A Comparative Study of Film Genre Narratives in Addressing Patriarchy and Gender Bias

This study takes patriarchal film works as the core analysis framework, and compares the presentation of three different film forms of documentaries, feature films and animations in gender issues, and focuses on how the image of women and its power structure is constructed through different narrative strategies and aesthetic mechanisms. As a documentary, One Child Nation reveals how national policies penetrate into the family and individual levels through oral history and real images, has a long-term and systematic impact on women's reproductive rights, physical autonomy and emotional experience, and presents the specific operation of the patriarchal structure at the level of system. Raise the Red Lantern takes the closed family space as the core of the narrative. Through the ritualized daily order, hierarchy and the competitive relationship between women, it meticulously shows the psychological process of women being disciplined, internalized and self-consumed in the patriarchal family system. It emphasizes that patriarchy does not only rely on violence to maintain, but also through symbols, rules and emotional control are continued. And Mulan, as an animated work for popular culture, forms tension between traditional gender norms and modern "empowerment" narratives. Although the female image in the film gains action by crossing gender boundaries into the male-dominated public domain, its subject sex is still closely bound to obedience, sacrifice and loyalty to the family and country, reflecting the compromise and limitations of the animation genre when challenging the patriarchal structure. The study further pointed out that the film is not only a tool to reproduce male gaze and patriarchal ideology. It also has the potential to reflect, question and even loosen the gender power structure. Whether the gender narrative can move towards a richer, rigorous and critical direction in the future depends on the diversity of the creative subject. And the real participation of different genders, cultures and social experiences in film production.