The Asian Cinema Experience

This book explores the range and dynamism of contemporary Asian cinemas, covering East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan), Southeast Asia (Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia), South Asia (Bollywood), and West Asia (Iran), in order to discover what is common about them and to engender a theory or concept of "Asian Cinema". It goes beyond existing work which provides a field survey of Asian cinema, probing more deeply into the field of Asian Cinema, arguing that Asian Cinema constitutes a separate pedagogical subject, and putting forward an alternative cinematic paradigm. The book covers "styles", including the works of classical Asian Cinema masters, and specific genres such as horror films, and Bollywood and Anime, two very popular modes of Asian Cinema; "spaces", including artistic use of space and perspective in Chinese cinema, geographic and personal space in Iranian cinema, the private "erotic space" of films from South Korea and Thailand, and the persistence of the family unit in the urban spaces of Asian big cities in many Asian films; and "concepts" such as Pan-Asianism, Orientalism, Nationalism and Third Cinema. The rise of Asian nations on the world stage has been coupled with a growing interest, both inside and outside Asia, of Asian culture, of which film is increasingly an indispensable component – this book provides a rich, insightful overview of what exactly constitutes Asian Cinema.

Asian cinemas are connected to global networks and participate in producing international film history while at the same time influenced and engaged by spatial, cultural, social and political transformations. This interdisciplinary study forwards a productive pairing of Asian cinemas and space, where space is used as a discursive tool to understand cinemas of Asia. Concentrating on the performative potential of cinematic space in Asian films, the contributors discuss how space (re)constructs forms of identities and meanings across a range of cinematic practices. Cities, landscapes, buildings and interiors actively shape cinematic performances of such identities and their significances. The essays are structured around the spatial themes of ephemeral, imagined and contested spaces. They deal with struggles for identity, belonging, autonomy and mobility within different national and transnational contexts across East, Southeast and parts of South Asia in particular, which are complicated by micropolitics and subcultures, and by the interventions and interests of global lobbies.

For lovers of Asian cinema and for those simply curious to know its trends and moods, experiments and innovations since it strode the world stage with assurance in the mid- 80s, Asian Film Journeys is a feast. It presents a selection of articles that appeared in the pages of Cinemaya, The Asian Film Quarterly between 1988 and 2004, articles that closely tracked the bold new film narrative of both the well-known and the lesser-known cinemas as it unfolded. The Quarterly remained, for fifteen years, the one and only serious yet lively platform for writing on the cinemas of Asian countries. Given that the writers were mostly Asian-apart from some keen and long-standing followers of Asian cinema from the West-the magazine offered, for the first time, a truly authentic point of view, a look at films from within their cultures. The book gives a bird’s eye view of the style and substance, art and craft of these cinemas and captures some of the Asian air it let in!

How do East Asian cultural heritages in shape film? How are these legacies being revived, or even re-created, by contemporary filmmakers? This collection examines the dynamic interactions between East Asian culture heritages and cinemas in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.

In Cinema at the Crossroads: Nation and the Subject in East Asian Cinema, Hyon Joo Yoo argues that East Asian experiences of colonialism and postcolonialism call for a different conceptualization of postcoloniality, subjectivity, and the nation. Through its analyses of Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese cinemas, this engaging study of cinema and culture charts the ways in which national cinemas visualize colonial and postcolonial conditions that derive from the history of Japanese colonialism and the post-war alliance between Japan and the United States. What does it mean to rethink postcolonial studies through East Asian cinema and experience? Yoo pursues this question by bringing an East Asian postcolonial framework, the notion of film as a manifestation of national culture, and the methodology of psychoanalysis to bear on a failed hegemonic subject. Cinema at the Crossroads is a profound look into how cinema and national culture intertwine with hegemony and power.

Founded in 1997 by producer Anita Lee and journalist Andrew Sun, the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival is a unique showcase of contemporary Asian cinema and work from the Asian diaspora. The festival fosters the exchange of cultural and artistic ideals between East and West, provides a public forum for homegrown Asian media artists and their work and fuels the growing appreciation for Asian cinema in Canada. In Reel Asian: Asian Canada on Screen, contributors, many of them filmmakers, examine East and Southeast Asian Canadian contributions to independent film and video. From artist-run centres, theories of hyphenation, distribution networks and gay and lesbian cinema to F-words, new media technologies and sweet n' sour controversies, Reel Asian: Asian Canada on Screen presents a multi-faceted picture of independent Asian film in Canada. The collection highlights the screen as a site for the reflection, projection and reimagination of identities and communities. Includes: David Eng, Ann Marie Fleming, Richard Fung, Monika Kin Gagnon, Colin Geddes, Kwoi Gin, Mike Hoolboom, Alice Ming Wai Jim, Cheuk Kwan, Julia Kwan, Anita Lee, Helen Lee, Karin Lee, Keith Lock, Pamila Matharu, Christine Miguel, Tan Hoang Nguyen, Midi Onodera, Mieko Ouchi, Alice Shih, Mina Shum, Mary Stephen, Ho Tam, Loretta Todd, Khanhthuan Tran, Phil Tsui, Paul Wong, Su-Anne Yeo, Iris Yudai and Wayne Yung.

From the critically acclaimed Malaysian film Sepet to the on-going box office successes of the films created by Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, cinematic texts from the nations of Asia are increasingly capturing audiences beyond their national boundaries. Tradition, Culture and Aesthetics in Contemporary Asian Cinema explores the rise of popular Asian cinema and provides an understanding of the aesthetic elements that mark these films as 'Asian cinema'. Incorporating examples of contemporary films from China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and India, Peter C. Pugsley gives readers a fresh insight into the rapidly developing discourse on popular Asian media. The book's chapters focus on the aesthetic features of national cinemas and the intersections of local/global encountered in the production, distribution and consumption of contemporary Asian films. By tracking across some of the most influential countries in Asia the book is able to offer new perspectives into the visual and aural features that create greater understanding between East and West. As distribution and technological advances make Asian films more readily available, an understanding of the different aesthetics at play will enable readers of this book to recognise key cultural motifs found in cinematic texts from Asia.

Films are produced, reviewed and watched worldwide, often circulating between cultural contexts. The book explores cosmopolitanism and its debates through the lens of East Asian cinemas from Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Singapore, throwing doubt on the validity of national cinemas or definitive cultural boundaries. Case studies illuminate the ambiguously gendered star persona of Taiwanese-Hong Kong actress Brigitte Lin, the fictional realism of director Jia Zhangke, the arcane process of selection for the Best Foreign Film Oscar and the intimate connection between cinema and identity in Hirokazu Koreeda s Afterlife (1998). Considering films, their audiences and tastemaking institutions, the book argues that cosmopolitan cinema does not smooth over difference, but rather puts it on display."