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East Asian Cinema

Fall 2015
Friday, 12:00-2:50
New Millennium Hall 112
Instructor: Eunsun Cho
Email: eunsuncho@yonsei.ac.kr
Office Hours: by appointment
Course Description
This course examines East Asia cinemas in the framework of inter/ intra-cultural junctures.
With focus on cross-cultural production, exhibition, and reception we will probe stylistics,
thematics, and socio-political and historical contexts of cinemas of South Korea, China, Hong
Kong, Taiwan and Japan. Class discussion will also address the issues of gender, ethnic, and
national identity that are raised and contested in these cinemas, questioning the notions of
national cinema and nation-bound culture. Through the practices of visual and theoretical
analysis this course will enable you to explore East Asian cinemas in shifting scenes of the
global media.
Course Requirements and Grading Policy
I. Attendance
Your first unexcused absence will not affect your grade. But from your second
unexcused absence your grade will be lowered by one-third letter grade for every unexcused
absence beyond the two allowed: If your initial grade is an A, with three absences it will be
lowered to A-; with four absences, to B+. If you are late more than 15minutes, you will be
marked as absent. Three late arrivals equal one absence.
Absences will only be excused for medical or family emergency, a university-sanctioned field
trip or the observance of a religious holiday. You must present documentation either prior
to or immediately following an absence
II. Participation and Presentation 20%
Participation
Your participation in discussion is the core component of this class. For your active
participation you must complete an assigned film and readings prior to class. Please try to
take notes while watching films, it will be of great help.
How much your participation contributes to the learning of your fellow classmates is another
important criterion for the evaluation of your participation. You should try to participate not
only for yourself but also for everyone else in class. You should always make sure if your
participation is productive and helpful for all others. Do not participate in negative or
disruptive ways. Do not waste your classmates time. If you do these things, it will be taken
very seriously and affect your grade to a great extent.
Presentations
You will perform two different types of presentations.
Please prepare presentation slides for both.
1. Presentations about readings and films
Each of you will perform a 15 minute presentation on an assigned reading and film (or extra
video clips, see the schedule of presentation for details). Your presentation should include:

1) the summary of a reading assigned to you

2) how to make connections between the reading and film (or extra video clips)
You must upload your presentation file on YSCEC PRIOR TO presentation. If file
upload is delayed or missed, points will be taken off (5points for delayed upload, 10
points for missed upload).
Most often, assigned readings and films are not directly connected. It is your job to figure out
the connections. We may not go over details of readings. You should instead focus on key
points and core concepts discussed in readings and try to think about how to apply them to
films viewed in class.
2. Final presentation
A 15-minute presentation on your final paper. You are expected to discuss your topic, the key
arguments, and the outline (how you are going to develop the key arguments of your final
paper. In case you present about a film, please prepare visual materials (videos, DVDs,
photographs, etc.), pertaining to the topic of your presentation.
III. Weekly Film Reviews (15%)
Viewing assigned films and writing film reviews prior to class are the two most important
tasks for this course. This is a film class, and film-viewing must be its key part. But due to an
unfortunate time limit (only three hours a week!) we cannot view films during class hours.
Inevitably you need to watch an assigned film every week on your own (except the first
week). DVDs of all the assigned films are available at the multimedia center on the 3rd floor
of Yonsei-Samsung library.
You should write a one page, single-spaced review about an assigned film every week and
upload it on YSCEC (Assignment) one day before class (5:00pm, Thursday). This
assignment is intended to give you time to enjoy great films and to be prepared for
discussion. So, I am not going to evaluate your reviews, and, as long as you submit them on
time, you will receive full credits for the assignment. Late submissions are not acceptable.
Presenters of every week are exempt from the review assignment.
IV. Mid-Term Exam 30%
You will take an in-class exam on October 16th 23rd
For your mid-term exam you choose two out of three questions and write an approximately
500 word (two pages, double-spaced) short essay for each of them. You will be given 120
minutes to complete the exam. We will have a workshop for mid-term exam.
V. Final Paper 35%
Before you submit your final paper, you must turn in a 1-2 page, double-spaced proposal by
5:00pm November 19th (Thursday) or earlier if you want to. It should be uploaded on
YSCEC (assignment). You will then discuss your paper topics with me afterwards.
For your final assignment you will write a 14-15 page, double-spaced critical essay on any
East Asian films you want, including the ones viewed in class, engaging issues discussed in
class. You should upload your essay on YSCEC (assignment) by 5:00pm, December,
18th.

Textbooks
All the assigned readings are uploaded on YSCEC.
Electronic Distractions While in class, please give your full attention to our work and
refrain from using electronic devices that divert your attention away. Excessive goofing off
will result in you being asked to leave class for the day with your attendance marked as
absent.
Course Schedule
Week 1 Introduction
September 4
Screening: Red Sorghum (Zhang Yimou, 1987, 91min.)
Week 2 Chinese Fifth Generation I
September 11
Readings: Andrew Higson, The Concept of National Cinema. Screen 30: 4
(Autumn1989):36-46.
Tony Rayns, Breakthrough and Setbacks: the Origins of the New Chinese
Cinema. Perspectives on Chinese Cinema. British Film Institute, 1991.
Sheldon H. Lu, National Cinema, Cultural Critique, Transnational Capital: the Films of
Zhang Yimou. Sheldon H. Lu ed. Transnational Chinese Cinemas : Identity, Nationhood,
Gender. Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, 1997.
Rey Chow, Visuality, Modernity, and Primitive Passions (12- 23)
and The Forces of Surfaces: Defiance in Zhang Yimous films. Primitive Passions:
Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary Chinese Cinema, New York: Columbia
University Press, 1995.
Week 3 Chinese Fifth Generation II
September 18
Film: Farewell My Concubine (Chen Kaige, 1993, 171min.)
Readings: Benedict Anderson, Introduction and Ch. 1 of Imagined Communities:
Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Verso, 2006.
Edward Said, introduction to Orientalism. Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Group, 1979.
Sheldon H. Lu, Historical Introduction: Chinese Cinema and Transnational
Film Studies. Sheldon H. Lu ed., Transnational Chinese Cinemas : Identity, Nationhood,
Gender. Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, 1997.
Wendy Larson, The Concubine and the Figure of History: Chen Kaige's Farewell my
Concubine. Sheldon H. Lu ed. Transnational Chinese Cinemas : Identity, Nationhood,
Gender. Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, 1997.
Week 4 Chinese Sixth Generation
September 25
Film: Still Life (Jia Zhangke, 2006, 111min.)
Readings: Zhang Zhen, Introduction: Bearing Witness, Chinese Urban Cinema in the Era of
Transformation(Zhuanxing). Zhang Zhen, The Urban Generation: Chinese Cinema and

Society at the Turn of the Twenty. Duke University Press, 2007.

Jason McGrath, The Independent Cinema of Jia Zhangke: from Postsocialist Realism to a
Transnational Aesthetic. Zhang Zhen, The Urban Generation: Chinese Cinema and Society
at the Turn of the Twenty. Duke University Press, 2007.
An Interview with Zhang Yimou: From the Fifth to the Sixth Generation Film Quarterly 53.
2 (1999-2000): 2-13.
Week 5 Taiwanese New Wave
October 2
Film: Wedding Banquet (Ang Lee, 1993, 106min.)
Readings: Arjun Appadurai, Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy,
Mike Featherstone ed., Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization, and Modernity. Sage
Publications, 1990.
Dariotis & Fung, Breaking the Soy Sauce Jar: Diaspora and Displacement
in the Films of Ang Lee Sheldon H. Lu Ed. Transnational Chinese Cinemas :
Identity, Nationhood, Gender. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.
Christina Klein, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A Diasporic Reading
Cinema Journal 43: 4 (2004): 1842.
Week 6
October 9 Hangul Day
Week 7 Korean New Wave
October 16
Film: A Single Spark (Park Kwang Su, 1995, 92min.)
Readings: Kyung Hyun Kim, Introduction
& Post-Trauma and Historical Remembrance in
A Single Spark and A Petal. The Remasculinization of Korean Cinema.
Duke University Press, 2004.
Homi Bhabha, DissemiNation: Time, Narrative, and the Margins of the Modern
Nation, in
Nation and Narration. Routledge, 1990
Workshop for Mid-Term Exam
Week 8 Mid-term Week
October 23 Mid-Term Exam
Week 9 Korean Cinema after the New Wave
October 30
Film: Old Boy (Park, Chan-wook, 2003, 120min.)
Readings: Jae-Cheol Moon, The Meaning of Newness in Korean Cinema: Korean New
Wave and After, Korea Journal 46.1 (2006): 36-59
Eunsun Cho, Korean Cinema Bids Farewell to Allegorical Legacy: Reading Old
Boy on the Global Scene
Fredric Jameson Third-World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism
Social Text No. 15 (Autumn, 1986): 65-88.
Aijaz Ahmad Jameson's Rhetoric of Otherness and the "National Allegory Social Text
No.17 (Autumn, 1987): 3-25.

Week 10 Japanese Cinema

November 6
Film: Tokyo Story (Yasuziro Ozu, 1953, 136min.)
Readings: Gary Needham, Japanese Cinema and Orientalism. Dimitris Eleftheriotis and
Gary Needham Eds. Asian Cinemas: A Reader and Guide. Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, The Difficulty of Being Radical: the Discipline of Film Studies and
the Postcolonial World Order.Dimitris Eleftheriotis and Gary Needham Eds. Asian Cinemas:
A Reader and Guide. Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
Noel Burch, Ozu Yasujiro, To the Distant Observer: Form and Meaning in Japanese
Cinema. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.
Gilles Deleuze, Ch 1. Beyond Movement Image, Cinema 2: The Time image. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1989
Week 11 Hong Kong New Wave
November 13
Film: Rouge (Stanley Kwan, 1988, 96 min.)
Readings: Esther C.M. Yau, Introduction At Full Speed: Hong Kong Cinema
in a Borderless World
Akbar Abbas, The New Hong Kong Cinema and the Dj Disparu, in
Dimitris Eleftheriotis and Gary Needham Eds. Asian Cinemas: A Reader and Guide.
Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
Bhaskar Sarkar, Hong Kong Hysteria: Tales from a Mutating World. Esther C.M. Yau, At
Full Speed: Hong Kong Cinema in a Borderless World
Week 12 New Hong Kong Cinema
November 20
Film: Infernal Affairs (Wai-keung Lau and Alan Mark, 2002, 101 min.)
Readings: Gina Marchetti, Introduction and Ch 1.2. of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's
Infernal Affairs: The Trilogy. Hong Kong University Press, 2007.
Wing-Fai Leung, Infernal Affairs and Kung Fu Hustle: Panacea, Placebo and
Hong Kong Cinema, in Leon Hunt and Leung Wing-Fai Eds. East Asian
Cinemas: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film. London: I. B. Tauris,
2008.
Week 13 Final Presentations
November 27
Week 14 Final Presentations
December 4
Week 15 Final Exam Preparation Week
December 11
Week 16 Final Exam Week
December 18 Final Paper Dueby 5:00pm on YSCEC