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RMIT UNIVERSITY
DESIGN & SOCIAL CONTEXT
SCHOOL OF MEDIA & COMMUNICATION - 2012
COMM1035 – ASIAN CINEMAS
ASSESSMENT TASK TWO – RESEARCH ESSAY
DUE DATE: Friday October 14, 2012
LENGTH: 2000 words (worth 50% of final mark)
SUBMITTING
WORK:
Submit to the School of Media and Communication assignment drop box in Building 9,
Level 4 (opposite the elevator). Students MUST retain an electronic copy of submitted
work for possible future reference or in case it is not received by your tutor.
GRADES: High Distinction (80% and above), Distinction (70-79%), Credit (60-69%), Pass (50-59%),
Fail (0-49%). Refer to Course Guide for further details.
PLAGIARISM: Refer to the Course Guide for details. Plagiarism is NOT acceptable.
LATE WORK: EXTENSIONS: Requests for an extension MUST be made AT LEAST 48 hours before the due date and cannot be given for more than one week without special consideration.Assignments submitted after the deadline, without an approved extension or special consideration, will incur a penalty of 5% of the total mark for the assignment for EACH working day after the due date. For example, if an assessment is worth 40 marks and it is submitted three working days late, the student will lose 3 x 2 (5% of 40) = 6 marks. Work submitted more than two weeks after the due date without an approved extension or special consideration will not receive a mark.
ASSESSMENT
CRITERIA:
The task will be assessed according to the below criteria, particularly (a), (c), (d), (e) & (g).
a) originality of thought and expression in your work
b) demonstrated understanding of theoretical material and/or terminology introduced in class
d) engagement with materials and ideas analysed and discussed in class, where relevant
e) expansiveness of your approach to the course
f) demonstrated ability to do close readings of set audiovisual texts
g) engagement with issues relating to film history, national cinemas (particularly Asian
cinemas) and film culture
FEEDBACK: Essays, with written feedback, can be collected from Glen from late November by email
appointment.RMIT UNIVERSITY
DESIGN & SOCIAL CONTEXT
SCHOOL OF MEDIA & COMMUNICATION - 2012
COMM1035 – ASIAN CINEMAS
ASSESSMENT TASK TWO – RESEARCH ESSAY
DUE DATE: Friday October 14, 2012
LENGTH: 2000 words (worth 50% of final mark)
QUESTIONS:
Please answer any one of the following questions
1. “It seems to me far too early to jettison the idea of a national culture, and to call off the attempt to make movies that actually come from somewhere. The alternative is to try to speak from everywhere, which may turn out to be nowhere at all.” – Graeme Turner.Critically examine Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in relation to Turner’s statement and debates about the fate of specific national cinemas and styles within global cinema. You should also consider the distribution and co-production factors that related to this film and other recent global films from China such as Hero and The House of Flying Daggers.
2. “The global popularity of films from East Asia has drawn critical attention to the overlapping territories of national and transnational cinemas. The phenomenal success of East Asia’s popular cultural products in capturing Asian and Western markets has prompted critical rethinking of the knowlege of ‘Asian culture’ and the geopolitical importance of the region as an intermediary between the local and the global” – Vivian Lee Discuss this quote by concentrating on any Asian film that has penetrated both Eastern and Western film markets.
3. ‘Infernal Affairs is a very good example of why I love the Hong Kong Cinema but The Departed is not a remake of that film. Our film was inspired by Infernal Affairs because of the nature of the story’. – Martin Scorsese
In answering this question you need to argue whether you do or do not agree with Scorsese’s comments. Is The Departed a direct remake or something completelydifferent altogether? In comparing the films you could concentrate on factors including representations of a ‘global’ city, characters, plot and casting.
4. ‘The city is an imagined environment’ – James Donald Discuss this quote in relation to at least one film that depicts ‘Asian cities’. Films could range from Beijing Bicycle to Lost in Translation.
5. Look at the niche market for Asian popular films, including action comedies like Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle or Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love or Chunking Express and the way in which these niche markets expand into the western film marketplace through the promotional efforts of American directors like Quentin Tarantino.
6. Although the official image of Hong Kong presented by the Hong Kong tourism board and the depiction of the city in the cinema are often at odds, the interconnections between tourism and film cannot be denied or ignored. That Jackie Chan has been Hong Kong’s official tourism ambassador since 1995 is indeed not a matter of coincidence: Jackie Chan is a brand-name unto itself, and a star brand, no less. By discussing the celebrity of Chan condier how he sells Hong Kong as a destination by relying on a particular look and sense of action and excitement.
7. Discuss Wong Kar-wai’s use of the song “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas and the Papas in Chungking Express. In doing so, you should examine why you think this particular song was chosen, particularly in relation to issues surrounding contemporary Hong Kong, and how it supports the film’s Utopian imagination of America. Your answer should also make reference to Wong’s use of music and particular songs elsewhere in the film, and in his work more generally.
8. Dialects and accents create both intimacy and distance onscreen for the characters in the cinema as well as off-screen among the audience. In such a manner, filmic discourse attempts to articulate again and again a national self-definition in relation to the linguistic, dialectal, ethnic and religious others.
With this in mind, what therefore happens to a film that is overdubbed by foreign actors speaking in foreign accents? How is national identity blurred? What happens to understanding and interpreting on-screen performance?http://www.ukassignment.org/ygkczy/ In answering this question, you might like to discuss particular Asian film markets such as anime and/or concentrate more specifically on directors (such as Stephen Chow or John Woo) whose films are often subjected to overdubbing. You answer also might like to discuss how overdubbing can have some positive benefits.
9. ‘The importing of American films into India is not filling a gap… You’re not bringing a dish to a bare table. You’re bringing a dish to a table where you have to move a lot of other dishes to fit in, and that’s not true in a lot of other countries’. - Gareth Wigan, vice chairman of Columbia TriStar, the Sony division. In discussing this quote about the Bollywood film industry, please argue why Bollywood is such a unique ‘national’ film culture and why it continues to thrive despite the foreign competition from America and other Asian countries.
10. Examine Bong Joon-Ho’s The Host as exemplary of ‘horror’ genre cinema with a socially critical agenda. Your response should address how the film adapts certain conventions and characteristic tropes of the ‘monster movie’ in order to serve a sociopolitical agenda.
AFI RESEARCH COLLECTION:
You should also visit the AFI Research Collection in Building 21, Level 4. Access is free and it is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:00-4:00, Wednesdays 2:00-7:00 (it is a good idea to check online to find what you want and send an email asking for these to be available for you at the time of your visit). This is a crucial research source for finding press reviews, books and information on particular national/Asian cinemas.
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