Beyond Binary Resistance: The Gradual Reconstruction of Female Subjectivity in Like a Rolling Stone

This paper examines Yin Lichuan’s 2024 film Like a Rolling Stone, which depicts housewife Li Hong’s journey from enduring an oppressive marital life to pursuing self-liberation. Drawing on Simone de Beauvoir’s theory of the Other, it explores how Chinese patriarchal marriage constructs gender inequality and women’s marginalized status shaped by familial ethics and moral obligations. Through analyzing typical scenes, the essay interprets how cinematic techniques such as framing, lighting, crosscutting and sound design visually embody Li’s spatial confinement and emotional repression. Different from Western overt individual resistance, Li’s subjective awakening manifests as a gradual transformation of perception, space and desire within daily domesticity. The film’s anti-urban visual imagery further implies a rejection of patriarchal spatial suppression and reflects the dilemma and spiritual reconstruction of contemporary Chinese women trapped in marriage.