Representation of violence is essential in world-wide gangster films. It provides the audience sensational stimulation through audio-visual spectacles, and serves to keep the audience’s attention and enjoyment. But it

is also a medium of reflecting or reacting to the quandaries of its social environment. With the emphases on masculinity, representation of violence reveals the naked truth of struggles over sexual politics, gangster convention, ethnic conflicts and survival from the bottom echelon in its social context.

 

This course will investigate gangster films from various societies to, on the one hand, compare different aesthetics of violence, and on the other, to induce the students to reflect on the meaning and power relationship behind violence and further explore the hidden anxieties and aspiration within different social contexts from the execution and representation of violence.