Center for Korean Studies

In recent years, international co-productions have become more and more common in East Asian cinema. Movie stars from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and China now regularly form international casts in films such as Peter Chan’s Perhaps Love (which also featured Bollywood choreography), and Wong Kar-wai’s 2046. This talk traces the history of transnational collaboration in East Asian cinema, beginning in the early twentieth century, when the propaganda machinery of Japan’s imperial ambitions laid the groundwork for, and influenced the aesthetics of, film production across the region, to the present day, in which globalization has led to border-crossing movie stars, ambitious international co-productions, and fascinating experiments in popular filmmaking that mix and match genres, styles and cultural influences.