Technology, State, and Transnationalism: Toward a Theory of the Asian Studio System

• In Event: Cinematic Transnationalism and East Asia

Abstract

This project aims to introduce and develop what I term the “Asian Studio System” in postwar Asia. The system emerged around 1954 (when the first Asian Film Festival was held in Tokyo), had its full swing during the 1960s, and showed significant decline in the early-1970s. Geographically, its principal axes consisted of Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan while Japan also functioned as a major parameter in every juncture the system had faced. In industrial and cultural terms, the system epitomized a process of rationalized development of motion picture production, which in turn reflected a conception of filmmaking as modern business and invoked a desire to achieve an American model of modernity. As a result, film studios in Hong Kong (Shaw Brothers and MP & GI), South Korea (Shin Films), and Taiwan (GMP and CMPC) actively collaborated in an attempt to accelerate the modernization of their respective film industries. Little, however, has been done to explore the phenomenon, with the studios still being largely examined and narrated under the traditional national cinema paradigm. Therefore, the dynamic cross-border activities (e.g., co-productions, trans-regional stardoms and division of labor, and interregional consumption of films) have been, for the most part, forgotten or simply not properly researched. I argue that the study of the Asian Studio System reveals what East Asian film historiography has hitherto missed, and the aim of my paper is to redress this oversight by theorizing and historicizing this significant postwar phenomenon in East Asian cinema.

Author

• Sangjoon Lee, Nanyang Technological University