ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly consolidates the historical links and "ugly intimacies" that existed between Japan and Korea in the past, and how these continue to shape their respective cultural industries. Often thrown together under the umbrella of East Asian cinema, there is undoubtedly a global intimacy in the ways in which Japanese and Korean films and filmmakers negotiate their intertwined geopolitics, and in their—often very subtle—self-effacing humour in the face of horror. Lastly, the facets of the wider "brand" of J and K-films in the twenty-first century are comprised of a number of recurring generic styles and thematic preoccupations; and within these a number of key terms, or concepts mobilise to illustrate specific feelings or experiences that are tied to ideas of national identity that pits particularity against "cultural odorlessness", a circulatory exchange between the specific and the universal that has bolstered both Japanese and Korean film industries since the 1990s.
