Asian Cinema: A Field Guide

by Tom Vick

The First Complete Guide to Asian Film

Asian cinema has never been more popular than it is today. In recent years, films such as Spirited Away, Hero, Kung Fu Hustle, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon have made surprising inroads into the American box office. Directors such as Jim Jarmusch, with Ghost Dog, and Quentin Tarantino, with Kill Bill Vols. I and II, have paid unabashed tribute to the Asian directors who have influenced them. On the world festival circuit, Asian films regularly win prestigious awards and are presented at film festivals from Sundance to Cannes.

Asian Cinema: A Field Guide is the first book to provide a complete overview of the past, present, and future of the world's most dynamic and influential filmmaking region. Over 300 films from China, India, Japan, Korea, Iran, and Taiwan, as well as the emerging films of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka, are all included here.


Illustrated with more than 100 film stills and photographs
Includes historical and cultural background information for each region's cinema
Covers anime, Hong Kong action, Japanese horror, Bollywood, and much more!

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Japan, China, Reference, India

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent work on Asian Cinema. It does not go in-depth on any film or filmmaker, but serves, as the title states, as a field guide, introducing a broad range of films from a broad range of Asian countries.

If you already have a background in Asian Cinema, some of the sections may not be of great use, as you're likely to already be familiar with Yimou, Kurosawa, Kaige, Ozu, Kar-Wai, Miyazaki, and Satyajit Ray. But don't let that deter you from picking up this book. MANY other films and filmmakers are discussed. I own probably 70 or so films from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam, but after reading "Asian Cinema", I have a long list of films I want to try to track down.

[Thenamenerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Asian Cinema is a good quick read that discusses the highlight films of Asia’s varied national cinemas, as well as providing a bit of cultural and historical context behind the film industries of Asia.

Asian Cinema managed to educate me on the basics of the 20th century history of Asia through the lens of its movies and give some good overviews of Asian film movements and genres, although the latter was much less consistent. One of my favorite topics touched on in this book was film censorship. Seeing the insane lengths filmmakers have went to get controversial films made in countries like China and Iran, even risking their livelihoods, is very inspirational and really makes you realize everything you take for granted as an artist with free speech and easy access to the Internet.

I think the primary weakness of this book was the way it tackled the films themselves. Dry, often repetitive descriptions of films and their directors make up the bulk of Asian Cinema. Reading it straight through makes all the information run together in these segments. It’s mostly unclear what the real standout directors are. I wish the book took more time going into detail on the most important things, giving me a better grasp as a newbie to Asian film of what I really need to check out.

I have a moderate knowledge of Japanese anime movies and if my experience with that section of the book was indicative of how seasoned film buffs might experience this book, I would not recommend it highly to those already familiar with the subject matter. The aforementioned boring film descriptions will be of no interest to someone who has already watched most of the movies, or even has a passing knowledge of them. This book would have worked much better as a website in my opinion. It would be a database of movies, but also host articles on the context of films, overviewing national cinemas in a more concise manner, and maybe even having in-depth looks at the truly great movies.

I don’t find Asian Cinema to be all that special. The descriptions of the climates in which these films were made and all the trivia tidbits are great, but the book is ultimately bogged down by boring lists of important films and directors, bloated by usually uninteresting descriptions. I would recommend it to newbies looking to find film recommendations (be sure to take notes on the ones that pique your interest, I forgot to and am mad at myself) and aficionados with nothing better to read. I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.

[Les Dangerfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting survey, though sometimes frustrating as it was published in 2007 and so doesn’t cover the lest 14 years. It covers Asia from Turkey to Japan and I think the writer would have done better to focus on East and South East Asia, which is clearly his area of expertise and he covers the rest rather sketchily - partly because many countries don’t have a substantial film industry. However, Indian cinema deserves a book like this all to itself and is covered in less detail than is China and Japan. Nevertheless, I found it very interesting.

[Meredith Links · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for my Asian film class. This was a great introduction into the cinema of other countries. It also has a great resources section in the back to find other great film analysis books.

[Rahat Ahmed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry but pretty comprehensive coverage of each asian cinema scene. Or at least, as far as I could tell. Great if you don't have a formal education in film.

[Faraaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comprehensive beginner's guide to Asian Cinema