Asian CinemaPub Date : 2021-04-01DOI: 10.1386/AC_00035_1
Palita Chunsaengchan
{"title":"The critique of anti-communist state violence in Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives","authors":"Palita Chunsaengchan","doi":"10.1386/AC_00035_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/AC_00035_1","url":null,"abstract":"Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Palme d’Or-awarded Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) has ostensibly been embraced by both critics and scholars alike as international art cinema and for being constitutive of a canon of world cinema from the vantage of\u0000 Southeast Asia. This article, however, takes a detour to focus particularly on the film’s engagement with Thai politics and its complex intertwinement with Buddhism during the period of anti-communism. I specifically look at how the film replicates religious beliefs and indigenous practices,\u0000 such as the structure of kamma and reincarnation as redemption, that were used by the right-wing military government to justify a series of anti-communist pogroms. I argue that by hijacking such religious narratives and translating them into cinematic form, the film manages to eschew\u0000 the risk of being suppressed by censorship, or, at worst, of reproducing the state-imposed narrative on the appropriation and accomplishment of such violence in the name of the nation. This article aims to shed light on how the film criticizes not only the past ‐ what historically happened\u0000 ‐ but also the way we come to understand the history of such atrocious event and relate to it as our national history.","PeriodicalId":41198,"journal":{"name":"Asian Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49360634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian CinemaPub Date : 2021-04-01DOI: 10.1386/AC_00036_5
E. Poon
{"title":"Worldly Desires: Cosmopolitanism and Cinema in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Brian Hu (2018)","authors":"E. Poon","doi":"10.1386/AC_00036_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/AC_00036_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: Worldly Desires: Cosmopolitanism and Cinema in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Brian Hu (2018)Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 264 pp.,ISBN 978-1-47442-845-3, h/bk, £75.00ISBN 978-1-47442-846-0, p/bk, £19.99","PeriodicalId":41198,"journal":{"name":"Asian Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45640301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian CinemaPub Date : 2021-04-01DOI: 10.1386/AC_00030_1
Seth A. Wilder
{"title":"Sentimental journey? The drifting rhythms of Tsai Ming-liang’s Journey to the West","authors":"Seth A. Wilder","doi":"10.1386/AC_00030_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/AC_00030_1","url":null,"abstract":"With his experimental short, Journey to the West, Tsai Ming-liang creates a cinematic experience that recalls the early ‘cinema of attractions’, but this is an attraction with a twist. As a spectacle, it is more specular than spectacular. An attraction without the\u0000 attendant excitement, his is a reflection that presents a provocation. By calling out the shortened attention span of contemporary life, Tsai identifies the level of distraction that characterizes the contemporary, post-industrialized spaces of late-stage capitalism. An attempt at redemption,\u0000 his film conveys a sense of what Rey Chow refers to in contemporary Chinese cinema as ‘the sentimental’. Framed by Henri Lefebvre’s and Lea Jacobs’s respective ideas concerning rhythms both extrinsic and intrinsic to the cinematic, and complemented by considerations\u0000 of temporality, rather than making meaning, this article attempts to make sense of the film by locating these rhythms within it.","PeriodicalId":41198,"journal":{"name":"Asian Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44103738","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian CinemaPub Date : 2021-04-01DOI: 10.1386/AC_00033_1
Mirela David
{"title":"Hooligan Sparrow: Representation of sexual assault in Chinese cinema, feminist activism and the limits of #MeToo in China","authors":"Mirela David","doi":"10.1386/AC_00033_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/AC_00033_1","url":null,"abstract":"Hooligan Sparrow breaks with many taboos in Chinese cinema. It is the first internationally acclaimed documentary by a Chinese female director to centre upon investigating the activities of Ye Haiyan, a Chinese sex and women’s rights activist, as well as to address the\u0000 politically sensitive topic of sexual assault in China. This is the first study to examine the cinematic contributions of Wang Nanfu and Ye Haiyan’s activism and feminist writings posted on Ye’s online social media accounts on Sina Weibo and Twitter. I unpack the power dynamics\u0000 in this documentary as well as the interplay between the filmmaker’s subjectivity and the female rights activist’s subjectivity. This study also investigates how masculine aesthetic representations of sexual assault in Chinese cinema have blurred the issue of consent and shows\u0000 how the subjectivities of female directors like Wang Nanfu and Vivian Qu bring more impactful representations of sexual violence in Chinese cinema.","PeriodicalId":41198,"journal":{"name":"Asian Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43779414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian CinemaPub Date : 2021-04-01DOI: 10.1386/AC_00031_1
Chialan Sharon Wang
{"title":"Border-crossing and the narrative of the minor: Midi Z’s The Road to Mandalay","authors":"Chialan Sharon Wang","doi":"10.1386/AC_00031_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/AC_00031_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article studies Midi Z’s The Road to Mandalay (2016) as a cinematic representation of Deleuze’s ‘minor literature’. I argue that the film gives rise to collective utterances against social and economic hegemony, particularly in its portrayal\u0000 of Burmese immigrant characters who, as Agamben’s ‘bare life’, are subject to the violence underlying the biopower of neo-liberalism. A diasporic Burmese Chinese, Midi Z adopts the convention of cinema verité and fictionalizes the social reality of the migrant\u0000 Burmese community. The Road to Mandalay articulates the pathos of those who are deprived of civil rights and who, in their negotiation with the exploitation of global capitalism, manage to survive in an interstitial space. The article unpacks the way the film allegorizes such a struggle\u0000 in moments of surrealist and transcendental visions.","PeriodicalId":41198,"journal":{"name":"Asian Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45046731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian CinemaPub Date : 2021-02-16DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0008
Olivia Khoo
{"title":"Epilogue: New Regional Intimacies","authors":"Olivia Khoo","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this epilogue considers the future of regional Asian cinema. It develops a notion of regional intimacy, manifest in the interplay between new localisms and inter-nationalisms, to explore how Asian cinema might be understood and re-configured post-pandemic.","PeriodicalId":41198,"journal":{"name":"Asian Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44134200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian CinemaPub Date : 2021-02-16DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0007
Olivia Khoo
{"title":"Asian Cinema in 3D: Regional Technical Innovation","authors":"Olivia Khoo","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores burgeoning technical developments in 3D filmmaking in Asia as practitioners aim to situate themselves as part of a regional hub for stereoscopic pre- and post-production and innovation. It takes as its case study the Singapore-Australia co-production Bait 3D (Kimble Rendall, 2012).","PeriodicalId":41198,"journal":{"name":"Asian Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46433040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian CinemaPub Date : 2021-02-16DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0006
Olivia Khoo
{"title":"Archiving Asian Cinema","authors":"Olivia Khoo","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores issues of archiving and digital preservation in light of changing exhibition strategies, with a focus on the important roles played by the South East Asia Pacific Audio Visual Archive Association (SEAPAVAA) and the Asian Film Archive (AFA) in the creation and maintenance of a regional Asian cinema. The chapter also considers the issue of archiving broadly, to encompass not only the physical preservation of films from Asia but also journals, societies, and other forums that have sought to preserve scholarly interpretations of those films.","PeriodicalId":41198,"journal":{"name":"Asian Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41941777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian CinemaPub Date : 2021-02-16DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0003
Olivia Khoo
{"title":"Re-making Asian Cinema: Inter-Asian Remakes and Asian Omnibus Films","authors":"Olivia Khoo","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores remakes and omnibus films as specific forms of inter-Asian production. Although consideration has been paid to remakes of Asian cinema from Hollywood, there has been less attention paid to remakes from within Asia as a form of inter-Asian referencing. The chapter examines CJ Entertainment’s practice of regional localisation of its hit comedy Miss Granny (2014). The chapter also considers the resurgence of the omnibus film as a production practice targeted towards regional audiences.","PeriodicalId":41198,"journal":{"name":"Asian Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43506062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian CinemaPub Date : 2021-02-16DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0001
Olivia Khoo
{"title":"Introduction: Theorising Asian Cinema as a Regional Cinema","authors":"Olivia Khoo","doi":"10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474461764.003.0001","url":null,"abstract":"This introductory chapter sets out the book’s unique regional focus that distinguishes its approach from scholarly works that have regarded Asian cinema predominantly from a national cinema perspective. The chapter outlines the book’s innovative methodology derived from comparative film studies and inter-Asia cultural studies approaches.","PeriodicalId":41198,"journal":{"name":"Asian Cinema","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47355098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}