VSA2670

Asian cinema

David Hanan

8 points
* 4 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton
* Prerequisite: At least one of VSA1040, VSA1050, VSA2190 or VA103.06

Objectives Upon successful completion of the subject students will be expected to have demonstrated an ability to discuss both Asian art cinema and popular Asian film texts in ways that show some understanding of generic considerations (star and studio systems, and popular film genres), cultural differences and historical specificity (the relation of national cinemas to indigenous cultural forms and changing national ideologies); a general theoretical awareness of the problematic of cross cultural readings (`Orientalism' in the postcolonial era; constructions of `the Orient' and Asia in Australian culture); some understanding of how cinema has developed in Japan, India, China and the Chinese diaspora over the last fifty years; and into the so-called `postmodern' era.

Synopsis This subject examines key epochs of cinema in Japan, China (and to a lesser extent India) but concentrating on the present, and taking in both popular genres and art films. The subject will begin with an examination of the problematic of reading representations of Asia by examining some key Australian films made about Asian countries. We will then explore aspects of Japanese cinema in the militarist period of the 1930s and during the second world war (particularly works by Ozu and Mizoguchi in this period), and then look at critiques of this period in the work of Oshima in the 1960s. The study of contemporary Japanese cinema will involve discussion of social comedies by Itami, and the very popular new Japanese animation genres. Our investigation of the Chinese cinema will begin by focusing on films made in the 1950s in the Peoples Republic of China for the new communist regime, and critiques of these and this regime by the fifth generation of filmmakers in the 1980s (Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige). We will also look at popular genres of Hong Kong cinema and recent theorisation about them in terms of post modern theory. The discussion of Indian cinema will concentrate on the Indian alternative documentary movement, particularly the work of Anand Patwardhan.

Assessment Essay (2000 words): 33%
* Essay (3000 words): 50%
* Visual test (1 hour): 17%

Recommended reading

Barthes R Empire of signs Hill and Wang, 1982
Berry C Perspectives on Chinese cinema Cornell U P, 1986
Bordwell D Ozu and the poetics of cinema British Film Institute, 1988
Burch N To the distant observer Scholars P, 1980
Buruma I A Japanese mirror: Heroes and villains of Japanese culture Macmillan, 1985
Mellen J The waves at Genji's door Pantheon
Said E Orientalism Penguin, 1982
Sato T Currents in Japanese cinema Harper and Row, 1982
Sen K Histories and stories: Cinema in new order Indonesia Centre of South East Asian Studies, Monash U, 1988