..., and homosexuality in Sokurov's feature films, including Lonely Voice of Man, Mournful Insensitivity, Days of the Eclipse, The Second Circle, Taurus, Father and Son, and Faust. Podorvikha distorted...

... the directors and their works as integrally involved in the wider cultural debates that are taking place on a regional, national, and international scale. Akira Kurosawa Yimou Zhang Chan wook Park Naomi Kawase East Asian media industries film festivals Korean new wave Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto Marxism yakuza...

..., resulting in the end of the war in the Pacific. Like many of his peers, the trauma of this period and the death and horror that he saw daily around him during the Allied bombings would mark much of his film work. Fukasaku's early films, including Greed in Broad Daylight (Hakuchū...

...This chapter analyzes Fukasaku Kinji's film Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiaru, 2000). The film is set in Japan in the near future, when fear of out-of-control teenagers resulted in the government creating the “Battle Royale” act. With this act, randomly selected...

... writing as well as his films. These include Oasis (2000), about a mentally challenged man and a woman with cerebral palsy who are, for brief moments, transformed into an active and healthy couple; Green Fish (Chorok Mulgogi, 1997), where a protagonist's...

...This chapter analyzes Lee Chang-dong's film Secret Sunshine (Miryang, 2007), about a woman, Shin-ae, who moves with her small son to her late husband's hometown, Miryang, for a new start. The film contains no dramatic action sequences, visual trickery, or dramatic...

... on Japanese television as part of a manzi comedy duo known as “The Two Beats,” which offered audiences chaotic, often highly offensive comedy routines. In his debut film Violent Cop (Sono otoko, kyobo ni tsuki, 1989), Kitano took on the joint role of lead...

...This chapter analyzes Kitano Takeshi's film Hana-bi (Fireworks, 1997), which revolves around detectives Nishi, Horibe, Nakamura, and Tanaka. The film achieved tremendous success on the international stage with twenty-one awards and six nominations from film...

...This chapter discusses South Korean director Park Chan-wook. Over the last decade very few Korean film directors have made such an impact on the international scene as Park Chan-wook. The key to his fame can be summed up in one film title: Oldboy (2003). The film's macabre, violent...

... Kawase who was born in Nara in 1969. She is the only Japanese female director who has achieved sustained acclaim on the international circuit. Her film Moe no Suzaku won the Caméra d'Or at the 50th Cannes Film Festival in 1997, making Kawase the first Japanese and youngest ever director...

...This chapter discusses South Korean director Kim Ki-duk. Kim's background is very different from many directors working in South Korea today. He did not attend film school, he has never worked as a director's assistant, and he maintains that his love of film and individual style come from his...

...This chapter analyzes Miike Takashi's film Visitor Q (Bijitā Kyū, 2001), which sees a stranger integrate himself into a family's life and acts as a surreal catalyst to bring the family back together. Miike's film contains a series of references to well-known social...

...This concluding chapter ties together the loose threads of the discussions in the preceding chapters. It identifies several key trends that have had a huge impact on the Asian cinematic industry, including the rising popularity of Japanese and Korean films at international film festivals...

..., proprietor of the Spectator. Strachey's son, John, a film enthusiast, thought that the magazine should take notice of films. In the early 1920s Porter's Oxford friend, Bertram Higgins, was writing short reviews of motion pictures, but decided he could not continue and turned the job over...

... learned about film at the time. Although the book ostensibly attempts to differentiate film from the more established arts and lend respectability to the appreciation of film, it succeeds most thoroughly as a report on the nature and rewards of filmgoing. In its comments on national film movements...

...This chapter discusses how Iris Barry addressed the diverse agendas surrounding the development of the new Film Library. Iris' view that movies provided a legitimate dream-escape for people from otherwise oppressive lives, and that their content reflects cultural issues and trends worth studying...

...This chapter describes Iris Barry's efforts to gain access to European films for the film library. Here, she also had a less obvious and little-known agenda: getting her hands on any film which might become politically or militarily useful to the United States in the event that it entered...

...This chapter focuses on Iris Barry's continued efforts to build the Film Library and its infrastructure during the late 1930s and early 1940s. In 1937 the library received a large deposit of films and documents from David Wark Griffith. In January 1939 the Film Library published The Film...

..., he was referred to Iris Barry by the surrealist gallery owner Julien Levy. Ernst was eventually hired as a mail boy where he developed a worm's-eye view of the Film Library's operations. Ernst regarded Iris as “the soul of the Film Library.” Near the end of 1939 as war in Europe spread menacingly...

...This chapter focuses on the development of a national film collection at the Library of Congress, a repository in which the outstanding films of each year could be collected and preserved for posterity. Efforts to achieve this have been ongoing, if fitful. A significant boost to the cause came...