CMS 303 WQ 2022
SLN 12595 MW 10:30am - 12:20pm
East Asian Genre Films
The course inquires how film genre develop, and especially how they inspire and mutate when crossing national borders. East Asian film industries have been deeply enmeshed in Hollywood’s global reach, yet they also offer an alternative, with different generic themes, conventions, and histories. The course examines films made in Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, and the PRC to better understand the formation and flow of international film genres.
Of special interest is the concept of “minor cinemas.” Taiwan cinema in particular cannot compete with well-funded industries such as Hollywood, Hong Kong in the 1970s, or more recently the PRC. While emulating some blockbuster practices with some success, Taiwan films must also create their local niche. The course will introduce also concepts of inter-Asian cultural criticism, such as “Asia as Method.”
The course structure emphasizes interaction. The lecture materials will be made available online ahead of the class meetings, which will focus on discussion.
The course assignments include:
- Films to watch (typically two films each week)
- Pre-recorded lectures to watch (typically two lectures of about an hour each every week)
- Short written responses to the films and pre-recorded lectures
- Four video mini-essays (1-3 minutes each), accompanied by a narrative (ca. 500 words each).
SYLLABUS (subject to change)
- Genre and society; the gangster movie
- Brother ブラザー (Japan, 2000)
- Monga 《艋舺》 (Taiwan, 2010)
Reading:
- “Genre and Society,” in Film Genre: from Iconography to Ideology by Barry Keith Grant
- Genre classification; science fiction
- Double Vision 《雙瞳》 (Taiwan, 2002)
- Save the Green Planet! 지구를 지켜라! (Korea, 2003)
- 2046 (Hong Kong, 2004)
- The Wandering Earth 流浪地球 (PRC, 2019)
Reading:
- “What is Generally Understood by the Notion of Film Genre” by Rick Altman
3. Asian westerns
- Yojimbo 用心棒 (Japan, 1961)
- Let the Bullets Fly 《讓子彈飛》 (PRC, 2010)
- The Good, the Bad, and the Weird 좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 놈 (Korea, 2008)
Readings:
- “Blockbuster, Korean Style” by Jinhee Choi
4. Responses to inter-Asian colonialism; nativist cinema
- Red Sorghum 《紅高粱》(PRC, 1988)
- City of Sadness 《悲情城市》 (Taiwan, 1989)
Readings:
- Selection from Nativism and Modernity: Cultural Contestations in China and
Taiwan under Global Capitalism, by Ming-yan Lai - “The Imperial Order of Things, or Notes on Han Chinese Racism” by Kuan-hsing Chen
5. The Sinophone cultural sphere; martial arts films
- The Assassin 《刺客聶隱娘》 (Taiwan, 2015)
- Hero 《英雄》 (PRC, 2002)
Reading:
- “Film Genre and Chinese Cinema: A Discourse of Film and Nation” by Stephen Teo
If there is time, here are additional genres considered:
6. Urban cinema
- Vive l’amour 《愛情萬歲》 (Taiwan, 1994) or The Hole 《洞》 (Taiwan, 1998)
- Stateless Things 줄탁동시 (Korea, 2011)
Reading:
- “The City’s Edge” (selection) by James Tweedie and Yomi Braester
7. Genre and sexuality; the musical
- The Hole 《洞》 (Taiwan, 1998)
- The Happiness of the Katakuris ピーター・カッタネオカタクリ家の幸福 (Japan, 2001)
Readings:
- “Delayed Voices: Intertextuality, Music and Gender in The Hole” by Jean Ma
- “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess” By Linda Williams
- Family intrigue thrillers
- The Bold, The Corrupt, and the Beautiful 《血觀音》 (Taiwan, 2017)
- The Handmaiden 아가씨 (Korea, 2016)
Readings:
- Sex, Money, Calculation, and Manipulation in Politics in The Bold, The Corrupt, and the Beautiful by Iris Tuan
- “Looking Back on Colonial Korea: Nostalgia and Anti-Nostalgia in Park Chang-wook’s ‘The Handmaiden’” by Andrew Kim