East Asian cinema

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
Any material not supported by sources may be challenged and removed at any time. This article has been tagged since January 2007.
East Asian cinema

East Asian cinema is a term used to refer to the film industry and films produced in and/or by natives of East Asia. It can be seen as a sub-section of Asian cinema, which in turn is a sub-section of world cinema, a catchall term used in the English-speaking world to refer to all foreign language films.

The most significant film industries categorizable as East Asian cinema are the large, well-established industries of China, Hong Kong and Japan, and the growing industries in Taiwan, North Korea and South Korea. By definition the term also includes any film production within other countries in this region, such as Mongolia, Vietnam and Macau.

The terms 'Far Eastern cinema', 'Asian cinema', 'Eastern cinema' or 'Oriental cinema' are sometimes used synonymously with East Asian cinema, particularly in the United States, although their broader scope means that they could equally well apply to the movies produced in other parts of Asia, particularly the cinema of India including the enormous Bollywood film industry.

East Asia is highlighted in green on this map, which also includes South Asia (yellow) and Southeast Asia (blue).
East Asia is highlighted in green on this map, which also includes South Asia (yellow) and Southeast Asia (blue).

Contents

[edit] Styles and genres

The scope of East Asian cinema is huge and covers a wide array of different film styles and genres. However, East Asian cinema is particularly famous in the West for:

[edit] 1890s-1950s

Unlike the European film industries, the East Asian industries were not dominated by American distributors, and developed in relative isolation from Hollywood cinema; while Hollywood films were screened in East Asian countries, they were less popular than home-grown fare with local audiences. Thus, several distinctive genres and styles developed.

[edit] 1950s: global influence

East Asian cinema has - to widely varying degrees nationally - had a global audience since at least the 1950s. At the beginning of the decade, Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon and Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu both captured prizes at the Venice Film Festival and elsewhere, and by the middle of the decade Teinosuke Kinugasa's Gate of Hell and the first part of Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy had won Oscars. Kurosawa's Seven Samurai became a global success; Japanese cinema had burst into international consciousness.

By the end of the decade, several critics associated with French journal Cahiers du Cinema published some of the first Western studies on Japanese film; many of those critics went on to become founding members of the French nouvelle vague, which began simultaneously with the Japanese new wave.

[edit] 1960s and 1970s

However, by the late 60s and early 70s, Japanese cinema had begun to become seriously affected by the collapse of the studio system. As Japanese cinema slipped into a period of relative low visibility, the cinema of Hong Kong entered a dramatic renaissance of its own, largely a side effect of the development of the wuxia blending of action, history, and spiritual concerns. Several major figures emerged in Hong Kong at this time - perhaps most famously, King Hu, whose 1966 Come Drink With Me was a key influence upon many subsequent Hong Kong cinematic developments. Shortly thereafter, the American-born Bruce Lee became a global icon.

[edit] 1980s to the present

During the 1980s, Japanese cinema - aided by the rise of independent filmmaking and the spectacular success of anime - began to make something of an international comeback. Simultaneously, a new post-Mao generation of Chinese filmmakers began to gain global attention. Another group of filmmakers, centered around Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien launched what has become known as the 'Taiwanese New Wave'.

With the post-1980 rise in popularity of East Asian cinema in the West, Western audiences are again becoming familiar with many of the industry's film-makers and stars. A number of these key players, such as Chow Yun Fat and Zhang Ziyi have "crossed over", working in Western films. Others have gained exposure through the international success of their films, though many more retain more of a "cult" appeal, finding a degree of Western success through DVD sales rather than cinema releases.

[edit] Influence and Impact

As the popularity of East Asian films has endured, it is unsurprising that members of the Western film industry would cite their influences (notably George Lucas, Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese citing Akira Kurosawa; and Jim Jarmusch and Paul Schrader's similar mentions of Yasujiro Ozu), and - on occasion - work to introduce less well-known filmmakers to Western audiences (such as the growing number of Eastern films released with the endorsement "Quentin Tarantino Presents").

[edit] Remakes: East and West

Another sign of the increasing influence of East Asian film in the West is the number of East Asian films that have been remade in Hollywood, a tradition extending at least as far back as John Sturges' 1960 western, The Magnificent Seven (based on Seven Samurai), and continuing through present day remakes of horror films like Ring.

The influence also goes the other way. Many East Asian films have also been based upon Western source material as varied as the quickie Hong Kong remakes of Hollywood hits and Kurosawa's adaptations of Shakespeare (The Bad Sleep Well, Throne Of Blood, and Ran), Maxim Gorky (Lower Depths) and Ed McBain (High and Low).

[edit] Prominent figures

Some of the better known figures of East Asian cinema include:

[edit] Directors

[edit] China

[edit] Hong Kong

[edit] Japan

[edit] South Korea

[edit] Taiwan

[edit] Actors

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

  • Contemporary Asian Cinema, Anne Tereska Ciecko, editor. Berg, 2006. ISBN 1 84520237 6
 v • d • e 

Lists of films | Years in film | By Country | By Genre | By Language
Cinema topics
/ Regions

Actors • Archives • Animation • Awards • Characters • Cinematography • Cinematographers • Directors • Distributors • Editing • Film theatres • History • Festivals • Industry • Movements • Organizations • Pioneers • Production • Production companies • Sound production • Soundtracks • Special effects • Studios • Techniques • Technology  • Theory • Types of film •
Africa

Burkina Faso  •  Egypt  •  Morocco  •  Nigeria  •  Somalia  •  South Africa
Americas

North America :  Canada  (Quebec)  •  U.S.A.  |  Latin America :  Argentina  •  Brazil  •  Colombia  •  Cuba  •  Mexico  •  Paraguay  •  Peru  •  Puerto Rico
Asia

East Asia :  China  •  Hong Kong  •  Japan  •  Korea  •  Taiwan  |  Southeast Asia :  Cambodia  •  Indonesia  •  Malaysia  •  Myanmar  •  Philippines  •  Singapore  •  Thailand  •  Vietnam  |  West Asia :  Bahrain •  Iran •  Israel  •  Kuwait  •  Oman •  Saudi Arabia •  Turkey  •  United Arab Emirates  •  Yemen •  Palestinian territories  |  South Asia :  Afghanistan  •  Bangladesh (Bengali)  •  India (below)  •  Nepal  •  Pakistan  •  Sri Lanka

India :  Assamese  /  Bengali  /  Bollywood (Hindi)  /  Karnataka  /  Kollywood (Tamil)  /  Malayalam  /  Tollywood (Telugu)
Australasia

Australia  •  New Zealand
Europe

Albania  •  Armenia  •  Austria  •  Azerbaijan  •  Belgium  •  Bulgaria  •  Croatia  •  Czech Republic  •  Denmark  •  Estonia  •  Faroe Islands  •  Finland  •  France  •  Germany  •  Greece  •  Hungary  •  Iceland  •  Ireland  •  Italy  •  Luxembourg  •  Montenegro  •   Netherlands  •  Norway  •  Poland  •  Portugal  •  Romania  •  Russia  •  Serbia  •  Slovakia  •  Soviet Union  •  Spain  •  Sweden  •  Switzerland  •  Ukraine  •  U.K.  •  Yugoslavia
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../e/a/s/East_Asian_cinema_0a3b.html"