China Books

Film directors from East Asia frequently win top prizes at international film festivals, but in the West little is known about them nor about the cultures that produced them. It is not all martial arts, flying warriors, historical pageants and tea ceremonies. China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and North and South Korea went through periods of great political turmoil and rapid modernisation in the 20th century. The films of these countries reflect these changes and the conflicts between modern lifestyles and traditional values. In some cases it is capitalism versus communism, in others materialism versus spiritual concerns. This book provides an ideal reference work on all the major directors, with details of their films and checklists for the films of each country, useful for both ardent fan and serious student alike. It explores the common cultural heritage of the countries and their mutual influence. The films of China, Japan and Korea, for example, reflect their shared Buddhist and Confucian heritage. The films of China and North Korea are conditioned by Communist ideology. Early Korean cinema was dominated by the effects of Japanese colonial domination, and the Japanese cinema greatly influenced that of Taiwan. Features >The first comprehensive guide to the subject available >Covers filmmakers Akira Kurosawa, Wong Kar Wai, Kon Ichikawa, Takeshi Kitano, Shohei Imamura, Kim Ki-deok, Tsui Hark, Zhang Yimou, Takeshi Miike >Includes Old Boy; In the Mood for Love; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; The Ring; Audition; Rashomon; Tetsuo and more >Covering film and filmmakers from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and North and South Korea >Individual analyses of over 100 key films About the Author CARTER David presently teaches at Yonsei University in Seoul. He has taught Film Studies for more than 15 years and is the author of Pocket Essentials on Georges Simenon and Literary Theory. (For this item please quote stock ID 28530) ISBN: 9781904048688

The Sheik. Pépé le Moko. Casablanca. Aladdin. Some of the most popular and frequently discussed titles in movie history are imbued with orientalism, the politically-charged way in which western artists have represented gender, race, and ethnicity in the cultures of North Africa and Asia. This is the first anthology to address and highlight orientalism in film from pre-cinema fascinations with Egyptian culture through the 'Whole New World' of Aladdin. Eleven illuminating and well-illustrated essays utilize the insights of interdisciplinary cultural studies, psychoanalysis, feminism, and genre criticism. Other films discussed include The Letter, Caesar and Cleopatra, Lawrence of Arabia, Indochine, and several films of France's cinéma colonial. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Dudley Andrew, Phebe Shih Chao, Mary Hamer, Marina Heung, Antonia Lant, Adrienne L. McLean, Janice Morgan, Alan Nadel, Charles O'Brien, and Ella Shohat. (For this item please quote stock ID 4438) ISBN: 9780813522951

Since the 1970s, Hong Kong has been home to arguably the world's most energetic, imaginative mass-market film industry. At its peak it surpassed nearly all Western countries in number of films released, ruled the East Asian market, and produced movies (ranging from John Woo's action pictures to the comic adventures of Jackie Chan) that have thrilled global audiences and attained cult status in the West. This book offers a deeply informed and highly engaging look at how Hong Kong cinema has become one of the success stories of film history, and how it has influenced international film culture and the development of film as a medium. As sentimental and outrageous as Hong Kong films can be, David Bordwell demonstrates that they are not merely crowd-pleasing; they harbor remarkable inventiveness and careful craftsmanship and in many cases rise to the level of a rich and delightful art. Bordwell surveys the historical conditions that fueled the rise of this cinema: the high output, shrewd entrepreneurship, changing world tastes, and a unique skill in action genres that cross cultural boundaries. Considering both the movies themselves and the bigger picture, he moves from deft and detailed analyses of many classics of this tradition to a broader assessment of the basic strategies and impulses of mass entertainment. (For this item please quote stock ID 4631) ISBN: 9780674002142

At last! Paul Fonoroff, one of Hong Kong?s leading movie critics and most respected film historians (see also Silver Light: A Pictorial History of Hong Kong Cinema 1920-1970) has compiled his reviews from the last golden age of Hong Kong cinema into this comprehensive and easy-to-use volume for scholars, movie buffs, and Hong Kong film afficionados alike.With the vast majority of these films now readily available for viewing on laser disc, video or DVD, At The Hong Kong Movies is the indispensable reference, giving you an unique, inside view of the films of Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat, John Woo, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh and hundreds of others, from one of the few Westerners to become part of the Hong Kong movie world. (For this item please quote stock ID 7094) ISBN: 9789622176416

Far from the orbit of Planet Hollywood, the new cinema of Hong Kong beckons. Gone are the flying pigtails and contrived fist-thuds of your father's favourite chopsockies. These are punch-straight entertainers, movies juddering with the excitement that put the 'motion' in motion pictures. Dodge a thousand bullets as you contemplate the heroic gangster-knights of Master Director John Woo. Watch international superstar Jackie Chan perform action-comedy on the edge of peril. Wrap your imagination in the fantasy of director Tsui Hark, who proffers comely ghosts floating on silk, otherworldly romance, and no-joke witches and demons. And there's much more! Fighting femme flicks featuring fatales hiking up their designer dresses and bouncing spike heels off the bad guy's forehead. Stylish tragedies rivaling the best of Hollywood noir. Brain-boiling monster weirdies to delight the grindhouse faithful. Subtitles that mangle the English language into fabulous new mutations. 'Very informative and enlightening. A must for any serious film buff' - John Woo (For this item please quote stock ID 7712) ISBN: 9780684803418

The Yellow Earth is the most acclaimed work of the modern Chinese cinema. The controversy that surrounded its release greatly increased its local impact, while the subtlety of the film itself drew an international audience sometimes only distantly aware of its political implications. This book consists of a comprehensive study of the film plus a complete translation of the filmscript based on the published version and with a brief notation of camera directions. It begins with an account of the plot and the way in which the plot has been interpreted, followed by a detailed account of the making of the film and reactions to it after its release in 1984. The final chapter gives a biographical sketch of the director, Chen Kaige. The materials for this study include interviews with members of the film team. Illustrations show major scenes from the film and the director at work. (For this item please quote stock ID 10718) ISBN: 9789622014992

The first full-length, English-language study of one of the world's most exciting and innovative cinemas. Covering a period from 1909 to the 'end of Hong Kong Cinema' in the present day, this unique book is packed with information about the films, the studios, the personalities, and the contexts that have shaped a cinema famous for its energy and style. Hong Kong Cinema enhances our understanding and enjoyment of the films of such legendary figures as King Hu, Bruce Lee, and Jackie Chan, moving up to date with the work of John Woo and the directors of the various 'New Waves.' The author, Stephen Teo, is a filmmaker, critic, and film historian. (For this item please quote stock ID 13266) ISBN: 9780851705149

A 'making of the film' book including the complete screenplay. Illustrated with more than 90 full colour photographs, this incredible book includes the entire original screenplay, a running synopsis of the storyline, essays amd commentaries about the making of the movie by director Ang Lee, screenwriter James Schamus, film critic Richard Corliss, film scholar David Bordwell, film reviewer Kenneth Turan and members of the cast and crew, as well as biographies of the film-makers. From a photograph of Ang Lee's Good Luck ceremony performed at the start of production to a shot from the final, climatic scene, this is the only book to explore the miraculous means by which this astonishing film was brought to the screen. (For this item please quote stock ID 14948) ISBN: 9780571209163

Essays, notes and other information on a thematic approach on Hong Kong cinema in the 80s. (For this item please quote stock ID 16974) ISBN: 9789627040699

Essays, notes and other information on a thematic history of Hong Kong cinema in a catalogue which mixes the analytical and the informative. (For this item please quote stock ID 17106) ISBN: 9789627040569

Essays, film notes, stills, biographies of leading personalities and a complete filmography of Cantonese Melodrama: 1950-1969. (For this item please quote stock ID 17190) ISBN: 9789627040552

Essays, notes, stills, bio-filmographies of leading personalities in Hong Kong cinema and a complete list of documentary films ever made in Hong Kong. (For this item please quote stock ID 17191) ISBN: 9789627040613

Essays, notes, stills, biographies and other information on the topic of Mandarin films made in Hong Kong and Shanghai from the early years to the 1960s. (For this item please quote stock ID 17194) ISBN: 9789627040422

The focus is on new young stars, youth musicals, comedies, contemporary action movies & martial arts movies. (For this item please quote stock ID 17196) ISBN: 9789627040507

The catalogue consists of analytical articles discussing the career and works of King Hu, filmmaker par excellent of martial arts pictures. There are also many interviews of Hu's co-workers and colleagues. Other articles include specialised discussions on the screen achievements of writer Eileen Chang. (For this item please quote stock ID 17197) ISBN: 9789627040637

A comprehensive look at the rise of the Hong Kong New Wave, with an emphasis on the TV works of the young generation of directors before they launched careers in cinema in the period 1979-83. Articles examining the works of individual directors and the movement in its broadest perspectives, plus interviews, make up the bulk of the contents. Including programme notes of the films and TV works presented in the retrospective. (For this item please quote stock ID 17199) ISBN: 9789627040675

Asian Visions >Global Images >Gala Presentations >The Zone >ruth or Dare >Theo Angelopoulos >Walter Salles >Haneda Sumiko >Christine Choy >Kurosawa Kiyoshi >production notes, reviews, stills, biographies, filmographies, essays... (For this item please quote stock ID 17486)

This special issue of positions is a collection of thought-provoking essays that challenges the ways in which the West has traditionally experienced Asia/Pacific film. Focusing on film texts from Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines, the articles explore the powerful emotions of frustration and alienation that cinema can express in the face of modernisation and globalisation. Contributors examine how specific films ? including Haplos (1982), Chilsu and Mansu (1988), Fresh Kill (1994), and Princess Mononoke (1997) ? rework folktales, literary sources, popular memory, lived experience, and history. Some of the films examined here incorporate supernatural elements and/or gay and lesbian narratives that provide an escape from the sexism, racism, homophobia, environmental destruction, and urban alienation that the filmmakers see as the defining characteristics of the postcolonial world. Asia/Pacific Cinema posits that film, with its ability to play with memory, fate, and linear time, creates a space in which to consider alternatives to the dominant cultural, economic, and social norms. Contributors: Jonathan Beller, Joan Kee, Kyung Hyun Kim, Helen Hok-sze Leung, Bliss Cau Lim, Gina Marchetti, Susan Napier, Esther C. M. Yau (For this item please quote stock ID 17855) ISBN: 9780822365204

A comprehensive book on the complex relationship between media and modernity in east Asia Multiple Modernities explores the cultural terrain of East Asia. Arguing that becoming modern happens differently in different places, the contributors examines popular culture ? most notable cinema and television ? to see how modernization, as both a response to the West and as a process that is unique in its own right in the region, operates on a mass level. Included in this collection are significant explorations of popular culture in East Asia, including Chinese new cinema and rock music, Korean cinema, Taiwanese television, as well as discussions of alternative arts in general. While each essay focuses on specific nations or cinemas, the collected effect of reading them is to offer a comprehensive, in-depth picture of how popular culture in East Asia operates to both generate and reflect the immense change this significant region of the world is undergoing. Jenny Kwok Wah Lau is Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema at San Francisco State University. Contributors: Jeroen de Kloet, Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Yomota Inuhiko, Frances Gateward, Hector Rodriguez, Dai Jaihua, David Desser, August Palmer, Lu Szu-Ping, and the editor. (For this item please quote stock ID 18917) ISBN: 9781566399869

New Chinese Cinema: Challenging Representations examines the 'search for roots' films that emerged from China in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. Sheila Cornelius contextualises the films of the so-called Fifth Generation directors who came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, such as Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, and Tian Zhuangzhuan. Including close analysis of such pivotal films as Farewell My Concubine (winner of the Palme d´Or at Cannes), Raise the Red Lantern, and The Blue Kite, the book also examines the rise of contemporary Sixth Generation underground directors whose themes embrace the disaffection of urban youth. Sheila Cornelius is visiting lecturer in Chinese cinema at Morley College, London. (For this item please quote stock ID 20084) ISBN: 9781903364130

From the balletic intensity of Bruce Lee to the gravity-defying swordplay of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Chinese Martial Arts film has captured audiences' imaginations around the world, while absorbing influences ranging from Beijing Opera to computer games. Its global impact can be seen in the Hollywood crossover of stars like Jackie Chan and Hong Kong-influenced films like The Matrix. In this wide-ranging study, Leon Hunt looks at the mythic allure of the Shaolin Temple, the 'Clones' of Bruce Lee, gender-bending swordswomen, and the knockabout comedy of Sammo Hung, bringing new insights to a hugely popular and yet critically neglected genre. In addition, he considers the impact of new technologies on a genre focused on physical performance, from the 'wire fu' of Jet Li to the digital 'stars' of console games like Tekken. Films discussed include both popular and cult classics like Game of Death, Fist of Legend, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Drunken Master. Leon Hunt is a senior lecturer in Film and TV Studies at Brunel University, UK. He is the author of British Low Culture: From Safari Suits to Sexploitation. (For this item please quote stock ID 20087) ISBN: 9781903364635

The Chinese cinemas, including mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, have been the most internationally popular and successful non-Western cinemas for almost two decades now. In recent years, they have generated a vigorous and thriving field of interpretation and criticism. Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes is a anthology of 25 fresh and original readings of individual Chinese films. Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the diaspora are all included, and historical coverage ranges from the 1930s to the present. Film titles covered include Farewell My Concubine, Chungking Express, Flowers of Shanghai, The Goddess, Bullet in the Head, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Crows and Sparrows, Yi Yi, and many more. As well as globally famous films, the anthology also introduces a number of Chinese classics that are less well known internationally and deserve more attention. The essays are concise, accessible, rich, and on the cutting edge of current research. Each one outlines existing writing on the film, and then presents an original perspective. All are designed for classroom use, scholarly research, and to appeal to the general reader with an interest in Chinese film. Contents: >Contents >Introduction (Chris Berry) >1. Black Cannon Incident: Countering the Counterespionage Fantasy (Jason McGrath) >2. Boat People: Second Thoughts on Text & Context (Julian Stringe) >3. Bullet in the Head: Trauma, Identity, & Violent Spectacle (James Steintrager) >4. Centre Stage: A Shadow in Reverse (Bérénice Reynaud) >5. A Chinese Ghost Story: Ghostly Counsel & Innocent Man (John Zou) >6. Chungking Express: Time & its Displacements (Janice Tong) >7. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Reading Ambiguity & Ambivalence (Felicia Chan) >8. Crows & Sparrows: Allegory on a Historical Threshold (Yiman Wang) >9. Ermo: (Tele)Visualizing Urban/Rural Transformation (Ping Fu) >10. Evening Bell: Wu Ziniu's Visions of History, War & Humanity (Yingjin Zhang) >11. Farewell My Concubine: National Myth & City Memories (Yomi Braester) >12. Floating Life: Nostalgia for the Confucian Way in Suburban Sydney (Kam Louie) >13. Flowers of Shanghai: Visualizing Ellipses & (Colonial) Absence (Gang Gary Xu) >14. The Goddess: Fallen Woman of Shanghai (Kristine Harris) >15. Hibiscus Town: Revolution, Love, & Beancurd (Charles Hayford) >16. In The Mood for Love: Intersections of Hong Kong Modernity (Audrey Yue) >17. Love Eterne: Almost a (Heterosexual) Love Story (Tan See Kam & Annette Aw) >18. Not One Less: The Fable of a Migration (Rey Chow) >19. The Red Detachment of Women: Resenting, Regendering, Remembering (Robert Chi) >20. A Time to Live, A Time to Die: A Time to Grow (Corrado Neri) >21. A Touch of Zen: Action in Martial Arts Movies (Mary Farquhar) >22. Vive L'Amour: Eloquent Emptiness (Fran Martin) >23. Wedding Banquet: A Family Affair (Chris Berry) >24.Yellow Earth: Hesitant Apprenticeship & Bitter Agency (Helen Hok-Sze Leung) >25. Yi Yi: Reflections on Reflexive Modernity in Taiwan (David Leiwei Li) >Notes on Contributors >Chinese Character Lists compiled by Wang Dun Chris Berry is Associate Professor, Program in Film Studies and Department of Theatre, Dance,and Performance Studies, University of California at Berkeley and editor of Perspectives in Chinese Cinema. (For this item please quote stock ID 20455) ISBN: 9780851709864

New Chinese Cinemas analyses the changing forms and significance of filmmaking in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong since the end of the Cultural Revolution, with a particular emphasis on how film comments on the profound social changes that have occurred in East Asia over the past two decades. Considering in detail both conservative and progressive stances on economic modernisation, it also demonstrates how film has been an important formal structure and social document in the interpretation of these changes. The essays collected here, which were specially commissioned for this volume, also offer extended analyses of the important trends, styles, and work that define Chinese filmmaking in the 1980s. (For this item please quote stock ID 20556) ISBN: 9780521448772

Based on meticulous archival research and a repetorary of rare films, most of which were believed lost, this book is a pioneering critical study of the Chinese cinemas in Hong Kong and Shanghai and their complex interconnections. The years 1935-50 were a period of ceaseless violence in China, of war, occupation, civil war, and colonialism, leading to mass displacements of millions of people and extreme poverty. Both the cinema and the broader popular culture of this period have been little studied, partly because access to research materials is so difficult, partly because of the political problems involved (most films produced during the war have been considered pro-Japanese and their makers traitors). This study brings to light the humanity of the filmmakers, writers, and business people; the many facets of the historical situation in which they worked; and the complex politics of the films they made. This is also an original and important study of the regional networks, diasporic connections, and border-crossing movement of goods, capital, and people that drew Hong Kong and Shanghai together in an intercity nexus that sustained the survival and even flourishing of popular cinema during this tumultuous period. (For this item please quote stock ID 21127) ISBN: 9780804745185

[Indent] This study offers fresh, theoretically informed readings of milestones in Chinese fiction, film, and drama spanning the entire 20th century. Drawing on rare archival material, it argues that they have challenged social reformers' call for changing the course of history. In doing so it makes a methodological point of interest to historians, literary scholars, and social scientists concerned with the relation between literature and testimony, literature and history, and literature and the public sphere. The book argues that literary texts are fundamentally different from historical texts and from programmatic essays. Many important literary texts are discussed here for the first time in any language. Arguing for the need for attention to literary dynamics, the book challenges existing concepts of Chinese modernity. While the prevalent belief is that modern Chinese literature has been mobilised for nation building, Braester shows that many texts criticise the idea that literature and other forms of expression might change the course of history. (For this item please quote stock ID 21128) ISBN: 9780804747929

The productions of Cathay/MP & GI have themselves become a myth of Hong Kong cinema. What accounts for its radiance and elegance? And why was the audience broken-hearted to see its decline? The Cathay Story may offer a little clue . . . (For this item please quote stock ID 21375) ISBN: 9789628050161

Interviews with nine film veterans who joined Great Wall or Feng Huang film companies in the 1950s tell the saga of how a group of filmmakers labelled left-wingers at the time, realised the ideals and expectations that they had of their country and societal developments in the course of momentous historical changes. The Chapter 'Filmdom Anecdotes' written by George Shen contains detailed information on Yuen Yang-an, a key figure of early Great Wall days. (For this item please quote stock ID 21378) ISBN: 9789628050147

[Indent] The Hong Kong Filmography, Volume II (1942-1949) records over 430 fiction films and documentaries in its 540-page edition. Bilingual in Chinese and English, the Filmography provides detailed information on the films' language, genre, date of release, production company, director, screenplay, cast, synopsis and black-and-white stills. Also included are four appendices and three separate indices. (For this item please quote stock ID 21380) ISBN: 9789628050055

[Indent] >The Hong Kong Filmography, Volume 3 (1950-1952) records the details of over 580 films from 1950 through 1952. The contents include the genre classifications, language, dates of release, names of production companies, credit lists of directors, writers and players, synopses, and the best available film stills. The whole catalogue is bilingual, printed in hardcover. As a legatee of the traditions of the 40s, Hong Kong cinema in the 50s continued to produce fantasy martial arts pictures, melodramas and comedies. These genres remained the mainstays of the industry. Not a few were adapted from so-called 'airwave novels'. Volume 3 adopts a completely new design in data presentation, incorporates more notes reagarding the historical and production backgrounds and includes more quality stills in enlarged formats, a publication not to be missed by Hong Kong film fans. (For this item please quote stock ID 21381) ISBN: 9789628050086

Analytical essays on 25 classic Chinese films from the last century written by notable film critics. (For this item please quote stock ID 21419) ISBN: 9789628050116

The development of the arts and technical aspects of the Hong Kong cinema, from the earliest handicraft to present computer generated effects. (For this item please quote stock ID 21420) ISBN: 9789628050123

A 100-page catalogue with over 100 colour pictures and detailed descriptions featuring the '1998 Archive Exhibition'. (For this item please quote stock ID 21421) ISBN: 9789628050048

The history of Hong Kong through the images on film. (For this item please quote stock ID 21422) ISBN: 9789628050093

Compilation of articles, including Roger Garcia (S N Ko)'s essay originally published in Cinemaya - The Asian Film Quarterly in 1995, by insiders who review the development of independent shorts in Hong Kong. (For this item please quote stock ID 21424) ISBN: 9789628050130

A brief introduction to life in Hong Kong in the 50s and 60s. (For this item please quote stock ID 21426) ISBN: 9789628050109

Ashes of Time, by the internationally acclaimed director Wong Kar-wai, has been considered to be one of the most complex and self-reflexive of Hong Kong films. Loosely based on the stories by renowned martial arts novelist Jin Yong, Wong Kar-wai has created a very different kind of martial arts film, which invites close and sustained study. This book presents the nature and significance of Ashes of Time, and the reasons for its being regarded as a landmark in Hong Kong cinema. Placing the film in historical and cultural context, Dissanayake discusses its vision, imagery, visual style, and narrative structure. In particular, he focuses on the themes of mourning, confession, fantasy, and kung fu movies, which enable the reader to gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the film. Wimal Dissanayake is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Hong Kong and also teaches at the University of Hawaii. A leading scholar of Asian cinema, his most recent work is New Chinese Cinema (with Kwok-kan Tam, Oxford University Press, 1998). He is also the founding editor of East-West Film Journal. 'Carefully researched and lucidly written, this study of Ashes of Time ... Shows its uncanny engagement with the leftist melancholy of the postcolonial present ... It suggests how...Wong Kar-wai's films now and again deal not only with specific Hong Kong anxieties of the handover, but the larger poetics of globalization ...' - Rob Wilson, Professor of Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz. '... Dissanayake examines the preoccupations with time, space and other stylistic traits that we have come to identify with Wong Kar-wai: the use of voice-overs, the fragmented style of his narratives, the psychological depth of his characters ... The book is well-researched and convincingly argued' - Stephen Teo, author of Hong Kong Cinema: The Extra Dimensions (British Film Institute, 1998). 'This book fills a long-felt need for specific analyses of films by important directors like Wong Kar-wai' - E. Ann Kaplan, Professor of English and Comparative Studies, SUNY Stony Brook, and author of Women in Film Noir (British Film Institute, 1999). (For this item please quote stock ID 21429) ISBN: 9789622095854

Wong Kar-wai's controversial film, Happy Together, was released in Hong Kong just before the handover of power in 1997. The film shows two Chinese gay men in Buenos Aires and reflects on Hong Kong's past and future by probing masculinity, aggression, identity, and homosexuality. It also gives a reading of Latin America, perhaps as an allegory of Hong Kong as another post-colonial society. Examining one single, memorable, and beautiful film, but placing it in the context of other films by Wong Kar-wai and other Hong Kong directors, this book illustrates the depth, as well as the spectacle and action, that characterises Hong Kong cinema. Tambling investigates the possibility of seeing Happy Together in terms of 'national allegory', as Fredric Jameson suggests Third World texts should be seen. Alternatively, he emphasises the fragmentary nature of the film by discussing both its images and its narrative in the light of Borges and Manuel Puig. He also looks at the film's relation to the American road movie and to the history of the tango. He poses questions how emotions are presented in the film (is this a 'nostalgia film'?); whether the masculinity in it should be seen negatively or as signs of a new hopefulness about Hong Kong's future; and whether the film indicates new ways of thinking of gender relationships or sexuality. Jeremy Tambling is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong. He has written widely on European and American literature, and on opera on film. His latest book is Becoming Posthumous: Life and Death in Literary and Cultural Studies (Edinburgh University Press, 2002). 'This is an excellent text which will make an important and original contribution to the study of Wong Kar-wai's films. It has the capacity to speak both to specialists and more general or beginning film readers. It does a superb job in relating Happy Together to a number of current frameworks within postcolonial studies, gender studies, etc - but, rather than simply 'fitting in' the film to these grids, it uses the film to question many contemporary assumptions' - Adrian Martin, film critic for The Age, author of Once Upon a Time in America (BFI Modern Film Classics, 1998). (For this item please quote stock ID 21430) ISBN: 9789622095892

(For this item please quote stock ID 23060) ISBN: 9780275931032

Includes DVD with scenes from Suzhou River, The Day the Sun Turned Cold, and Good Men, Good Women As China and the West grow closer year by year, Chinese cinema becomes increasingly Westernised and Western interest in Chinese cinema continues to grow. Hitchcock with a Chinese Face examines three recent award-winning films - one from Shanghai, one from Hong Kong, one from Taipei - concerned with the issues of developing globalisation and the defence of local identity and culture. The book is illustrated entirely with actual frames from films, rather than with the publicity stills used in most publications about Chinese cinema. A DVD accompanies this volume, containing key scenes from each film and a full-colour version of each illustration in the book. (For this item please quote stock ID 24403) ISBN: 9780295984179

Shanghai in the early 20th century was alive with art and culture. With the proliferation of popular genres such as the martial arts film, the contest among various modernist filmmakers, and the advent of sound, Chinese cinema was transforming urban life. But with the Japanese invasion in 1937, all of this came to a screeching halt. Until recently, the political establishment has discouraged comprehensive studies of the cultural phenomenon of early Chinese film, and this momentous chapter in China's history has remained largely unexamined. The first sustained historical study of the emergence of cinema in China, An Amorous History of the Silver Screen is a fascinating narrative that illustrates the immense cultural significance of film and its power as a vehicle for social change. Named after a major feature film on the making of Chinese cinema, only part of which survives, this volume reveals the intricacies of this cultural movement and explores its connections to other art forms such as photography, architecture, drama, and literature. In light of original archival research, Zhang Zhen examines previously unstudied films and expands the important discussion of how they modelled modern social structures and gender roles in early 20th-century China. The first volume in the new and groundbreaking series Cinema and Modernity, An Amorous History of the Silver Screen is an innovative ? and well illustrated ? look at the cultural history of Chinese modernity through the lens of this seminal moment in Shanghai cinema. Zhang Zhen is assistant professor of cinema studies at New York University. (For this item please quote stock ID 25281) ISBN: 9780226982380

Cinema is a dominant force in the lives of many people living in Asia. A concept central to much of Asian film production is melodrama. This path-breaking study examines the importance of melodrama in the film traditions of Japan, India, China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia. Exploring the various ways that melodrama operates with theoretical sophistication, the various essays contained in this volume shed light on the different traditions of Asian cinema, as well as on the wider cultural discourse in which they participate. (Cambridge Studies in Film Series) (For this item please quote stock ID 25351) ISBN: 9780521612081

'Thoroughly engaged with the existing scholarship in their field and unfailingly thoughtful in their responses and questions, Chris Berry and Mary Farquhar offer a wide-ranging account of the mutating links among nation, transnationalism, and Chinese cinematic culture. An eminently readable book, written in the most generous of critical spirit' - Rey Chow, Brown University In China on Screen, Chris Berry and Mary Farquhar, leaders in the field of Chinese film studies, explore more than one hundred years of Chinese cinema and nation. Providing new perspectives on key movements, themes, and filmmakers, Berry and Farquhar analyze the films of a variety of directors and actors, including Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung, Gong Li, Wong Kar-wai, and Ang Lee. They argue for the abandonment of national cinema as an analytic tool and propose cinema and the national as a more productive framework. With this approach, they show how movies from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora construct and contest different ideas of Chinese nation's empire, republic, or ethnicity, and complicated by gender, class, style, transnationalism, and more. Among the issues and themes covered are the tension between operatic and realist modes, male and female star images, transnational production and circulation of Chinese films, the image of the good foreigner all related to different ways of imagining nation. Comprehensive and provocative, China on Screen is a crucial work of film analysis. Chris Berry is professor of film and television studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is the author or editor of several books, including Postsocialist Cinema in Post-Mao China: The Cultural Revolution after the Cultural Revolution. Mary Farquhar is professor of Asian studies at Griffith University and is the author of numerous articles and the prize-winning book, Children's Literature in China: From Lu Xun to Mao Zedong. (For this item please quote stock ID 26722) ISBN: 9780231137072

'The art of fighting without fighting' - Bruce Lee on his martial arts style in Enter the Dragon. Written for both interested filmgoers and established aficionados, Chasing Dragons is the essential introduction and guide to the martial arts cinemas of Japan, Hong Kong and Hollywood. Chasing Dragons explores over 50 key films, their texts, fighting techniques, stars and directors - set in the distinct cultures producing and forming them. Chasing Dragons examines the Japanese masters of the samurai film like Kurosawa Akira and Kobayashi Masaki; encounters Zatoichi and the lethal swordsmen of the screen, and the superstars of Hong Kong, from Kwan Tak Hing through 'Little Dragon' Bruce Lee and Sammo Hung, to Jackie Chan and Jet Li. It traces Hollywood's martial arts cinema, including exploitation ninja movies and box-office blockbusters like The Matrix and Kill Bill. All this and much more in this fresh and informative companion to a remarkable cinema. (For this item please quote stock ID 27065) ISBN: 9781850439820

Hong Kong New Wave Cinema (1978?2000) presents a comprehensive picture of the films made in this vibrant era. The complexity of issues they tackle, such as East-West conflict, colonial politics, the struggle of women in a modernizing Asian city and identity crisis, are all portrayed in visually striking ways. (For this item please quote stock ID 29218) ISBN: 9781841501482

Has China in the 1980s gone through a phase of 'youth rebellion' comparable with that represented in films such as Rebel Without a Cause (1954), Look Back in Anger (1959) or Easy Rider (1969)? The present study is an attempt to look for evidence in the 'youth-rebellion' films produced over that period of time that may help to answer the question. In the last twenty years of the twentieth century, the People's Republic of China underwent profound transformations, of which the changing situation of youth was particularly striking. In a society that has traditionally assumed respect for age, the prominence of youth and their new autonomy were conspicuous. A young generation born on the eve of and growing up during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) came to depart from the established social norms by the late 1980s and were considered 'rebels,' standing in an antagonistic relationship with mainstream ideology. Young Rebels in Contemporary Chinese Cinema analyzes the construction of 'youth culture' in 1980s China by examining young-rebel films in terms of three areas: products (rock ?n? roll music), belief (or lack of it) and mode of behaviour. The study also contexualizes these films by tracing the relationship between changes in politics and changes in film from the 1950s to the present, with particular reference to the altered portrayal of young adults in the 1980s. 'Zhou Xuelin's Young Rebels in Contemporary Chinese Cinema is a very exciting addition to the burgeoning field of Chinese film studies. The scope of Zhou's research is extraordinarily deep and broad, and among the other achievements of Young Rebels is its stretching the corpus of Chinese filmmaking in the 1980s beyond a canon of Fifth Generation classics, its discussion of film and popular music from Taiwan-born Teresa Tang, through the 'Northwest wind style' to rock'n'roll, and its comparison and contrast of Chinese films with those of the 'angry young man' generation in Britain of the late 1950s and early 1960s.' - Peter Rist, Professor, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University Young Rebels in Contemporary Chinese Cinema is thoroughly researched and carefully written, examining the early generations of Chinese filmmaking to establish a firm historical foundation from which the argument about the recent rebel films grows. Zhou's comprehensive commentary on many dozens of films is erudite and precise, and brings a knowledgeable insight to these important cultural products that many viewers may not know and likely have not seen. This book will have a most valuable impact on the expanding field of youth film studies.' - Timothy Shary, Associate Professor of Screen Studies, Clark University, author of Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema Zhou Xuelin renders vivid a heretofore neglected spectrum of Mainland cinema for the interdisciplinary areas of popular culture, media and society. His critical survey of social rebel films of post-Mao China characterised by increasing consumerism and individualism offers tremendous insights to the ?midnight children' of the Cultural Revolution who in their youth would live politically incorrect lives variously as superfluous heroes, disaffected urbanites, rock 'n' roll kids and earnest entrepreneurs. His study serves a timely volley at the current almost fetishistic fascination for the 'Fifth Generation' in contemporary Chinese film studies; and grants refreshing perspectives to a society in transition in the 1980s. - Tan See Kam, Associate Professor of Communication, University of Macao, co-author of Chinese Connections: Critical Perspectives in Film, Identity and Diaspora (with Feng and Marchetti) Zhou Xuelin is lecturer in the Department of Film, Television and Media Studies of the University of Auckland. He has publications on British popular culture and Chinese-language film, and his recent research focuses on the representation of 'marginalized youth' in a variety of national and semi-national cinemas in East Asia, such as those of Japan, South Korea, mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. (For this item please quote stock ID 29628) ISBN: 9789622098497

A pioneering study of the genesis and films of the fifth-generation of Chinese filmmakers who emerged in the 1980s with films of startling originality. The making and meanings of films such as Judou, Raise the Red Lantern, Farewell My Concubine are the central focus. Through this generation and its films changes in Chinese society over several decades are brought into vivid relief. Clark draws on interviews with directors, including Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang, as well as less well-known figures. Paul Clark received his PhD from Harvard University in 1983. He is a path-finder in the study of Chinese film with his Chinese Cinema: Culture & Politics since 1949. This current book updates and extends that earlier work, offering insight into changes in Chinese society and culture since the 1960s. He is now Professor of School of Asian Studies, The University of Auckland. He is completing a cultural history of the Cultural Revolution. (For this item please quote stock ID 28548) ISBN: 9789629962302

This is the first book-length study of Hong Kong cult director Wong Kar-wai, providing an overview of his career and in-depth analyses of all of his eight feature films to date including 2046 (as well as his commercials for the likes of Motorola, BMW and Lacoste, and music video for DJ Shadow). The book probes into Wong's cinematic and literary influences, from Martin Scorsese to Alfred Hitchcock, from Manuel Puig to Haruki Murakami, and examines how Wong transcends them all. Indeed, the theme of the book is Wong as a transcendent filmmaker a director who transcends the limitations of his native Hong Kong cinema and who easily transcends borders to reach a global audience. Wong's position as the star of the Hong Kong-global nexus and postmodern exemplar of world cinema is reaffirmed in a comprehensive, well-researched, and thoroughly accessible tome. Stephen Teo, Ph.D. is a film-maker, critic and film historian. Author of Hong Kong Cinema (1997). A future book projects are: a history of the Hong Kong martial arts cinema, and a book study on director Johnnie To's action movies. Stephen resides in Melbourne, Australia. (For this item please quote stock ID 24525) ISBN: 9781844570294

Wong Kar-wai traces this immensely exciting director's perennial themes of time, love, and loss, and examines the political implications of his films, especially concerning the handover of former British colony Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. This book is the first in any language to cover all of Wong's work, from his first film, As Tears Go By, to his most recent 2046. It also includes his best-known, highly honored films, Chungking Express, Happy Together, and above all, In the Mood for Love. Most importantly, Peter Brunette describes the ways in which Wong's supremely visual films attempt to create a new form of cinema by relying on stunning, suggestive visual images and audio tracks to tell their story, rather than on traditional notions of character, dialogue, and plot. The question of Wong Kar-wai's use of genre film techniques in art films is also explored in depth. Peter Brunette is the Reynolds Professor of Film Studies at Wake Forest University. He has written books on Roberto Rossellini and Michelangelo Antonioni and is the co-author of Screen/Play: Derrida & Film Theory. He is chief critic for indieWIRE.com and reviews regularly for the British trade journal, Screen International. (For this item please quote stock ID 24620) ISBN: 9780252072376

Director John Woo (b. 1946-) reinvented the modern action movie and helped open the door for Asian filmmakers to the Western world. His hyper-violent, highly choreographed style made him a box office powerhouse, a respected auteur and a revered figure among fellow directors. First discovered by Western audiences through his Hong Kong films The Killer and Hard Boiled, Woo introduced the world to a new brand of psychologically frenzied action film. Yet this book reveals a peace-loving, devoutly religious man at odds with his reputation as the master of cinematic violence. This is the first authoritative English-language chronicle of Woo's career. Rober K. Elder writes about film, the arts, travel, and music for the Chicago Times. He is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and teaches at the Facets Film School in Chicago. (For this item please quote stock ID 25165) ISBN: 9781578067763

Since the 1930s, Hong Kong has crept into Western cinema and literature, represented or constructed according to the whims of the Western gaze. However, recently Hong Kong has enjoyed a more conspicuous place of international focus, represented by a more ?native? voice and has become assertive in shaping its self-image. In the afterglow of Hong Kong's first Oscar success, it seems appropriate to look back on how Hong Kong has been represented and constructed by outsiders, to distinguish these historical representations from the modern representations of Hong Kong projected to the outside world from the city itself. This Project constitutes the first collection of essays to focus exclusively on the theme of Hong Kong in Western film and literature. The essays are organized into four parts which indicate the ensuing discussion of various factors, aesthetic, racial, sexual, economic and political, that have underpinned Hong Kong's imaginary construction by the ?West.? Contents: Part I: Orientalising Hong Kong: Silent Servants: Hong Kong's Colonial Allegories (James P. Rice); Under Western Eyes (S. N. Ko) Part II: Hong Kong In Love: Love with a Proper Gweilo (James A. Clapp); The Images of Hong Kong Presented by Han Suyin's A Many Splendored Thing & Henry King's Film Adaptation: Comparison & Contrast (Gillian Bickley); Suzie Wong & Her World (Law Kar); Hong Kong as City/Imaginary in The World of Suzie Wong, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, & Chinese Box (Thomas Y. T. Luk) Part III: Boxed In: Hong Kong Desired, Gendered, & Traumatized: Reading the Hong Kong Trauma in Wayne Wang's Chinese Box (Esther M. K. Cheung); Chinese Box Genders Hong Kong (Iska Alter); Portrayals of Gender & Generation, East & West: Suzie Wong in the Noble House (Staci Ford & Geetanjali Singh Chanda) Part IV:. Orientalism as Paradigm Orienteering: The Experimental East in Auden's Sonnets from China (Stuart Christie); The Exotic & Oriental as Decoy: Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (Gordon E. Slethaug) The Editors: Thomas Y. T. Luk is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, specializing in film and literature, comparative drama, theatre and adaptation, romanticism. James P. Rice, a former Fulbright Scholar in the Department of Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, is at present the Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs at Bucknell University, and specializes in Far Eastern languages and literature and critical theory. (For this item please quote stock ID 17443) ISBN: 9789628072095

Since the 1930s, Hong Kong has crept into Western cinema and literature, represented or constructed according to the whims of the Western gaze. However, recently Hong Kong has enjoyed a more conspicuous place of international focus, represented by a more ?native? voice and has become assertive in shaping its self-image. In the afterglow of Hong Kong's first Oscar success, it seems appropriate to look back on how Hong Kong has been represented and constructed by outsiders, to distinguish these historical representations from the modern representations of Hong Kong projected to the outside world from the city itself. (For this item please quote stock ID 17444) ISBN: 9789628072088

'An insightful major study in both scope and depth' - Sheldon Lu, University of California, Davis.
Women Through the Lens raises the question of how gender, especially the image of woman, acts as a visual and discursive sign in the creation of the nation-state in 20th-century China. Tracing the history of Chinese cinema through the last 100 years from the perspective of transnational feminism, Shuqin Cui reveals how women have been granted a 'privileged visibility' on screen while being denied discursive positions as subjects. In addition, her careful attention to the visual language system of cinema shows how 'woman' has served as the site for the narration of nation in the context of China's changing social and political climate.
Placing gender and nation in a historical framework, the book first shows how early productions had their roots in shadow plays, a popular form of public entertainment. In examining the 'Red Classics' of socialist cinema as a mass cultural form, the book shows how the utopian vision of emancipating the entire proletariat, women included, produced a collective ideology that declared an end to gender difference. Cui then documents and discusses the cinematic spectacle of woman as essential to such widely popular films as Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine and Zhang Yimou's Ju Do. Finally, the author brings a feminist perspective to the issues of gender and nation by turning her attention to women directors and their self-representations.
Shuqin Cui is assistant professor at Southern Methodist University.
(For this item please quote stock ID 30122) ISBN: 9780824832964

(For this item please quote stock ID 18918) ISBN: 9780809324569

Focusing on Feng Xiaogang, this book explores Chinese film history since the early 1990s in terms of changes of party film policy, industry reforms, the party's promotion of Main Melody films and the emergence and growth of popular cinema. The image of Feng that will emerge in this book is that of a filmmaker working under political and economic pressures in a post-socialist state while still striving to create works with a personal socio-political agenda. In keeping with this reality, this book approaches Feng as a special kind of film auteur whose works must be interpreted with attention to the specific social and political context of contemporary China. The extensive use of Chinese film market data and elaborate analysis of the Chinese film industry make this book especially valuable. About the author Rui Zhang studied history of art and film at Ohio State University. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Tsinghua University, PRC. (For this item please quote stock ID 29263) ISBN: 9789622098862

This is the first major work on pre-1949 Chinese cinema in English. As such, it represents a major contribution to existing discussions of both Chinese cinema and national cinema, and is an indispensible basic resource for scholars interested in Chinese film history. The book analyses the wide variety of conceptions of 'Chinese national cinema' between the early years of the 20th century and 1949, and contrasts these to conceptions of national cinema in Europe and China. After years of exhausting primary historical research, the author has been able to bring to light sources hitherto not widely available. The author argues that questions and debates about the status and meaning of the 'national' in 'Chinese national cinema' are central to any consideration of cinema during this period, and addresses the issue of Chinese nationalism as part of a complex history of cinema within the early modern Chinese nation. Jubin Hu has recently completed his doctoral study at Department of Cinema Studies, La Trobe University, Australia. He has worked at the China Film Archive for many years, and is the author of Chinese Silent Film History (with Suyuan Li) and An Ideological History of New China Cinema. 'The field of cinema studies in general, and Chinese cinema studies in particular, has been crying out for a reliable history in English of pre-1949 cinema, and this is it. Hu Jubin's manuscript is comprehensive, well supported, and has a coherent argument taking it beyond a chronicle of facts to make it an engaging and readable intervention in debates and arguments about Chinese cinema. This book represents a major achievement' - Chris Berry, Associate Professor of Film Studies, University of California, Berkeley. (For this item please quote stock ID 21373) ISBN: 9789622096103

The book explores the intricate relationships between the legendary Tsui Hark and Hong Kong cinema, through accounts by filmmakers and Tsui's own memoirs. (For this item please quote stock ID 21376) ISBN: 9789628050154

Eight veterans of the Hong Kong and Chinese film industries, telling film history as they see it from the early days of the 1930-1940s in the Mainland to their migration to Hong Kong. The eight veterans are actresses Chin Tsi-ang and Li Lihua, actor/director Lo Dun, director Yue Feng and Wu Pang, cinematographer Ho Look-ying, producer Tong Yuejuan and screenwriter/lyricist Chen Dieyi. (For this item please quote stock ID 21377) ISBN: 9789628050079

Having largely given up on a career in film, Edward Yang had been working as a computer engineer for several years when he saw Herzog's Aguirre, Wrath of God. Inspired to return to film, Yang, along with a handful of other filmmakers including the great Hou Hsiao-hsien, went on to found the Taiwanese New Wave of the early 1980s. Film critic John Anderson's Edward Yang offers a comprehensive overview of the work of the writer-director - already considered one of the most important filmmakers of the past 20 years - from his breakthrough feature That Day, on the Beach to the epic Yi-Yi. Rooted in questions about what it means to be Taiwanese, Yang's films reveal the complexity of life within the island's patchwork culture. Anderson identifies the key narrative strategies, formal devices, moral vision, and sociopolitical concerns shot through Yang's films. He explains what makes these films so distinctive by pinpointing the specific qualities of Yang's style and outlook. John Anderson is the chief film critic for Newsday. He also writes for the Los Angeles Times, L.A. Weekly, Film Comment, Billboard, Washington Post, The Nation, and more. He is the author of the book Sundancing: Hanging Out & Listening In at America's Most Important Film Festival. (For this item please quote stock ID 24621) ISBN: 9780252072369

Anna May Wong is undoubtedly one of the most well-known and most popular Chinese American actresses ever to have graced the silver screen. Between 1919 and 1960, she starred in over 50 movies. She shared equal billing with Douglas Fairbanks Snr, Marlene Deitrich and Werner Oland. Her life however is almost the prototypical story of an immigrant's difficult path through assimilation into American culture. (For this item please quote stock ID 22616) ISBN: 9780312293192

Over the past decade, Chinese films have met with great acclaim at the international film festivals, finding an audience in commercial cinemas as well as art houses around the world. Until now there has been a want of authoritative reference works in the English language to which scholars could turn for support in their research or film buffs could turn to check their facts. In one alphabetically organized volume the Encyclopedia of Chinese Film provides entries on directors, genres, themes, and actors and actresses from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as 300 film synopses. The entries are heavily cross-referenced and followed, where possible, with annotated suggestions for further reading. Great care has been taken to provide solid cultural and historical context to the facts. The alphabetical entries are preceded by a substantial historical section, incorporating material on the the main studios and analysing the impact of Chinese film abroad as well as at home in recent years., This Encyclopedia should meet the needs, equally, of the curious viewer wanting to know more about a popular actor or director, the film studies scholar preparing a comparative paper, the student of Chinese culture exploring a new medium, and the specialist in Chinese film requiring the verification of a fact or needing to gain a broader knowledge of their field. Additional features include a list of relevant websites, a chronology of films, classified contents list, three indexes (one of film and tv titles with directors names and year of release, one of names including actors, writers, directors and producers and one of studios, all with pinyin romanizations), and a glossary of pinyin romanizations, Chinese characters and English equivalents to aid the specialist in moving between Chinese titles and English translations. Ru-shou Robert Chen, Fu Jen Catholic University, Shuqin Cui, Southern Methodist University, Paul Fonoroff, Ken Hall, Julian Stringer, Indiana University, Paola Voci. (For this item please quote stock ID 29737) ISBN: 9780415151689

New Chinese Cinemas analyses the changing forms and significance of filmmaking in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong since the end of the Cultural Revolution, with a particular emphasis on how film comments on the profound social changes that have occurred in East Asia over the past two decades. Considering in detail both conservative and progressive stances on economic modernisation, it also demonstrates how film has been an important formal structure and social document in the interpretation of these changes. The essays collected here, which were specially commissioned for this volume, also offer extended analyses of the important trends, styles, and work that define Chinese filmmaking in the 1980s. (For this item please quote stock ID 4717) ISBN: 9780521444095

'A rich and powerful work that provides both a dazzling synthesis of contemporary cultural theory and at the same time an exemplary critique of Chinese cinema. It is a book to be read and re-read and is thus highly recommended because it is more than a film book. It engages directly with the problems Chinese culture faces in a changing world. ? China Information Chow situates contemporary Chinese film within the broad context of Chinese history and culture, giving readers a glimpse of the unique shared identity that characterises the current crop of outstanding filmmakers, such as Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. (For this item please quote stock ID 5755) ISBN: 9780231076838

'... an important collective work for communication practitioners, students, and scholars who want to have a deeper understanding of film making in Asia and of the promotion of nationalism through communication.' - Media Asia '... a momentous contribution to the study of colonialism and postcoloniality in Asia ...' - The Journal of Asian Studies 'This is an excellent model for studies in how the popular, art, and experimental cinemas function in the consideration of nationhood as a configuration of symbols. . . . This anthology provides an interesting discussion by offering a theoretical framework from which to examine the complex topics of nation, state, identity formation, and collective history in the realm of cinema. It becomes an even more effective tool by playing itself out within a diverse Asian context.' - Afterimage Essays examine the representation of the interlocking discourses of nationhood and history in Asian cinema, dealing with film traditions in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, and Australia. (For this item please quote stock ID 6473) ISBN: 9780253208958

Detailed notes and 400 photographs make this tribute to Hong Kong cinema a gold mine of rare images and information. This is the first book of its kind because, as the author explains, 'The difficulty with writing about Hong Kong film is that so few remnants of it still exist.' Here, pictures and text tell a story reflecting in fascinating ways the higher-dollar realm of America?s Hollywood. Glimpses of the early careers of famous stars like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan are additional highlights. (For this item please quote stock ID 7095) ISBN: 9789620413049

Ranging from 1988 to 1999, this book includes interviews with the acclaimed Chinese director of such films as 'Red Sorghum' (1987), 'Shanghai Triad' (1995), and 'Not One Less' (1999) and the trilogy 'Ju Dou' (1990), 'Raise the Red Lantern' (1992), and 'The Story of Qiu Ju' (1992). Several of these interviews appear in English for the first time. Some come from Chinese-language periodicals, and a few have never been published until now. In these conversations with such notable critics as Michel Ciment, Robert Sklar, and Tam Kwok-Kan, Zhang Yimou discusses all his films and speaks candidly about his work both as a cinematographer and an actor. Certain topics-the symbolism in his use of color, the use of women protagonists in most of his films, his working relationships with the Taiwanese filmmakers Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang-emerge many times in the interviews. He shows strong interests in literature and film adaptations of texts. Zhang speaks too of his work with the actress Gong Li and of her roles in six of his films, most of which depict the role of a woman living in feudal patriarchal society. Zhang was one of the 1982 Beijing Film Academy graduates-the so-called Fifth Generation of filmmakers, who were the first generation of Chinese directors trained after the Cultural Revolution. He discusses the Academy's impact on him and his peers. He often mentions that many of his fellow graduates now work in television because the state did not deem their films successful. 'If a film does not recoup its costs in China,' he told the New York Times in 2000, 'you're not going to make another one. And you're not going to make a film without attracting investors.' Using his art as a means of exploring oppression and its devastation of human relationships, Zhang talks openly about the effects of mainland China's codes of censorship on his work. He often bemoans his lack of access to films, especially international films, during his youth. As he discusses his filmmaking style and compares it to the current state of Chinese filmmaking, he is revealed as open and modest, yet deeply passionate about his art. Readers meeting him through these interviews will see him to be complex, serious, and as quietly unassuming as his movies. Frances Gateward is an assistant professor of film studies and in the center for African and Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan. (For this item please quote stock ID 15422) ISBN: 9781578062621

Essays, film notes, stills, biographies of leading personalities and a complete filmography of Cantonese cinema: 1960-1969. (For this item please quote stock ID 17189) ISBN: 9789627040521

Essays, notes, stills, biographies and other information on the topic of Overseas Chinese Figures in Cinema. (For this item please quote stock ID 17192) ISBN: 9789627040361

A collection of essays, historical materials, synopses, biographies and stills, reviewing the film history of China and Hong Kong from the earliest days to the 1950s. (For this item please quote stock ID 17195) ISBN: 9789627040453

The Hong Kong cinema had been crossing borders since the 1940s. During the same time, it had never stopped incorporating elements from other cinemas to enhance its growth. Let's take a look back on our past successes and failures, to draw a conclusion on half a century of border crossing as we prepare to enter a brand new era. Border Crossings in Hong Kong Cinema is a book of filmmakers, scholars and critics' essays on the development of the Hong Kong cinema's foreign excursions from after the war to the late 1980's. (For this item please quote stock ID 17200) ISBN: 9789627040781

Hong Kong Cinema '79-'89 (Combined Edition) is a combined volume of past HKIFF's special booklets on the new Hong Kong cinema. It is a novelty. Hong Kong Cinema '79- 89 chronicles the rise of the New Wave in 1979 and covers the booming film industry in the eighties. It includes the observations and immediate reflections of many local critics and film culture workers. It's surely a valuable source of reference to today's readers. (For this item please quote stock ID 17201) ISBN: 9789627040729

After graduating from the Beijing Film Academy in 1982, directors like Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou revolutionized Chinese cinema with Red Sorghum, Farewell My Concubine, Yellow Earth, Raise the Red Lantern, and other international successes. Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy tells the riveting story of this class of 1982, China's famous 'Fifth Generation' of filmmakers. It is the first insider's account of this renowned cohort to appear in English. Covering these directors' formative experiences during China's tumultuous Cultural Revolution and later at the Beijing Film Academy, Ni Zhen ? who was both their screenwriter and teacher ? provides unique insights into the origins of the Fifth Generation's creativity. Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy illuminates the Fifth Generation in light of the social and political history of contemporary China. While it addresses the collective identity of the filmmakers, most of whom were born in the late 1940s or early 1950s, it also examines how they view themselves and relate to one another. Ni Zhen has supplemented his personal knowledge of these directors with new interviews conducted for this volume. Intervening in current debates, he argues against mistaken postcolonial criticisms which allege that these filmmakers marketed an exotic image of China to Western audiences. He also demonstrates the diversity of the Fifth Generation, commenting on the breadth of styles and themes explored by its members and introducing a range of male and female directors, cinematographers, and production designers famous in China but less well-known internationally. The book contains vivid descriptions of the production processes of two pioneering films ? One and Eight and Yellow Earth. Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy will be essential reading for international film buffs as well as scholars of contemporary Chinese culture. 'Ni Zhen was himself one of the educators of the Fifth Generation, so he has been able to give a full and accurate account of what happened then on the basis of his own first-hand evidence. He also gives a detailed scholarly analysis of the origins of the Fifth Generation and the particular conditions that produced this art movement. Reading his book not only gave me intellectual pleasure, but also took me back to those unforgettable times.' ? Chen Kaige, director of Farewell My Concubine and Yellow Earth 'Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy: The Origins of China's Fifth Generation Filmmakers brings back memories for me. It tells the true story of how I moved from ignorance to full maturity along with a group of my peers. Everyone faces challenges of some sort in their youth. They become life's most beautiful memories. That means this is not just a book about film, but also a book about human life. Once youth is over it never returns, and so we treasure it in our hearts. Thank you, Professor Ni Zhen, for writing this deeply moving book.' ? Zhang Yimou, director of Raise the Red Lantern, Judou, and Not One Less Ni Zhen is a consultant to the Shanghai Film & TV Company and Visiting Professor at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. He was Professor of Art Direction and Professor of Film Theory at the Beijing Film Academy, where he taught from 1980 to 2000. He has written screenplays for films including Raise the Red Lantern and Blush. Chris Berry is Associate Professor in the Program in Film Studies and the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. (For this item please quote stock ID 18914) ISBN: 9780822329701

Based on oral history recordings. This book charts the development of Hong Kong martial arts films and interviews with prominent film directors, stars and martial arts directors provide personal perspectives. (For this item please quote stock ID 21423) ISBN: 9789628050062

Global perceptions of China have changed dramatically since the massive student protests that took place in Tian'anmen Square in April 1989. The media spotlight trained on Beijing, and the international uproar over the events of that spring still shape the world's perceptions of the People's Republic and the ways that Chinese people, within and beyond China, see and portray themselves. In From Tian'anmen to Times Square, leading film scholar Gina Marchetti considers the complex changes in the ways that China and the Chinese have been portrayed in cinema and media arts since the Tian'anmen revolt. Drawing on her interviews with leading contemporary Chinese filmmakers, Marchetti looks at a wide range of work by Chinese and non-Chinese media artists working in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore and on transnational co-productions involving those places. Focusing on the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality on global screens, Marchetti traces the momentous political, cultural, social, and economic forces confronting contemporary media artists and filmmakers working within 'Greater China.' 'Marchetti offers a sophisticated analysis of the thoroughgoing transformation of contemporary 'Greater China' as mediated by an integrated international cinema system held in a curious interplay between state-controlled and 'free-market' institutions. Particularly noteworthy is the equal weight Marchetti places upon both internal migration within China (at a level unprecedented in human history) and overseas immigration, with particular emphasis on Canada and the U.S.' ? Darrell Y. Hamamoto, University of California, Davis. Gina Marchetti is Associate Professor in the School of Cinema and Photography at Ithaca College and a Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong. She is the author of Romance & the 'Yellow Peril': Race, Sex, & Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction, which won the 1995 Association for Asian American Studies National Book Award in Cultural Studies. (For this item please quote stock ID 25161) ISBN: 9781592132782

'An insightful major study in both scope and depth' - Sheldon Lu, University of California, Davis.
Women Through the Lens raises the question of how gender, especially the image of woman, acts as a visual and discursive sign in the creation of the nation-state in 20th-century China. Tracing the history of Chinese cinema through the last 100 years from the perspective of transnational feminism, Shuqin Cui reveals how women have been granted a 'privileged visibility' on screen while being denied discursive positions as subjects. In addition, her careful attention to the visual language system of cinema shows how 'woman' has served as the site for the narration of nation in the context of China's changing social and political climate.
Placing gender and nation in a historical framework, the book first shows how early productions had their roots in shadow plays, a popular form of public entertainment. In examining the 'Red Classics' of socialist cinema as a mass cultural form, the book shows how the utopian vision of emancipating the entire proletariat, women included, produced a collective ideology that declared an end to gender difference. Cui then documents and discusses the cinematic spectacle of woman as essential to such widely popular films as Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine and Zhang Yimou's Ju Do. Finally, the author brings a feminist perspective to the issues of gender and nation by turning her attention to women directors and their self-representations.
Shuqin Cui is assistant professor at Southern Methodist University.
(For this item please quote stock ID 20686) ISBN: 9780824825324

Transnational Chinese Cinemas spans nearly the entire length of 20th-century Chinese film history. The volume traces the evolution of Chinese national cinema, and demonstrates that gender identity has been central to its formation. Femininity, masculinity and sexuality have been an integral part of the filmic discourses of modernity, nationhood, and history. (For this item please quote stock ID 10215) ISBN: 9780824818456

'Without question, Song Hwee Lim has presented us with an exemplar of quality scholarship in the study of contemporary Chinese cinemas. By combining an impressive command of Chinese and Western literary as well as film source materials with a sophisticated mode of analysis and an unassuming argumentative style, he has authored an exhilarating book ? one that not only treats cinematic representations of male homosexuality with great sensitivity but also demonstrates what it means to read with critical intelligence and vision' - Rey Chow, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Brown University 'Celluloid Comrades is a timely demonstration of the importance of queer studies in the field of transnational Chinese cinemas. Lim dissects gay sexuality in selective Chinese-language films, and vigorously contests commonly accepted critical paradigms and theoretical models. Readers will find a provocative, powerful voice in this new book' ? Sheldon H. Lu, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California at Davis Celluloid Comrades offers a cogent analytical introduction to the representation of male homosexuality in Chinese cinemas within the last decade. It posits that representations of male homosexuality in Chinese film have been polyphonic and multifarious, posing a challenge to monolithic and essentialised constructions of both 'Chineseness' and 'homosexuality'. Given the artistic achievement and popularity of the films discussed here, the position of 'celluloid comrades' can no longer be ignored within both transnational Chinese and global queer cinemas. The book also challenges readers to reconceptualise these works in relation to global issues such as homosexuality and gay and lesbian politics, and their interaction with local conditions, agents, and audiences. Tracing the engendering conditions within the film industries of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, Song Hwee Lim argues that the emergence of Chinese cinemas in the international scene since the 1980s created a public sphere in which representations of marginal sexualities could flourish in its interstices. Examining the politics of representation in the age of multiculturalism through debates about the films, Lim calls for a rethinking of the limits and hegemony of gay liberationist discourse prevalent in current scholarship and film criticism. He provides in-depth analyses of key films and auteurs, reading them within contexts as varied as premodern, transgender practice in Chinese theatre to postmodern, diasporic forms of sexualities. Informed by cultural and postcolonial studies and critical theory, this acutely observed and theoretically sophisticated work will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and students as well as general readers looking for a deeper understanding of contemporary Chinese cultural politics, cinematic representations, and queer culture. Song Hwee Lim is lecturer in world cinemas at the Department of Film Studies, University of Exeter. (For this item please quote stock ID 27089) ISBN: 9780824829094

This volume, the most comprehensive work to date on Chinese film, explores the manifold dimensions of the subject and highlights areas overlooked in previous studies. Leading scholars take up issues and topics covering the entire range of Chinese cinema. Their cross-cultural engagements with individual films, accomplished with an acute sense of chronology and history, tackle questions of issues related to historiography, poetics, aesthetics, genres, and directorial styles; at the same time, they address the economics of film production and consumption as well as the cultural politics of globalisation, identity, subjectivity, nationality, citizenship, and gender formation as embodied in filmic texts.

(For this item please quote stock ID 23286) ISBN: 9780824828134

This volume, the most comprehensive work to date on Chinese film, explores the manifold dimensions of the subject and highlights areas overlooked in previous studies. Leading scholars take up issues and topics covering the entire range of Chinese cinema. Their cross-cultural engagements with individual films, accomplished with an acute sense of chronology and history, tackle questions of issues related to historiography, poetics, aesthetics, genres, and directorial styles; at the same time, they address the economics of film production and consumption as well as the cultural politics of globalisation, identity, subjectivity, nationality, citizenship, and gender formation as embodied in filmic texts. Contributors: Chris Berry, David Bordwell, Stephen Yiu-wai Chu, Shuqin Cui, Darrell Davis, David Desser, Mary Farquhar, Xiaoping Lin, Sheldon Lu, Thomas Luk, Shiao-ying Shen, Meiling Wu, Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh & Zhen Zhang. Sheldon Lu is professor of comparative literature and film studies at the University of California, Davis. Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh is associate professor of film studies and associate director of the David Lam Institute for East-West Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. (For this item please quote stock ID 23285) ISBN: 9780824828691

Published on the occasion of ACMI's trinute to Hong Kong movie star and pop icon, the late Leslie Cheung, this beautiful book is designed for pop culture aficionados and Leslie fans alike. (For this item please quote stock ID 23930) ISBN: 9781920805050