Abstract
This essay examines a regional, not global, dimension of Chinese cinema: the Chinese character in its brushed form. Calligraphy and cinema have an intimate relationship in East Asia. Indeed, the ubiquity of the brushed word in cinema is one element that actually ties works in Korean, Japanese and Sinophone Asia together as a regional cinema. At the same time, I will explore the very specific difference of Chinese filmmakers’ use of written language. On first glance, cinema and calligraphy would appear as radically different art forms. On second glance, they present themselves as sister arts. Both are art forms built from records of the human body moving in (an absent) time and space. The essay ends with a consideration of subtitling, upon which Chinese cinema’s global dimension is predicated. How does investigating this very problem lead us to rethinking the nature of the cinematic subtitle, which is very much alive―a truly movable type?
About the author
Markus Nornes is Professor of Asian cinema at the University of Michigan, where he specializes in Japanese film, documentary and translation theory. He has done extensive programming on the international film festival circuit, especially at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. He has written books on Japanese documentary, City of Sadness, film translation, and a critical biography of director Ogawa Shinsuke. His current book, Brushed in Light (University of Michigan Press, 2021), is on the intimate relationship of calligraphy and East Asian cinema. He is currently writing a critical biography of Adachi Masao. Nornes has also directed a number of documentaries, including When We’re Together (2020), The Big House (2018, co-directed with Soda Kazuhiro et al.), 911 (2001), and a five-screen video installation entitled Player Played (2019).
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