Asian big-names in Hollywood Blockbusters: a great movie under globalization
In the whole course, we talked much about
globalization. As mentioned in the former lectures, the culture flow makes the
taste of world audience become more similar. Actually, it affects also the
filmmaking industry. The most significant influence is that the hybridization
between Hollywood and Asian movies.
Since the last few decades, martial art movies of
Hong Kong and China have been getting more popular worldwide. This makes many
names become famous on the world stage, like Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Donnie
Yen. These movies surely amazed the foreign people. And they introduce the
Asian movies into the Hollywood market. Gradually, as mentioned
by Klein (2004, p.364), the Hollywood filmmaking
industry would like to invite many Asian stars, or even skilled craftspeople,
especially the action directors, to participate in the movie production. A
number of good examples could be found, like Rush Hour (1998), Lara Croft
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008). In Rush Hour (1998), audience can easily
find many Chinese martial art skills. According to Klein (2004, p.372), much of this foreign-language film production is taking
place in Asia. For example, Fast &
Furious 6 (2013) and Pacific Rim
(2013) are Hollywood blockbusters which have Hong Kong as one of their setting.
Besides, some of the Hollywood movies would include different Asian elements,
like history and culture. The Mummy: Tomb
of the Dragon Emperor (2008) is an adventure story about the Chinese
history. Moreover, upon globalization, more Hollywood movies would film
in many cosmopolitan Asian cities, like Hong Kong and Shanghai.
(Photo sourced: http://www.impawards.com/2008/posters/mummy_tomb_of_the_dragon_emperor_ver4_xlg.jpg
(Photo sourced: http://www.geeksofdoom.com/GoD/img/2013/07/2013-07-03-pacific_rim_art_book_banner.png)
(Photo sourced: http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/BoBEJ-1.png)
Oppositely, the Hollywood movies also deeply influence the Asian movie
production at the same time. Especially after the 2000s, the boundary between
Hollywood blockbusters and Asian movies is blurred. In 2005, Perhaps Love (2005), directed by Peter
Chan, gave a sparkling idea to the Hong Kong filmmaking industry. Musical is
rather rare in the Asian movie market, when compared with the Hollywood movie
market. This was a new try for the Hong Kong movies. And it gained a great reputation.
Moreover, upon the hybridization, application of special effects in the Asian movies
is becoming popular. Stephen Chow’s Kung
Fu Hustle (2004) did a great job. The cartoon style of the movie and the gorgeous
CGI technique made the movie a great success. In a recent Chinese movie, Finding Mr. Right (2013) is a story
about a pregnant woman in Seattle, who is originally from Beijing. And the
story is influenced by the movie Sleepless
in Seattle (1993). It is easy to find shadow of Hollywood movies being
cast on the Asian movies. As mentioned above, the setting for movies could be
more various thanks to globalization. Many Asian movies would film parts of
their stories in many western countries too.
(Photo sourced: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/KungFuHustleHKposter.jpg)
(Photo sourced: http://eafilmclub.sa.utoronto.ca/events/PerhapsLove1.jpg)
The movies are affecting each other from different aspects. The blurred
boundary between the Hollywood blockbusters and the Asian movies introduces many
sparkling chemical reactions to the filmmaking industry. This is absolutely great
news for the world audience. And it is really a great reification of globalization.
Reference
- Klein, C 2004,
“Martial arts and the globalization of US and Asian film industries”, Comparative American Studies, vol. 2,
no.3, pp. 360-384.
Hey there Carol,
回覆刪除Your blog post did touch base on the overall idea of impact of Hollywood in Asian cultures. Your examples on different feature films associated within the asian culture were good. You connected appropriately with the impact of globalisation and how it has mass distributed films to all corners of the globe. The western and Asian cultures, in my opinion, have both complimented each other with their vast cultural distinctions, and have in someway mused together to create a unique and relatable conception of the success on what constitutes a great movie. However, many of your sentences i found difficult to comprehend, and your grammar and spelling needs definite revising. I would recommend reading out loud as it catches sentences that do not flow well. The lay out of this page is a little messy, and i feel to many things are going on at once. Also, not everyone is able to understand the language in which is displayed on your layout, therefore, it becomes difficult for people to comment, and confused as to what to click on.
This post was wonderfully researched, with great points about how both Asia and Hollywood have influenced each other’s cinema and world cinema as a whole. I loved that you developed your point by not only speaking about how Asia has influenced Hollywood but also how Hollywood has influenced Asian cinema, which is an idea that may often be quite overlooked due to the dominating film scene being that of Hollywood movies. You included many examples on both ends of the spectrum, and really took a ‘global’ approach to the post – it is not only about Asianisation, but Hollywoodisation, and also global cinema as its own concept. Your post’s conclusion about global cinema really wrapped up your argument well and the whole post showed a very personal and developed understanding of the concepts in this week’s blog topic. My advice would be to double check your spelling and grammar in your posts, as it can become hard to understand some of your content when these aspects are not clear.
回覆刪除The research that was put into this blog post was quite intriguing, how you explained both the Asianisation of the Hollywood film industry and the Hollywoodisation of the Asian film industries, giving an in depth explanation of the topic at hand.
回覆刪除I particularly liked the amount of examples you used in both cases, spanning from genres and reasons of why the shift has come about, directors, story lines, actors and even the theme of 'musical' were brought up and explained, which shows that you have done a good amount of research and can show us well enough how.
Your final point on how exciting it is that there is a hybridisation between both the film industries is valid, and I am inclined to agree with you on this, I believe that it is a good thing on the globalisation of the film industries and not a bad thing.
Hi Carol! I know you are passionate in watching movies, so I am not surprised that you wrote so much for the topic this week :D
回覆刪除We can see that you have made a detailed research and you did well in explaining the Asianization and Hollywoodization. You were able to provide lots of examples to illustrate your point of view too.
In fact, I think it's quite easy to follow your blog post, may be because we are sharing same background, and it is interesting to read your post.
However, some terminology should be given definition because not everyone understand the special terms used such as 'Hybridization'.
Anyway, it's a piece of good work! Thank you for your sharing, Carol!