The Evolution and Reconstruction of Mother-Daughter Relationships in Feminist Films

Abstract

As the most pivotal primary relationship in women's spiritual development and the formation of female subjectivity, the mother-daughter bond has become one of the most enduring narrative motifs in women's cinema. Rather than merely depicting family ethics or domestic conflicts, films centered on mother-daughter relationships reveal the complex psychological and emotional dynamics that exist between women, including intimacy, dependence, manipulation, trauma, attachment, resentment, and eventual estrangement. These narratives not only reflect the lived experiences of women under patriarchal social structures but also illuminate the continuous negotiation of identity across generations. This paper selects representative Chinese and international films as its primary research texts. Through a comparative analysis of four dimensions—melancholia and trauma, emotional alienation, intergenerational control, and women's self-liberation—it examines the diverse visual representations and underlying psychological structures of mother-daughter relationships in different cultural contexts. Furthermore, it explores how daughters achieve the construction of female subjectivity through emotional negotiation, psychological separation, and identity reconstruction in relation to their mothers, thereby enriching theoretical discussions and textual studies of mother-daughter narratives in contemporary women's cinema.