AMES3357

This course examines the history of Taiwan film from the Japanese colonial period to the early 21st century along with the increased (though still quite limited) availability of pre-1980s films on DVD with English subtitles. We will cover topics such as dialect films; Nationalist propaganda; "healthy realism;" connections with the Hong Kong, Hollywood, and mainland Chinese film industries; the aesthetics of New Taiwan Cinema; the imagination of Taiwan as a postcolonial Southeast Asian rather than East Asian or Chinese polity; and the battle for commercial viability in the global film market. Throughout the course, we will closely analyze cinematic form and narrative structure in addition to broader issues of nation, society, politics, and ecology.