情慾仍會因愛的幸福感而繼續存在。

《私角落》所展現的女同志情慾，大概是男性導演以及男性觀者永遠無法體會的女性情慾愉悅；就如同拉崗在第二十講中對於女性最正面的描述，認為女性有一種超越陽具的身體極樂，是象徵秩序所無法意義化的、男性無法體會、無法囊括的性愉悅，拉崗稱之為「女性神漾」（feminine jouissance），它是「增生的」（supplementary），一種增殖性與附加性的享樂，並不須要依靠擬像與偽裝就能達到[4]。

四、依蕊格萊的女性形構學理論與台灣獨立影像中女性情慾主體性的建構

（一）「歇斯底里」作為異性戀父權的反動

在《不可名狀的纏繞》與《自溺》影片女性情慾的主體性建立在影像以及角色的歇斯底里展現，如影片中女人的放聲大哭、狂亂的身體舞動、哭笑不得的痛楚、情愛的自溺、《不可名狀的纏繞》影像中無靜止的移動、無水平、無時空的呈現以及意象詩意／不連續的文字／囈語。同時，導演周美玲拍攝《私角落》時，也提及酒精，常造成跳躍性的思考；愛情，總充斥著喃喃的絮語叨叨；於是，「酒精」與「愛情」釀出了「私角落」這部隨興又不規則的紀錄片[5]，如此拒絕線性的說故事規則，改採如生活般亂無章法的宿醉式敘事，正也以歇斯底里、非邏輯、非理性的呈現。

歇斯底里本是精神分析學家佛洛依德對於女性之陽具缺乏而引發情緒症狀，是屬於女性負面的特質；但是依蕊格萊卻試圖將該病狀變成女性主體建立的方式，以父權文化認為的負面重新詮釋為屬於女性的正面形象以及顛覆父權體系的策略；她認為歇斯底里的症狀是一個積極的主體受到了威脅（情愛的衝擊／女同志情慾不被異性戀父權社會接受）時所做出的反應，由於沒有辦法處於積極的位置，也就是無法變成像男性一樣具有積極的行動力，歇斯底里利用她消極被動的特質（模糊失焦影像／自溺／喃喃絮語），以另一種沈默無語、積極藐視的方式（非語言邏輯的女聲吟唱／顧影自憐）活出了加諸在她身上的要求，也就是對父權的要求是一種踰越性、瓦解性的擬仿，以最極端的方式，將被動轉為積極的主動，接受父權給予她的屬性與要求，其所產生的結果卻與父權所要求的完全相反，結果就是鬆動了父權體系，將父權運作所無法接受的東西反丟回去；並且，歇斯底里的症狀所顯示的意義是：女性並不遵照父權的要求模式來運作，歇斯底里用身體做為媒介來反抗父權的要求，潛意識地以身體受難的方式來對抗文化的期盼，以達到一種妥協式的、症狀性的滿足，並且為個人孤獨地以肉身反抗[6]。

（二）「兩片唇」的女性多元情慾展現

依蕊格萊借用阿莉艾蒂妮(Ariadne)的迷宮神話(labyrinth)來說明女性空間如唇狀多重層次、層層開展而自我複製世界的創造力。依蕊格萊指出labyrinth的字源與唇狀物(labra)有關，這個唇狀空間說明了女性空間的祕密：打開雙唇，可以複製世界，闔閉時則可以觸摸自身[7]。對依蕊格萊而言，女性空間必須保持反覆開闔，並且容納無數他者進出，才能夠保持活動狀態與生命力；同時，所謂的女性空間並不只是單一的性別，而是有多種性別，是一種多性與流動的存在狀態。
《不可名狀的纏繞》與《自溺》兩部影片中女性情慾的意象呈現、在《等待月事的女人》片中明角色有著慾望男性與女性的情慾、以及《私角落》片中的女同志情慾，如此女性情慾的多元、曖昧、流體以及踰越的特質，正呈現出依蕊格萊以女性性器的「兩片唇」（two lips）為比喻有著多變／多義的樣貌：

第一是有時是「一」，象徵在性傾向上，女性可以是女女相戀或女男相戀的單一模式。

第二是有時是「二」，象徵在性傾向上，女性也可以同時包含女女相戀以及女男相戀的曖昧、踰越模式，或是《等待月事的女人》描述中明夾雜著對於男女性慾的想像。

第三是有時「合而為一」，在《私角落》片中象徵陰戶或是同性情慾性高潮手繪圖像，由起初的單一的陰戶到連結不斷如波浪般的陰戶，象徵著女同志之間情慾的合而為一。

第四是有時「分開兩個個體」，在《等待月事的女人》片中形容異性戀情人做愛時的心情差異，女性對性的恐慌以及驚嚇，感官只剩聽覺、嗅覺；而男性對性的主動嘗試，感官只剩觸覺有相當大的不同，實為兩個個體；或是兩人做愛時實存的個體象徵。

第五是它可以是「裡面」，如《不可名狀的纏繞》與《自溺》兩部影片中所呈現女性內在情慾的自我纏繞以及自溺行為，總是糾結在女性體內；又如女性展現情慾的陰道高潮，為在女性體內進行發聲。

第六是可以是「外面」，突顯女性外顯明確的情慾表達，如《私角落》片中直接觸及女同志做愛的場景，並在旁白中再次讚嘆女體交歡的歡愉及感受；又如女性展現情慾的陰核高潮，為在女性體外進行發聲。

第七是可以是「積極」，在《私角落》片中的女同志情慾是如此積極主動，顯現出女性並非如異性總戀父權所指稱的被動、等待的情慾客體，而在女女之間情慾展現，女性可以積極成為慾望主體或是被慾望的客體，主客體並非是一成不變，而是流動易變的。

第八是可以是「被動」，這大概是異性戀父權社會下教導女性展現情慾的守則，女性的身體被訓示以「被動」姿態示人（男人），但在女性內心的情慾是隱性的主動，澎派洶湧，不可遏止，可為一種消極的反動，就如《自溺》對於情感的沈溺；或《不可名狀的纏繞》中情感的糾結；或是《等待月事的女人》中明只能在經痛時對於自身情慾的想像及思考。

第九是可以選擇「開啟」，《私角落》直接開啟女同志豐富的情慾，而《等待月事的女人》中明也展現了同性與異性情慾的的可能性，也打破異性戀父權社會性別二元化謬論。

第十是可以選擇「合閉」，《不可名狀的纏繞》與《自溺》中女性情慾自我封鎖在內心情感中，以消極、壓抑的方式對待，但積聚在女性心底已久的情慾，終在歇斯底里狂亂中展現；或是《等待月事的女人》中明角色藉由情感的回憶，內心只能默默體會與思索，情感並無示人，而是閉合在女性情慾底層裡。

綜而言之，女性情慾是強調的是多元、多變、流動的女性情慾與身體；依蕊格萊兩片唇的流體形象是自我滿足與自給自足的，不需要依賴外在第三者或是他者，來證明自身的屬性，來滿足她的慾望，女性在自身之中就已包含主體與客體、主動與被動、積極與消極。而且具有「未決定」（undecidable）的特性，巧妙地脫離了二元對立，也避開了陰核、陰道的男性同一對比邏輯，而且無法被陽具的固體經濟所捕捉與定位[8]。但是，「兩片唇」的比喻並不指涉一種真實的女性本質或是女性生理解剖學，而是透過此形象的「想像性再現」（representation of the imaginary），以「兩片唇」為新的象徵與女性想像，進而思考另一種完全不同於父權陽具經濟對女性情欲的再現，同時使得原本被認為低下、污穢的女性情慾可以得到積極的再現形象。依蕊格萊認為，只有藉著唇狀多層次而流動的空間，才有可能抗拒理性中心主義單一邏輯與線性思惟與求同原則的架構出的巨大象徵系統[9]。

就如女性性慾最大的問題，並不是女性對於自已身體的體驗、經驗與認知，或是在多大程度被表達的問題，而是問題在於女性性慾在社會上無法有正面肯定的再現形象，並且總是依據男性性慾來定義。兩片唇的比喻與運用，使得女性性慾有另一番文化再現模式，一種女性身體自主的形象[10]。

（三）扭曲父權真實的內視鏡

《不可名狀的纏繞》、《自溺》以及《私角落》等片也運用了依蕊格萊將內視鏡凹面的特質作為女性主體論述，將原有的形象扭曲並且放大，例如在《不可名狀的纏繞》、《自溺》中，彰顯女性歇斯底里以及自溺於愛情的刻板形象，像是被動地接受愛戀情感的嗦使，又像是自我主體決定藉以發洩或喧囂愛戀情緒的策略，進而釐清自我對於情感的重量以及狀態，如自我重建／成長的過程；或是在《私角落》中藉以大量女同志歡愉做愛影像以及強調性愉悅的文字，將以往不能直說的同志情慾描寫地淋漓透徹。

所以，這樣看似扭曲形象的影像語彙展現，正可突顯出雙重的意義：第一意義為策略性地接受父權給予的女性形象，也就是將父權體系認為女性的缺陷處，予以過份的誇大、渲染，誇張地強調女性性器官及其多重的性愉悅地帶；第二重意義就是在過份誇張的強調中，將父權二元對立推至極限後，所產生的效果是暴露父權體制二元的荒謬性[11]。因此，殖民解構女性主義者史碧娃克（Gayatri C. Spivak）認為：女性主義者應關心的是，如何挪用陽性中心理論，為女性主義的政治承諾做出最大貢獻；而依蕊格萊的批判技巧就是與父權中心文本進行愛慾的打情罵俏，經由女性最常被認為的引誘技巧，對於父權中心文本進行揶揄式的諷刺，戳破陽具中心的假象與不足，同時也試圖在異性戀的父權社會規範中建立女性的主體。

五、結論

四部台灣女導演獨立影片中，無論是以突顯女性心靈的愛戀情感或是直接訴諸身體感官性慾展現，都在女導演的創新影像語言策略中，建立了女性情慾的主體，其策略歸納如下：

一、詩意／囈語／喃喃絮語：

打破異性戀父權理性／邏輯／直線敘事方式，其表達女性情慾的方式，或以音韻、聲調等音樂調性呈現女性情感狀態，就如克莉絲特娃（J. Kristeva）所發展出的chora，為語言發生之前的狀態，如同母體般渾沌不分、充滿慾望流動而沒有語言的狀態，是一種律動，一種類近聲音的節奏與肢體運動的節奏。柏拉圖稱呼此狀態為receptacle或chora，是能滋養而具有母性的(nourishing and maternal)貯存所，還未形成為有秩序的整體；而與之相對的thetic則是基於欲力衝動而要結合象徵系統的跨越投注姿態，是所有字或句子的發音階段，必須經過認同的過程，也就是必須先與母體或是鏡像階段的自我分割[12]；台灣女性獨立影像藉由回到前伊底帕斯時期的混沌狀態，拒絕進入以異性戀父權所建構的象徵體系，以創造出直搗女性內心底層情感聲音的展現。

二、女性旁白／女性主角／女性導演＝女性主體：

由於台灣九○年代以來女性意識抬頭，數位影像的輕便及進步，影像相關科系的增加，女性影展的鼓勵創作，使台灣女性投入影像創作行列在量上明顯增加，在質上也相對提昇；因此台灣女性導演開始藉由影像創作，以女性觀點述說在男性歷史或是男性論述所缺席的題材，使得影像中的女性形象以及題材不再單一，其中在受男性形塑以及公領域中隱而不談的女性情慾也有了屬於女性的影像詮釋；也因此，在台灣女性獨立影像作品中，更能建立女性凝視的主體性。
在本文所分析的四部影片中，建立影像中女性情慾主體的策略，主要以女性導演透過影片中是女性為主角，並以第一人稱發聲，突顯了女性作為敘事的主體，將以往以男性思維出發的女性情慾影像敘事結構，重新建立一套屬於由女性自己所呈現的女性情慾光譜。

三、失焦迷離的影像處理

清晰可辨的女性常容易成為男性窺視的客體以及凝視的對象，因此，台灣女性獨立影像工作者改採以失焦迷離不清的影像，像《不可名狀的纏繞》以及《私角落》裡的女體；同時也避免以女性臉部表情特寫呈現，尤其在處理女性性慾過程時，為避免男性觀者無法與影像中女性對視而產生意淫的想像，並且也使得男性觀者雖可凝視女體，但這女體卻是殘破不全或是模糊不清，無法引起男性情慾，如《等待月事的女人》中，中明與男友做愛一段。如此的影像策略，除了打破異性戀父權電影語言所建立的清晰的敘事語彙，也試圖建立一種更具幽微如潛意識、夢境般的影像語言來表達女性情慾。

九○年代台灣女性主義思潮興起，女性影展的年年舉辦，女導演在影像中注入許多女性觀點與詮釋，使得女性的影像權／發聲權得以展現；不過，獨立影像中討論女性情慾的作品仍不多見，而且多集中在年輕女性影像創作範圍裡，或許異性戀父權社會的巨大框架仍未瓦解完盡，期待未來有更多的女導演，能在影像中建立許多不同年齡、文化、階級、種族女性情慾的形象，相信屬於台灣女性情慾圖像將更形多元。

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林松燕，＜身體與流體經濟－依蕊格萊的女性形構學＞，《中外文學》，31:2，
2002/7，p9-38。
周美玲，＜廝混在Gay Bar裡的拉子，用酒精釀出的同志愛情紀錄片－「私角落」＞，《婦研縱橫》，NO.67，台大婦女研究室，2003/7，p8-18。
黃楚雄整理，＜酷兒發妖：酷兒/同性戀與女性情慾「妖言」座談會紀實＞，《性/別研究》，3/4，1998/9，P47-87。
藍祖蔚，＜女人觀點 vs. 男人思維＞，自由時報，副刊，2001/9/14


附錄一：影片簡介

一、《等待月事的女人》A Woman Waiting for Her Period，簡偉斯，1993／25min，台灣，實驗／紀錄／betacam

影片內容描述一名台灣女留學生在生理週期紊亂的焦慮與期待中，對成長的回憶以及對留學生活的反覆思量。在敘事結構上，以第二人稱的旁白（攝影者）與第一人稱的獨白（被攝主角）交錯進行著女人與女人貼密的對話。
參展紀錄：第二屆女性影展參展作品

二、《不可名狀的纏繞》，蔡柏貞，1996/10 mins，台灣，實驗／DV

起初，女人耽溺於自我心像的喃喃，迷失在技藝的折磨裡。然後，女人在鏡子裡驚見另一個自己。女人在恍惚中與自己激烈的做愛。女人開始了在愛慾之河裡的無盡旅程，並且在腥紅的月光下，同消逝的青春招手。最後，發了狂的女人們在闇黑的月夜旋舞，她們在屋頂之上嘻遊歡唱，彼此愛撫，相互傾聽，不知所終……。
參展紀錄：第四屆女性影展與第二屆中港台學生電影錄像節參展作品。

三、《自溺》，李靜文，1997/6 mins.，台灣，劇情／實驗／16mm

情慾對於女性來說到底是生命中一個不可或缺的重要課題？還是只是一種自我欺騙式的耽溺？影片以色彩鮮明的強烈影像與風格突出的配樂，帶領觀者進入女性的耽溺。
參展紀錄：第五屆女性影展參展作品

四、《私角落》corner，周美玲，2000/67mins，台灣，實驗／紀錄／DV

情慾展現不再只是男與女的「標準公式」，男與男、女與女，成為生活組合的其中一種可能形式，妳/你了解她/他們的生活世界嗎？還是以刻板印象或先入為主的想像將她/他們定位？非主流＝角落＝私領域。這是一部角落生活的紀實專輯，給妳/你一雙認識角落生活的眼…….
參展紀錄：第八屆女性影展參展作品、2001台北電影節紀錄片首獎

[1]李靜文，＜分裂3153＞，《凝視女像--56種閱讀女性影展的方法》，p229-235。

[2]藍祖蔚，＜女人觀點 vs. 男人思維＞，自由時報，副刊，2001/9/14。

[3]周美玲，＜廝混在Gay Bar裡的拉子，用酒精釀出的同志愛情紀錄片－「私角落」＞，《婦研縱橫》，NO.67，台大婦女研究室，2003/7，P12。

[4]林松燕，＜身體與流體經濟－依蕊格萊的女性形構學＞，《中外文學》，31:2，2002/7。

[5]周美玲，＜廝混在Gay Bar裡的拉子，用酒精釀出的同志愛情紀錄片－「私角落」＞，《婦研縱橫》，NO.67，台大婦女研究室，2003/7，P9。

[6]林松燕，＜身體與流體經濟－依蕊格萊的女性形構學＞，《中外文學》，31:2，2002/7，P15-19。

[7]Irigaray, Luce. “The Gesture in Psychoanalysis,” trans. by Elizabeth Guild, in Between Feminism and Psychoanalysis. ed. Brennan, Teresa, New York: Routledge, 1989. pp 135

[8]佛洛伊德在論及女性性慾時，也以陽具作為最終的指標，將女性性慾做出二元的分類：不是陰核就是陰道，不是陽具的，就是被閹割的。他將前伊底帕斯時期的小女孩歸於前者，而將所謂的「正常女人」歸類為後者，不管是「相同」、「相反」或是「互補」皆是以男性性慾進行類比的邏輯。參考佛洛伊德，《性慾三論》。

[9]Irigaray, Luce. “This Sex Which Is Not One”. (1977) trans. Catherine Porter with Carolyn Burke. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1988.,”pp 18-19。

[10]林松燕，＜身體與流體經濟－依蕊格萊的女性形構學＞，《中外文學》，31:2，2002/7。

[11]林松燕，＜身體與流體經濟－依蕊格萊的女性形構學＞，《中外文學》，31:2，2002/7。

[12] Kristeva, Julia. “Revolution in Poetic Language” in The Kristeva Reader, ed. Toril Moi. Oxford: Basil Blackweli, 1986. pp 92-102

本文收錄於《台灣當代影像，從紀實到實驗》



"In Search of the Subjectivity of Female Desire in Taiwan’s Independent Films－Take the Works Shown in the Past 9 Women Makes Waves Film/Video Festivals as Examples" by Hsing-Hung LIN
(Translated by Cheng Ting)

1. Preface
In mainstream commercial films, women are often times ‘the others’, and constructed as the weaker role submissive to male power. Patriarchal filmic languages such as shots, editing, dialogue, performance and narrative structure are often used to manipulate the expression of female desire. Good girls and bad girls are given a binary opposition as passive and active in their expression of desire. Whether she’s a good or bad girl defined by patriarchy, however, she can’t escaped the fate of being gaze at in films. She’s being watched by male roles in the film and by the spectators who are used to male’s point of view. Is it impossible to portray the subjectivity of female desire in film? Or are there other filmic alternatives to construct female desire subjectivity in Taiwanese cinema? This paper intends to construct the subjectivity of female desire in Taiwanese independent films from the works shown in the last nine Women Make Waves Film/Video Festival (WMW Film Festival.)

The reasons why my texts chose the works selected by WMW film festival from 1993 to 2002 are firstly, WMW’s selection criteria is works with feminist awareness and made by women. So it is more likely to locate female desire subjectivity. Secondly, directors’ creativity can be fuller expressed without commercial constraints. The styles and subject matter are more diverse and experimental, thus increasing the possibility of construction of female gaze and subjectivity of female desire.

I chose four works with female desire content and group them into two. The first group is the film employs metaphors to portray female inner feelings. They are Indescribable Entanglement and Self Drowning. The second group visualizes female desire, and I chose A Woman Waiting for Her Period and Corner’s as my texts.

Based on Film Analyses theories, I will look at filmic elements such as camera shots, audio/visual combination and music presenting female desire, and I will try to find a common denominator among women directors dealing with female desire subjects. Also, I will draw on French feminist Luce Irigaray’s theories about women to locate the possibility of constructing subjectivity of female desire in Taiwanese independent filmmaking.

2. The female feeling writing

Traditional patriarchal filmic language tend to use dialogue, facial expressions and behavior actions to convey inner feelings. In independent films made by women, however, I found that they use ‘metaphors’ to convey women’s subtle emotions and desire in a quest to build a filmic language for female desire.

(1) Analysis of Indescribable Entanglement

Because it is ‘indescribable,’ or cannot present it through the film language constructed by patriarchy, the film refuses to tell its story with the ‘narrative structure’ developed by patriarchal senses. The director, therefore, borrowed an ‘experimental style’ like poetry in motion, as relatively opposed to traditional patriarchal film language. Experimenting with other visual elements—such as color, out of focus or unsettled images, spiraling camera movement, female gibberish talking and blurry female bodies—the director tries to convey feelings entangled inside.

The film can be roughly separated into four sections. Among them, “River of Joy and River of Self-abusing” deals with woman’s feelings, so I will focus on this section. In the film, the woman closes her eyes and touches herself on the cheeks gently, enjoying her youthful body. She at times goes into raptures like a witch and dances. A cheerful female voice serves as the voiceover and emits incoherent sentences: She and he. Their bodies collide together. What’s on her mind is like a butterfly. He loathes her like the way he loathes the world. She loathes him the way she loathes the world. And at the end of this section, ‘I Love You’ appeared on the screen. Woman’s free spirit flies freely. The woman loves her own sexy body. She explores the possible flames when two bodies collide. The loath for the other becomes an absolute form of ‘love.’

(2) Analysis of Self Drowning

Self Drowning is somewhat a self-abusing work that it dwells in the expression of negative feelings. It increases the negative impression about women’s ways of expressing their feelings. It also lodges strong complaints about the opposite sex who fails to understand women’s feelings. The small captions in the film read: Do I have to cry out loud on a busy railway platform so that you will know that I’m deeply committed? / Looking at myself in the mirror. I feel pathetic. / Will you love me if I kill myself? / Is it possible that indulgence might become a ritual to self-liberalization? / Half the world’s population is not interested in our discussions. / Are you sad? Are you sad? / You don’t understand my sadness.

The film depicts the agony and pain when a woman failed a romantic love. She would even erase her subjectivity in the name of love. The intensity is overwhelming from the strong desire brought by wanting love. It also shows men are not able nor incapable of understanding the sadness of women being cut off a love affair.

The film dose not have too many special effects or camera movement. Instead, it appears more like a theatrical work in which it has artificial/de-naturalized atmosphere. It allows the character’s facial expressions and performance exhibit the indulgence in a pure form. Or like what Luce Irigaray called the female mimicry and deconstruct the myth of women’s biology.

In the beginning, the woman drinks some water. She runs to a busy railway platform and looks like she’s searching for something. At this moment, a big ‘Drowning’ of the film title appears on the screen. Then the word ‘Self’—though significantly smaller than the word Drowning—crashes into the Drowning with a speed at acceleration of gravity. Two words connect each other at head and toe. This vividly conveys a woman is ‘drowning’ in her ‘own’ feeling for love. “Own’ is the same as ‘self’ in Chinese. In here, water/fluid is like the woman’s tears as well as the woman’s love. When it was not shut (taken back in time,) the faucet keeps running water (love and feeling keep flowing.) The woman’s love is so despondent and cannot be retrieved. Further, the woman looks at herself in the mirror, pitying herself. Dressed in white, she moves her body from left to right. Looking at the camera sideways with grunt and mischievousness, she pushes down things around her. It’s a performance of unconsciously repenting and readdressing her own errors in love. In the next scene in the underpass, the woman is dressed up and solemn as if attending a ceremony. Grief-stricken like the red background, she buries her head into water twice and gets up looking at spectators. The feeling of indulgence—same meaning as ‘self drowning’ in Chinese—freezes in the mind of the spectators. The film ends in a sad red frame.

The editing is simple and neat, possibly because there wasn’t enough footage. It uses very symbolic techniques to portray common personal feelings. From the scenes of the train station, to the underpass and to a room that’s completely dark, there’s only one actress performing numerous movements repeatedly such as drowning her head into the water. And with the on-and-off French narration, the film explores ideas and thoughts about ‘self drowning.’ The whispering and melodic French narration also serves as ‘music’ and tempo of the film. The music and images serve as two components and tell a private but universal emotional experience.

3. Female erotic writing

Independent women filmmakers started to use real flesh in erotic scenes in the 1990s. Women filmmakers, however, are faced with a challenge that they have to build subjectivity in female desire, at the same time, avoid the male gaze and male voyeurism established by the heterosexual patriarchy.

(1) Analysis on A Woman Waiting for Her Period

Chien Wei-ssu made this film as her graduation project for her studies in the US. The film was selected at the second WMW Film Festival ten years ago. This film is the start of presenting female desire in independent women filmmaking in Taiwan. In that era where feminism thoughts were burgeoning, this film discusses the relation of menstruation and gender, and also touches upon the issue of female sexual desire. It is shown in two parts when the protagonist, Chung-ming, lies in bed because of period cramps. She remembers the experience she had with another girl. The narration goes like this: I held hand in hand with Hui-shu when I was 14 years old./ But I dared not to speak to her for a week after she kissed my forehead./ I remember I had a dream when I was 20. I dreamed I made love to Hui-shu and refused to do it with my boyfriend./ My heart beat so fast when I woke up from the dream.

This part shows how adolescent girls hide their feelings for another girl by way of being afraid or refusal. The desire released in her dream. The image of making love to a same sex party remains passionate after she wakes up. In visual presentation, light and shadow stand for memory and time, also indicate her confusion over same sex love. Then there’s a black-and-white still photo with two female dancers looking at and lean onto each other. The camera moves slowly, showing a clean black-and-white couple, happy like a pair of angels.

The second part is about the first sexual intercourse with the boyfriend. Narration goes like this: It was an unforgettable day. We were in your room. You walk toward me slowly. I felt there’s something going to happen. I remember I was nervous and afraid. Your hands shaking, my body stiff. I remember you unbutton my shirt one by one. I remember the quietness in your room was deafening to my ears. I remember we rolled about on the bed with shirts off. I remember I wouldn’t let you unbutton my jeans. I remember you tried for 5 hours in vain. I remember when we finally got up, your arms were around me. We didn’t say a word. I remember your leather jacket smell like cigarette smoke. I remember the silence of your room that sounded like a thunderstorm around us. If we had made love, what would it have felt like? What would I have experienced?

This bit shows a woman feeling afraid of her first sexual experience with a man. Nervous and scared, her senses of hearing and smell become sharp. Unable to communicate with words, the bodily touch becomes tasteless. Her curiosity for sex emerged afterward, only it’s too late. The visual presentation continues the basic tone of black-and-white memory. To avoid sensational imagination, no shots are on the characters’ faces. Chung-ming is the one who’s looking at things. The boyfriend walks toward her (the camera,) and signals no talking. Closed-up shots of their entangled feet and their hands’ movement of her refusal of jeans taken down. Then there’s a middle shot of them getting up. The boyfriend holds Chung-ming and her head rests on his shoulder. The passion is furthered reduced by having both of their backs to the audience.

These two parts clearly demonstrate female desire subjectivity. Firstly, female voice narration takes over the control of story telling. Male voice does not exist and is replaced with the sound of flute playing. Secondly, slow camera movement, black-and-white image, shots with no female facial expressions, female or neutral perspective angles have created a style of gentle beauty; heavy but lucid. It makes a clear distinction from the male pornography image arrangement such as color-film, fast-speed follow shoots, female’s erotic expressions and male angle.

(2) Analysis on Corner’s

The film subject is on the homeless state sometimes homosexuals are driven to. It also lodges strong complaints on the mainstream judgment about same sex love. A gay bar, Corner’s, is faced with the fate of closure because of police harassment. The film started documenting Corner’s last two months before its closure. Unlike regular documentary films, this film uses a poetic feel to capture love and life. Director Chou Mei-ling’s achievement lies in her visual witness of the pleasure of female sex. The confidence and pride shown were a courageously rare move in an era where conventional morals oppress homosexuality.

Chou presents lesbian desire in the most direct way, forcing the spectators not able to voyeur but ‘accept.’ It shows one of the biggest taboos: homosexual sex. She wants to see through the ‘taboo,’ in an article she wrote, “so that the ‘evil obstacles’ in her heart would be dispelled.” She found two women who agreed to shoot the lesbian sex that’s pleasurable and sublime, and they believe the audience is able to understand and appreciate their honesty. In a society where female desire is assigned to private domain, this film—in the most naked way possible—took the initiative and shows women’s love in the public domain. There are at least two significances about this film. A woman has broken free the patriarchal rein on the presentation of female desire. Secondly, this film has established a female subjectivity in a patriarchal society where lesbian desire is silenced or mis-represented.

Three parts of this film are on lesbian desire. The narration of the fist part tells the subtle enjoyment between women’s bodies: I feel…/ I’m stuck in between/ realizing what I adore and love is the soul and body of the same sex/ happiness has arrived whenever I touch her./ Entered into my life with force. The intensity is overwhelming./ It’s a revelation, a call./ So strong that when the light is out, it would be an over exposure./ Woman’s body is very sensitive. There are many to explore. In visual presentation, there are still frames of various women’s body parts like breasts, waist, feet, hips and private parts. Then there are two female bodies in the water. Two blurry bodies move toward each other. One touches the other’s genitalia. Two bodies caress lovingly and their private parts meet at times. Like the bar’s two-headed lamp and the cave under; same shapes and belonging to each other.

The second part is the scene where two women make love. Again, the narration lauds the delight of sex between women: Our love is both beautiful and on cloud nine./ The feeling of happiness transcends temporary sensation./ But…where does the discrimination come from?/ I’m moved by the intricate ritual of two bodies entangled./ It transcends the absolute sublimation of a still posture./ In the love of our physical bodies, we call upon the mystic spirits high above./ In the indescribable space of chaos, as in a sacrificial ritual,/ bodies and souls merge together, grandly offering each other./ Through presenting my flesh, I summon the souls above the zenith/ and intertwine with you./ In this tangling,/ bodies still, souls ascend;/ that posture of love, instantaneously, illuminate the Earth./ That gesture of love, instantaneously, illuminate the Earth.

In its visual presentation, still pictures of women’s bodies entangled intersect with hand-drawn graphics symbolizing vagina. Together with the sound of tidal waves and repeated camera movements of zoom in/out, tilt up/down, the segment portrays the pleasure of lesbian sex is ceaseless like those of high tidal waves. There are also close-up shots of one woman touching another’s hand, feet and breasts. Then the shot of the underwear taken down signifies woman’s desire and love for another woman’s body. The still pictures showing two women’s breasts on top of each others, hand in vagina and embracing each other seem to let the spectators see directly the lesbian desire. This establishes an ‘out’ channel for homosexual desire that is made ‘invisible’ in a heterosexual society.

The third part appears at the end of the film. A woman (the director herself being filmed) looks into the distance and turns to look at the camera (the camera woman and audience) and shows a content smile (close-up, with this frame freezed.) The narration goes: It is fortunate that I can love you. Supreme happiness. With throbbing nerves I tremble for you. The combination of a flowing narration and still image shows that the woman has captured the happiness that never comes easy. At the same time, it exhibits the subjectivity of female desire in film. She is no longer the object to be gazed upon; she takes the initiative to cast the gaze and speak for herself. This arrangement also subverts the binary positions that the director as the storyteller and the audience is the listener who receives information passively. The film releases the director power to the audience, enabling the audience to take on a proactive role (to shoot the director.)

Following images are the lovemaking scene which is rendered as out-of-focus and with strobing effect. And the narration goes with it is: Gazing steadily at you, finally I fall into your palm. And then on these endless, rolling waves, I can sleep soundly, deeply at last. Here, the bliss of gay desire—though drifting on the patriarchal society’s rolling waves, and is blurry like out-of-focus, the bliss of love can finally make one sleep deeply at last. It shows homoeroticism is here to stay because of the bliss of love.

It is possible that male directors and audience will never understand the lesbian desire in Corner’s. Jacques Lacan has once described a ‘feminine jouissance’ that the female joy and physical pleasure is ‘beyond the phallus.’ This other jouissance cannot be given meanings in Order, nor do men can comprehend it. This supplementary jouissance can be achieved without reliance on mimicry.


4. Luce Irigaray’s female construction theories and the construction of subjectivity of female desire in Taiwanese independent filmmaking

(1) “Hysteria” as a revolt against heterosexual patriarchy

Construction of female desire subjectivity in Indescribable Entanglement and Self Drowning is through the images and the exhibition of hysteria in the protagonists such as crying out loud, frantic dancing, painful expressions that not neither laughing nor crying. Images in Indescribable Entanglement are moving endlessly and sometimes without balance. Its narration is poetic and incoherent and sometimes like ravings. When making Corner’s, Chou Mei-ling mentioned that alcohol makes one’s thinking process jump while falling in love involves endless mutterings. Therefore, alcohol and love brewed an unconventional documentary. Corner’s refused the linear storytelling rule and adopted a ‘hangover style’ narration that’s in tune with hysterical, non-logical and a-rational presentation.

“Hysteria’ is what the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud used to describe women’s negative emotions associated with the lack of phallus. Luce Irigaray tried to turn this symptom into a mean of female subjectivity construction. What was regarded by patriarchal culture as negative traits of women, she reinterpreted them as women’s positive images and a strategy to subvert the patriarchal system. To Irigaray, symptoms of hysteria are the responses of a proactive subject when she’s under threat (a relation ceased/ lesbian desire is unacceptable to heterosexual patriarchal society.) Since there’s no way for her to be in a proactive position, she uses the hysterical passive traits—blurry images/ indulgence/ muttering—to surpass the demands on her by way of another kind of silence and despise—such as the non-logical humming and looking at herself lamenting one’s own lot. That is to say, it’s a form of mimicry on patriarchal demands that’s transgressing and collapsing. In the most extreme way, and turning the position of passive into an active one, she accepts patriarchal demands and descriptions of her, only that the result is totally different from what was asked of her. The patriarchal system is thus slackened. She threw back what the patriarchal operations could not accept. Symptoms of hysteria show that women do not operate in accordance to patriarchal demands. Hysterically, she uses her body as a medium to fight against patriarchal demands. She let her body suffer sub-consciously to resist the dominate culture’s expectations, so that she can attain a satisfaction that is compromised and with symptoms. Further, it’s a lonely fight and she has only her body as the weapon.

(2) Two lips: the expression of multiplicity of female desire

Borrowing the mythology of Ariadne’s labyrinth, Irigaray describes a female space that is layered like lips and is able to multiply the world by itself. The origin of the word, ‘labyrinth’ is related to ‘labra’ and this labra space speaks the secrets of the female space: when the lips are open, it can multiply the world, when closed, she touches herself. To Irigaray, to stay active in life, the female space has to maintain being able to open and close, allowing countless others to enter and exit. At the same time, the female space is not a singular sex but plural sexes; it’s a multi-sex, a flowing state of existence.

The metaphors of female desire in Indescribable Entanglement and Self Drowning, Chung-ming in A Woman Waiting for Her Period desires both men and women, and the lesbian erotism in Corner’s, show the multiplicity, ambiguity, non-fixion and transgression in female desire, demonstrating what Irigaray’s metaphor of female genitalia’s two lips to say that there’re multi-faced looks and meanings:

A. Sometimes it is ‘one.’ In sexual preferences, a woman may adopt a single mode of loving a woman or a man.

B. Sometimes it is ‘two.” In sexual preferences, a woman may have ambiguous state of feeling for women and men. Chung-ming in A Woman Waiting for Her Period has fantasies for both sexes.

C. Sometimes it is ‘combined as one.’ In Corner’s, the hand-drawn graphics which symbolize vaginas or same sex love orgasms evolve from one single vagina to connecting ones like waves, showing the ‘combined unison’ in lesbian desire.

D. Sometimes it can be ‘separated as two.’ A Woman Waiting for Her Period depicts the differences felt by the heterosexual couple engaged in sexual encounter. The woman’s fear for sex reduces her senses into hearing and smell. Very different from the man who takes the active role and has only the sense of touch. They are indeed two individuals.

E. It can also be ‘inside.’ The struggle and self-abuse exhibited in Indescribable Entanglement and Self Drowning happens inside the woman’s body. The vaginal orgasm is also a form of expression from a woman’s inside.

F. It can be ‘on the outside’ to mark woman’s frank expression of desire such as Corner’s depicts lesbian sex scene and exalts the pleasure. The clitoris orgasm can be said as an expression of female desire from outside the woman’s body.

G. It can be ‘active,’ evident in Corner’s lesbian desire for one another. It shows that women are not objects of desire who are passive and waiting, expected by heterosexual patriarchy. Between women, she can either choose to be the subject that desires or the object of desire. Subject and object is not immutable, rather, they are variable.

H. It can be ‘passive.’ This is probably what women are taught to be when it comes to their desire in a heterosexual patriarchal society. A woman’s body is regulated to present it ‘passively’ to men. But in her self, her desire is invisibly proactive, so powerful that it can’t be stopped. It can be seen as a passive resistance, such as the indulgence in Self Drowning, the love entanglement in Indescribable Entanglement, or Chung-ming’s imagination and memory of her sexual desire during her period cramps in A Woman Waiting for Her Period.

I. It can also choose to ‘open (up),’ such as Corner’s direct portrayal of abundant lesbian desire. Chung-ming in A Woman Waiting for Her Period shows it is possible to desire someone who is of the same and opposite sex, it also thrashes the heterosexual patriarchal society’s fallacies of attraction only occurs in members of opposite sex.

J. It can choose to be ‘closed.’ In Indescribable Entanglement and Self Drowning, the female desire is repressed and locked up inside. The desire that rests for too long ultimately explodes in a frantic hysteria. Chung-ming in Waiting for Period remembers her past, everything happens only in her mind, those desires are closed in.

All in all, the female desire is diverse, variant and not fixed. Irigaray’s ‘two lips’ are content by themselves and self-sufficient. She doesn’t need a third party or others to prove who she is or to satisfy her desire. In herself, she is the subject and object, the active and passive role. And she possess this ‘undecidable’ trait that beautifully detaches her from the binary opposition, avoids the logic of clitoris, vagina parallel to male sex organ, and cannot be captured or positioned by phallic solid economy. The metaphor of ‘two lips’ is not so much about female anatomy but the representation of this imaginary; ‘two lips’ can be the new symbol and female imagination. Through this image, one can begin to think about a kind of female desire representation that is totally different from that of patriarchal phallic economy, and show a active/positive female desire which was considered low and dirty. To Irigaray, only through a lips-like layered and flowing space, can there’s possibility to fight against the humongous symbolic system that requires rationalism, singular logics, linear ways of thought and seeking for sameness.

The biggest issue confronting female sexuality does not lie in the woman’s understanding of and experience with her body, nor how much of it is expressed, rather, it’s the lack of positive representation of female sexuality in this society since it is always defined in correspondence to male sexuality. “Two lips” enables female sexuality to have a different kind of cultural representation form; an image of women taking control of their own bodies.

(3) The endoscope that twists patriarchal reality
Indescribable Entanglement, Self Drowning and Corner’s use what Irigaray’s description of the traits of the concave lens of the endoscope that twist and enlarge the original images. For instance, Indescribable Entanglement and Self Drowning manifest the stereotypical images of hysterical woman ‘drowning’ herself over love and relationship. She’s at times passive to be manipulated by tortures of love, and sometimes she seems to choose to indulge in venting out her feelings to clarify the weight of a relationship to herself and the place she’s at, like the process of growing up and a make-over for herself. Or like Corner’s gives a vivid portray of the shunned lesbian desire by plenty of sex scenes and words emphasizing the pleasure in sex between women.

Therefore, these images and languages that appear to twist images demonstrate two things: 1. By accepting strategically the patriarchally defined female image, i. e. women’s negative traits under patriarchal system, they exaggerate excessively women’s sex organ and multiple erogenous zones. 2. In this exaggeration where the patriarchal dichotomy is pushed to its limit, the ridiculousness in patriarchal dichotomy is thus exposed. For that reason, feminist theorist Gayatri C. Spivak thinks that what feminists should be concerned with is how to use the phallocentric theories to make the biggest contribution to feminist political promise. Irigary’s critique technique is to ‘flirt’ with patriarchal texts; through what is considered women’s tricks, seduction, she ridicules patriarchal texts, unmasks the insufficiency of phallocentric system, and tries to build female subjectivity in the hetero patriarchal norm.

5. Conclusion
These four independent films made by Taiwanese women directors, whether it’s on women’s feelings about love or presentations on sensual desire, all established the subjectivity of female desire through the directors’ original filmic languages, and they are:

(1) Poetic/ ravings /murmuring
Instead of the rational/logical/linear narrative techniques developed by heterosexual patriarchy, the films use musical rhymes to express female desire, just like ‘chora,’ the pre-linguistic stage developed by Juila Kristeva. Chora is a state that’s not very clear and filled with bodily needs. It is a rhythm, a tempo similar to voice and bodily movement. Plato calls it chora or receptacle, a nourishing and maternal space and prior to the individual. On the contrary is the ‘thetic’ phase. Based on corporal drives, and before enunciation, this phase requires identification, a separation from the mother and the mirror phase. By returning to the pre-Oedipal Chaos, Taiwanese women’s independent films refuse to enter the phallocentric symbol system, so that they can create the representations of the most inner feelings unique to women.

(2) Female narrator/ female protagonists/ female directors equal to female subjectivity
The rise of awareness of women’s rights, the advancement in digital filmmaking equipment, the increase in the number of college film departments, and the encouragement of WMW film festival have significantly increased the number of women in filmmaking, hence, contributed to the improvement in the quality of the films they make. Therefore, Taiwanese women filmmakers have started to provide film subjects that are absent in male history and discourses, thus diversifying female images on screen. Among then, the female desire which was shaped by male directors or kept silent in public domain now is beginning to be interpreted by women. Consequently, the formation of the subjectivity of female gaze is more likely to be seen in the works of independent women filmmakers.

The strategies used by these four films to establish the subjectivity of female desire are: women as the protagonists and speaks in a first-person position. The woman is the one who’s telling the story, contrary to what it was, that it has always being male directors doing the interpretations of female desire.

(3) The arrangement of indistinct and out-of-focus pictures
It is easier for clear and distinct images of women to become the objects of male gaze and voyeurism. So Taiwanese independent women filmmakers adopted blurred image of women’s bodies in Indescribable Entanglement and Corner’s. At the same time, close-ups of facial expression, especially in sex scenes, are avoided, preventing unnecessary (but possible) male imagination. So there’s naked women on screen, but they’re fragmented and blurry, unable to arouse (male) spectators’ sexual fantasy such as the sex scene of Chung-ming and her boyfriend in A Woman Waiting for Her Period. This filmic strategy not only avoids the clear-image narration built by heterosexual patriarchal filmic language, it also tries to develop more subtle ways like sub consciousness and dream-like language to portray female desire.

The rise of feminist thoughts in the 1990s and the yearly event of WMW film festival have enabled more works from female viewpoints and interpretations on screen. The discussion of female desire on screen, however, comes rare, and is more often appeared in the works of young women filmmakers. Perhaps it is because the disintegration of the heterosexual patriarchy’s huge architecture is not complete. It is hoped that women directors will create more images of female desire across age, culture, class and race and makes the picture of Taiwanese female desire a more diverse and complete one.

6. Bibliography:

1)English:
Irigaray, Luce. ‘This Sex Which Is Not One’ (1977) trans. Catherine Porter with Carolyn Burke. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1988.
Kaplan ,E. Ann. ’Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera’Routledge,1983
Irigaray, Luce. ‘The Gesture in Psychoanalysis’ , trans. by Elizabeth Guild, in Between Feminism and Psychoanalysis. ed. Brennan, Teresa, New York: Routledge, 1989. 127-138

Kristeva, Julia. ‘Revolution in Poetic Language’ in The Kristeva Reader, ed. Toril Moi. Oxford: Basil Blackweli, 1986. pp. 89-123.

2)Chinese:

游惠貞編，《女性與影像－女性電影的多角度閱讀》（women and image-diverse interpretation of female film ），台北：遠流，1994

陳儒修等編，《凝視女像－56種閱讀女性影展的方法》（female gaze-56 kinds ways of reading women film festival），台北：遠流，1999

佛洛伊德（Sigmund Freud）著，趙蕾譯，《性慾三論》（’Three Essays On The Theory Of Sexuality’），北京：國際文化出版，2000。

李臺芳，《女性電影理論》（’Theory of Women’s Cinema’），台北：揚智文化，1996。
蔡振興，＜法國女性主義 -- 伊莉佳萊論他者＞（French feminism-- Luce Irigaray and Other），《中外文學》（Chung-Wai Literary Monthly），21:9，1993/2，p47-65
劉毓秀，＜走出「唯一」，流向「非一」：從佛洛伊德到依蕊格萊＞（From Sigmund Freud to Luce Irigaray），《中外文學》（Chung-Wai Literary Monthly），24:11，1996/4,p 134-142

朱崇儀，＜伊希迦黑與她的新文體：另一種 (理論) 書寫／實踐＞ (“Luce Irigaray and Her New "Style": Another (Theoretical) Writing/Practice."），《中外文學》（Chung-Wai Literary Monthly），24:11，1996/4,p40-55

蕭嫣嫣，＜我書故我在－論西蘇的陰性書寫＞（Helene Cixous and her ecriture feminine），《中外文學》（Chung-Wai Literary Monthly），24:11，1996/4,p39-59

林松燕，＜身體與流體經濟－依蕊格萊的女性形構學＞（Luce Irigaray and her female structure theory ），《中外文學》（Chung-Wai Literary Monthly），31:2，2002/7，P9-38。

周美玲，＜廝混在Gay Bar裡的拉子，用酒精釀出的同志愛情紀錄片－「私角落」＞（the documentary about gay’s love story --Corner’s），《婦研縱橫》（Forum in Women's and Gender Studies），NO.67，台大婦女研究室，2003/7，P8-18。

Wittig,Monique.（1993）著，魏淑美譯，＜異性戀思維（法統）＞（heterosexuality thinking），《島嶼邊緣》（Island-Margins），第三卷第一期，NO.9，1993/10，P48-51。

黃楚雄整理，＜酷兒發妖：酷兒/同性戀與女性情慾「妖言」座談會紀實
（Queer/gay and female desire），《性/別研究》（Gender Studies），3/4，1998/9，P47-87。

藍祖蔚，＜女人觀點 vs. 男人思維＞（Female vision VS. Male Vision），自由時報，副刊，2001/9/14

7. Appendix: film synopses

1."A Woman Waiting for Her Period" ,Chien Wei-ssu, 1993/25 min., Taiwan, experimental/documentary/Betacam
A Taiwanese woman studying in the US is in anxiety. Her period is late again. While waiting, she remembers her life before and her current study in a foreign country. The narrative structure revolves around an intimate dialogue between the two women behind and before the camera.
*Selected by the 2nd WMW film festival

2. "Indescribable Entanglement" , Tsai Bo-chen, 1996/ 10min., Taiwan, experimental/DV
At first, the woman was murmuring to herself, lost in the torment of memories. Then, she saw herself in the mirror. In a hazy state, she made wild love with herself. She embarks an endless journey in the river of lust and love. She waves to her lost youth under a crimson moonlight. In the end, women gone mad dance together in a dark night. O a rooftop, they sing in happy unison. Caressing and listening to one another, they do not want there’s an end to the night.
*Selected by the fourth WMW film festival, and the first Cross-straits students’ film festival

3."Self Drowning", Lee Ching-wen, 1997/6min, Taiwan,drama /experimental/16mm
Is sex an indespensible subject in a woman’s life or is it just an indulgence that’s self deceiving? With strong images and stylistic music, the film takes spectators into a woman’s ‘indulgence.’
*Selected by the fifth WMW film festival

4. "Corner’s", Chou Mei-ling, 2000/67 min., Taiwan, experimental /documentary/DV
Presentation of sexual passion is no longer confined to between man and woman. Man and man, woman and woman’s combinations have provided alternatives to the ‘standard formula.’ Do we understand their worlds? Or do we position them in stereotypical imagination? Non-mainstream = corners = private territory. This documentary provides a window to the life in a corner.
*Selected by the eighth WMW film festival. Winner of Best Documentary award at 2001 Taipei Film Festival.