Major spoilers for Silent Hill f below!
“Women get treated no differently than animals.”
Hinako sounds defeated when she says this, and yet there is strength in fighting against the very words that fall from her lips. She is torn and bloody, her shirt ripped and blood-stained but in her right hand, she grips a weapon in a last ditch attempt to change her fate.
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The scene which plays in front of her - remnants of a past moment - shows her father revealing that, in exchange for his debts, he had “sold” her to the son of a rich family for marriage. Hinako screams and rages against her fate, as her mother, just another victim of this broken society, watches on helplessly but it’s no good. It is no wonder that, when Hinako fights her mother later on in the game, the monster is seen without a backbone.
It is at this moment that Hinako’s story finally clicks into place. You finally understand her rage, sorrow and helplessness and yet also her strength to fight back.
Why would she not rage against her fate? Her only experiences of marriage are from her parents - an abusive dad and a spineless mother - or her sister Junko who has become like a living ghost since her own wedding.
In 1960s Japan, where Silent Hill f is set, marriage for a lot of women was arranged or forced. It would see them removed from their family homes with nobody to rely on other than their new husbands. Communication would cease and they would become ostracised from the family home, relying on just the written word to stay in contact with the ones they left behind.
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It was such a problem that women developed a whole new way of communicating in Asian countries such as China. It was known as Nüshu and consisted of a code which only women would be able to read, giving them the opportunity to communicate by letter without prying eyes. It translates to ‘women’s script’ and allowed them the chance to claw back some of the agency which had been stripped from them.
This style of coded communication only became obsolete in 2004 after being a practice for several centuries. It serves as a reminder of the women who had no choice but to leave their families and their homes, serving as nothing more than pawns in a man’s game.
This is the world which Hinako finds herself in. At just around 15/16 years of age, she is set to be stripped from her family, her home and friends. The spider lilies that have become synonymous with Silent Hill f drape over the town of Ebisugaoka like spreading blood. They represent the “blossoming” of a woman, a time when she becomes an adult in society’s eyes. Clumps of flesh are mixed with the flowers - flowers which also represent death - so closely that it’s hard to tell them apart. A woman shedding her blood for the first time also marks her as a woman; one of the only times blood is not spilled in violence.
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In Hinako’s Silent Hill, this world is a constant reminder of the next stage of her life, one which she will fight with all of her might to prevent. To Hinako, marriage is death and yet it could also be freedom against a life full of sorrow.
Through the story of Silent Hill f, we learn that Hinako is promised to the character first only known as Fox Face, a masked man who guides our protagonist through the Otherworld. At first, the Otherworld is presented as a series of ritual halls lined with laughing fox statues but we soon discover that this is a manifestation of her wedding day.
Courtesy of notes littered around the world and the addition of New Game+ dialogue, we soon uncover the truth behind Fox Face. He is also a manifestation and this time he represents Kotoyuki, a young boy which Hinako met as a child and ironically, saved from a fox.
However, the Fox Face in Hinako’s head is manipulative, acting as something of an abusive partner. He often trails far ahead of Hinako, forcing her to follow behind him without hesitation. He convinces her to take part in horrific and painful rituals and yet commends her for doing a good job, apologising for putting her through it. In some scenes, when Hinako is not watching, you can see him smirking beneath the mask and yet he is comforting when she needs it.
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Then the ritual begins.
If you have played Silent Hill f, you will be very familiar with the scene in which Hinako begins her transformation into a bride worthy of 1960s Japan.
In a shocking display, she is tasked with cutting off her own arm in exchange for a long, clawed fox’s arm. This represents Hinako “giving her hand” in marriage to the descendant of Ebisugaoka’s fox clan. She must then be branded on her back with the Tsuneki clan’s logo, representing her being marked as the property of Fox Face much like cattle are. Finally, she has the top half of her face cut away from her skull and in exchange, a fox mask is grafted to her. Her face is no longer her own, she has lost her identity and becomes the “faceless bride” like millions of others before her.
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In the real world, Hinako fears losing her agency and as a result, is terrified of marriage. Her friends brand her as a “traitor” for leaving them despite promising otherwise and the idea of a bride becomes so suffocating and terrifying that it leads to Hinako’s fall into her own Silent Hill.
By committing to her fate in the Otherworld, and becoming the Faceless Bride, she loses her identity and her agency. Much like her actions in the Otherworld, she knows that getting married will mean not only destroying herself but also cutting ties with those she loves.
It becomes clear very early on in Silent Hill f how Hinako views marriage and even love itself.
As the town slowly shifts into a fog-covered hellscape, crawling with monsters and the shocking red of spider lilies, much like previous Silent Hill entries, the world becomes a manifestation of Hinako’s fears, desires, and thoughts.
The more masculine monsters can be seen on all-fours, panting and rushing towards Hinako and even licking her face if she is grabbed by them. On the other hand, the more feminine monsters are truly monstrous but with broken bodies, torn apart and stitched back together and yet somehow retaining their beauty.
Their design is very doll-like which makes sense that men of this time would have viewed women as more of an inanimate object than a fellow human being. They were able to do with them what they liked, shape them to their likes and desires and could even throw them away when they no longer offered enjoyment to them.
Perhaps this is why Hinako regularly ignores the warning from her doll which she is first seen playing with as a child as the start of Silent Hill f. Unlike the Kashimashi enemies, Hinako’s childhood doll is a stereotypical and adorable doll whereas these feminine monsters have absorbed the corruption of the town. Much like Hinako, they have had their innocence stripped from them.
Despite its ominous warnings, Hianko seemingly pays no mind to the doll which not only speaks to her need to make up her own mind as detailed in her journal but perhaps also represents her discarding all of the parts of her childhood which could be seen as more feminine.
In Hinako’s journal, she still sees that beauty in the feminine monsters, writing, “I wonder if it wants to hurt me the same way that it was hurt” and “did someone sever both of its legs and replace them with some disturbing things so it couldn’t go anywhere? Or was this creature brought into existence just so it could end up like this?”
For Hinako, women are brought into this world to suffer in an endless cycle of abuse, control and fear. They are nothing more than a pawn in a losing game and this can be seen in art found throughout the game.
During the second time you enter the Otherworld, you can find a room depicting art of four women along the wall. It is clear that the first represents Hinako or at least another young school girl like her. She is standing demurely, hands clasped in front of her but with her face removed.
The others are depicted in various styles of feminine dress for this time and yet the same thing remains: their faces are all scratched out. They could be any woman and yet they are nameless, showcased on the walls like trophies.
For Twitter user @harudaily0412, these portraits represent Hinako through various stages of her life.
“The canvas on the far left shows Hinako in the present day, the second one as a high school student, the third one as a university student (it is traditional to wear hakama at university graduation ceremonies), and the last one as a married woman,” they explained.
“At that time in Japan, the way women lived their lives was predetermined. Every woman had to marry a man and support her husband. They did not have the freedom to live like they do today.”
Another theory is that the portraits represent other women, just like Hinako who have fallen into society’s trap of losing their agency through marriage. One could even be a woman whose missing poster can be found in Ebisugaoka. This would also make sense considering that, when the canvases fall onto the floor, writing can be seen behind, another reminder not to trust Fox Face.
Of course, with expectations meaning that women would also have to face the uncertainty of childbirth, it is no wonder that one memorable enemy in Silent Hill f takes on the form of a feminine figure, covered from head to toe with protruding stomachs.
Throughout the fight, she will regularly birth out sacs which in turn, will see another enemy spawn if left too long and there is no denying that, for Hinako, this monster represents her fears of childbirth and perhaps motherhood as a whole. She knows that this would be the role expected of her sister Junko and her mother and, if she is able, it will soon be her turn to continue the cycle.
Hinako’s helplessness can also be seen in the trophies and achievements which can be earned whilst playing Silent Hill f.
If you look at the chosen art carefully, you will see that many of them feature a baby bird. At first, they are happy in their nest, safe and content. However, as the game continues and you unlock more trophies, the art will turn more sinister. The baby bird can be seen wading through blood and finally finding itself in the clutches of a pale fox. After all, birds and rabbits are standard prey for foxes and Hinako is often portrayed as both, especially with the pre-order Pink Bunny cosmetic.
“A woman is only complete when she’s loved. Featuring the latest fashion for young women so pure, they even make flowers blush”.
This quote can be found in a magazine near Hinako’s home and gives us just a glimpse of the propaganda that women were subjected to during this time. As a result, it’s no wonder that Hinako herself is something of an anomaly.
Growing up, she became best friends with Shu, with the pair getting mucky in the rice fields or playing Space Wars. Due to this, Hinako took on more “masculine traits” which ostracised her from other girls her age. Interestingly, if you play Silent Hill f in Japanese, much of Hinako’s dialogue takes on masculine forms and vocabulary, something that childhood friend Rinko points out during one scene.
In a time where women were expected to stick to standard gender roles and wait quietly to be swept away by a husband, Hinako was rebellious from a young age and so her tenacity and strength throughout the events of Silent Hill f were to be expected.
Hinako reclaims powers in various ways. In her second visit to the Otherworld, she will be able to wield a naginata, a Japanese polearm which were originally wielded by the samurai class of feudal Japan.
However, naginatas were also used by the onna-musha, female warriors as pointed out by Rachel Ashmun on Twitter. As their popularity on the battlefield decreased, their role as self-defence weapons grew as their long length made them perfect for women to keep at home and fight off any unwanted visitors. It was the woman’s way of gaining power and agency during the Edo period and as a result, the naginata was soon labelled “the woman’s weapon”.
What the ‘f’ represents in the title of the game remains a mystery as Konami have always refused to explain it.
The ‘f’ could be the Latin version of the letter, meaning ‘filia’ which translates to ‘femina’, female, mother, daughter, wife. It could also mean flowers or flora, force or forte, it could even just be fog.
To me, it represents the feminine. The power, strength, horror, fear, beauty that comes with it.
Silent Hill f, much like previous Silent Hill entries, is about the horrors of womanhood and yet it is also about the power of it. For millennia, women have been the pawns in the games of men. They have had their agency stripped, blood spilled, voices silenced and yet they have endured and that for me, is what this game is truly about.
Topics: Silent Hill, Konami, Xbox, PC, PlayStation, Features