Travelling Films: Western Criticism, Labelling Practice and Self-Orientalised East Asian Films Goldsmiths College University of London PhD thesis (Cultural Studies) Ji Yeon Lee Abstract This thesis analyses western criticism, labelling practices and the politics of European international film festivals. In particular, this thesis focuses on the impact of western criticism on East Asian films as they attempt to travel to the west and when they travel back to their home countries. This thesis draws on the critical arguments by Edward Said's Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient (1978) and self-Orientalism, as articulated by Rey Chow, which is developed upon Mary Louise Pratt's conceptual tools such as 'contact zone' and 'autoethnography'. This thesis deals with three East Asian directors: Kitano Takeshi (Japanese director), Zhang Yimou (Chinese director) and 1m Kwon-Taek (Korean director). Dealing with Japanese, Chinese and Korean cinema is designed to show different historical and cultural configurations in which each cinema draws western attention. This thesis also illuminates different ways each cinema is appropriated and articulated in the west. This thesis scrutinises how three directors from the region have responded to this Orientalist discourse and investigates the unequal power relationship that controls the international circulation of films. Each director's response largely depends on the particular national and historical contexts of each country and each national cinema. The processes that characterise films' travelling are interrelated: the western conception of Japanese, Chinese or Korean cinema draws upon western Orientalism, but is at the same time corroborated by directors' responses. Through self-Orientalism, these directors, as 'Orientals', participate in forming and confirming the premises of western Orientalism. This thesis thus brings out how 'Orientals' participate in the formation and maintenance of Orientalism via self­ Orientalism or self-Orientalising strategies. As Edward Said (1978; 1985) remarks, 'Orientals' adopt the terms and premises of Orientalism and use them in exactly the same way, or reverse them. Vis-a-vis this point, this thesis shows that self-Orientalism, as a response to Orientalism, is mediated by its relationship with the national and historical contexts of a particular society. Western Orientalism does not fully determine how 'Orientals' define their own culture and respond to Oriental ism. This thesis shows that a national film industry can more easily break into the international film market if internationally recognised auteur directors from the particular country have been recognised at international film festivals. This thesis elucidates the practice of labelling foreign films categorised as 'national cinema' and 'art cinema'. While Hollywood films are assumed to possess 'universality', the international art-house circuit and film festival circuits label films from other countries by their specific nationality or national culture, which is assumed to be reflected in high/traditional art. In this circuit, the names of 'auteur' directors from each country act as brand names, moulding audiences' expectations of films from a specific country. Film festivals, meanwhile, seek to become sites for 'discovering' supposedly unknown auteur directors and national cmemas. Abstract Table of contents ..................................................................................... i 1. introduction ....................................................................................... 1 (1) research material ........................................................................... 7 (2) general introduction ...................................................................... 10 (3) thesis narrative ............................................................................ 22 2. Said's Orientalism and Self-Orientalism 2.1 introduction .................................................................................... 25 2.2 Edward Said's Orientalism and criticisms of it ........................................... 25 2.2.1 Said's Orientalism: knowledge and power .......................................... 26 2.2.2. critiques of Said's Orientalism: latent Orientalism ................................ 31 2.2.3 representation ........................................................................... 41 2.3. Orientalism beyond the Middle East? Orientalism in East Asia ....................... 44 204. Self-Orientalism and autoethnography .................................................... 53 204.1 Self-Orientalism: how are Orientals involved with Oriental ism? ................. 54 204.2 autoethnography: how do Orientals re-represent themselves to the west? ...... 62 3. Western Film Studies, Film Criticism, Labelling Practice and East Asian films as Other 3.1 introduction .................................................................................... 69 3.2 Orientalism and film studies ................................................................. 70 3.3 articulating 'otherness' of films in academic discussion ................................. 77 3.3.1 the otherness of non-western films: how otherness is acknowledged ............ 78 3.3.2 between (universal) western theories and (specific) local knowledge: how otherness is explained ............................................................................. 85 3.4 critical approaches to film criticism and the labelling practice applied to East Asian films ................................................................................................. 94 304.1 the role/function of film criticism ..................................................... 95 3.4.2 Orientalism and western film criticism ............................................... 99 3.4.3 the labelling practice of East Asian films in the west ............................. 101 3.5 cinema in the contact zone .................................................................. 112 4. Kitano Takeshi: Japanese Cinema as Other 4.1 introduction ................................................................................... 117 4.2 Japanese cinema as other ................................................................... 118 4.3 western conceptions of Kurosawa Akira and Ozu Yasujiro ........................... 129 4.3.1 the incomprehensibility of Rashomon .............................................. 130 4.3.2 Is Ozu Yasujiro a traditionalist or a modernist? Japanese cinema as other to Hollywood cinema ................................................................................ 137 4.4 Kitano Takeshi, 'another Japanese auteur'? .............................................. 144 4.5 Kitano's self-Orientalising strategy ........................................................ 155 5. Zhang Yimou in an 'in-between' zone 5.1 introduction ................................................................................... 164 5.2 the Fifth Generation: representing Chinese cinema in the west ....................... 165 5.3 no authentic China? How Orientalism and self-Orientalism meet in Zhang's films ....................................................................................................... 177 5.4 Zhang between the west and the Chinese government .................................. 189 5.5 Orientalism and the position of Chinese audiences ...................................... 202 6. Oriental ism, or how did 1m Kwon-Taek become a Korean director? 6.1 introduction ................................................................................... 209 6.2 Korean cinema in the west: 'ignorance' and 'blockage' ................................ 211 6.3 1m's films in the west: engaging with Oriental ism ...................................... 222 6.4 making Korean national cinema and self-Orientalism .................................. 231 6.5 making the myth of 'Korean cinema': the fragmentary nature of the national project and the issue of gender ........................................................................... 241 7. conclusion ...................................................................................... 252 index 1 .............................................................................................. 259 references .......................................................................................... 261 11 Travelling Films: Western Criticism, Labelling Practice and Self-Orientalised East Asian Films 1. introduction Films do seem to travel and the scale of the travelling seems to be ever expanding. Hollywood blockbuster films reach the screens of multiplex cinemas in most parts of the world, sometimes within a few hours, sometimes within a month. Some independent, foreign-language and art films travel on the route of the art-house circuits, at a slower speed and to a more limited degree. Film festivals introduce and exhibit films, propelling their travelling and emerging as the key destinations in the itinerary of certain films. Some films are more likely to travel through special retrospectives and art galleries. DVDs, as a new technical means by which films can travel, seem to intensify the ever­ growing border-crossing of films and to traverse the 'regions' imposed to block - or at least reduce - circulation. Travel routes are varied. Certain routes seem open only to certain types of films and hardly accessible to others. As with human travellers, the travelling of films seems to be constrained by external factors. As