Abstract
Using lists of top 20 box office films in countries located in East Asia and Western Europe, I use the national origins of the most popular films in each country as an indication of the extent to which cultural flows of films are circulating among these countries. In contrast to other types of cultural flows, such as TV drama and music videos, cultural flows of films among countries in these regions are almost non-existent. American blockbuster films, national films and co-productions predominated on these lists. Two explanations for these findings are: (1) the world-wide domination of American films and the relatively un-competitive nature of regional film industries; (2) the fact that, unlike TV dramas, films cannot be adapted to specific audiences. Consequently, escapist American blockbusters, usually a form of science fiction, can be appreciated by regional audiences without adaptation while films from neighboring countries, dealing with personal, social and economic issues, cannot. One French film that imitated the typical American blockbuster was popular in both regions.
Keywords
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Conference on Asian Cultural Flows, Birbeck College, University of London, London, September 30, 2014.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
“Cinema of Hong Kong,” Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Hong_Kong
“Cinema of Indonesia,” Wikipedia: https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema-of-Indonesia
“Cinema of Taiwan,” Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cinema_of_Taiwan&oldid=667596590
Chua, B. H. (2008). Structure of identification and distancing in watching East Asian television drama. In B. H. Chua & K. Iwabuchi (Eds.), East Asian popular culture: Analyzing the Korean wave (pp. 73–89). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Crane, D. (2002). Culture and globalization. In D. Crane, N. Kawashima, & K. Kawasaki (Eds.), Global culture: Media, arts, policy, and globalization (pp. 1–28). New York: Routledge.
Crane, D. (2014). Cultural globalization and the film industry: Cultural policies, national film industries and transnational film. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 20(4), 365–382.
European Audiovisual Observatory. (2015). Focus 2015: World film market trends. Cannes: Marché du Film.
Fu, P., & Dresser, D. (Eds.). (2000). The cinema of Hong Kong: History, arts, identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fu, W. W., & Govindaraju, A. (2010). Explaining global box-office tastes in Hollywood films: Homogenization of national audiences’ movie selections. Communication Research, 37(2), 215–238.
Gao, Z. (2009). Serving a stir-fry of market, culture and politics – On globalization and film policy in greater China. Policy Studies, 30(4), 423–438.
Hau, C. S., & Shiraishi, T. (2013). Regional contexts of cooperation and collaboration in Hong Kong cinema. In N. Otmazgin & E. Ben-Ari (Eds.), Popular culture co-productions and collaborations in East and Southeast Asia (pp. 68–96). Singapore: NUS Press (in association with Kyoto University Press, Japan).
Iwabuchi, K. (2001). Becoming culturally proximate: The ascent of Japanese idol dramas in Taiwan. In B. Moeran (Ed.), Asian media productions (pp. 54–74). Richmond: Curzon.
Jirattikorn, A. (2015). The indigenization of Korean elements in full house Thai: Views from Thai and Vietnamese audience. Springer (forthcoming).
Kist, C. (2004). Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A diasporic reading. Cinema Journal, 43(4), 18–42.
Kist, J. (2014). Globalization on You Tube: Music video charts in (South-)East Asia and Western Europe. Master’s thesis: Media, Culture and Society. Rotterdam: Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication.
Klein, C. (2004). Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A diasporic reading. Cinema Journal, 43(4), 18–42.
La Pastina, A. C., & Straubhaar, J. D. (2005). Multiple proximities between television genres and audiences. Gazette, 67(2), 71–88.
Media > Cinema attendance per capita: Countries compared. http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Media/Cinema-attendance-per-capita
Napolitano, D. (2014, December 24). The ten best Asian films. Wall Street Journal.
Otmazgin, N. K. (2013a). Regionalizing culture: The political economy of Japanese popular culture in Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Otmazgin, N. K. (2013b). Popular culture and regionalization in East and Southeast Asia. In N. Otmazgin & E. Ben-Ari (Eds.), Popular culture co-productions and collaborations in East and Southeast Asia (pp. 29–51). Singapore: NUS Press (in association with Kyoto University Press, Japan).
Otmazgin, N. K., & Ben-Ari, E. (2013). Introduction. In N. Otmazgin & E. Ben-Ari (Eds.), Popular culture co-productions and collaborations in East and Southeast Asia (pp. 1–25). Singapore: NUS Press (in association with Kyoto University Press, Japan).
Rosen, S. (n.d.) Hollywood, globalization and film markets in Asia: Lessons for China? Unpublished paper, Department of Political Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
Sen, K. (1995). Indonesian cinema: Framing the new order. London: Zed Books.
Shim, D. (2013). Korean cinema industry and cinema regulation in East Asia. In N. Otmazgin & E. Ben-Ari (Eds.), Popular culture co-productions and collaborations in East and Southeast Asia (pp. 52–67). Singapore: NUS Press (in association with Kyoto University Press, Japan).
Waterman, D., & Rogers, E. (1994). The economics of television program production and trade in far East Asia. Journal of Communication, 44(3), 89–111.
Whaley, F. (2012) New ambitions in Philippine film business. The New York Times, May.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Crane, D. (2018). Cultural Flows and the Global Film Industry: A Comparison of Asia and Europe as Regional Cultures. In: Kawashima, N., Lee, HK. (eds) Asian Cultural Flows. Creative Economy. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0147-5_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0147-5_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-0145-1
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-0147-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)