A Century of East Asian Films
The UCLA East Asian Library hosts a series of exhibitions and other events in coming years. The forthcoming exhibition is “A Century of East Asian Films” in July – September 2007.
The concept of “national cinema” has been contested and criticized in recent years, as filmmakers around the world increasingly adapt and remake work from other media and other countries, and as artists, financing, and distribution become globalized. Nevertheless, this exhibit traces the intricate multiple histories of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cinema over the course of the tumultuous twentieth century and highlights their achievements both domestically and internationally.
Motion pictures appeared in China as early as in 1896, and the first Chinese film, a recording of an opera, was made in 1905. From the 1920s to early ‘40s, the influence of Hollywood shaped the industry, which was centered around Shanghai. However, affected by wars and revolutions, the industry began in the 1940s to develop quite differently in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Since the late 1980s it has regained steam, and work by filmmakers in all three regions as well as by Chinese artists overseas now brings international acclaim to Chinese films.
The first film screening in Japan occurred in Osaka in 1897, according to Jun’ichirō Tanaka, a historian of Japanese films. As in China, the film industry in Japan originally developed along the Hollywood model. After World War II trailblazing independent filmmakers emerged whose innovative style and controversial subject matter attracted attention from international as well as Japanese audiences and who challenged the studios for dominance of the Japanese film world.
The first film screening in Korea was held in Seoul in 1898, and the first Korean film was made in 1919. After a short golden age during 1920s and ‘30s, actions by Japanese colonizers in the ‘40s devastated the industry. However, it rebounded rapidly, and the 1950s and ‘60s are considered Korean film’s “golden age.” Despite a subsequent decline due to government regulation, a more recent generation of filmmakers has earned international acclaim and achieved domestic box office success.
The exhibit has been organized by Hong Cheng, Chinese Studies librarian; JaEun Ku, Korean Studies librarian; and Toshie Marra, Japanese Studies librarian, in the Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library. The exhibit contents have been drawn primarily from the collections of the East Asian Library. Assistance has also been provided by Sachiko Mizuno, PhD candidate in cinema and media studies in the UCLA Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media.
During the exhibition, the Library is scheduled to have three screening seminars and a reception. For more information, please contact our outreach coordinator Hong Cheng, or event co-coordinator Yoko Okunishi at 310.206.9606.
