Postcolonialism in the Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful

Abstract

The history of colonization has always been expressed in many recent Taiwanese films, either intentionally or unintentionally. The 2017 film The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful is the subject of numerous studies on male gaze or feminist film noir, but few studies inspect its implicit postcolonialism. This study aims to assess the rhetorical manifestation of colonial relationships in The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful within its three main characters. Through discussing and analyzing several examples taken from the film, this study believes that Madam Tang takes the position of the colonizer in the personified colonial relationship, and her two daughters as the colonized. Moreover, two kinds of colonial relationships are discovered, which are colonial stereotype between Madam Tang and Tang Ning and colonial mimicry of Tang Zhen. The findings of the present study appear to be the first systematic research into the film’s postcolonialism in terms of its character relationships, which will be helpful in expanding the understanding of the filmic manifestation of colonial relationships worldwide.