Juan Monroy — Outline: East Asian Cinema

1 Formation of Taiwan in 1949
- 1.1 island nation
- 1.2 long occupied by Japan
- 1.3 2 million mainlanders left in 1949 to flee Mao’s revolution
  - Jian Jie-shi
  - formed an authoritarian state
2 Taiwanese Film Industry
- 2.1 Central Motion Picture Company
  - anti-communist documentaries
  - light commercial fare
    - costume operas
    - comedies
    - love stories
  - Health Realism melodrama
    - Influenced from Hong Kong films (1960s)
    - fiction films
      - Beautiful Duckling (1965)
    - didactic messages
      - promoted strong moral values
      - in light of rapid social changes/modernization
    - production reached over 200 films per year
3 Taiwan’s changing demographics
- 3.1 manufacturing and modern technology
- 3.2 Jiang’s promise to recapture the mainland was dead
- 3.3 Taiwan’s youth sought distinct cultural identity
- 3.4 college educated and urban white-collar workers disdained action pictures and romances
4 Taiwanese Film Culture
- 4.1 Taiwan National Film archive (1979)
- 4.2 annual film festival (1982)
- 4.3 film magazines
- 4.4 European films screened in universities and small theaters
- 4.5 an educated affluent audience was ready for a new national art cinema
5 Taiwanese New Wave (1982–1990)
- 5.1 home video became a popular way to watch films
- 5.2 low-budget films could attract audiences and win film festivals
  - In Our Time (1982)
    - anthology film made by four filmmakers
      - Edward Yang
      - Te-Chen Tao
      - I-Chen Ko
      - Yi Chang
  - Sandwich Man (1983)
- 5.3 Resembled Neorealism and Nouvelle Vague
  - on-location camera work
  - episodic narration
    - lack of climaxes
    - pace would resemble real life
  - non-professional actors
  - autobiographical stories
  - elliptical editing
- 5.4 Topics
  - urbanization
  - poverty
  - conflict with political authority
- 5.5 Edward Yang
- 5.6 Hou Hsiao-Hsien
6 Taiwanese Second New Wave (1990-Present)
- 6.1 popularity of video entertainment
  - videocassette piracy
  - imports from Hong Kong
- 6.2 marital law was lifted
  - censorship was relaxed
  - films addressing Taiwanese history and identity
- 6.3 content
  - less serious
  - more populist
- 6.4 Tsai Ming
  - Vive L’Amour (1994)
- 6.5 Stan Lai
  - The Peach Blossom Land (1992)
- 6.6 Ang Lee
  - Pushing Hands (1991)
  - Wedding Banquet (1993)
  - Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
  - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
- 6.7 challenges
  - directly competing with Hollywood
  - less than 20 films annually
  - piracy continues to threaten industry
7 Hong Kong Cinema
- 7.1 leader in film production since 1949
  - 1 exporting to Southeast Asian countries
  - 2 Chinatowns in Western countries
- 7.2 Vertical Integration
  - 1 Shaw Brothers
  - 2 Raymond Chow’s Golden Harvest Company
  - 3 low production costs
  - 4 steady supply of films
- 7.3 Relaxed censorship
  - 1 Hollywood-like films
  - 2 lower costs enabling quicker profits
8 Bilingual Film Production
- 8.1 Mandarin
  - higher budgets
  - higher production values
  - larger export markets
  - influx of filmmakers from Shanghai
- 8.2 Cantonese
  - sometimes more numerous
  - second-tier status
  - Cantonese operas
  - low budget martial arts film (kung fu)
9 Hong Kong Film Culture
- 9.1 Hong Kong Film Festival 1977
- 9.2 serious film magazines
- 9.3 college courses
- 9.4 strong domestic production
- 9.5 HKG films after 1980s
  - genres
    - martial arts
    - political thrillers
    - contemporary comedies
    - underworld action films
  - modern urban culture
    - Cantonese
    - linguistic autonomy from Mainland
10 Hong Kong New Wave
- 10.1 social commentary
- 10.2 psychological nuance
- 10.3 filmmakers
  - Ann Hui
    - The Secret (1979) murder mystery
    - Spooky Beach (1980) ghost story
    - Story of Viet Woo (1981) foreshadows the rise of the “hero” crime film
    - Boat People (1982) explains the poltical oppression that drives Vietnamese to Hong Kong
  - Shi Kei
    - Sealed with a Kiss (1981) love affair between two handicapped adolescents
  - Allen Fong
    - Father and Son (1981) an homage to 400 Blows
11 Hong Kong Action Films
- 11.1 rapid fire pace
- 11.2 revamping of popular genres
- 11.3 ended the New Wave
- 11.4 filmmakers
  - Tsui Hark
    - Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain (1982) supernatural kung fu
    - Shanghai Blues (1984)
    - Peking Opera Blues (1986) mixtures of martial arts, comedy and sentimental romance borrows from New Hollywood
  - John Woo
    - A Better Tomorrow (1986)
      - foundation for the hero action films
      - sensitive, romanticized gangsters
    - The Killer (1991)
  - moved to USA to produce Hollywood films
12 Hong Kong after the New Waves
- 12.1 Shaw Brothers ceased production
- 12.2 Golden Harvest established headquarters in the West
- 12.3 Hong Kong film audiences were fiercely loyal
- 12.4 Western audiences saw Hong Kong in the 1990s as a cult object
  - flamboyant style
  - gangster hero cycle of films