Asian Cinema and Media (CULS30002)

This subject focuses on contemporary Asian cinema and media with a special emphasis on their transnational aspects. Students will encounter examples mainly from cinema (both popular and 'art' film), but the subject also engages with other forms of media culture like television, computer games, music video and Internet cultures. These texts will be approached through analysis of the contexts of their production, distribution, and consumption as well as through textual analysis. Students will learn about new approaches to contemporary Asian cinema and media that understand these cultures as formed through transnational flows rather than as the product of discrete and bounded 'civilisations' as in traditional area studies approaches. On completion of this subject students should have an understanding of the transnationalism of Asian cinema and media today, knowledge of some of the key recent movements in Asian film and media, an appreciation of the historical contexts that underlie these patterns, and a sound grasp of the major scholarly approaches used to analyse these phenomena. Students completing the subject will be familiar with case studies including those from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Thailand and India.