ABSTRACT

This book explores the roles cultural intermediaries play in East Asian cinema. Based on extensive original research, and viewing cinema from the social science perspective which emphasizes the social processes entailed in the cultural production, circulation, and consumption of films and the social relations they involve, rather than studying films as texts, the book examines issues such as the differences between individual and collective intermediaries, the diverse resources and services that they mediate, their social background and targeted audiences, and the political implications of their work. One important conclusion is that cultural intermediaries have been central to creating the whole "idea" of East Asian cinema.

chapter 1|14 pages

What is worthy of viewing?

An introduction to cultural intermediaries in East Asian cinema

chapter 2|17 pages

Going overseas and evolving locally

The strategies of a Japanese pink film company

chapter 4|20 pages

Audiences as cultural intermediaries

A case study from Kyoto, Japan

chapter 6|25 pages

Festivals, finance, and global cultural intermediaries

Co-production and the shaping of ‘East Asian Cinema’

chapter 7|21 pages

Cultural intermediaries are made not assumed

A case study of a Japanese short movie competition in Hong Kong 1

chapter 8|19 pages

Women as cross-cultural intermediaries within the Chinese diaspora

The search for Esther Eng in S. Louisa Wei's Golden Gate Girls (2013)