Extreme Asia: The Rise of Cult Cinema From the Far East
Date: 2015-06-24 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Performing Arts; Film; General; History & Criticism
Description: From Japanese horror to South Korean revenge thrillers, and from the new Hong Kong crime film to Thailand’s boundary-breaking ghost stories, Western audiences have been stunned by a boom in challenging cult cinema from East Asia over the last decade. But how did this cycle of ‘Extreme’ Asian films gain such notoriety? How did distribution companies, journalists, critics and censors contribute to the rise of a new genre of forbidden foreign cinema? Extreme Asia: The Rise of Cult Cinema from the Far East charts the history of the recent cult Asian film invasion, covering a five-year period and f
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

EXTREME ASIA

The Rise of Cult Cinema
from the Far East

Daniel Martin

Extreme Asia

The Rise of Cult Cinema from the Far East

Daniel Martin

For Monty

© Daniel Martin, 2015

Edinburgh University Press Ltd

The Tun – Holyrood Road

12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry

Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
www.euppublishing.com

Typeset in 11/13 Monotype Ehrhardt by

Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire,
and printed and bound in Great Britain by

CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 9745 8 (hardback)

ISBN 978 0 7486 9746 5 (webready PDF)

ISBN 978 1 4744 0360 3 (epub)

The right of Daniel Martin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).

Contents

Acknowledgements iv

Introduction

1

1 Chilling Beginnings: Japanese Horror and the British Critical Reception of Nakata Hideo’s Ring 22

2 Cinema of Cruelty: The Birth of Asia Extreme and Miike Takashi’s Audition 41

3 Courting Controversy: Hype, Scandal and Fukasaku Kinji’s Battle Royale 71

4 Brand Wagon: The Courtship of Multiplex Audiences and the 2003

Asia Extreme Roadshow

92

5 Savagery and Serenity: Extreme Cinema and the Films of Kim Ki-duk 122

6 From the Margins to the Mainstream: Asia Extreme in 2004

142

Conclusion: The Legacy of Asia Extreme

163

Appendix: Asia Extreme UK Theatrical Release Timeline 169

Bibliography 170

Filmography 184

Index 192

Acknowledgements

This book originated as a PhD research project undertaken at the University of East Anglia and was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. I owe a huge debt of thanks to my supervisor, Mark Jancovich, for an incredible amount of support and encouragement. His guidance made this work possible and continues to influence me. Considerable gratitude also goes to Peter Kramer and Andy Willis, whose feedback has improved this work immensely. My friends, colleagues and fellow students during my time at UEA all contributed to this book by sharing ideas and offering advice: Tim Snelson, Jim Whalley, Lindsay Steenberg, Pietari Kaapa, Clare Watson, Pierluigi Ercole, Nathalie Morris, Hannah Hamad, Hitomi Kudo, James Caterer and Rayna Denison. Thanks too to Min-jeong Lee, Keiko Hikabe and the staff at the British Film Institute National Library in London. Special thanks go to Paul Smith, formerly of Tartan Films, for giving so much of his time and sharing so many insights. Over the lengthy period of this project’s development, thanks go to former and present colleagues at Queen’s University Belfast, Lancaster University and KAIST. Final thanks to Gillian Leslie of Edinburgh University Press for her constant support and enthusiasm for this project, and to Richard Strachan and Kate Robertson for their assistance. Sincere and heartfelt thanks to my entire family for their love and admiration.

Chapter 1 of this book has previously been published in an earlier form as the article ‘Japan’s Blair Witch: Restraint, Maturity, and Generic Canons in the British Critical Reception of Ring’ in Cinema Journal 48: 3 (May 2009).

Introduction

This book is a study of the Asia Extreme brand, a DVD and theatrical release label created by British film distribution company Metro-Tartan/Tartan Films. Specifically, this book offers a comprehensive history of the marketing and critical reception of this series of films from Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Hong Kong, focusing on releases in the United Kingdom between 2000 and 2005. The strategies and marketing campaigns used by Tartan Films to promote these films to a wide British audience will be examined, as will the critical and journalistic reception of the films. The following analysis seeks to account for the rise in visibility of this cycle of Japanese horror, Hong Kong action and Korean cult film in the UK, and to chart the changing contexts of their reception. In the process, this research identifies the cinematic debates, assumptions and prejudices that inform the British critical reception of ‘cult’ cinema from the Far East.

The Asia Extreme concept elided the differences between different Asian national cinemas in order to create a single, strong, indelible brand image.

During a period of rising interest in Japanese horror cinema, South Korean revenge thrillers, films from Thailand and a new kind of Hong Kong action film, Tartan was the main supplier of these films to the UK, shaping how they were understood by audiences and critics. From the release of Nakata Hideo’s Ring (1998), in August 2000, to the release of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003), in October 2004, the Asia Extreme cycle of films built momentum and gained increasing attention from critics and audiences. At the peak of the cycle’s success, these ‘cult’ Asian films were being seen in multiplex cinemas and small art houses; they were getting full reviews in every national newspaper and film periodical; their directors were in the UK for extensive press junkets and sold-out Q&A screenings. This unprecedented success for a niche-genre foreign-language cinema was due to a carefully orchestrated and long-running branding campaign, which attached a unifying label and an extremely strong brand identity to these films.

2 extreme asia
metrO-tartaN aND asia extreme

Tartan Films was founded in 1984 by ‘iconoclastic entrepreneur’ Hamish McAlpine, film producer Don Boyd and film distributor Alan Kean.1 In spite of the fact that the company was formed by three partners, Tartan became indelibly associated with its operational head and primary owner, McAlpine, who encouraged people to directly equate him with his company. McAlpine came from a wealthy family – he’s the great-grandson of a ‘construction tycoon’2 – and the finances needed to start Tartan were easily available. This is significant because, as has been suggested by many of his critics and admirers alike, McAlpine could always afford to gamble by releasing potentially uncommercial films without risk of financial ruin.

Tartan primarily released ‘world cinema’ in art-house venues and on VHS
format, building a catalogue of some of the best-known international films released in the UK. In 1992, Tartan merged with the exhibitors/ distributors Metro Pictures, and became Metro-Tartan, the name under which the company operated until 2003, when the name reverted to simply ‘Tartan Films.’ It was in the early 1990s that the company had some of its biggest successes, anticipating the market for ‘new’ violent and erotic world cinema. In an article written in 2008, Andrew Stimpson recalls that ‘when the striking covers of Hard Boiled and Man Bites Dog leapt off video shelves in the early nineties they successfully inducted a virgin audience to the ways of Hong Kong action cinema and the fates of unfortunate Belgian postmen’.3

Hard Boiled (John Woo, 1992) was, as will be discussed later, incredibly significant in developing the reputation and fandom of Hong Kong cinema in the UK long before the Asia Extreme period, and the Belgian film Man Bites Dog (Rémy Belvaux, 1992) provoked reactions against its sadistic violence that, again, anticipated the tone of the reception of many Asia Extreme releases.

Additionally, Tartan released several classic Japanese horror films on video in the mid-1990s, including the seminal Onibaba (Shindô Kaneto, 1964) and Kwaidan (Kobayashi Masaki, 1964) in 1994, and Kuroneko (Shindô Kaneto, 1968) in 1995.

Japanese horror and Hong Kong action were by no means the focus of Tartan’s catalogue of releases and the company also released on videotape numerous classic European films, including works by Francois Truffaut and Ingmar Bergman. These VHS releases were clearly marketed towards serious cinephiles and collectors: releases were subtitled, sometimes included additional interviews on the tape, had liner notes and filmographies on the inner packaging and, significantly, were always in the ‘widescreen’ format (where it reflected the original aspect ratio of the film); this was rare during the period before widescreen televisions were common and almost all video releases were edited using the ‘pan and scan’ technique to fill up the screen.

iNtrODuctiON 3

While Tartan had a recognisable brand name during this period, and its video cases had a uniformity of design, they were not sub-categorised or linked to each other in any obvious way – they were merely presented as part of a broad canon of ‘World Cinema’. This changed at the end of the 1990s, however, and with the DVD format growing in popularity, Tartan began to create new sub-labels based around genres and directors. The ‘Ingmar Bergman collection’

was significant and as Geoffrey Macnab has noted, ‘Tartan has released far more Ingmar Bergman titles on DVD than any Swedish distributor’.4 In fact, the Asia Extreme label was preceded by the ‘Tartan Terror’ collection, which included such cult American horror films as Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon, 1985) and Pumpkinhead (Stan Winston, 1988).

While Tartan were, by the late 1990s, already known for some provocative releases, there was also a clear commitment to canonical art cinema from around the world. These films represented ‘dangerous’ releases because of their potential to alienate mainstream viewers by either offending them (as was the case with a film like Lars von Trier’s 1998 The Idiots, caught up in controversy for both its depiction of disability and the appearance on screen of an erect penis) or, conversely, being irrelevant to them (for example, surely only academics and serious cinephiles would have purchased the silent German film Pandora’s Box (G. W. Pabst, 1929) when Tartan released it on video in 1993).

McAlpine, often referred to as ‘adventurous’,5 has repeatedly commended his own efforts in distributing otherwise unreleasable films. In a 2005 interview with the Village Voice, for example, he declared, ‘for the last 21 years Tartan has established a reputation for walking a line which others fear to tread.

Sometimes that can take us into sexually explicit territory and other times into intellectually explicit arenas.’6 There can be no escaping the fact that Tartan was a profit-seeking company though, and that its most successful releases were of violent contemporary films, like Hard Boiled and Man Bites Dog. It was in this context, of eagerly looking for provocative and potentially trend-setting films, that McAlpine ‘discovered’ the Japanese horror films Ring and Audition.7

Nakata Hideo’s Ring, a gothic horror film from 1998, was released in one cinema in London in August 2000. Playing at a repertory cinema, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), the film’s commercial success was marginal compared to its critical impact. Ring was almost unanimously celebrated by British film critics, with praise for the film’s psychological sophistication and artistic sense of restraint. Ring was seen to offer an alternative to the more familiar, tiresome cycle of mainstream American horror.

Thus, a gap in the market was identified, and Tartan saw an opportunity to capitalise on it. The fact that Ring was Japanese had not diminished its appeal for critics. Indeed, the fact that the film was not American, and so clearly offered something different from Hollywood cinema, was seen to be the entire

4 extreme asia
basis of its appeal. Tartan quickly acquired the rights to the film and would subsequently release Ring in a variety of home video formats. Tartan’s next move was the theatrical release in March 2001 of Audition, a then-recent film by provocative Japanese director Miike Takashi. Though Audition divided critics and failed to generate as much critical goodwill as Ring, the film was arguably much more significant for journalists and audiences. The film’s graphic violence was a major talking point and, thanks to Tartan’s shrewd marketing campaign, a major selling point. It was on the release of a third Japanese film, Battle Royale (Fukasaku Kinji, 2000) – again, distributed by Tartan – that the British critical press began to notice a pattern. They commented on the connections between these three films, identifying their ‘extremity’ (of both visual violent content and emotional effect) as a unifying factor.

In 2002, Tartan officially created Asia Extreme as a brand within their catalogue of titles. Initially intended to function as an incentive for DVD collectors, the label soon grew to become the basis of a touring film festival, which for the first time took subtitled Asian horror films into multiplex cinemas.

With Tartan’s ‘extreme’ Asian films playing to typically divided audiences, appearing in ordinarily mutually exclusive mainstream and alternative venues almost simultaneously, the consequences of this success were a rapidly increasing public and critical awareness of contemporary Japanese, Hong Kong and South Korean cinema.

The release of Park Chan-wook’s South Korean revenge-thriller Oldboy (2003) was the peak of the brand’s penetration, and the film remains one of Tartan’s biggest-ever financial successes. Fresh from its triumph at the Cannes Film Festival, Oldboy was embraced by critics and fans alike, appealing to casual viewers and serious cinephiles, and drastically affecting the perception among British audiences of just what ‘typical’ Asian cinema was.

This book covers the most significant releases from this cycle of films in order to interrogate a series of important issues and questions. Tartan sold these films to audiences based on stereotypical perceptions of the East. They courted ‘negative’ press by emphasising the immorality and alienness of Asian countries. They elided the national differences between films through their branding and marketing activities. They promoted films based on their connections and associations with a wide variety of genres and national cinemas.

Tartan courted different audiences for these films at different venues in different ways. All of these marketing and distribution strategies had a significant impact on the critical reception of these films. Critics engaged in various discourses of familiarisation and Othering in order to assess these films. The strategies employed to confer meaning and value on these East Asian films were based on specifically British frames of reference, and critics relied on Tartan’s press notes and promotional information to guide their expertise.

This was a cause for alarm among long-time experts and fans of Asian cinema,
iNtrODuctiON 5
who saw ‘their’ niche passion being embraced by the mainstream media.

Significant, too, is the changing context of reception; the ways in which critics discussed these films initially – during a period when there was effectively an Asian-cinema vacuum in the UK – is markedly different to how critics understood these films at the peak of their exposure.

All of these issues are of central importance to much wider concerns of increasing relevance in this period of globalised cinema and transnational cultural exchange. This research draws on – and is relevant to – a variety of theoretical frameworks and specialist areas within both Film Studies and Cultural Studies. This book, therefore, is concerned specifically with contemporary Japanese horror, postmodern Hong Kong action films, several examples of new Thai cinema and South Korea’s newly global genre cinema. Neglected in scholarship to various degrees, and the subject of increasing academic and critical attention, there is still almost no work explaining how these films have become so visible in the West recently, or why, or precisely how they are understood.

JaPaN, HONG KONG, sOutH KOrea: tHree asiaN
ciNemas8

Japanese cinema has been a staple of Western Film Studies for far longer than Hong Kong, Thai or South Korean cinema. The reasons for this can undoubtedly be traced back to the award bestowed on Kurosawa Akira’s Rashomon at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. Donald Richie, probably the foremost Western scholar of Japanese cinema, describes Rashomon as ‘the most honored of all Japanese films, and, for a time, the single Asian picture most viewed in the West’.9 Rashomon excites critics and academics because of its narrative complexity and visual style, and praise for the film typically circulates around an auteurist appreciation of Kurosawa. Many of Kurosawa’s other films were also seen (relatively) widely in the West; the period action film Seven Samurai (1954) and the Shakespeare adaptation Throne of Blood (1957) were particularly praised. If Kurosawa set the tone for an auteurist appreciation of his work among cinephiles in the West from the 1950s until today, then Japanese film studies has largely followed suit, typically focusing on Kurosawa and a few other key directors and genres. Richie’s work was among the first; his co-authored volume with Joseph L. Anderson, The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (1959),10 influenced many scholars to follow. Both Audie Bock11 and Joan Mellen12 published monographs in the 1970s examining Japanese cinema by focusing on a few auteur directors. Historically, Japanese cinema has been constructed in Western scholarship with a specific canon of great directors (including Kurosawa, Ozu Yasujiro and Mizoguchi Kenji), all of whom have been the subjects of significant attention.

6 extreme asia

If Rashomon was the first Japanese film to ‘go West’, then Oshima Nagisa’s In the Realm of the Senses (1976) arguably gave birth to a second-wave Western critical appreciation of Japanese cinema (in this case, the ‘New Wave’ specifically). In the Realm of the Senses relied more on erotic scandal than artistic merit or narrative innovation to win attention, and was a significant development in the status of the Japanese film abroad. The Japanese New Wave is chronicled most significantly by David Desser in his Eros plus Massacre (1988).13 Again, auteur directors – Oshima especially – are centralised in this analysis and a long tradition of ‘marginal’ Japanese horror remains just that.

In fact, it is easy to see Ring as the ‘third stage’ in Japanese cinema’s journey to the West. Ring had a greater impact than almost any other Japanese film released since the New Wave success of the 1970s. Beyond its impact on British cinemagoers and critics, the film sparked renewed (or rather, just

‘new’) worldwide interest in Japanese horror – or J-horror, as it has become known by fans. Jay McRoy was the first Western academic to make any significant interventions here, as editor of the collection Japanese Horror Cinema (2005);14 this was followed by two monographs published in 2008: McRoy’s Nightmare Japan: Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema (2008) and Collette Balmain’s Introduction to Japanese Horror Film (2008).15 Both monographs are based entirely on textual analysis of films in the context of their historical/
cultural meaning; as McRoy explains in the straightforward introduction to his book, ‘as a substantial component of Japanese popular culture, horror films allow artists an avenue through which they may apply visual and narrative metaphors in order to engage aesthetically with a rapidly transforming social and cultural landscape’.16 Neither volume, therefore, engages significantly with the international circulation of Japanese horror.

Probably the only Japanese director of horror/cult cinema to have a significant following in the UK before the Asia Extreme boom is Tsukamoto Shinya.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) was a significant art-house release, getting the attention of national critics (and dividing their opinion) and creating a legacy of British fans. Tsukamoto remained visible before and during the rise of the new cycle of J-horror in the post- Ring period, and he is a figure of great significance to cult Japanese cinema abroad. However, only one book pays the director any sustained attention: Tom Mes’ Iron Man: The Cinema of Shinya Tsukamoto (2005), a well-researched but journalistic, rather than academic, survey of the director’s work.17 Mes has also authored two similar books on Miike Takashi,18
a figure of central importance to Asia Extreme. What all these studies of recent Japanese horror lack is an explanation of how these films are understood across different cultures, and the impact they have had in the West.

Scholarship on Hong Kong cinema, on the other hand, tends to centralise its transnational nature. From the ‘kung-fu craze’ of the 1970s to the ‘Heroic Bloodshed’ films of John Woo, Hong Kong cinema has had a major impact
iNtrODuctiON 7
in the West, with a specific and indelible association with a single genre: action. David Desser has noted that Hong Kong kung fu films emerged as a major commercial force in America in 1973, seeming ‘to have come out of nowhere’.19 Propelled by the transnational stardom of Bruce Lee, which reached its peak with the US-Hong Kong co-production Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse, 1973), original Hong Kong films like Five Fingers of Death (Chung Chang-hwa, 1972) could stay in the US box office top ten for weeks at a time – something unprecedented among foreign films during this period.

The most significant thing about Hong Kong cinema’s initial reception in the West is the extent to which the films were seen as ‘cheap’ and ‘dangerous’

– typical examples of exploitation cinema. The ‘newness’ of the films was significant, as was the extent to which – as is so often the case with Asian cinema

– they were marketed, and enjoyed, on the basis that they clearly offered something American films could not. However, as Desser notes, the films were gone as suddenly as they arrived and the ‘kung fu craze’ only had real mainstream commercial significance in the USA during 1973.20

Though Hong Kong does have an active art film culture (epitomised by Wong Kar-Wai and the significant academic and critical following his work attracts), much scholarship tends to focus on genre films and emphasise the commercialism of the Hong Kong film industry. David Bordwell’s influential monograph Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (2000) is an enthusiastic appreciation of the industry because of – not in spite of – the speed at which it works and the roughness of the final products.21 The charm of the Hong Kong cinema industry is also an important part of fan discourse in the UK, where Bruce Lee remained visible as a cult figure throughout the 1980s and 1990s, along with other kung-fu stars like Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.

The most significant figure from Hong Kong cinema for the development of the Hong Kong component of Asia Extreme is undoubtedly John Woo.

Bordwell identifies Woo as one of the key auteurs of Hong Kong cinema, a director who makes films that are ‘exaggeratedly distinctive, caricaturally personal’.22 Both Woo’s The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992) played in repertory cinemas throughout the UK in the 1990s to significant critical and fan acclaim. Woo attracts a great deal of interest from critics and casual scholars, but of the significant number of books published on Woo, few are worthwhile. One of the best is Karen Fang’s short monograph focusing on A Better Tomorrow.23 Here, Fang accounts for the huge success of this particular film both in Hong Kong and foreign markets, particularly within Asia. Though much has been done to account for the international success of Hong Kong cinema, a lot of this work remains either out-of-date or focuses on ‘the West’

only in the broadest possible terms.

If the action film is Hong Kong cinema’s most exportable genre, and more

8 extreme asia
straightforward horror is seen to define recent Japanese cult cinema, then it is clear that South Korean ‘cult’ cinema still lacks a strong identity beyond the works of a few key directors. Indeed, Korean cinema was sold under the Asia Extreme banner on the basis of its ‘newness’ and unfamiliarity, and even within English-language Film Studies, Korean film is a relatively ‘new’ and unexplored topic. A number of different books were published at around the same time: 2002’s edited collection Im Kwon-Taek: The Making of a Korean National Cinema focuses on a director whose reputation in the West barely extends beyond film festivals and the most serious cinephiles;24 the edited collection South Korean Golden Age Melodrama: Gender, Genre, and National Cinema (2005)25 and Kyung Hyun Kim’s monograph The Remasculinization of Korean Cinema (2004)26 add to an academic understanding of the themes and generic tropes of South Korean cinema but, again, do little to explain either its lengthy absence from the canon of World Cinema or its recent rapid rise to prominence.

More recent work addresses the global profile of Korean cinema more directly, including (but not limited to) Jinhee Choi’s The South Korean Film Renaissance: Local Hitmakers, Global Provocateurs (2010)27 and Kyung Hyun Kim’s Virtual Hallyu: Korean Cinema of the Global Era (2011).28 Korea’s horror and cult films and filmmakers have also received overdue attention in recent years, from Hye Seung Chung’s monograph Kim Ki-duk (2012)29
and my own collection Korean Horror Cinema (2013), co-edited with Alison Peirse.30 Julian Stringer and Chi-Yun Shin’s edited collection New Korean Cinema (2005) was one of the first interventions on this aspect of Korean film.31

Several essays here engage with Korean cinema’s transnational success and increasing international reputation. In an individual chapter, Stringer help-fully argues that Korean cinema’s relative anonymity has meant that genre is the single most important factor in the reception of Korean films.32 Stringer’s essay details the effects of the increasing international scrutiny of Korean film; he observes the ways in which genre is the primary tool in marketing Korean films abroad, as well as the key attribute by which non-Korean critics understand and discuss Korean cinema from assumed positions of authority.

Without knowledge of the domestic context of these films, international audiences are apt to draw conclusions and make generalisations based on what they see. This is one of the most significant and, for many, troubling consequences of Korean cinema’s prominence in the Asia Extreme brand. Almost all of the Korean films released in cinemas or on DVD in the UK in the last decade have been through Tartan’s Asia Extreme brand and have, therefore, been a certain kind of Korean film – violent, sexual, provocative. With many critics assuming that Park Chan-wook and Kim Ki-duk are representative of Korea’s domestic commercial industry, experts increasingly feel that these films are being misunderstood by ignorant viewers and celebrated only for their difference.

iNtrODuctiON 9

OrieNtaLism aND FiLm recePtiON

One key concept of significance in understanding the cultural context of Asian cinema’s marketing and reception in the West is Orientialism. According to Edward Said,

Orientalism can be discussed and analysed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient – dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.33

Orientalism is the practice of defining the Orient – in this case, East Asia – by how it is different, by what it is not. Orientalism is a common practice, both consciously and intuitively, found in art, literature, cinema and various other cultural processes. Orientalism positions the West as ‘normal’ and the Orient as ‘alien’, as ‘Other’. Richard Minear has argued, in fact, that the Orient is one of Europe’s ‘deepest and most recurring images of the Other’.34

Gary Needham offers a precise summary of the practice of Orientalism in his essay ‘Japanese cinema and Orientalism’.35 Here, Needham suggests that ‘Orientalism involves the exercise of power operating through a body of knowledge (everyday, common sense and academic) that results to the legitimacy of “the West” to govern, speak for and to shape the meaning of the

“Orient” ’.36 Needham argues that inaccurate ‘imagined representations’ of the East (‘fantasies, gross misrepresentations and stereotypes’) have ‘historically enabled the justification of colonial conquest and imperial mentalities’.37

The practice, therefore, served a particular ideological purpose, and deliberately rendered the people and cultures of the East ‘alien’. So successful were Orientalist discourses in shaping Western perceptions of the East that the version of the East understood by the majority of the West differed significantly from the real thing.

Oscar Wilde’s often-quoted comments on Japan are worth repeating here.

In a short piece, ‘The Decay of Lying,’ published in 1891, Wilde famously wrote of a character who declared that ‘the whole of Japan is a pure invention.

There is no such country, there are no such people.’38 This character goes on to argue that ‘the Japanese people are a deliberate and self-conscious creation of certain individual artists’.39 It is worth noting that Wilde does not put all the blame for the misrepresentative artistic fiction of ‘Japan’ on Westerners; he in fact considers ‘self-Orientalism’ to be an active practice here. Indeed, this is occasionally the case with Asia Extreme filmmakers, who, in engaging with the British mainstream press, play up the exoticness of their work.

In terms of what, exactly, the Orientalist perception of Japan and other

10 extreme asia
countries constitutes, journalist and sociologist Ziauddin Sardar argues that Japan has consistently been viewed by the West as ‘an unfathomable, exotic and erotic place where mysteries dwell and cruel and barbaric scenes are staged’.40 China is seen as a country defined by its ‘cold-hearted cruelty’,41
and Japan has been ‘feared for its inhuman martial traditions ( samurai, bushido,
ninja, kamikaze)’.42

It is problematic, too, that so much of the academic and critical discourse around Orientalism focuses only on Japan. Arguably, Japan has become representative of the ‘exotic’ Far East: as sociologist Robert Park has argued,

‘the Japanese is condemned to remain among us as an abstraction, a symbol, and a symbol not merely of his own race, but of the Orient and of that vague, ill-defined menace we sometimes refer to as the “yellow peril” ’.43 In fact, this can be seen in discourse surrounding the Asia Extreme label, which began as a cycle of distinctly Japanese films and then grew into a brand which elided differences and failed to distinguish between Korea, Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong as individual and distinct countries.

Theories of Orientalism are of vital importance to this book, and there is clear evidence of Orientalist discourses in both the marketing and reception of the Asia Extreme films. The ‘comingling of fear and fascination’44 that defines Orientalist views of the East is undeniably a factor in the promotion of some of the Asia Extreme films, and indeed, the very notion is clearly paralleled by what Mark Jancovich calls ‘the traditional “dare” of horror movie promotion’.45

A great deal of work has been done to bring Orientalism into Film Studies.

Gaylyn Studlar, for example, has noted that

Virtually from its beginnings, the cinema has been drawn to Orientalism

. . . Hollywood’s creation of an imaginary East, represented archetypi-cally as mysterious and sensuous, would seem to be an especially significant and rich area for film studies.46

This continues to be the case, with an ever-growing body of academic literature analysing Orientalism in cinema. One recent volume is Brian Locke’s monograph Racial Stigma on the Hollywood Screen from World War II to the Present: The Orientalist Buddy Film (2009),47 which exclusively examines American films. There is indeed a great deal to be said about Orientalism in Western film. What this book is concerned with, however, is not Orientalism in films – it is Orientalism in the promotion and reception of films. Such Orientalist discourses of difference, and of Japan as exotic and erotic, barbaric and cruel, were used as selling points in the release of several Asia Extreme films.

The reception of these films, and their promotional campaigns, is a central
iNtrODuctiON 11
component of this book, and so film reception studies is one if its theoretical underpinnings. The work of academics Stuart Hall, David Morley and Janet Staiger has been essential in developing arguments regarding how certain audiences understand certain texts in certain ways. However, this book contains no direct audience research or empirical data. Instead, the subject of the following reception study is film reviews. The work of Pierre Bourdieu, especially his seminal Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1984),48 informs the arguments to follow, as film reviews, like any other critical practice, are a display of taste. Therefore, of particular significance is Bourdieu’s assertion that ‘when [tastes] have to be justified, they are asserted purely negatively, by the refusal of other tastes’.49 In the case of the Asia Extreme cycle critics align their personal tastes with, or against, Asian cinema in different ways at different times. Bourdieu’s sense of ‘distinction’ is crucial to film critics, as is their sense of expertise, value and cultural capital.

Barbara Klinger has shown how the period and context of reception can radically change the meanings of films for critics, and that consensuses develop to form the bases of new canon constructions.50 Mark Jancovich has demonstrated the specific and traceable influence of press and publicity on film reviewers, particularly as they relate to changing definitions of genre.51 There are constantly multiple factors at work shaping the opinions of critics; the changing contexts of reception of the Asia Extreme films will reveal the transforming values that critics hold for various canons within numerous genres at different times.

GeNre: HOrrOr aND cuLt

A great deal of the significant literature and academic debates on the topic of horror will be reviewed in detail in Chapters 1 and 2, but this book engages with wider questions of genre construction and definitions, and the concept of

‘cult’ film. What Tartan did with Asia Extreme was to create a strong, single brand identity that was not tied to a single genre. Encompassing horror (and the various sub-genres within: gothic restrained horror, body horror, torture films, serial killer thrillers) as well as ‘shoot-em-up’ action films, erotic art films, spy thrillers and science fiction, Asia Extreme nonetheless became associated with a certain kind of film and audiences knew what to expect from an Asia Extreme title. Perhaps, rather than discarding genre, Tartan were actually creating a new genre.

Mark Jancovich has discussed the debates that rage in film studies over what exactly constitutes a genre. He cites the arguments of James Naremore and Andrew Tudor, who suggest that ‘genres are not defined by a feature that makes all films of a certain type fundamentally similar; rather, they are

12 extreme asia
produced by the discourses through which film are understood’.52 If Asia Extreme is a genre, it is limited both in the ultimate scope and number of films, and the period during which it has any meaning. The creation of this particular genre, however, was the result of a period of mutual influence between British film critics and Tartan’s marketing and publicity department.

As is made clear in later chapters, the notion of ‘Asia Extreme’ was apparently noticed first by critics, then emphasised by Tartan and made canonical by the mutual acknowledgement of the new cycle.

Regardless of whether the films under the Asia Extreme banner can be said to fit individual genres such as ‘horror’ or ‘action’, the films of this cycle are universally acknowledged as ‘cult’. This book is, in a broader sense, concerned with the cultural and social contextualisation and mediation of cult artefacts, the discussions that take place over the meaning and value of these texts.

Within Film Studies scholarship, debates are ongoing over how best to define a cult film. Traditionally thought of as defined by its audiences, an individual or collective appreciation of a cult film has typically been described as a way for fans to distinguish themselves and express something about their tastes.

There are some widely accepted and useful arguments that underpin much of the scholarship on cult film. Joanne Hollows, for example, begins her analysis of cult fandom by quoting Mark Jancovich’s observation that ‘cult texts are defined according to a sub-cultural ideology in which it is their supposed difference from the “mainstream” which is significant, rather than any unifying feature’.53 There are developments and alternative views which challenge this narrow definition, however. Jinsoo An’s work on cult Hong Kong cinema warns against overly reductive definitions of the term which lose sight of the original text completely. He cites recent work correcting this, arguing that descriptions such as ‘it’s a cult film if it has a devoted fan following’

tend to be so indiscriminate in the numbers and kinds of films included that the term itself runs the risk of losing its specificity. Recently, more rigorous scholarship has modified the territory of cult film by adding the deviant and overtly disruptive nature of the film’s subject into the discussion. The cultural role of cult film, namely the relationship between film text and the audience, has been central to theory on cult film.54

An’s work is particularly relevant here, because he considers John Woo, a figure whose cult reputation pre-dated and anticipated the Asia Extreme brand. One of the most significant recent interventions on cult film theory is The Cult Film Reader (2008), edited by Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik.

This volume reprints forty-three essays and articles on various aspects of cult film, and its ambitious introduction attempts to offer a conclusive definition of what exactly constitutes a cult film. Here, the editors argue that ‘a cult film is
iNtrODuctiON 13
defined through a variety of combinations that include four major elements’.55

The first two of these elements are ‘anatomy’ (‘the film itself’) and ‘consumption’ (including audience, fan and critical reception), familiar arguments within cult film studies.56 The next category is ‘political economy’, defined here as ‘the financial and physical conditions of presence of the film – its ownerships, intentions, promotions, channels of presentation, and the spaces and times of its exhibition’.57 These are significant considerations, especially for the arguments of this book; however, Mathijs and Mendik explore these concepts in the briefest detail, focusing their later discussion of this category almost entirely on exhibition contexts.

Indeed, exhibition is clearly an important component here, and the emergence of ‘Midnight Movies’ as a concept (the subject of numerous studies as well as Stuart Samuels’ 2005 documentary film Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream) is considered a key moment in the emergence of the cult film. The screening of old or ‘unconventional’ films in inner-city cinemas in the USA at midnight gave fans/audiences (as ever, positioned as the key factor in what makes these films ‘cult’) an opportunity to formalise their taste-specific communities. This book will challenge these assumptions that equate

‘alternative’ films with ‘alternative’ venues.

Mathijs and Mendik’s final category is the cult film’s ‘cultural value’, specifically, its ability to comment on its contemporary society by ‘complying, exploiting, critiquing or offending’.58 This book will engage with notions of transgression and the significance of film’s potential to offend; it is however impossible, I argue, to separate a film’s ability to offend from its reception.

Crucially, a cult film only gets its full meaning as an ‘alternative’ and transgressive text in its reception and consumption. These films transgress; but a text can only be transgressive if there is someone to offend or a rule to break that someone cares about. The films of the Asia Extreme cycle inspire celebration and admiration, but I argue that critical opposition is just as significant, and beneficial, to this kind of film brand. Within the broad range of print sources considered here, there is never ever a complete consensus on a single topic.

The clearest intervention into these debates offered by this book is the argument presented in the following chapters that a cult film does not necessarily need particular textual qualities, or an appreciative, spontaneous passionate fan reaction, or even exhibition in an appropriately ‘alternative’ venue. Rather, as the Asia Extreme case studies demonstrate, a film can have the label ‘cult’

thrust upon it purely as a result of carefully planned marketing campaigns and skilfully judged interactions between the distribution company (in this case, Tartan) and the mainstream press. This book argues that ‘cult’ can be pre-conceived and packaged; not led by audiences, but sold to them.

Finally, it is worth noting that the term ‘cult’ will appear throughout this book in a variety of contexts. The word is used in relation to the Asia Extreme

14 extreme asia
films in both marketing discourses and by the British critical press; typically, films are described by reviewers as ‘cult’ simply to signify their violent and/or sexual content, as well as the audiences that are presumed to be interested in foreign-language genre films. ‘Cult’ is a slippery term, but it is also a useful one for critics and promoters: a shortcut to meaning, creating instant associations in the minds of readers and audiences.

tHe BritisH criticaL Press

The reviews under discussion in this book come almost entirely from the few British magazines and broadsheet newspapers that could consistently provide reviews of Asia Extreme titles; tabloid newspapers are discussed where possible and appropriate. The newspapers from which reviews are consistently discussed include: broadsheets The Guardian and The Observer, The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, The Times and The Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph; also discussed are reviews from the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, the Evening Standard and The Sun. Magazines consistently discussed are Empire, a mainstream publication and the best-selling monthly cinema magazine in the UK; Sight & Sound, a specialist publication devoted to international cinema; Film Review and Total Film are also mainstream publications. Time Out is not a film magazine specifically and it is a city-specific publication – however, given the London-centric nature of the early Asia Extreme releases, the publication is certainly influential. It is worth noting that none of these publications have a specialist Asian film reviewer on staff, with the exception of Sight & Sound’s Tony Rayns.

Rayns is discussed in detail in Chapters 5 and 6, and many of the other specific and noteworthy figures from the British critical community will receive attention in later chapters. It is, however, worth briefly introducing them here, to provide an initial guide to the reputations of some key critics, all of whom have specific cultural and political agendas. Tony Rayns, for example, is significant because of his expertise in East Asian cinema. Rayns is unique among British critics in the range of films he sees, and the length of time he has invested in films from Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea and Thailand.

Rayns has been writing about Asian cinema since the late 1970s and also, significantly, has a role as a film festival programmer. He curated film seasons in London in the 1980s and 1990s focusing on Chinese cinema, South Korean cinema and the films of Japanese director Seijun Suzuki.59 Rayns, therefore, had a passionate interest in Asian cinema long before the Asia Extreme cycle brought these films to the attention of the mainstream press. During this period, Rayns wrote for Sight & Sound, Time Out and Film International. He often found himself in the position of disagreeing with the critical consensus
iNtrODuctiON 15
and sharply opposing the choices Tartan were making over which films to release. His opinion carries weight with art-house audiences and in Rayns’

writing he often gives the impression that he ‘knows better’ than the other critics who are just ‘discovering’ Asian cinema for the first time through Tartan’s releases.60

Another expert with popularity and influence is Mark Kermode, a specialist on horror film who nonetheless has broad mainstream appeal. Kermode holds a PhD (his thesis examined horror fiction), and although he occasionally contributes academic articles to edited collections, he is best known as a mainstream film critic. Kermode reviews films for Sight & Sound and occasionally broadsheet newspapers like The Observer. More prominently, during this period, Kermode also had a weekly film review show on BBC

Radio and appeared on BBC television, reviewing films on Newsnight Review and The Culture Show (both of which are, broadly speaking, highbrow arts programmes). Kermode, therefore, has one of the widest exposures of any British critic and his reviews reach an extremely broad audience. Despite this, his opinion carries specific weight with horror film fans (Kermode is well known for often repeating that William Friedkin’s The Exorcist [1973]

is the best film ever made) and, given the target market for Tartan’s first few post- Ring releases, his endorsement or dismissal of a specific title means a great deal, as does the way in which he canonises horror in terms of ongoing debates.

Finally, the Evening Standard’s Alexander Walker, now deceased, was a particularly prominent critic for the majority of the Asia Extreme period.

Walker was something of a British institution, having written dozens of books on cinema from the early 1970s onwards.61 Writing for what was essentially a tabloid newspaper, Walker became increasingly notorious for his cantankerous and reactionary views. As will be seen, he responds to Tartan’s initial releases with scorn and bewilderment, reacting against the newness and foreignness of the films. Indeed, while Walker’s responses might be representative of a certain demographic of the British cinema-going population, it is also useful to consider that his disapproval also positions Tartan’s films exactly as they want them to be seen: fresh, new, alternative and shocking. In this sense, his responses to Tartan’s provocations demonstrate another important dimension of the brand’s interaction with the mainstream critical community.

cHartiNG tHe rise OF asia extreme

This book is structured as a series of case studies, examining different films, filmmakers and distribution events in order to sketch a historical overview of the developing Asia Extreme film cycle, accounting for the rise in reputation,

16 extreme asia
visibility and economic success of ‘cult’ Asian cinema in the UK between 2000
and 2005.

Chapter 1 examines the release of Ring. Though not released by Tartan, the film was significant in establishing a new audience for (and critical appreciation of) Japanese horror in the UK. British film critics claimed that Ring was representative of a non-graphic, suggestive tradition in horror, typified by The Sixth Sense and The Blair Witch Project. Rather than responding to Ring as a foreign or alien text, critics familiarised the film and used it rhetorically to present a sense of difference from teen horror films popular at the time, such as Scream. Thus, in the case of Ring, critics aligned themselves with Japanese cinema and placed the film in a specifically British cinematic (and literary) tradition, all in order to express distaste for a cycle of Hollywood films they viewed as populist, sanitised and feminised. This chapter includes a summary of the pertinent literature on this specific debate within horror studies.

Chapter 2 examines the case of Audition, the first Japanese horror film released into cinemas by Tartan after the notable impact of Ring, although the film’s release, in March 2001, still pre-dates the invention of the Asia Extreme brand. Therefore, the influence of the response to this film on Tartan’s own conception of its potential to create a new cycle will be considered. I argue here that Audition was associated much more strongly with Orientalist views of Japan by critics, partly as a mechanism used to reject the film’s theme and message. This chapter also lays out some of the theoretical groundwork that will inform later analyses.

Chapter 3 examines the last of Tartan’s theatrical releases before the official adoption of the Asia Extreme brand. This chapter focuses on the Japanese film Battle Royale. From initial censorship concerns about the film in its native Japan, Tartan again capitalised on Orientalist fears of the East to take advantage of the film’s ‘dangerous’ status and its potential to create outrage. Tartan’s aggressive marketing campaign is analysed in detail, as is the extent to which the film’s promotional campaign formed a symbiotic relationship with the film’s position in both journalistic and critical press articles. Various factors affecting the film’s British reception will be examined, including the troubling timing of the film’s release, just three days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America.

Chapter 4 moves on from previous chapters, which looked at the invention of the Asia Extreme brand, to charting a key moment in the consolidation of the label. In 2003, Tartan created an Asia Extreme touring film festival and engaged in an aggressive campaign to court a wider audience, by screening seven Asia Extreme titles exclusively across a chain of multiplex cinemas. This chapter considers Tartan’s marketing tactics, the critical reception of these films, as well as Tartan’s multiple strategies to consolidate a strong brand identity, which included, as I will show, shrewdly appropriating the pre-
iNtrODuctiON 17

Asia Extreme fan culture through its assimilation of the Japanese cult auteur Tsukamoto Shinya. Finally, a fan’s response to the festival will be examined, as the book begins to address the increasing anxieties of fans and experts at the commodification and mainstreaming of ‘their’ niche passion.

Chapter 5 focuses on the reputation and reception of the Korean director Kim Ki-duk. Kim was a central figure in Tartan’s Asia Extreme brand, and the frustrated efforts of Tartan’s owner and general manager Hamish McAlpine to get Kim’s notorious The Isle released in the UK were themselves used to generate goodwill among fans and increased attention. This chapter considers the very specific construction of the Asia Extreme brand by examining Kim Ki-duk films released by Tartan both with and without Asia Extreme branding. Finally, the response of expert critic Tony Rayns to Kim’s increasing visibility will be discussed as an expression of cultural anxiety over the changing status of Korean cinema in the West.

Chapter 6 covers the history of the Asia Extreme brand up to its peak of popularity. By examining Asian cinema in the UK at the height of its critical acclaim and commercial success, the drastically altered context for Asian film reception will be discussed. Here I argue that the proliferation and high visibility of a wider range of Asian cinema than critics had ever experienced before has allowed them to finally construct their own canons of quality within national Asian cinema industries and genres. Where Asian cinema was previously judged to be either good or bad by critics on the basis of its relationship to Western cinema, at this point the Asia Extreme titles are being assessed based on their place in their respective national cinemas; the frames of reference used by British critics to assess meaning and value have changed dramatically. At this point, too, Tartan’s brand had been transformed, achieving mainstream visibility, yet finding itself in danger of expanding to the point of fracturing into meaninglessness. Nonetheless, 2004 was the crowning year for Tartan, and a wide range of their promotional (and self-congratulatory) activities will be examined.

This book’s brief concluding chapter will summarise key findings and arguments, and chart the final demise of the Asia Extreme brand. In discussing the success of Tartan’s theatrical and DVD releases, this book is concerned with the success of the brand as reflected by the visibility of its releases, rather than the facts and figures associated with box office returns and DVD sales. The fact that these films were in a variety of cinemas nationwide, were reviewed by critics nationwide, were available on DVD in mainstream ‘high street’ retailers (rather than specialist ‘cult film’ shops), reflects a cultural impact far more significant – for the purposes of this work – than financial returns. Impact and influence here are measured by tracing a changing critical consensus, and the economic fortunes of the brand are analysed through examination of distribution, exhibition and promotional patterns.

18 extreme asia

The case of Asia Extreme explains and analyses the culturally significant cycle of East Asian cinema in the UK, but this research has wider-reaching implications. Understanding the marketing and reception of these films aids in a broader appreciation of the global flow of cinema and other texts, as well as the specialised cultural consumption of niche-market, non-mainstream media.

Though written primarily from the perspective of film studies, this work aims to contribute to debates in the areas of cultural studies, media studies and East Asian area studies.

a NOte ON LaNGuaGe

The company Tartan Films, for a period of several years known as Metro-Tartan, is often referred to simply as ‘Tartan’ in the following chapters for the sake of simplicity and readability. All Japanese, Korean, Thai and Hong Kong films mentioned hereafter are referred to only by their official or widely used English-language titles. A full filmography of titles for each chapter is included at the back of the book, where Romanisations of the original-language titles and full credits can be found.

There are various naming conventions in common practice for Western scholars writing about Asian people. The convention in Japan and Korea is to list the family name first and the given name second. While many English-language publications reverse this order, this book presents all Japanese and Korean names using the Asian convention of surname first, given name second in an attempt to be as consistent as possible. In the case of Hong Kong directors and actors, the wide adoption of English first names by Hong Kong film industry personnel complicates this somewhat, and I have therefore referred to them when possible by their commonly known professional English names; surname-first otherwise.

NOtes

1. Geoffrey Macnab, ‘Death of a salesman’, The Guardian, 4 July 2008, p. 6.

2. Tim Walker, ‘Hamish McAlpine in fight with bank over alleged £281,000 overdraft’, Daily Telegraph, 12 August 2009, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/
mandrake/6017393/Hamish-McAlpine-in-fight-with-bank-over-alleged-281000-overdraft.html, accessed 1 December 2009.

3. Andrew Stimpson, ‘Demise of Tartan Films: What went wrong?’, The Quietus, 24 July 2008, http://thequietus.com/articles/00209-on-the-demise-of-tartan-films, accessed 1 December 2009.

4. Macnab, ‘Death of a salesman’, p. 6.

5. Ibid. p.6.

iNtrODuctiON 19

6. Matthew Ross, ‘Risky business’, Village Voice, 19 July 2005, http://www.villagevoice.

com/2005-07-19/film/risky-business/, accessed 1 December 2009.

7. Hamish McAlpine, ‘A personal foreword’, in Mark Pilkington, The Tartan Guide to Asia Extreme, ed. and compiled by Jule Hartung (London: Startlux Open Library, 2004), p. iv.

8. While Thai films comprise a small but significant part of the Asia Extreme brand, discussed in Chapter 4 of this book, there is virtually no significant work dedicated specifically to Thai cinema. In spite of several useful book chapters and journal articles, no book-length work has yet focused entirely on cinema in Thailand.

9. Donald Richie, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film, rev. edn (Tokyo, New York and London: Kodansha International, 2005), p. 139.

10. Donald Richie and Joseph L. Anderson, The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (Rutland, VT and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1959).

11. Audie Bock, Japanese Film Directors (Tokyo and New York: Kodansha, 1978).

12. Joan Mellen, Voices from the Japanese Cinema (New York: Liveright, 1975).

13. David Desser, Eros plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave Cinema (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988).

14. Jay McRoy (ed.), Japanese Horror Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005).

15. Colette Balmain, Introduction to Japanese Horror Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008).

16. Jay McRoy, Nightmare Japan: Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008), p. 4.

17. Tom Mes, Iron Man: The Cinema of Shinya Tsukamoto (Godalming: FAB Press, 2005).

18. Tom Mes, Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike (Godalming: FAB Press, 2003) and Re-Agitator: A Decade of Writing on Takashi Miike (Godalming: FAB Press, 2013).

19. David Desser, ‘The Kung Fu craze: Hong Kong cinema’s first American reception’, The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity, eds Poshek Fu and David Desser (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 20.

20. As Desser poetically puts it, ‘it was a strange phenomenon . . . I am always left with the feeling that it came and went like a brief, but to me welcome, summer storm.’ (Ibid. p. 20).

21. David Bordwell, Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2000).

22. Ibid. p. 98.

23. Karen Fang, John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, The New Hong Kong Cinema Series (Aberdeen, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004).

24. David E. James and Kyung Hyun Kim (eds), Im Kwon-Taek: The Making of a Korean National Cinema (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2002).

25. Kathleen McHugh and Nancy Abelmann (eds), South Korean Golden Age Melodrama: Gender, Genre, and National Cinema (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005).

26. Kyung Hyun Kim, The Remasculinization of Korean Cinema (Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2004).

27. Jinhee Choi, The South Korean Film Renaissance: Local Hitmakers, Global Provocateurs (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2010).

28. Kyung Hyun Kim, Virtual Hallyu: Korean Cinema of the Global Era (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011).

29. Hye Seung Chung, Kim Ki-duk (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2012).

30. Alison Peirse and Daniel Martin (eds), Korean Horror Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013).

31. Julian Stringer and Chi-Yun Shin (eds), New Korean Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005).

20 extreme asia

32. Julian Stringer, ‘Putting Korean cinema in its place: Genre classifications and the contexts of reception’, in New Korean Cinema, eds Julian Stringer and Chi-Yun Shin (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), pp. 95–102.

33. Edward W. Said, Orientalism (London: Penguin Books, [1978] 2003), p. 3.

34. Richard H. Minear, ‘Orientalism and the study of Japan’, in Edward Said, ed. Patrick Williams, vol. 1 (London: Sage, 2000), p. 344.

35. Gary Needham, ‘Japanese cinema and Orientalism’, in Asian Cinemas: A Reader and Guide, eds Dimitris Eleftheriotis and Gary Needham (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), p. 8.

36. Ibid. p.8.

37. Ibid. p. 8.

38. Originally published in Intentions (1891), these words have been quoted in a variety of sources. Two recent examples are Roland Kelts, Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), and Bruce Roscoe , Windows on Japan: A Walk Through Place and Perception (New York: Algora, 2007).

39. Roscoe, Windows on Japan, p. 157.

40. Ziauddin Sardar, Orientalism (Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1999), p. 2.

41. Ibid. p. 33.

42. Ibid. p. 111.

43. Quoted in Brian Locke, Racial Stigma on the Hollywood Screen from World War II to the Present: The Orientalist Buddy Film (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), p. 155.

44. Gaylyn Studlar, ‘Out-Salomeing Salome: Dance, the new woman, and fan magazine Orientalism’, in Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film, eds Matthew Bernstein and Gaylyn Studlar (London: I. B. Tauris, 1997), p. 99.

45. Mark Jancovich, ‘Genre and the audience: Genre classifications and cultural distinctions in the mediation of The Silence of the Lambs’, Horror: The Film Reader, ed. Mark Jancovich (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), p. 158.

46. Studlar, ‘Out-Salomeing Salome’.

47. Locke, Racial Stigma.

48. Originally published in France in 1979, the book was translated into English and first published in the USA in 1984. Repeatedly reprinted, it is most recently available as Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (London and New York: Routledge, 2010).

49. Pierre Bourdieu, ‘The aristocracy of culture’, Media, Culture and Society: A Critical Reader, eds Richard Collins, James Curran, Nicholas Garnham, Paddy Scannell, Philip Schlesinger and Colin Sparks (London: Sage, 1986), p. 192.

50. Barbara Klinger, Melodrama and Meaning: History, Culture and the Films of Douglas Sirk (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), pp. 69–96.

51. Jancovich, ‘Genre and the audience’.

52. Ibid. p. 151.

53. Joanne Hollows, ‘The masculinity of cult’, in Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Taste, eds Mark Jancovich, Antonio Lázaro Reboll, Julian Stringer and Andy Willis (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003), p. 35.

54. Jinsoo An, ‘ The Killer: Cult film and transcultural (mis)reading’, in At Full Speed: Hong Kong Cinema in a Borderless World, ed. Esther C.M. Yau (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001), p. 97.

55. Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik (eds), The Cult Film Reader (Maidenhead and New York: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill, 2008), p. 1.

iNtrODuctiON 21

56. Ibid. p. 1.

57. Ibid. p. 1.

58. Ibid. p. 1.

59. Many of these involved the ICA cinema in London. For example, Rayns curated the season ‘Branded to thrill: The delirious cinema of Suzuki Seijun’ in 1994 and ‘Seoul stirring: 5 Korean directors’ in 1995.

60. An anecdotal example of the cultural value attached to Rayns’ reviews: when the niche distribution company ‘Masters of Cinema’ released the Hong Kong film Mad Detective (Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai, 2007) in the UK, it was marketed as a serious art-house film.

When Rayns gave the film a negative review in Sight & Sound, Nick Wrigley, the company’s Production Director, was reportedly devastated, because there is such significant overlap between readers of the magazine and the film’s potential audience.

Source: personal interview, 2008.

61. As recently as 2005, three of Walker’s books on British cinema were reprinted. An informal trilogy, the three volumes offer a history of the British Film Industry. See Alexander Walker, Hollywood England: British Film Industry in the Sixties (London: Orion, 2005); Alexander Walker, National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties (London: Orion, 2005); Alexander Walker, Icons in the Fire: The Decline and Fall of Almost Everybody in the British Film Industry (London: Orion, 2005).

cHaPter 1

Chilling Beginnings: Japanese

Horror and the British Critical

Reception of Nakata Hideo’s Ring

Whenever the west fails, look to the east.

Nigel Andrews, Financial Times, August 20001

The recent increase in the visibility of Japanese horror films in Britain can be traced back to the 2000 release of Nakata Hideo’s Ring. The commercial theatrical release of the film was a key step in the gradual penetration of Asian cult cinema into the British market. The success of the film was instrumental in the development of the Asia Extreme label, and the home video distribution rights to Ring would later be bought by Metro-Tartan to support their developing interest in ‘extreme’ Japanese cinema. Japanese horror films released in the UK are generally promoted on their foreign credentials; their Otherness is seen to be the very substance of their appeal. Yet the critical reception of Ring in Britain demonstrated a process of familiarisation, rather than a focus on the new and unknown. In discussions of the film by the UK
press, Ring was located in various cinematic traditions that had nothing to do with the film’s meaning in its original Japanese context. While the Japanese identity of the text was virtually ignored, the film was defined by its relation to a cycle of American horror films popular at the time. Ring was frequently presented as an alternative to the dominant Hollywood cycle of horror films, set apart from this prevailing postmodern cycle and associated with two unexpectedly successful ghostly horror films. In locating the film among these other texts, reviewers used their discussion of Ring to enter into existing debates about the merit of suggestive horror above graphic violence.

cHiLLiNG BeGiNNiNGs 23

POstmODerN HOrrOr aND tHe restraiNeD
traDitiON

On its release in 1996, Wes Craven’s Scream proved an unprecedented success; the teen slasher movie combined shock deaths and gory violence with a meta-textual humour that invited the audience to laugh at the clichés of the genre.

Scream’s success was a revitalising force in the Hollywood horror industry, and launched a series of postmodern slashers that became the dominant force for the next few years. Initially embraced, the postmodern humour of Scream and its sequels was seen as an important part of its appeal; yet a con-tingent of horror fans saw Scream as too ‘tame’ and ‘jokey’, and the film found strong opposition from many critics. The popularity and credibility of these films began to wane, and in 1999 two horror films were released that self-consciously broke the highly imitated Scream mould. The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, 1999) and The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999) offered restraint where Scream had offered glossy violence, and both films treated their subject with utter seriousness, jettisoning the humour that had defined the postmodern cycle. These two films were a huge success ( The Blair Witch Project was especially praised by critics for its low-budget inventiveness) and signalled a significant shift in audience tastes. In 2000, the year Ring was released in Britain, the effects of the success of this newest cycle were still being felt. Scream 3 (Wes Craven, 2000) failed to equal the success of its series predecessors, while the popularity of Scary Movie (Keenen Ivory Wayans, 2000), a parody of the Scream trilogy and its many derivatives, suggested the end of the dominance of the postmodern cycle. At the point of Ring’s release in late 2000, the argument that privileges a horror cinema of subtlety and restraint over one of violence and shock tactics is, at its core, one that draws a strict divide between these two recent cinematic cycles.

The most frequently occurring superlatives in the reviews of Ring associate sophistication with restraint. This can often be seen in the opposition between the graphic and the suggestive within debates about horror. For example, Gregory A. Waller has referred to a ‘restrained tradition’ in horror criticism, which privileges a type of horror ‘based on suggestion and indirection’ and, according to Waller, ‘an aesthetic of restraint and suggestion [which] foregoes

“excessive exposure to crudity and violence” in favour of “leaving the ultimate terror to the imagination” ’.2 One critic that he cites as representative of championing this tradition is Ivan Butler, who favoured films that were ‘made with integrity, artistry, enthusiasm and cinematic skill . . . worthy of consideration and respect’.3 For Butler, the unseen is potentially more powerful than the seen, just as a door half-opening on to a sinister room can be more alarming than one which reveals fully the terror lurking within, so the unseen is

24 extreme asia
often more frightening than the seen . . . imagination does the rest . . .

the revelation of the ‘frightful fiend’ too early or too closely weakens the impact.4

Butler was, therefore, critical of more explicit horror. Often, he claimed, ‘the trouble with many horror films is that they promise too much’ and while the visual presentation of monstrous figures or physical violence might add ‘a few very artificial shocks’, it contributes ‘little in the way of true terror’.5

While Butler clearly dislikes explicit horror, other commentators have been more even-handed, while still finally privileging the suggestive over the graphic. S. S. Prawer, for example, admires the films of ‘Fritz Lang and Jacques Tourneur, who liked to work through suggestions that allowed the audience to piece out what they had only half-seen with their own horrendous imaginings’,6 and while he is able to show his appreciation for more explicit filmmakers, Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur are still held up as the benchmark of quality horror against which all subsequent genre films are judged.

Prawer also admires filmmakers ‘like Mario Bava . . . [who] deliberately shocked their audiences by showing cruel activities and denuded or mutilated states of the body over which earlier filmmakers, forced by censorship or restrained by their own moral sensibilities, had drawn a kindly veil’.7 But Prawer only praises the filmmakers of this type when he can claim that their

‘visual imagination is at least the equal of that shown by Tourneur and the rest of the Lewton directors’.8

These oppositions are also referenced by Stephen King, the world’s best-selling horror novelist, in his discussion of the genre, where he notes that movies ‘dealing with horror always do their work on two levels’ and that these levels are ranked according to a hierarchy.9 As a result, King argues that the finest emotion is terror, that emotion which is called up in the tale of The Hook and also in that hoary old classic, The Monkey’s Paw. We actually see nothing outright nasty in either story . . . it’s what the mind sees that makes these stories such quintessential tales of terror.10

Terror is therefore associated with restraint, and placed at the ‘top’ of this hierarchy, with ‘horror below it, and lowest of all, the gag reflex of revulsion’.11

However, although King privileges terror and restraint over horror, he differs significantly from Butler. Despite the fact that what remains unseen will always be more terrifying, King believes it is his responsibility to ‘open the door’ that Butler believes is best left closed, to expose the horror; a practice that is virtually doomed to failure, but the duty of a horror writer.

My own disapproval of this method – we’ll let the door bulge but we’ll never open it – comes from the belief that it is playing to tie rather than to
cHiLLiNG BeGiNNiNGs 25
win. There is (or may be), after all, that hundredth case, and there is the whole concept of suspension of disbelief. Consequently, I’d rather yank the door open at some point during the festivities . . . if the audience screams with laughter rather than terror, if they see the zipper running up the monster’s back, then you just gotta go back to the drawing board and try it again.12

Indeed, Gregory Waller’s discussion of the restrained tradition demonstrates that writers such as Butler were clearly reacting against developments in horror in their own period, and that the position was used to attack later developments such as the popular ‘slasher’ cycle inspired by John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978). As Waller puts it,

One common response to the violence in modern horror is to praise or damn the genre simply on the basis of its preoccupation with state-of-the-art make up and special effects work . . . the equation of explicitly violent horror with pornographic gore is often based on the assumption that truly effective horror is always indirect and suggestive, leaving the horrific primarily to the viewer’s imagination.13

Waller is clearly uncomfortable with the adversarial tone of much of the writing on the restrained tradition and modern horror, and he claims that the opposition between the two is misleading:

This approach to the genre unjustly serves the past as well as the present.

We would do better, I think, to pay attention to films . . . which prove that the relationship between contemporary and golden age horror involves much more than simply the distinction between the graphically direct and the atmospherically suggestive.14

However, the fundamental point of the restrained tradition is shaped by its opposition to the explicit mode of horror narrative, and this oppositional tone is clearly found in the specific case of Ring’s British reception (as, just like in the period Waller discusses, a cycle of explicit horror had gained huge popularity and was facing a passionate critical backlash).

These divisions between graphic and suggestive horror also reflect larger cultural distinctions. Critics who privilege restrained horror clearly present it as psychological, and dismiss the thrills of graphic horror as largely concerned with shock and revulsion: the thrill of explicit horror is supposedly visceral, addressing the physical, bodily reflexes. Restrained horror is seen as engaging the mind, in that it activates the imagination (which does much of the work of producing fear), while graphic horror is clearly seen as below conscious

26 extreme asia
thought, merely a matter of automatic bodily reflexes. These claimed modes of appreciation run parallel to wider debates about the values of high art and popular culture. High art has long been distinguished from lower forms through its supposed requirement of work on the part of its audience, while popular culture is often claimed to be easy to consume and requiring very little effort on the part of its audience.15 The oppositions between restraint and explicitness are crucially moves within the game of distinction, which Pierre Bourdieu discusses in his classic study.16 However, it should also be stressed that, as Stephen King’s comments demonstrate, not all horror experts privilege restraint over explicitness and, indeed, there is a mode of horror that privileges violent excess through its association with the aesthetic transgressions of the avant-garde. As Andrew Ross has said, it is not the contents of the categories of taste which are significant, but rather ‘the capacity to draw the line between and around categories of taste; it is the power to define where each relational category begins and ends, and the power to determine what it contains at any one time’.17

This chapter discusses how these oppositions play out in the context of Ring’s British critical reception, considering reviews from newspapers, both ‘quality’ broadsheets ( The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, the

Financial Times, the Sunday Telegraph) and tabloids (the Evening Standard), as well as popular mainstream magazines ( Time Out, Empire), the highbrow specialist publication Sight & Sound, and fan-based genre magazines ( Shivers, Starburst), all of which address different and distinct readerships. Yet although these disparate publications are written for different audiences, they will be analysed together precisely because they form a rare critical consensus. In this case, the specificity of the publications is not as important as the implications raised by the consistency of the judgements and tastes of these critics.

The next section of this chapter looks at how Ring’s supposed restraint and sophistication involved its positive comparison with a number of recent horror films; how Ring was seen as inherently superior to the postmodern horror cycle and claimed to be fundamentally similar to the two contemporary restrained horror films, The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense. The following section examines how hierarchies were also organised around notions of maturity and immaturity, and how these critics sought to privilege the audiences for these films. The final section explores how Ring was canonised and the ways in which a sense of authority and tradition was established through its association with past films and classic literature, and concludes with a discussion of how the global flows of film texts have changed the ways in which Japanese cinema is understood by British critics, challenging the familiar claims that Orientalism defines the Western perception of Asian texts.

cHiLLiNG BeGiNNiNGs 27
uNeasY BeDFeLLOWs: scream, tHe BLair WitcH

PrOJect aND tHe imPact OF riNG

In its reception by British critics, Ring immediately found a place in discourse on existing trends in horror. The film could be understood solely by its dissimilarity to Scream and its supposed affinity with the filmmaking styles of the past year’s greatest successes, as well as its association with the larger tradition of praiseworthy horror. The specific virtues of Ring are often described only in terms that relate to these other films and the wider traditions in horror.

Anne Billson of the Sunday Telegraph described Ring as ‘spooky fare that eschews cheap shocks and special effects in favour of more subtle chills’.18 This review, then, supports the strict conceptual divide between horror that offers

‘shocks’ and horror that offers ‘chills’. Nigel Andrews in the Financial Times praised Ring by describing both what it does and does not do, observing that the filmmakers
treat audiences as intelligent people. They assume that we can sit still while a scene takes its needed time to unfold; that we don’t have to be busked like bored queuers by songs or conjuring stunts . . . fear isn’t dispensed Hollywood-style as if by machine-gun.19

Andrews makes his opposition to ‘Hollywood style’ clear by placing it at the opposite end of the spectrum to ‘intelligence’. By aligning himself with Ring, and against the postmodern cycle, he is familiarising the Japanese film and Othering the Hollywood texts.

A review in the science-fiction magazine Starburst suggested that there is one kind of horror fan who will love Ring and another kind who will hate it, noting that ‘this superb psychological horror is the sort of film which . . . will outrage the buckets-of-giblets fans’.20 Although the reference to the ‘buckets-of giblets fans’ clearly refers to the passionate horror connoisseur associated with Fangoria magazine, many of these critics have themselves celebrated artistic body horror classics such as The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982) and the films of David Cronenberg. These distinctions between the gory and suggestive do not necessarily criticise the supposedly transgressive gore of this type of film, but rather the altogether more mainstream violence associated with the Scream cycle, a tradition dating back to slasher films and commercial franchises like the Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street films.21 There is an implicit distinction between sophisticated and unsophisticated gore (a concept explored in further detail in the next chapter).

Victoria Segal, writing for The Times, reinforced this territorial division between the restrained and graphic horror cycles, and placed Ring neatly on one side of this debate. She claimed that Ring, ‘like Blair Witch, relies on the

28 extreme asia
mind to conjure its own demons,’ and called the films of the postmodern cycle

‘soft options’, continuing

We are happily seduced by cynical Hollywood terrorfests such as the Scream trilogy and I Know What You Did Last Summer, films that allow audiences to maintain their cool by laughing at fear . . . yet the success of The Blair Witch Project proved that there was still a real desire in audiences to feel true, unadulterated terror.22

The Guardian’s Andrew Pulver described Ring as ‘a straightforward, spooky horror film that isn’t remotely trying for Scream’s gruesome sense of humour’.23

These critics drew attention to what was seen as one of the key weaknesses of the films of the Scream cycle: that by injecting humour into the formula, they sacrifice genuine scares. In Ivan Butler’s seminal praise of restrained horror, he argued that ‘comedy and horror do not as a rule combine comfortably. Always the comedy will tend to dissolve the horror itself.’24 Many contemporary film critics agreed with Butler’s analysis, and while the postmodern cycle’s humour had increasingly become the target of criticism, Ring was consistently praised by British critics for its seriousness and humourlessness.

Indeed, the fact that many of these critics can only praise Ring by directly criticising Scream reflects Pierre Bourdieu’s observations about the nature of taste and distinction. Bourdieu concluded that ‘it is no accident that, when they [tastes] have to be justified, they are asserted purely negatively, by the refusal of other tastes’.25 In the cases of many of the reviews cited above, the critics’ dislike of postmodern horror is often articulated in stronger terms than their enjoyment of Ring, The Sixth Sense and The Blair Witch Project.26

Significantly, scarcely a single review fails to suggest a similarity between Ring and The Blair Witch Project. The Independent’s Kevin Jackson remarked that ‘the advance hype about Ring – murmurs about it being “This year’s Blair Witch . . .” – hadn’t been altogether unjustified’.27 In Sight & Sound, Mark Kermode suggested that the film is ‘a Japanese answer to The Blair Witch Project’, for its ‘amalgam of modern urban myth and ancient legend’,28 while The Guardian’s review observed a similar ‘low tech/high terror approach’29 in both films.

Even in discussing how similar Ring is to The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense, reviewers latch on to the foreignness of the film, noting the ways in which it is unlike the specifically American postmodern cycle to provide foundation for their comparison – yet these critics nonetheless continually align Ring with the undeniably American examples of the restrained tradition.

These critics are presenting a nuanced distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’

Hollywood horror. Scream is rejected as an example of a ‘cynical’ American cinema, while both Ring and The Blair Witch Project are seen to be outside of
cHiLLiNG BeGiNNiNGs 29
the Hollywood system – the former because of its literal foreignness and the latter perhaps because of its status as a low-budget, independent production.

Kim Newman, who wrote a piece on Ring for Sight & Sound’s Edinburgh Film Festival report, references The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense immediately in his article. He notes that Ring ‘takes subject matter a US
movie (such as Final Destination) would have treated with giggly melodrama and plays it with high seriousness’.30 Novelist and critic Kim Newman is a widely published expert on horror; here he is making an unambiguous declaration of preference. Newman clearly admires the ‘restrained chills’ of Ring and sees little virtue in the ‘giggly melodrama’ of the Scream-inspired cycle.

By using the term ‘giggly melodrama’, Newman is implicitly feminising the postmodern cycle and the audiences they appeal to, while distancing both himself and ‘authentic’ horror fans from these films.31 As Tania Modleski argues in her seminal work Feminism Without Women, our ways of thinking and feeling about mass culture are intricately bound up with notions of the feminine . . . Women find themselves at the centre of many historical accounts of mass culture, held responsible for the debasement of taste and the sentimentalisation of culture.32

Though the critical reception of Ring does indeed demonstrate a clear association between ‘quality’ horror and maturity, the feminisation of the immature, mass culture audience is frequently implicit in these reviews.33
maturitY aND DiscrimiNatiON: estaBLisHiNG

HierarcHies iN HOrrOr

Debates around Ring also focused on the supposed maturity of the audience to which it appealed, and the supposed immaturity of the audience for whom the postmodern cycle was so appealing. In his review of Ring, the Evening Standard’s Nigel Norman urged readers to ‘forget the teenage horror dreck of I Know What You Did Last Summer and similar postmodern slashers’,34
suggesting that Ring is a much more enjoyable and sophisticated film. Nigel Floyd, writing for Time Out, said of Ring that its pacing may be more measured than Scream fans are used to . . .

nothing is explicitly stated, but the ominous, incremental hints tease our imagination . . . if you were frightened by the implicit, understated terror of The Sixth Sense, this too will seep into your unconscious and scare you witless.35

30 extreme asia

Genre expert Alan Jones, writing for Film Review, suggested that Ring is best enjoyed by a ‘discerning audience’, that ‘with an eye on summoning up pal-pable terror rather than relying on gore-soaked theatrics, Ring is horror of a highly sophisticated nature’.36 Jones is expressing a preference that verges on snobbery, suggesting that Ring can only be appreciated by a small, sophisticated audience, unlike the highly popular ‘gore-soaked theatrics’ of the postmodern cycle. He elevates both Ring and his own tastes as a horror aficionado to an elite, exclusive status.

Mark Kermode – a critic notorious for his love of The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) – described Ring as ‘a timeless terror more attuned to the mature sensibilities of an adult audience’.37 Indeed, Scream had been a conscious effort on the part of its makers to bring the horror film back into the youth market. The popular cycle of horror films preceding Scream had been adult-oriented literary horror; notable examples include Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) and Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (1994). As the postmodern cycle had (quite intentionally) alienated adults, a gap in the market emerged as the cycle dwindled, one that was filled by The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense. Ring’s comparison with these two films is, therefore, necessarily linked to the suggestion that it appeals primarily to a sophisticated, mature audience.

The Sunday Telegraph’s Anne Billson, on the other hand, while offering the same fundamental argument that favours the suggestive over the graphic, suggested that Ring has a potentially huge popular appeal. She argued that

‘the only reason it’s not at your local multiplex is that it’s in Japanese, with subtitles’.38 Writing long before the ‘J-horror’ boom hit the UK, Billson was almost certainly correct to identify the film’s foreign language as an alienating attribute. Although Ring clearly had the potential to find an audience along with the recent restrained horror blockbusters, its foreignness cast doubt over its ability to attract a wide audience.

Though Ring was almost universally praised by critics, a dissenting voice was offered in Empire magazine’s initial review of the film. The qualities of Ring that Empire’s Adam Smith found disappointing were the very things that other critics praised. The opposite side of the debate that privileges restraint over graphic horror is one that sees little virtue in these ‘sanitised’, suggestive films.39 Smith describes Ring as a ‘bog-standard horror offering’, criticising the film for its ‘complexity, duff plotting and distinct lack of actual action’.40

Though Smith’s negative tone was anomalous among reviews, his contribution to the debate only enforces the neat division of ideological preference.

That he can ascribe a negative connotation to ‘complexity’ also suggests that he represents the less mature audience who really cannot appreciate the sophisticated, thought-provoking approach of the films of the ‘restrained tradition’.

While Ivan Butler suggested that the films of the restrained tradition may be
cHiLLiNG BeGiNNiNGs 31
rejected because of their ‘intensity’, the review in Empire suggests just the opposite.41

Empire’s initial attitude to Ring, compared to its ‘revised’ stance on the film, serves to demonstrate very clearly the shift in the acceptability and mainstream popularity of foreign (specifically Japanese) horror in Britain. Most reviews celebrate the national origin of the film, using their praise of the Japanese style of horror to express their distaste for the American tradition. This review in Empire, however, viewed Ring’s foreignness as an alienating attribute. Adam Smith even offered a deeply offensive attempt to explain the film’s popularity in its home country. In wondering how Ring could spawn a ‘popular horror trilogy’, Smith, astonishingly, suggests that the Japanese are fundamentally perverse, a ‘rum lot’, citing as ‘evidence’ of this the fact that ‘in the land of the rising sun, for example, in 1982 E.T. was beaten in the box office stakes by Faces of Death, a compilation of real life and faked gruesome death’.42 Smith’s arrogant and xenophobic dismissal of the film would not, however, stand the test of time.

Britain’s most popular film monthly, Empire is seen to represent the tastes of audiences, and in this case, it had to change its editorial opinion of Ring to continue to reflect public trends. Five years later, given the widespread visibility of Japanese horror in Britain, Empire consistently viewed such films with sympathy. In a feature on Ring director Nakata Hideo, published in the May 2005 issue, Empire described Ring as ‘a hauntingly atmospheric supernatural chiller that relied on such outmoded concepts as mystery, visual daring and an engulfing aura of dread for its scarifying effect’.43 Empire rewrote its stance to conform to popular consensus; its praise of Ring could have come from any of the other reviews published five years previously. By 2005, Ring had been established by an overwhelming critical consensus as an important and celebrated film, and has become the benchmark against which all subsequent Asian horror films have been judged. In fact, Ring has now become a reductive reference point itself, used by critics to understand and relate more recently released Asian horror.

caNONisiNG J-HOrrOr: PLaciNG riNG iN tHe

HOrrOr traDitiON

Comparisons of Ring with other restrained, artistic horror movies reference many more films than just The Sixth Sense and The Blair Witch Project. In suggesting comparisons, reviewers mention many older films that include significant examples of horror whose virtues rely on sophistication and restraint. Both Mark Kermode and The Independent’s Kevin Jackson offered Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) as a point of comparison. Kermode

32 extreme asia
noted a similar sophistication in the soundtrack of both films, praising the

‘atonal clatterings’ that create atmosphere.44 Jackson claimed that both films have the ability to create intense moments of fright, remarking that the films have the power to invoke ‘a scream that would fill your average banshee with professional envy’ from audiences.45 The Shining is a telling point of reference; the film is the one horror entry in the oeuvre of a celebrated auteur director, and though often appreciated as a great moment in the history of frightening cinema, the film could not be further removed from the teenage slashers that have defined horror for much of its history.

Other points of comparison include the works of such controversial directors as David Cronenberg and David Lynch, both of whom have strong arthouse reputations and are frequently associated with a certain kind of artistic, adult horror. Ring actually bears little real resemblance to any of the films of Kubrick, Lynch or Cronenberg (with the sole exception of Cronenberg’s Videodrome [1983], which has several common themes but an altogether different style). The extent to which the comparisons are borne out by examination of the texts is moot, however. The name-dropping of certain films and directors in reviews of Ring serves the purpose of further familiarising the text, offering a framework of reference and giving Ring significance by placing it in an established canon of intelligent, widely celebrated horror.

Ring was also regarded as evoking a gothic tradition in horror seen by some as quintessentially British.46 Given its mystery-driven narrative and chilling but restrained use of its ghost, the association of Ring with the British gothic tradition proved irresistible for many reviewers. Indeed, frequent references to the work of British author M. R. James placed Nakata’s film in a specifically literary, rather than cinematic, tradition of British ghost stories. A review in Starburst described Ring as ‘an M. R. James-esque ghost story for the modern world’.47 Jonathan Rigby, writing for horror magazine Shivers noted that the structure of Ring (the investigation-driven narrative with a supernatural conclusion) is ‘very M. R. James’.48 The works of M. R. James were not just considered to be thematically similar to Ring, but were even suggested to be the inspiration for the film. The Evening Standard’s Nigel Norman, writing about Ring’s key narrative twist, insisted that ‘students of supernatural literature will recognize this device from the M. R. James tale The Casting of the Runes’.49

Kevin Jackson observed an identical parallel, noting, of the same twist, that ‘M. R. James came up with it a long time back in his story Casting the Runes’.50

James is a well-respected author, and his ghost stories are a source of national pride when it comes to British horror. More importantly, though, the reference to James is a shorthand way of evoking a specific kind of horror,51
the kind with which Ring is continually associated in these reviews. Some of M. R. James’ ghost stories were filmed for British television in the 1960s and
cHiLLiNG BeGiNNiNGs 33

’70s; his tales were restrained and suggestive enough to be suitable for television broadcast, yet contained enough genuine scares to be remembered over thirty years later.52

Helen Wheatley has noted that the adaptations of James’ work were considered to be ‘respectable, culturally valued television drama’ and ‘seen as

“highbrow” television, assigned qualities of restraint and decorum even in the way it was marketed’.53 Wheatley cites Julia Briggs’ observation that James’

work had a tasteful, ‘restrained, gentlemanly, even scholarly tone’ and notes that ‘on television, this “gentlemanly” restraint is transformed into the refusal to clearly visualise the ghostly figure’.54 In a statement that recalls much of the discussion which values the restrained tradition in horror, Lawrence Gordon Clark (director of James adaptation A Warning to the Curious, 1972) notes that ‘the unseen is much more frightening than the full-frontal Hollywood splat. M.R. James, who was the master of ghost story telling, allows the veil to be drawn apart for a second, so you can look into the abyss.’55 These interpretations of James’ style that Wheatley draws upon make it clear that his works (both literature and adaptation) are seen as paradigms of the kind of horror that seemed to be in such high critical favour at the time of Ring’s release.

Shivers magazine’s Jonathan Rigby suggested that the restraint/excess divide also runs neatly along national boundaries, celebrating the gothic British (and, by implication, Japanese) style in order to Other Hollywood. He celebrates Ring as ‘the return of horror-by-suggestion’ (emphasis added) and claims that the film ‘bucks the Western trend of self-referential teen shockers and has instead a distinct aroma of the kind of cerebral horrors created for British television’.56

However apt each comparison may ultimately be, each and every one represents the process of familiarisation. The release of Ring presented British film critics with the challenge of understanding and describing a totally foreign film, both literally and figuratively. Analysis and explanation was achieved through comparison to familiar works. Scarcely a single fact about the film could be reported without some contextualising reference point. When noting that the film was an adaptation of a popular novel, author Suzuki Kôji was repeatedly compared to Stephen King or even described as ‘the Japanese Stephen King’.57 The simple reference to King’s name tells the reader all that (the critic thinks) they need to know about Suzuki. In reality, the comparison has little accuracy; Suzuki is far less prolific and thematically consistent than King.

When describing the unprecedented domestic success of Ring, and the fact that it was followed by several sequels, other popular American horror franchises were suggested as points of similarity. Sadako ( Ring’s malevolent antagonist) was described as ‘the new Freddy Krueger’,58 a comparison made

34 extreme asia
more tempting by the similar merchandising of the character. Mark Kermode noted that ‘ Ring has become a cult in the East where dolls of Sadako . . . are reputed to be as popular as Freddy Krueger gloves in the West’.59 The references to Freddy Krueger (of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series) are meant to suggest that Ring has achieved iconic, seminal popularity in Japan, but present an implicit contradiction. While these critics were hailing Ring as artistic and credible, they largely failed to fully acknowledge that in Japan, the film is part of a popular, mainstream, highly commercial franchise.60 In being re-contextualised, Ring is positioned by British critics as operating above cynical commercial concerns, yet these critics never reconcile their views with the rarely noted possibility that in its original Japanese context, Ring might be part of a mainstream horror franchise that has become just as imitative and critically despised as the Scream series.

cONcLusiON

The British critical reception of Ring reveals a clear case of familiarisation; critics were faced with a totally alien text, one of the first Japanese horror films to be released in Britain. The timing of the film’s release meant that it immediately found a place in current debates on horror. In Ruth Goldberg’s scholarly analysis of Ring, she briefly considers the problems that Western critics and academics face when trying to understand the film. According to Goldberg, these ‘distant observers’ adopt one of
three approaches: scholars either feel compelled to look at the issue of cultural specificity and the nightmares of different cultures; to recognize that they are (at best) translating foreign texts and so choose to focus on those elements of horror which resonate across cultural divides and which might well form part of a universal human experience; to use elements of both approaches to arrive at a fuller understanding of the relationship between horror and national cinemas.61

The British critics that initially responded to Ring, however, seemed to take a different approach than any of those proposed above. Rather than trying to understand the film in terms of its specific Japanese-ness or its universality, these critics (mostly) understood the film simply in terms of Western traditions. Though the emotions and effects provoked by horror movies arguably do indeed cross national borders to ‘form part of a universal experience’, even those feelings were related by British critics to specifically non-Japanese films.

Matt Hills’ work on American audience responses to Ring demonstrates the specificity of the British context. In fact, many American fans of Ring are
cHiLLiNG BeGiNNiNGs 35
indeed ‘compelled to look at the issue of cultural specificity’ when praising Ring in relation to its American remake The Ring (Gore Verbinski, 2002). Hills has noted that
by emphasising an awareness of Japanese cultural differences, US
fans of Japanese horror cinema are able to align their cult distinctions, as an interpretive community, with this second axis of difference.

Reading-for-cultural-difference works, therefore, as a homologous part of this audience’s bid for a subcultural identity opposed to mainstream

‘American’ culture.62

Hills refers to this practice as ‘consumer-occidentalism’,63 and although American fans and British critics have seemingly opposing reading strategies, both groups have the same ideological purpose: to distance themselves and their tastes from a certain kind of Hollywood horror cinema. American fans ‘read for difference’ precisely because it is their own culture that they are Othering in the process. As I have shown, British critics have been able to set themselves and their own culture apart from America by aligning Ring with the specifically British gothic tradition represented by M. R. James.

The question of the implications of Othering or familiarising Japanese cinema is one that has long concerned Japanese film studies. Given the increasing globalisation of Asian cinema, these questions are more pertinent now than ever. In the introduction to their recent collection on Japanese cinema, Alastair Phillips and Julian Stringer set out to avoid judging Japanese films by Western standards and frames of reference, noting that
a common criticism of much previous scholarship in this area is that it has worked to establish Japan’s feature film industry in a primary relationship to US commercial cinema . . . Hollywood has been constructed so as to provide the ‘norm’ against which Japanese cinema must be measured.64

The British reception of Ring clearly repeats this practice, but in a more complex way than the quote suggests. Measuring Japanese cinema against mainstream Hollywood ‘norms’ does not always mean emphasising its difference. In this case, Ring is presented as different to a certain kind of US commercial cinema, a ‘bad’ Hollywood, while simultaneously being re-nationalised and aligned with positive and virtuous examples of a ‘quality’ Western cinema.

Phillips and Stringer have serious objections to this kind of interpretive strategy, declaring that ‘it is always wrong to seek to define any non-Western cinema in terms of its supposed relation to a set of different, equally mutable, mainstream norms’.65

36 extreme asia

Phillips and Stringer also quote David Bordwell’s ‘important intervention’, when he argued that ‘a historical examination of the Japanese cinema must confront the fact that it is not wholly other, not a blank drastic alternative’.66 At this point in time, in August 2000, British critics are doing precisely that: their consumption and discussion of Ring is based on familiarising it; not in reductive terms, but by championing it as the best example of (what they see as) a predominantly (but not exclusively) Western film tradition. As Ella Shohat and Robert Stam have suggested,
while the media can fashion spectators into atomized consumers or self-entertaining monads, they can also construct identity and alternative affiliations. Just as the media can exoticize and otherize cultures, they can also reflect and help catalyze multicultural affiliations and transnational identifications.67

However, though most British critics praised Ring based on its apparent merits and artistic value, the film was largely used rhetorically to allow critics to present a sense of difference. In this case critics identified themselves with Ring in order to Other the mainstream horror that they saw as utterly unworthy of praise or attention; a process that, as has been seen, involved reducing the specific qualities of the film under discussion to broadly representative traditions. When these British critics praised Ring, they were praising an entire tradition of horror made up of countless films; when they criticised the postmodern cycle, they were attacking an entire mode of horror narrative, as well as the large audiences such films are usually associated with (depicted, basically, as a conformist, homogenised mass).

The British critical context for Asian horror has changed significantly since the 2000 release of Ring. Such is the significance of the film that scarcely a single review of an Asian horror film released in the UK since can fail to mention Ring as a founding comparison. Ring is no longer considered primarily as an entry into an existing Western tradition, but as the vanguard of a wave of foreign horror films that have established their own identity and canon.68

Although Ring was not released theatrically by Tartan (it was distributed in London by ICA Projects), the film was released on videotape by the company, and sold relatively well around the same time that Tartan were having significant theatrical success with films like Audition and Battle Royale. Ring became central to Tartan’s brand and its success, and the film’s significant reception informs the developing critical culture into which these subsequent films were released.

cHiLLiNG BeGiNNiNGs 37

NOtes

1. Nigel Andrews, ‘ Ring’, Financial Times, 17 August 2000, p. 22.

2. Gregory A. Waller, ‘Introduction’, in American Horrors: Essays on the Modern American Horror Film, ed. G. A.Waller (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987), p. 7. See also Waller’s essay ‘Made-for-television horror films’ in the same volume, in which he discusses the ‘restrained tradition’ in relation to American made-for-television horror. Waller notes that ‘given the economic, narrative, programming and censorship constraints of primetime commercial television, made-for-television horror has tended to be suggestive rather than explicit, stylistically conventional, focused on the personal and the intimate’ (p. 145), and that ‘made-for-television horror, in contrast [to contemporary cinematic horror], rarely offers what would qualify for a PG-13, much less an R-rating.

However, the same powerful network censorship restrictions that separate telefilms from the mainstream of contemporary theatrical horror films put made-for-television horror in the position of carrying on what Ivan Butler, S. S. Prawer, and other commentators praise as the “restrained” tradition of horror that is based on suggestion and indirection’ (p. 148).

3. Ivan Butler, Horror in the Cinema, 3rd edn (South Brunswick and New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1979), p. 18.

4. Ibid. p. 16.

5. Ibid. p. 16.

6. S. S. Prawer, Caligari’s Children: The Film as Tale of Terror (Oxford, New York, Toronto and Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1980), p. 29.

7. Ibid. p. 29.

8. Ibid. p. 29.

9. Stephen King, Danse Macabre (New York: Time Warner Paperbacks, 1993), p. 17.

10. Ibid. p. 36.

11. Ibid. pp. 39–40.

12. Ibid. p. 136.

13. Waller, American Horrors, p. 7.

14. Ibid. p. 8.

15. See Dwight Macdonald, ‘A theory of mass culture’, in Mass Culture: The Popular Arts in America, eds Bernard Rosenberg and David Manning White (New York: Free Press, 1957), pp. 59–73.

16. See Pierre Bourdieu’s discussions of ‘Pure taste and barbarous taste’ and ‘The popular aesthetic’ in his monograph Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans.

Richard Nice (New York and London: Routledge, 1986), pp. 30–4.

17. Andrew Ross, No Respect: Intellectuals and Popular Culture (New York and London: Routledge, 1989), p. 61.

18. Anne Billson, ‘ Ring’, Sunday Telegraph, 20 August 2000, Arts section, p. 8.

19. Andrews, ‘ Ring’, p. 22.

20. Ian Atkins, ‘Videofile: Ring’, Starburst, May 2001, p. 83.

21. The first A Nightmare on Elm Street film was directed by Wes Craven and released in 1984. It was followed by six sequels (1985–1994) and the crossover film Freddy vs. Jason (Ronny Yu, 2003). John Carpenter’s Halloween spawned seven sequels (1981–2002) and a remake by Rob Zombie ( Halloween, 2007), which itself produced a sequel ( Halloween II, Rob Zombie, 2009).

22. Victoria Segal, ‘The fear hunter’, The Times, 12–18 August 2000, Metro section, p. 24.

23. Andrew Pulver, ‘ Ring’, The Guardian, 18 August 2000, Review section, p. 5.

24. Butler, Horror in the Cinema, p. 16.

38 extreme asia

25. Pierre Bourdieu, ‘The aristocracy of culture’, in Media, Culture and Society: A Critical Reader, eds Richard Collins, James Curran, Nicholas Garnham, Paddy Scannell, Philip Schlesinger and Colin Sparks (London: Sage, 1986), p. 192.

26. This critical dismissal of Scream mirrors an academic discourse which also devalues the film in exactly the same way. Matt Hills has noted that academic researchers

‘disapprovingly reject Scream as amoral/immoral and as allegedly detached from the

“real” world by virtue of its rampant media intertextualities. In fact, these theorists use the term “postmodern horror film” as a term of abuse. It becomes a way of doubly positioning themselves and their cultural distinctions: first as academics (able to display the legitimating cultural capital of Theory), and secondly as an audience that finds Scream distasteful and Other to their valued, favoured forms of textuality.’ Matt Hills, The Pleasures of Horror (London and New York: Continuum, 2005), p. 186.

27. Kevin Jackson, ‘New take on the video nasty’, The Independent, 18 August 2000, Review section, p. 11.

28. Mark Kermode, ‘ Ring’, Sight & Sound, September 2000, p. 48.

29. Pete Tombs, ‘Oh, Noh . . . Japan has the horrors again’, The Guardian, 18 August 2000, Review section, p. 8.

30. Kim Newman, ‘In the mood for Edinburgh: Festival highlights’, Sight & Sound, August 2000, p. 16.

31. As Steven Neale has shown, the original meaning of ‘melodrama’ signified films of ‘high excitement’ and the term was associated with typically masculine genres like gangster films and war epics. By the 1970s, though, the term came to take on its familiar associations with women’s drama and soap opera, and a female audience’s supposedly excessive emotional reaction. It is the later, more common understanding of the term that critic Kim Newman is trying to evoke here. See Steven Neale, ‘Melo talk: On the meaning and use of the term “melodrama” in the American Trade Press’, The Velvet Light Trap, 32, 1993, pp.

66–89. Also see Christine Gledhill (ed.), Home is Where the Heart is: Studies in Melodrama and the Woman’s Film (London: British Film Institute, 1987).

32. Tania Modleski, Feminism Without Women: Culture and Criticism in a Postfeminist Age (New York and London: Routledge, 1991), pp. 23–4.

33. For further discussion of these issues, also see Ann Douglas, The Feminization of American Culture (New York: Knopf, 1977).

34. Nigel Norman, ‘The ultimate video nasty’, Evening Standard, 17 August 2000, p. 28.

35. Nigel Floyd, ‘ Ring’, Time Out, 16–23 August 2000, p. 76.

36. Alan Jones, ‘ Ring’, Film Review, September 2000, p. 32.

37. Kermode, ‘ Ring’, p. 49.

38. Billson, ‘ Ring’, p. 8.

39. See next chapter for a further discussion of this.

40. Adam Smith, ‘ Ring’, Empire, September 2000, p. 59.

41. Ivan Butler noted that some audiences simply cannot tolerate the intensity of genuine suspense, citing his experience of a screening of James Whale’s The Old Dark House (1932), noting that at a point of climax at which a monster was not revealed, ‘a member of one audience fainted at this moment. Had the apparition turned out at first sight to be as fearful as she had been led to anticipate, she would probably have merely screamed herself back into laughter again.’ Butler, Horror in the Cinema, p. 16.

42. Smith, ‘ Ring’, p. 59.

43. Simon Braundu, ‘The Lord of the Ring’, Empire, May 2005, p. 118.

44. Kermode, ‘ Ring’, p. 49.

45. Jackson, ‘New take’, p. 11.

cHiLLiNG BeGiNNiNGs 39

46. Though critics never mention the fact, Nakata Hideo is something of an anglophile, having a long-standing interest in British filmmakers. He lived in England for one year and even filmed a documentary about British film director Joseph Losey, released in 1998
under the title Joseph Losey: The Man with Four Names. Jay McRoy has also made some extremely convincing arguments about the influence of Western filmmakers on Japanese horror directors like Nakata and Shimizu Takashi. See Nightmare Japan: Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2008).

47. Atkins, ‘Videofile: Ring’, p. 83.

48. Jonathan Rigby, ‘Ring cycle’, Shivers, August 2000, p. 18.

49. Norman, ‘The ultimate video nasty’, p. 28.

50. Jackson, ‘New take’, p. 11. M. R. James’ short story Casting the Runes was first published in his collected volume More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911). See M. R. James, Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories: The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James, Volume I, ed.

S. T. Joshi (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), pp. 158–79.

51. Two of the best examples of the restrained tradition of British gothic cinema are Jack Clayton’s The Innocents (1961) and the Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963), both filmed on location in the UK.

52. In 2005 the British television channel BBC4 screened a retrospective of M. R. James adaptations, and even filmed a new story in homage: A View from a Hill (Peter Harness, 2005). Two BBC television films adapted from M. R. James’ work were also recently released on DVD in the UK by the British Film Institute: Whistle and I’ll Come to You (Jonathan Miller, 1968) and A Warning to the Curious (Lawrence Gordon Clark, 1972).

Additionally, in 2000 the British Broadcasting Corporation produced the series Christopher Lee’s Ghost Stories for Christmas (directed by Eleanor Yule) in which Lee played M. R.

James as a framing device to introduce short ghost stories.

53. Helen Wheatley, Gothic Television (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2006), pp. 27, 43.

54. Ibid. pp. 43–4.

55. Ibid. p. 51.

56. Rigby, ‘Ring cycle’, p. 16.

57. For example, Alan Jones, in his review, describes Suzuki as ‘Japan’s answer to Stephen King’ (p. 32), and Victoria Segal parrots this line exactly, noting in her review that Suzuki is ‘the writer dubbed “Japan’s answer to Stephen King” ’ (‘The fear hunter’, p. 24). There can be little doubt that this line was fed to journalists in Press Notes.

58. Jones, ‘ Ring’, p. 32.

59. Kermode, ‘ Ring’, p. 49.

60. In Japan, the Ring franchise extends far beyond (and before) the first film, and consists of Suzuki’s series of novels, a television movie and two TV series, a Sega Dreamcast video game, a manga (comic book) series, and five cinematic sequels/prequels: The Spiral

[ Rasen] (Jôji Iida, 1998), Ring 2 [ Ringu 2] (Nakata Hideo, 1999), Ring 0: Birthday

[ Ringu 0: Bâsudei] (Tsuruta Norio, 2000), Sadako 3D (Hanabusa Tsutomu, 2012) and

Sadako 3D 2 (Hanabusa Tsutomu, 2013).

61. Ruth Goldberg, ‘Demons in the family: Tracking the Japanese ‘Uncanny Mother Film’

from A Page of Madness to Ringu’, in Planks of Reason: Essays on the Horror Film, rev. edn, eds Barry Keith Grant and Christopher Sharrett (Lanham, Toronto and Oxford: Scarecrow Press, 2004), p. 382.

62. Matt Hills, ‘Ringing the changes: Cult distinctions and cultural differences in US fans’

reading of Japanese horror cinema’, in Japanese Horror Cinema, ed. Jay McRoy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), p. 168.

40 extreme asia

63. Ibid. p. 171.

64. Alastair Phillips and Julian Stringer, ‘Introduction’, in Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts, eds A. Philips and J. Stringer (London and New York: Routledge, 2007), p. 20.

65. Ibid. p. 11.

66. Ibid. p. 11.

67. Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, ‘Introduction’, in Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality, and Transnational Media, eds E. Shohat and R. Stam (New Brunswick, NJ and London: Rutgers University Press, 2003), p. 1.

68. This claim is borne out by the success of Japanese horror in the UK and US, and in the markedly increased academic and critical attention currently being paid to Asian horror.

Ring is a consistent reference point in the subsequent critical reception of Asia Extreme and Japanese horror titles released in the UK. Ring is acknowledged by academics as ‘now canonical’ (Phillips and Stringer, ‘Introduction’, p. 9) and as ‘the motion picture most frequently cited as the text responsible for initiating global interest in Japanese and other East Asian horror cinemas’ (McRoy, Nightmare Japan, p. 82).

cHaPter 2

Cinema of Cruelty: The Birth of

Asia Extreme and Miike Takashi’s

Audition

Audition is really quite extraordinary. It was really the beginning of Asia Extreme.

Paul Smith, Tartan Films’ Press and PR Manager1

Audition was released in British cinemas in March 2001, six months after the release of Ring. These two films would later come to be regarded as the vanguard of a new wave of cult film, a cycle of Japanese horror movies that became significantly visible in the UK, at least by the standards of the usual niche markets for foreign-language cinema and horror films. More significantly, Audition (1999) was the first film theatrically released by Tartan that would later become part of its Asia Extreme canon, and marks the point at which the fundamental aspects of the Asia Extreme brand were born. Audition shocked and divided critics and audiences, and arguably became the flagship title of Asia Extreme.

Audition was directed by Miike Takashi, a figure who attracts significant international fandom today, but who, at the time of Audition’s UK release, was utterly anonymous in the UK. Miike is well known for the transgressive violent and sexual content of his films, but it was precisely his lack of a reputation among British critics at this time that allowed Audition to have the impact that it did. The film’s narrative is worth recounting, if only because understanding the twists of the plot is so central to appreciating its emotional effect on critics and audiences. The film initially appears to be a lighthearted story about the perils of middle-aged dating: the story follows Aoyama, a widowed single father who is convinced by his friend that the perfect way to find a new wife is to hold a fake audition, and then date the hopeful actress of his choice.

Aoyama becomes obsessed with one of the candidates, Asami, who seems to him to be perfect in every way. They begin to date and grow closer, but Asami disappears immediately after the couple consummate their relationship. As

42 extreme asia

Aoyama desperately searches for Asami, following leads on her troubled past, the film becomes more and more surreal, and climaxes when Asami returns to take violent revenge on Aoyama, the precise motivation for which is never made clear. She tortures him with needles and cuts off his foot with cheese-wire. As he drifts in and out of consciousness, he experiences several bizarre dreams which elaborate on Asami’s sadistic nature and her abusive past at the hands of her paedophile uncle. It is this final torture/flashback sequence of the film, built up to gradually by the narrative (indeed, it is worth noting that for the first 45 minutes of the film there is no indication at all that it is anything other than a tender romantic drama), that shocked audiences and critics, either offending or impressing them, depending on their individual sensibilities and taste formations.

Indeed, the critical reception of Audition, like Ring before it, was one of the most significant factors in establishing its appeal, mainstream visibility and cult reputation. But while Ring was associated with the ‘restrained’ tradition of Gothic horror, Audition was placed in a much more problematic tradition.

Contemporary critics seized on the extreme violence of the film, addressing in detail the provocative content. Audition was discussed in relation to debates on the nature of ‘authentic’ horror, and the virtues of excessive, explicit violence.

Critics used the film to offer their own opinions on the subject; the bloody violence of Audition was either the very substance of its merit, or the proof of its worthlessness. While Ring unified critics, who established a general consensus that the film’s restraint was to be admired, Audition had a polarising effect on those who wrote about it. There were as many positive reviews as negative ones, and the tone was rarely less than passionate. As critics argued their cases, they offered many points of comparison, associating Audition with a huge number of disparate films, and seemed determined not to label the film with a fixed genre.

This significance of the film to the then-developing notion of Asia Extreme is also crucial. As the quote (above) from Tartan’s Press and PR Manager, Paul Smith, indicates, the film was essentially responsible for convincing Tartan that there was a solid market for ‘extreme’ Asian thrillers. The film is genuinely shocking and transgressive, but also (arguably) genuinely artistic and accomplished. It is also uniquely and distinctly Japanese, its foreignness and ‘alien’ status key to its appeal. Paul Smith boldly suggests that Audition made British people realise that ‘Japan isn’t just Godzilla and samurai’,2 a telling reference to the Orientalist iconography and stereotypes that dominate the Western view of Japan. In spite of Audition’s Japaneseness, the film was located by critics in almost entirely Western cinematic traditions, and, as was the case with Ring, the film was canonised and debated primarily on the basis of its relationship to Western horror films.

This chapter therefore examines the key issues and debates that emerge in
ciNema OF crueLtY 43
consideration of Audition’s marketing and critical reception. The first section briefly covers the ‘hype’ that surrounded the film’s UK release, and Tartan’s marketing strategies, particularly the ways in which the film was sold to ‘tease’

curious audiences. The second section examines theories of transgression and the debate over the use of explicit violence in horror, offering a survey of the issues and arguments concerning this often despised and derided tradition.

The third section looks at the critical reaction to Audition’s violence; specifically, those critics who defended the film and argued for the merit of artistic violence. The fourth section covers the counter-argument, and examines those critics who felt that the film’s violent content was simply ‘too much’.

These critics often expressed disappointment that Audition’s subtle sexual politics should lead to something as ‘unworthy’ as graphic horror. Strategies of reading the film’s feminist theme will also be examined here. The significance of Orientalist frames of consumption will be analysed; in particular, the importance of comparisons to Japanese director Oshima Nagisa’s notorious In the Realm of the Senses are considered in the light of Audition’s status as a distinctly Japanese text. Finally, drawing partially on the work of Ernest Mathijs, this section examines the ‘topicality’ of the film’s reception and the various frames of reference critics employed in discussing the film.

Whether praising or deriding the film, critics played a crucial role in establishing Audition’s cult reputation. The remarkable breadth and depth of critical reaction to Audition was significant in establishing the film’s cult status, but was just one part of a wider network of contributing factors: the film’s marketing campaign and, to a lesser extent, fan communities operating through genre magazines and internet forums also played a key role. Audition, more so than its original Asia Extreme counterpart Ring, and at least as significantly as Tartan’s subsequent release of Battle Royale, gave birth to a culture of widespread awareness, yet niche-market appreciation, of these new East Asian horror films.

aNticiPatiNG auDitiON: HYPe aND marKetiNG

It is worth noting that Audition’s status as a controversial ‘extreme’ text was not first established by its critical reception. Rather, the critical debates that took place took cues from a few influential pre-release articles and from a carefully orchestrated marketing campaign which took advantage of word-of-mouth from previous international screenings of the film. Thomas Austin defines film hype as ‘aggressive marketing, engineered controversy, press sensationalism’.3

In the case of Audition, these aspects of the film’s promotion and reputation were inextricably linked.

Audition first caught the attention of British journalists and film critics

44 extreme asia
when it screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival in January 2000. In March of that year (a full year before the film’s eventual UK release), Sight & Sound magazine published a report on the highlights of the festival, with a particular focus on Miike and Audition. Nick James noted that Audition was the talk of the festival, and proposed that ‘nothing succeeds like excess’4 would have been an appropriate motto. He clearly positioned the film as a challenging experience, as ‘extreme’ and ‘excessive’, and reported that some audience members had accosted Miike and branded him ‘sick’.5 Vague about the details of the film’s plot and the nature of its violence, this piece undoubtedly contributed to a growing sense of curiosity about the film and established its reputation as a significant text long before it was released in the UK. Indeed, Paul Smith admits that the ‘public and critical buzz’ generated from a noteworthy festival screening are ‘an ideal starting point’ for a high-profile UK release.6

In May 2000, another article on Miike Takashi appeared in Sight & Sound magazine, this time by Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns.7 This was the first substantial piece of film journalism to appear in the UK on the subject of Miike’s whole career and it gave British cinephiles a more detailed indication of the director’s controversial style. Rayns presents Miike here in terms that will become crucial to later debates on Audition, noting that the director’s films are ‘notorious . . . for their extreme subject matter but their artistry has yet to be recognized internationally’.8 Rayns identifies a commonly perceived problem for horror film directors: namely, that their work is defined by its shocking content, and assumed to be meaningless until read by an appreciative (and often expert) audience. However, in the case of Miike, this kind of reference to ‘extreme content’ also perpetuates the anticipation of Audition as an exceptionally violent horror film, creating further associations and expectations ahead of the film’s release.

Tartan’s poster and advertising campaign for the film were carefully pitched to reveal enough of the film’s premise without presenting anything explicit.

Oliver Dew has invoked Mark Jancovich in identifying in Tartan’s marketing strategies for Audition ‘the traditional “dare” of horror movie promotion’.9

Indeed, Paul Smith admitted that the image on the Audition poster, adverts and postcards, depicting Asami preparing for revenge, syringe in hand, was deliberately restrained, designed specifically to be ‘suggestive enough, menacing enough’.10 Dew argues that this image ‘hypes the promise of Asami as a castrating dominatrix poised to torture the audience, clad in body armour and wielding a hypodermic needle, above the camp, punning strap-line “she always gets a part” ’.11 Dew argues that this marketing image is substantially different from the original Japanese poster, which he claims relies entirely on actor Ishibashi Ryo’s star appeal, but he neglects to translate the Japanese text or tagline. These two posters are, I would argue, actually using almost identical principles to sell the film. The same iconic image of Asami with the needle
ciNema OF crueLtY 45
appears on both posters (though admittedly smaller on the Japanese poster) and the central messages of the text are similar. The text on the Japanese poster reproduces the onomatopoeic sound that Asami makes as she tortures Aoyama (unforgettable to those who have seen the film, mysterious and baffling to those who have not): thus, the Japanese tagline can be accurately translated as ‘Kiri-kiri-kiri-kiri . . . it sounds scary, doesn’t it? Kiri-kiri-kiri-kiri . . .

it sounds painful, doesn’t it?’12 This vague and wholly uninformative text promotes the film’s mysteriousness and clearly demonstrates, again, the notion of

‘daring’ a curious audience to see the film. Tartan’s promotional text operates on the exact same strategy, with the quote on a promotional postcard describing the film as ‘jaw droppingly unexpected’ and an alternative quote on a magazine advertisement (appearing in Empire magazine in 2001) implying that the film is taboo-breaking in its violence. Ideally, the film’s potential audience will see these quotes and images and ask themselves: can it really be that bad?

Tartan based their entire promotional campaign for Audition around this single image, of Asami with the syringe. Paul Smith describes the image as

‘indelible and iconic’13 and so it appeared on t-shirts, the Tartan website, a free downloadable screensaver and computer desktop image, as well as on numerous postcards, posters and advertisements. In a bid to secure even more interest from audiences and the media, Tartan also produced Audition-branded pens in the shape of syringes to give out at preview screenings, film festivals and other events. The purpose of all of these activities was, according to Paul Smith, obviously and simply ‘to get people talking about the film’.14

Arguably even more important than getting people talking about the film was to make sure the British press was writing about the film. Tartan’s marketing budget was extended to include the cost of bringing director Miike Takashi to the UK for a press junket. The strategy was a success, at least in terms of the amount of press interest in the director it generated. Several magazine and newspapers interviewed Miike, thus drastically increasing the amount of attention the film got in print: reviews of the film were often accompanied by interviews or longer feature articles. Smith certainly considers the move a successful one, recalling the relatively high number of journalists and critics who requested an interview with Miike.15 The growing reputation of the film and the interest the British media took in its director formed a mutually encouraging relationship. The more attention the film got, the more anticipation grew; the greater the anticipation and the threat of scandal, the more column inches were devoted to the film. Indeed, when Audition was finally reviewed by critics, it was the subject of controversy and intense, lengthy debates in a variety of publications. However, Audition’s critical reception did not merely depend on judgements of the film’s artistic merit and effectiveness as a horror film. Rather, the film was brought into wider, pre-exiting debates about the cultural value of horror.

46 extreme asia

HeritaGe OF HOrrOr, ciNema OF excess: criticaL

DeBates ON tHe traNsGressiVe

With the increasing sophistication of special effects technology and the emergence of several key horror auteurs in the 1980s, academic and critical debates began to rage on the relative merits of the excessive, explicit depictions of violence in a number of horror films. Linda Ruth Williams has suggested that

‘contemporary horror has specialised in making the inside visible, opening it up and bringing it out and pushing the spectacle of interiority to the limit to find out what the limit is’.16 Seizing on the ‘body horror’ subgenre as the focus point of this debate, Michael Grant argues that ‘it is this mode of showing the horror, rather than telling it, that [is] indispensable to the modern cinema’s involvement in the destruction of the body’.17

However, these debates go beyond simple artistic justification for the violence on display and are often focused on the mode of viewing; a common defence of these films is that those who oppose them simply do not appreciate the true intent, the real meaning. Mark Kermode is acutely aware of the ways in which these horror films, and their fans, are misunderstood. Noting that

‘gory special effects [are] constantly the target of attacks by the censors and media pundits’, he blames ‘the recurrent inability of untrained viewers to see past the special effects’.18 He argues that these films are meaningless if taken at face value . . . each film uses body-based special effects to address a range of issues . . . which have little or nothing to do with actual bodily contortions. The horror fan understands this, and is thus not only able but positively compelled to ‘read’ rather than merely

‘watch’ such movies. The novice, however, sees only the dismembered bodies, hears only the screams and groans, reacts only with revulsion or contempt.19

Kermode here is describing the specific taste formations that allow body horror movies to be read ‘correctly’. Though Kermode seems to have little patience for the ‘censors and media pundits’ that oppose these films, he in fact justifies their opposition. According to Kermode’s theory of appreciation, an expert knowledge of the genre is required to see past the surface violence; any viewer without prior knowledge of the reading strategies required will have every reason to see the violent excess of these films as the extent of their appeal.

Offering an example of a film once caught up in the ‘Video Nasty’ censorship storm, Kermode admits that ‘to the uninitiated viewer, The Evil Dead [Sam Raimi, USA, 1981] was a grueling horror picture in which human bodies were mercilessly hacked to pieces. To erudite horror fans, it was The Three Stooges with latex and ketchup . . . a knockabout romp . . . in which pain and suffer-
ciNema OF crueLtY 47
ing play no part.’20 He concludes that ‘the truth is simply that the experienced horror fan understands the on-screen action in terms of a heritage of genre knowledge which absolutely precludes the possibility of sadistic titillation’.21

Kermode’s optimistic generalisation ignores the very likely possibility that there is indeed a rare viewer who delights in the sadistic excess of many of these films; he also fails to acknowledge that his defence of these films is also ample justification for their fiercest opponents.

Kermode’s argument that these films are only the subject of such vehement opposition because they are misunderstood perhaps fails to account for the wide breadth of directorial intent. Not every horror film is intended to be met by a quietly appreciative niche audience. Michael Grant, writing an appreciation of the horror films of Lucio Fulci, argues that while the opposition to these films is hardly positive, it confirms their worthiness: Condemned as trashily exploitative and sadistic, the films suffer as a consequence from mutilation, neglect, and what is worse, contempt. It is not to be denied that extreme violence, sexual degradation and grotesque forms of death are legion in [these] films . . . yet I would argue that this is precisely the point: they are confronting us with death presented in equally offensive and unacceptable ways. It is the provoking of scandal and outrage that constitute the real significance of the horror film in our culture.22

On this basis, then, it is not the content of these films that is the substance of their virtue: it is the reception they face. The niche-audience attention and admiration for these films is no surprise: Mark Jancovich has observed a similar trend in debates over pornography, in which ‘interest is almost always in the “transgressive” because mainstream pornography is assumed to be an essentially known entity which does not change’.23 Indeed, one of the central factors in the appeal of Audition, and (initially) the other Asia Extreme titles, was precisely their ‘unknown’ status. That the film was foreign and alien also meant it was inscrutable and mysterious.

Tanya Krzywinska, supporting the fundamental argument that the virtue of body horror can only be seen by a ‘trained eye’, has suggested that the distinction between authenticity and artifice is the dividing line among viewers; she claims that body horror films ‘use disgust as a means of blurring the distinction between authenticity and artifice. Those viewers who have not found a method of assigning artifice to a horror film are not able to make this distinction and the films are “too real” for them to find “fun”.’24

The defence of these films acknowledges that to a mainstream viewer, explicitly violent body horror films are unpalatable, excessive and misunderstood. Jancovich has suggested that these films also exist in stark opposition to

48 extreme asia
the non-explicit, mainstream horror movies that find popularity and acceptance from a much wider audience. In fact, he suggests that fans of the explicit body horror view the less explicit alternative as
not ‘real’ horror but rather the commercialized, sanitized tripe which is consumed by moronic victims of mass culture . . . many of these horror fans privilege as ‘real’ and ‘authentic’ those films of violent ‘excess’ . . .

and they do so specifically to define their own opposition to, or distinction from, what they define as inauthentic commercial products of mainstream culture.25

Jancovich therefore suggests that the maligned, niche status of these texts is a badge of honour for their fans; that their minority status is part of the appeal and motivation for the fandom and loyal viewing these films attract.

In the history of this movement towards an acceptance of body horror and an appreciation for the artistic merits of violent excess, David Cronenberg emerges as a key figure. Cronenberg’s early feature films had been controversial for a variety of reasons, but a significant point of criticism was the excessive violence and offensive imagery in such films as Shivers (1975), Rabid (1977), The Brood (1979) and Scanners (1981). Cronenberg’s work is now widely considered horror of the highest artistic merit. Ian Conrich has observed how Cronenberg’s films finding the ‘right’ audience was critical to their eventual acceptance as legitimate works. Conrich cites the opening of several repertory cinemas in London that were
dedicated to work of this kind. It was in this context that Cronenberg succeeded in reaching out to an audience more attuned to his sensibilities and aesthetic assumptions. It was for the taste of such an audience that horror fanzines such as Fangoria were to cater.26

The launch of Fangoria magazine in 1979 was apparently crucial in the development of a dedicated fandom for the body horror cycle. The publication was devoted to an appreciation of this new, explicit horror that was being met with derision and disgust by the mainstream press, and mainstream audiences.

Conrich illustrates this best by citing a free, ‘pull-out’ poster the magazine offered:

poster number 11 was a scene from The Brood, in which Nola Carveth cradles in her hands a blood-covered newly born ‘child of rage’ . . .

William Beard writes that it ‘is a scene that invariably makes audiences gag in disgust’. Here, it was being offered by Fangoria for readers to display on their walls in delight.27
ciNema OF crueLtY 49

The audiences for these films clearly thrived on their position in opposition to established notions of ‘good taste’. Despite the many voices continually defending these films, struggles still take place over the definition of ‘true’

horror and the relative merits of provocative, excessive, explicit violence.

What all these debates amount to is a policing of cultural boundaries by critics and commentators representing various taste formations. The debates ultimately reflect a consideration of the place of transgressive texts in society.

According to Chris Jenks, in his influential summary of debates on transgression, ‘to transgress is to go beyond the bounds or limits set by a commandment or law or convention, it is to violate or infringe. But to transgress is also more than this, it is to announce and even laudate the commandment, the law or the convention’.28 Indeed, questions posed (in this case, by critics and academics) on what is moral or immoral, what is artistic or art-less, and what has value and why, are all central to the transgressive text or act: Transgressive behaviour therefore does not deny limits or boundaries, rather it exceeds them and thus completes them. Every rule, limit, boundary or edge carries with it its own fracture, penetration or impulse to disobey. The transgression is a component of the rule. Seen in this way, excess is not an abhorration nor a luxury, it is rather a dynamic force in cultural reproduction – it prevents stagnation by breaking the rule and it ensures stability by reaffirming the rule. Transgression is not the same as disorder; it opens up chaos and reminds us of the necessity of order. But the problem remains. We need to know the collective order, to recognise the edges in order to transcend them.29

‘NOtHiNG succeeDs LiKe excess’: ceLeBratiNG
auDitiON

In the case of Audition, many critics revealed their position on the virtue of explicit violence and gore by offering their praise and support for the film.

Many of these critics clearly established themselves as trained viewers, identifying the film’s merits and warning off the ‘untrained’ masses.

Geoff Andrew, writing for the London weekly Time Out, identified Audition as ‘Grand Guignol’ and praised the ‘remarkably effective last reel of psychopathically vengeful violence’.30 He described the ‘sound and image deployed to genuinely shocking effect in the grisly finale’ while praising the

‘extremely expressive’ camerawork of cinematographer Yamamoto Hideo (who not a single other review mentions by name), concluding his review with the notice ‘be warned: this is not for the squeamish or faint-hearted’.31

Andrew thus positioned himself, and the film, very clearly. By identifying

50 extreme asia
the cinematic techniques and technical personnel that create the impressive torture sequence, he appears not unlike the Fangoria film buffs who are much more interested in special effects artists than actors. By praising the film but warning that it is not for ‘squeamish’ viewers, Andrew identified himself as not squeamish, while gently deriding those that might not appreciate the film: anyone who fails to see the merit is obviously too weak and easily offended or, perhaps, simply not part of this ‘exclusive group’ of horror fans.

This community of horror fans, to whom Audition is an artistic triumph rather than a juvenile offence, seems to share a vocabulary as well as an aesthetic disposition. Tim Robey’s review of Audition for the Daily Telegraph is stunningly similar to Geoff Andrew’s piece. Robey used the same language, and for the same purposes: ‘The last reel is a tour de force of excruciating horror and narrative tricksiness’, Robey wrote, while advising that ‘the squeamish should steer well clear’.32 The similarity of Andrew’s and Robey’s pieces does not suggest a dearth of original thought on the film; rather it confirms that the arguments and terminology associated with films of these types are well-rehearsed, and that the specific case of Audition is part of a bigger, wider picture for many critics.

Alan Jones, writing for Film Review, again made similar observations.

Opening with the now-familiar warning ‘This is not a film for the faint-hearted’, Jones continued to confirm his, and Audition’s, relationship to the heritage of gory art-horror by describing director Miike Takashi as ‘the avant-garde David Cronenberg of Asia’.33 Given the likely horror-friendly readership of his review,34 Jones addressed his view to an understanding reader: in an entirely positive review, he described the film as ‘excruciating to watch’

without pause or contradiction.35 Jones’ enthusiasm for the tradition is clear; for him, Audition ‘puts true horror back into the horror film’.36 The notion that this Japanese film has reinvented, or at least re-ignited, the primarily Western horror genre recalls the way that Ring was praised on its British release, and reflects the then-growing concern among genre critics that the contemporary English-language horror film has lost its appeal.

Kim Newman, though writing for the mainstream magazine Empire, is another well-known genre critic, and made comments that would appear to be contradictory to anyone but the well-trained horror viewer. Newman’s five-star review was entirely positive, yet he was able to describe the film as ‘really confrontational’ and even ‘intense to the point of unbearability’.37

Newman and Jones have clearly adopted the specific mode of viewing in which

‘unbearable’ and ‘excruciating’ moments are welcome. Again, reviews like these – which give little of the plot away but reference the extremity (but not the nature) of the film’s violence – serve very effectively to heighten the film’s reputation and appeal.

Audition’s promotional copy in the Edinburgh Film Festival 2000 pro-
ciNema OF crueLtY 51
gramme described the film as ‘brilliantly demented . . . Audition has an elegiac edge to it that makes the visceral moments (of which there are plenty) all the more shocking’.38 In a report on Audition’s success at the 29th Rotterdam Film Festival, a writer for Screen International repeated the mantra that Audition is ‘not for the faint of heart’ and that the film ‘carries a terrific wallop for the blood and gore crowds’.39 While this report and others like it were crucial for the film’s growing hype, they reflect these same strategies of celebrating the film’s violence.

With an industry-driven perspective on the film, the writer for Screen International also noted that the film ‘might cross over from its natural spot in midnight shows to art cinemas’.40 The perceived division of art film and horror film is crucial to these debates over explicit violence. Indeed, for many of the supporters of a cinema of excess, the violence of these films is the substance of their artistic merit. David Cronenberg is a director celebrated equally in Fangoria and academic journals. Tony Rayns argued that Miike Takashi ‘combines an art-movie sensibility with a down-and-dirty sense of fun’.41

In the post-Rotterdam preview of Audition written by Nick James for Sight & Sound, his position was somewhat different to other reviewers; he was reporting on the film, rather than reviewing it, and he positioned himself uniquely in relation to the other writers who appreciate the film. James clearly understood the arguments regarding the virtue of bloody excess in horror.

Writing from a deliberately neutral position, James was able to praise the film’s artistic and technical merits while admitting that the gore is indeed ‘too much’

for him. Yet despite his personal distaste for the film (when he wrote that the film is ‘pretty gruesome’ it was not praise), James admitted that ‘ Audition is a well-crafted, visually deft piece of Grand Guignol’.42 James occupied a rare middle ground, and it is perhaps surprising that his neutral tone was unique among critical writing on the film’s release.

‘NO ONe-DimeNsiONaL sexist’: NeGatiVe
reactiONs aND FemiNist reaDiNGs

Many of the negative reactions to Audition (specifically, the film’s violence) came from precisely the kind of viewer that the critics discussed above set themselves up in opposition to. When those critics warned that the film would not be appreciated by the squeamish or faint-hearted, they were anticipating exactly the kind of reaction that the film indeed did receive. It is worth noting here that the nature of these debates, and disapproval from the mainstream press in particular, was beneficial to the kind of ‘extreme’ and oppositional image that Tartan was developing for Audition in particular and its Asian imports more generally. Paul Smith has in fact confirmed this, declaring that

52 extreme asia

‘critical support does not matter to Asia Extreme films and DVDs, they’re critic proof’.43 This is not unique to Tartan or even to foreign cinema; rather, it is a common factor in the cult appeal of horror. Julian Petley, for example, has suggested that British horror films from the Hammer studio succeeded because of mainstream critical disapproval, and has cited one of Hammer’s producer’s fears that if the critics praised the films, it would make them

‘respectable’ and thus ‘ruin their image’.44

Many British critics did indeed react strongly against Audition. The Independent’s Anthony Quinn admitted that the film made him wince, named Audition the ‘nastiest surprise of the week’ and suggested that ‘the phantas-magoric climax may well have to be viewed through latticed fingers’.45 Nigel Andrews’ review in The Financial Times offered a report of the film’s effect on the group of critics he saw it with, observing that ‘ Audition drained the colour from film critics’ cheeks. They emerged with unsteady gait and whey-pale looks.’46 These critics are clearly not connoisseurs of explicit body horror films, and saw Audition’s excessive violence as its chief failing.

One critic in a unique position and with an unusual perspective is Anne Billson. Billson, in her review for the Sunday Telegraph, wrote that ‘the final 20 minutes are too much, even for me (emphasis added)’.47 Anne Billson is a published genre critic, and has written a highly positive appreciation of John Carpenter’s seminal body horror film The Thing (1982) for the British Film Institute’s Modern Classics book series.48 Billson therefore identified herself as an expert viewer, as someone who appreciates the artistic merit of violent excess. She made a distinction (one that was not found in any other reviews of the film) between ‘good’ body horror and ‘bad’ body horror. She was not overwhelmed by the images, and her reaction was not one of dismissive disgust; she simply offered her opinion that the modicum of restraint and sophistication (however small) present in the films of Carpenter and others is absent from Audition. Billson’s opinion was the only one that separated the virtues of the genre as a whole from the specific excesses of Miike’s film. Billson’s review demonstrates that Audition did not blindly polarise critics along pre-established lines of taste, but that the film occupied a slightly more complex position in the debates on this issue.

Michael Thomson, in his review of the film for BBC Films, objected to the

‘full-tilt gruesomeness’ and expressed disappointment that ‘ Audition makes the mistake of changing crudely from a study in loneliness . . . to a full-blown shock-horror extravaganza’.49 Several critics, while making clear their position on the use of provocative, explicit gore in the film, expressed the view that the film is potentially interesting as a study of sexuality and psychology, but that it is ultimately let down by a descent into bloody excess.

Richard Falcon, reviewing the film for Sight & Sound on its UK theatrical release, offered vehement criticism of the violence, citing a ‘sadistic breach
ciNema OF crueLtY 53
of contract between film-maker and audience’ as well as a ‘reprehensible sado-erotic flashback’.50 Falcon read the film as ‘a critique of traditional male Japanese attitudes towards women’, adding that the protagonist is ‘no one-dimensional sexist’.51 Falcon’s conclusion is that ‘narrative cohesion is ultimately sacrificed to wicked thrills, rendering Audition an experience which can fully satisfy only the most conscience-free of gore-hounds’.52 Falcon made his case very clearly; he has little respect for the graphic horror cycle and regards its fans with little more than contempt. Falcon has an art-house sensibility, and for him what could have been a subtle feminist narrative was ruined; thematic depth and real artistic value cannot co-exist with explicit gory violence.

This kind of value judgement certainly chimes with the critical consensus that emerged upon the release of Ring; the majority of British critics at this time seemed to strongly prefer the restrained tradition to any direct visual representation of bodily violence and gore.

Alexander Walker’s piece on Audition for the Evening Standard was undoubtedly the most passionately negative. Walker held the film and its fans in utter contempt, describing the film as ‘the grimmest exploitation of sadistic violence’.53

Walker was disgusted by the ‘pornographic climax’ and was aware that the film’s probable audience would not share his outrage, noting that ‘those intending to see it will not be put off by my revealing that gross sadism, mutilation and amputation’ form a large part of the film.54 Walker’s attack on the film took on the tone of a moral crusade that recalled the ‘Video Nasty’ period of censorship: addressing his piece directly to the president of the British Board of Film Classification (which passed the film uncut), Walker cited ‘an earlier scene in which an actress plainly meant to resemble a very young child in a ballet leotard is branded in the vicinity of her vagina by a squalid paedophile with a club foot’ and asked how the film could avoid legal prosecution under the Protection of Children Act.55

Walker’s statements calling for the film to be banned positioned him as the kind of moral crusader that Mark Kermode, among many others, would see as totally misunderstanding the film, a kind of nemesis to the true horror fan. Indeed, Kate Egan suggests that questions of censorship were often linked by critics to value judgements during the ‘Nasties’ period. She argues that a direct criticism of the inadequacy of current censorship policies and ratings is a further ‘hidden power’ of the British critic . . . when the divide between ‘art’ and ‘entertainment’ requires urgent clarification, the critic can be seen to upgrade his role by policing not just the theorised boundary between ‘art’ and ‘entertainment’, but also the censor’s conception of this boundary.56

Walker’s disapproval of the film – and the BBFC’s decision to allow it to be screened in the UK – enabled him to establish his own importance, expertise

54 extreme asia
and moral superiority. Again, the enthusiastic disapproval of a famously conservative critic like Walker was nothing but beneficial to Tartan’s campaign to market Audition as excessive and exotic.

Yet even in a piece as startlingly negative as Walker’s, he addressed the film’s feminist theme with positive appreciation. Walker, who seemed to delight in attacking demographic groups other than his own, offered a defence of the film’s feminist politics (though there does not seem to be a single review that actually attacked the film on these grounds). Walker (who wrote what is easily the most quotable review) suggested that the film’s central conceit (a man finding a new wife through auditioning actresses) ‘is considered an offence to womanhood by the frenzied harpies who founded Women’s Lib and prefer women to assert their gender identity by going around shooting men’.57 Walker argued that rather than presenting a chauvinistic portrayal of the central relationship, the film shows ‘only mutual tenderness and need in the relationship that cancelled out the man’s slight deceit’.58 Though the tone of Walker’s piece is certainly the most extreme, the basic formula that the violence is excessive, but the feminist thematic is worthwhile, appears again.

A review in the horror fan magazine Shivers, however, is not somewhere this formula might be expected to appear. Shivers magazine catered specifically for discerning horror fans, and typically celebrates the artistic cinema of excess that Audition represents for the majority of ‘trained’ horror viewers.

Yet the review in Shivers expressed familiar disappointment with the film’s violence:

The last half of Audition is astonishing and unbearable and perhaps something of a let-down. Given the film’s critique of the apparently sexist attitudes of the Japanese males, the film’s Grand Guignol payoff feels rather like an EC comic book-style comeuppance.59

Despite the negative reaction to the violence, the review from Shivers was, overall, positive in tone: writer Alec Worley concluded that the film is a ‘well-acted, brilliantly-directed psycho-drama’.60 The Shivers piece represents one of a series of reviews that offer an equally positive reaction to the film as those featured in the previous section. These critics liked the film in spite of the violence, rather than because of it; they exist in direct opposition to the gore-savvy genre-fan critics mentioned previously.

James Christopher of The Times admitted that the ‘grisly finale’ had him

‘writhing . . . in disgust’ but argued that the film is uncommonly perceptive, for a horror movie.61 He concluded that director Miike ‘seems to be needling . . .

unspoken fears, specifically the sexual pathology of guilty males and repressed females’.62 For Christopher, a ‘feminist slant’ gives the film its values; he also suggested that horror films, in his opinion, are rarely so sophisticated.

ciNema OF crueLtY 55

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw also latched on to the film as a feminist fable, reading the plot as ‘punishment for the male sexual triumphalism inherent in Japanese society’ and concluding that Audition is ‘not a horror film exactly, nor thriller, nor even an arthouse drama – more a cinema of cruelty whose flourishes are opaque, enigmatic and deeply unsettling’.63 Bradshaw seemed largely unfazed by the violent imagery and concentrated his comments on appreciating the film’s theme.

Fiona Morrow, who interviewed Miike Takashi for a feature article written at the time of the film’s commercial release, admitted to ‘having experienced a feminist frisson myself during Audition’s final scenes’.64 Morrow observed that ‘it’s being billed as a horror flick, but it isn’t so easily categorised’ and suggested that ‘those who go expecting full-on gory nastiness from the off are going to be sorely disappointed, even – dare I say it? – bored’.65 Morrow’s comments mirror those made by the pro-violence critics and reflect the ongoing battle for ‘ownership’ over the ‘true meaning’ of the film. The gore-savvy critics warned off ‘untrained’ viewers and insisted that the film is not for the squeamish viewer, who cannot appreciate the film. The critics who appreciated the film’s feminist theme, however, insisted that Audition would not be understood, or even enjoyed, by a gore-hungry audience of body horror aficionados.

Both sides of this argument insisted that their reading represented the ‘true’

meaning of the film, a meaning that could not possibly be grasped by anyone who does not share their mode of viewing, their specific taste formation.

Water cOOLer ciNema: Frames OF reFereNce aND
criticaL tOPicaLitY

In their discussion of Audition, critics employed a varied number of references to other films and filmmakers, in an attempt to provide context for their review and familiarise the text for their readers. At the time of Audition’s UK
release, it represented a largely unknown and unprecedented quantity: it was a genre-nonspecific Japanese film featuring romantic comedy, melodrama, gory torture and an ultimately surrealist narrative.

The most frequently occurring comparison made by British critics was between Audition and the American thriller Misery (Rob Reiner, 1990). Nick James described Audition as ‘Grand Guignol not altogether dissimilar to Misery’; Anthony Quinn confessed that ‘not since Kathy Bates got to work on James Caan in Misery have I winced so much’; and Peter Bradshaw saw in Audition ‘the gruesomeness of . . . the Stephen King of Misery’.66 The comparison to Misery is logical: both films involve a sadistic relationship between a man and a woman, and both feature memorable transgressive scenes of violent torture. Misery’s violence, though, was not explicit enough to diminish the

56 extreme asia
film’s mainstream appeal. In fact, comparison between the two films yields more insight than even the critics who cited the similarity realise.

Misery’s screenwriter William Goldman reveals in his memoirs the difficulty he had in making the film; in King’s original novel, captive writer Paul Sheldon has his feet chopped off with an axe and his ankles cauterised with a blowtorch. Goldman was determined to bring this scene to the screen, but was vetoed by the studio, who felt it was simply ‘too much’. Goldman recalls watching the final, successful, finished film:

The lopping scene was gone now, forever replaced by the ankle-breaking scene . . . what they had done – it was exactly the same scene except for the punishment act – worked wonderfully and was absolutely horrific enough. If it had gone the way I wanted, it would have been too much

. . . Misery would have been this film you might have heard of but would never have gone to see. Because people who had seen it would have told you to ride clear.67

Audition is, in many ways, the film that Misery could have been: Miike’s vengeful heroine does not hesitate to sever the protagonist’s foot with garrotte wire and the act is shown in explicit detail. William Goldman is well aware of the critical and popular reaction that would have greeted a scene of equal excess in Misery; the final version of the film stayed on the right side of the line of ‘good taste’. Misery was shocking enough to be a talking point among mainstream cinemagoers, but nowhere near extreme enough to enter the canon of widely hated, explicit horror celebrated only by a small minority.

Philip French’s review in The Observer was another piece to reference Misery: he defined Audition as ‘an odd cross between Misery and Ai no Corrida’.68 French compared two films that have almost nothing in common: a mainstream Hollywood thriller from 1990 and a Japanese art-house/
pornography film from the 1970s, In the Realm of the Senses ( Ai no Corrida, Oshima Nagisa, 1976). But what unifies Audition, In the Realm of the Senses and Misery is not genre or content, but the context of reception. These films were all talking points, ‘hot topics’, examples of a ‘Water Cooler Cinema’ of controversial films that generate debate and intense interest from an audience.

Films of this type are frequently used by reviewers to give their opinions context, to explain to readers the kind of film Audition is. Quentin Tarantino’s notorious Reservoir Dogs (1992) is an obvious point of comparison, a film that generated intense debate, which also often focused on a torture scene (in this case, a police officer has his ear sliced off). Anne Billson suggested that Audition was ‘this season’s can-you-take-it rite-of-passage for young filmgoers who reckon the ear-slicing from Reservoir Dogs was way too tame’.69 Michael Thomson believed that Reservoir Dogs is ‘a good example’ of a controversy-
ciNema OF crueLtY 57
courting film and that Audition is not.70 Walker compared Audition to ‘a piece of British-made criminal thuggery called Gangster No. 1’, which ‘depicted a man being sawn up while still alive and passing in and out of consciousness’.71

Concentrating more on the emotional effect the film had on him, Shivers writer Alec Worley placed Audition alongside cult favourite Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000) as ‘likely to be one of the most brilliantly harrowing experiences you undergo this year’.72

Latching on to the film’s feminist theme, critics cited previous ‘hot topic’

gender conflict films like Fatal Attraction (Adrian Lyne, 1987) and Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991). Walker described Audition as a ‘thriller in Fatal Attraction mode’.73 Fatal Attraction is a good example of a film propelled to significance and financial success by public discourse and debate: Linda Ruth Williams notes that it is ‘perhaps the definition of the ‘word-of-mouth’ film (it made more money in its second than its opening weekend)’.74 Like Audition, a film about the excessive revenge of a woman scorned, Fatal Attraction became a major talking-point and generated considerable critical debate. Thelma & Louise is another likely point of comparison and is still generating discussion and polarising critics over its gender politics. It is worth noting that these films expand far beyond the horror genre. Whereas Ring could be contextualised and familiarised purely with reference to other horror films, Audition cannot, providing further support to the notion that the film simply cannot be defined by a single genre, as critics often claimed.

Ernest Mathijs’ work on the critical reception of David Cronenberg’s Shivers observes the different mechanisms of topicality that were used by critics discussing the film.75 Mathijs suggests that both regional topicality (discussing the film in reference to the immediate context of its release) and critical topicality (discussing the film with reference to wider, international points of comparison, i.e. other films and genres) were significant in the establishment of Shivers’ cult reputation.76

In the case of Audition, most critics rely on critical, rather than regional, topicality to frame their reviews. There were, however, a few pieces that discussed the specific British context for Audition’s release. Alexander Walker, as discussed above, called for the film to be prosecuted by the British courts.

He cited the then-recent scandal involving police investigation into allegations that artist Tierney Gearon’s exhibition I Am a Camera constituted child pornography. This, he argued, was actually less deserving of legal attention than the ‘depraved’ Audition.77

The review that appeared in Shivers magazine did not reach publication until two months after Audition’s release, and was therefore able to offer brief comment on the initial reception, even noting that it ‘proved to be another cause for moral concern’ and that ‘the Evening Standard’s Alexander Walker was particularly upset’.78 Shivers also considered the impact Audition had

58 extreme asia
during its tour of film festivals, noting the overwhelmed reaction from audiences at the Rotterdam, Edinburgh and London Fright Fest festivals.

The way that Audition polarised critics (even among the positive reviews, the basis on which the film is valued varies wildly) is crucial to establishing the film’s cult reputation. As Mathijs notes regarding Shivers: The fact that Shivers allowed connections between textual levels and dis-cordant issues in culture enabled critics to create controversy, and made it possible for them to identify themselves against a topical opposition (regional or critical), convincing the critical community of their commitment to good film. By helping Shivers receive a cult reputation, these critics secured their own relevance.79

One of the overriding themes of the reviews of Audition is an acknowledgement of the controversy the film will generate and of battle lines being drawn.

Critics made efforts to establish themselves as bastions of good taste, as experts in the field, knowledgeable about the precedents which Audition follows, eager to impart wisdom about the relevant texts (and contexts) that would allow a greater understanding of the film.

OrieNtaLism aND auDitiON

At the time of Audition’s UK release, ‘mature’ Japanese films were still relatively rarely screened in British cinemas. The most successful Japanese cinema imports were animation; the Pokémon franchise was particularly prominent at this time. Given that Audition’s mysteriousness and inscrutability were central to its marketing, it is perhaps not surprising that critical discussions often revolved around the film’s status as an ‘alien’ and unusual Oriental text.

Alexander Walker, for example, based his review on generalisations about Japanese culture and cinema, suggesting that the film’s ‘pornographic climax’, a ‘sequence of violent psychopathology’, was indicative of ‘the Far East cinema’s fixation on physical pain’.80 The associations of the Japanese with sadism are common to Orientalist views of the country, and fit with a stereotype that has existed in the West at least since the Second World War. Orientalism and the development of Asia Extreme will be discussed in greater detail in the following chapter, but it is also an important consideration here in the reception of Audition.

It is worth noting, too, that these strategies of distancing and Othering Audition are not necessarily indicative of a negative response to the film.

Indeed, several critics managed to be offensive and dismissive of Japan while praising the film. The Times’ James Chirstopher championed Audition on the
ciNema OF crueLtY 59
basis of the way its female antagonist was empowered, but ended his review with the quip: ‘A horror film with a strong feminist slant? This is definitely an Asian first.’81 Christopher here perpetuates another stereotypical generalisation about the Japanese, namely, that Japan’s women are a repressed and obedient part of an unenlightened patriarchal society, and represented as such in the country’s exploitation cinema.

Critics made very little effort to associate Audition with canonical Japanese cinema, but one occasional – yet significant – observation is a comparison between Audition and Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses. The connections between these two films are particularly significant given their impact on a Western view of ‘extreme’ Japanese cinema. This is arguably a highly relevant frame of reference, and references to the film demonstrate both knowledge of controversial Japanese cinema, as well as an awareness of the likely effect Audition will have on critics and audiences.

In the Realm of the Senses remains a seminal Japanese film, particularly in the West. Telling the true story of a woman who killed her lover and castrated him, the film featured scenes of unsimulated sex that made processing the film illegal in Japan. The film was therefore made in co-production with France, and the negatives were developed there. On its original premier at the 1976

Cannes Film Festival, In the Realm of the Senses played to sold-out shows and enormous critical attention. Ultimately, the film contributed to a notion that Japan’s repressive society hid a much more perverted and ‘extreme’ culture of sexual transgression than had been imagined in the West. The film was also the focus of a fierce ‘art vs. pornography’ debate that also involved questions of censorship and distribution, and polarised critics and audiences. Debates over the merits of pornography often mirror similar debates over horror and the case of In the Realm of the Senses parallels that of Audition in many ways, as critics stepped forward to defend the film and justify its explicit content, while others railed against the film and called for it to be banned. The film was not released in the UK until 1991, when the BBFC finally granted a certificate to a slightly cut version, adding to its ongoing reputation in the UK (and the West more generally) as a ‘forbidden’ film.

Audition and In the Realm of the Senses, therefore, share both a textual focus on sexually dominant, murderous women and a reception context that emphasises scandal and Oriental intrigue. On the release of Audition, Tony Rayns noted the similar appeals of the films, suggesting that in the UK, ‘the last Japanese film sold on a taboo-busting ticket was Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses’.82 It is the idea of a repressed society expressing its darkest perversions, and the combination of sex and death, that is seen as so central to In the Realm of the Senses. A final example of the cultural status of In the Realm of the Senses is its inclusion in a 2002 BBC television documentary series. Mainstream lightweight entertainer (and Japanese cinema enthusiast) Jonathan Ross hosted

60 extreme asia
a series called Japanorama, which week-by-week examined various aspects of Japanese culture. In the episode focusing on and simply called ‘Sex’, Ross presented Oshima’s film as a central text. Ross began the show by claiming Japan has sex at the forefront of its collective brain. Renowned for the high quality of its erotic cinema, Japan is equally well-known for the wide range of fetishes and perversions on display in those films. But if you think women in western erotica get a deal that’s less than square, well, I’m afraid that in Japan, they get a deal that’s as raw as its sushi.83

Ross’s description here could hardly be a better summary of the generalisations and stereotypes that define an Orientalist view of Japanese sexual culture.

This voice-over is set to clips from In the Realm of the Senses, which Ross then characterises as ‘the most notorious and renowned Japanese sex film’.84 He describes the film as charting ‘a week of increasingly precarious sex play’ and as being simply ‘about a couple that just can’t get enough, no matter who is present’.85 The enduring visibility of the film for a mainstream audience with a passing curiosity in (but limited knowledge of) Japan is clearly significant; there is also a good chance that in years to come, Audition will (still) be held up by mainstream critics and journalists as proof of the violent sadism of the Japanese.

When Tony Rayns compared Audition to In the Realm of the Senses in his article though, he did so as part of a much broader exercise in contextualisation, making references to a wide range of other Japanese films and filmmakers.

This process enabled Rayns to both offer a detailed analysis of the film and promote his own status as an expert critic, utilising frames of reference found in no other British reviews. Most meaningfully, Rayns compared Miike to the Japanese directors Imamura Shohei and Suzuki Seijun.86 Both are cult directors among Japanese cinephiles, with reputations for obsessing over sex and violence, respectively.87 Rayns therefore continued to associate Audition with sex and violence, but made clear the specific national cinematic heritage that provides a context for Miike’s transgressions.

For other critics, making reference to Japanese films was more of an attempt to appear informed and a display of cultural capital than a genuine demonstration of expert knowledge employed to inform readers. Time Out’s Geoff Andrew, for example, praised the central performance of actor Ishibashi Ryo and noted his previous roles in Kid’s Return (Kitano Takeshi, 1996) and Another Lonely Hitman (Mochizuki Rokuro, 1995).88 It is more likely that he is merely parroting some press notes than trying to inform his readers though, as Another Lonely Hitman would not be available in any form in the UK for another four years, making it a meaningless reference for British readers (and there is no reason to think that Andrew had even seen it).89
ciNema OF crueLtY 61

A lack of reference by UK critics to specific Japanese cinema, and Miike’s previous films in particular, is understandable. Indeed, Miike’s other films were known for their violent, exploitative and ‘extreme’ content within Japan, so the British reaction to Audition would likely have been dulled if more people in the UK had seen any of Miike’s other films. Tartan’s campaign and the success of the film relied enormously on British ignorance of the material and its production context. Understandably, therefore, only two British reviewers apart from Rayns mentioned any of Miike’s other films, and both were writing for genre publications and thus attempting to establish their expert status.

The many non-expert British critics, whose articles and reviews perpetu-ated various Orientalist stereotypes of Japan, were not necessarily the only ones responsible for these kinds of ideas circulating so widely at the time of Audition’s release. In Miike’s many interviews with the British press, he himself continually and self-consciously offered opinions in support of the idea of Japan as excessive and bound by a different moral standard than the West.

For example, in an interview for the BBC Films website, Miike responded to (British) censorship concerns by noting that there were no such problems with the film in Japan:

There is of course a governing body in Japan but they didn’t see anything in the film to prohibit exhibition to the correct audience. Obviously it is not a film intended for children but it was my intention to be frank about issues of sex and sexuality and it is in this arena perhaps that the film can be considered provocative.90

Miike not only positioned his native country as cinematically permissive, but also drew attention to the film’s apparently provocative sexual content. This is perhaps strange given that there is no explicit sex at all in the film, and it was violence that concerned British critics so much. Miike appears to have worked just as hard as Tartan to sell the film based on promises of taboo-breaking titillation.

Elsewhere, Miike provided an explanation to support another interviewer’s assertion that ‘Japan has a fraction of the violent crime that we have here in the UK, but films and comics are full of it,’ responding ‘I suppose film takes up the slack of what is not expressed in society. Obviously it is good that Japan is a safe place, but I wonder if there is something unnatural about the placidity of Japanese society.’91 Though this is yet another example of Miike self-Orientalising in order to sell his film, it is also a sophisticated contribution to debates on transgression. Chris Jenks argues that society ‘is driven to, and by, acts of violence, it is dedicated to transgression as a way of expending its energy; thus we have war, murder, cruelty, sacrifice, torture and so on’.92

62 extreme asia

The extension of this thinking argues that if they are not to be enacted, transgressive acts must at least be represented and expressed in art (such as the cinema).

A final example of the cultural status of Japanese cinema in the UK can be found in a review of Audition from the tabloid newspaper The Sun. Reviewer Nick Fisher articulated familiar concerns about the boundaries between horror and art cinema, describing the film as ‘pure horror’ and ‘a very classy shock’.93

Fisher expressed the common view that Japanese (foreign language) cinema belongs only in certain venues (art-house cinemas), and that his readership’s tastes are distinctively not art-house-friendly, by concluding his review with the comment ‘because it’s Japanese with subtitles, you’ll probably never get near this Audition. But if you ever do, you’ll get a shock – a very classy shock.’94

This praise of Audition, then, involves arguing (or simply assuming) that the place for these films is an appropriately non-mainstream venue, where they can be seen by the ‘right’ audience. Fisher’s tone here is odd though: he seems to be branding Japanese films as ‘weird’ by addressing his readers as those who would never consider watching this kind of film, in spite of its entertainment value. This review suggested that Japanese films are essentially ‘unwatchable’

for a tabloid-reading British audience, and confirms the widespread perception of the niche-market (and supposedly elitist) status of foreign (Japanese) cinema in the UK at this time.

cONcLusiON: tHe LeGacY OF miiKe aND tHe

DeVeLOPmeNt OF asia extreme

When maverick director Miike Takashi unleashed this stylish slice of extreme cinema upon an unsuspecting audience, few were ready for what they were about to experience. Since then, this twisted vision of a hell on earth has become a notorious, critically acclaimed classic that has to be seen to be believed.95

The above promotional description appeared on Tartan Video’s re-issue of the Audition DVD in June 2004. On the film’s original DVD release, in September 2001, there was nothing on the back cover besides a plot synopsis. In the intervening three years between the issuing of the two DVDs, Audition’s reputation as a cult classic, at least in Britain, had been established. The reference to ‘extreme cinema’ is knowing and the description of the film as ‘notorious’

is apt.

Audition was a significant commercial success for Tartan: in March 2001, Screen International reported that the film ‘caught attention among the weekend’s openers. Showing at just six sites the film . . . pulled in the highest site
ciNema OF crueLtY 63
average ($4,745) in the UK, taking $28,469 (£19,900) in three days’;96 Oliver Dew also provides data to suggest that Audition was the eighth most successful

‘film marketed as Japanese’ in the UK in the period 1996–2004.97

The success of Audition was significant in the development of Asia Extreme, but also in establishing an international fanbase for Miike. His success in the UK and in other countries led to more funding for his projects and wider international exposure. The height of Miike’s UK notoriety came with the 2003 release of his film Ichi the Killer (2001).98 Released by a different distribution company, Contender, on their new ‘Premier Asia’ label, Ichi the Killer’s UK release was an obvious attempt to capitalise on the market for Miike (and J-horror in general) that Tartan had created. Indeed, the film was marketed on essentially the same basis as Audition had been, sold on the basis of a quote from a review in Empire magazine: ‘A masterpiece of extreme cinema, crammed full of images that push back the boundaries of what’s possible – and allowable

– on screen’ (emphasis in original). Ichi the Killer was violent and sexual in a much more explicit way than Audition though, and the film ran into trouble with the BBFC, who demanded cuts totalling over three minutes to remove

‘scenes of mutilated, raped or savagely beaten women or of sexual pleasure from violence’.99 The film’s release caused widespread critical alarm, with Film Comment’s Chris Chang branding the film ‘unwatchable’ and posing with concern the question ‘what are the benefits of an art like this, at a time when the link between degradation in the media and its subsequent effect on reality – or vice versa – has become more and more obvious?’100 Ichi the Killer’s notorious release did a great deal, at the peak of the Asia Extreme boom, to consolidate Miike’s reputation as a trailblazing and distinctive figure in the new J-horror canon.

For example, Empire magazine published a feature on Miike in July 2003
that makes his position in relation to the subsequent Asia Extreme cycle clear.

Miike is described as ‘the world’s most dangerous filmmaker’ and the article is able to set him up as excessive, even in comparison to other examples of Japanese exploitation films (which are, as ever, assumed to be indisputably

‘beyond the pale’ by Western standards), by noting that ‘even in Japan, with its liberal acceptance of graphic sex and violence, Miike’s taboo-breaking films are considered somewhat extreme’.101 Referring indirectly to Tartan’s Asia Extreme canon (by this time, also at its peak in terms of exposure – see Chapter 4), the Empire article set Miike apart again by suggesting that ‘this isn’t extreme cinema, it’s insane cinema’.102

By 2005, Miike’s place in the canon of international horror was secure, with American director Eli Roth (himself praised by the majority of horror fans and critics for his ‘old-school’ horror directorial debut Cabin Fever, 2002) citing Miike (and Ichi the Killer in particular) as his inspiration, and casting him in a cameo role in his notoriously influential ‘torture-porn’ film Hostel (2005). It

64 extreme asia
is Audition, however, that is universally acknowledged as introducing Miike to the West, with Empire recalling in 2003 that with its extended scenes of torture, mutilation and amputation, the release of the notorious Audition in 2001 provided the first widespread Western exposure to the director’s work, making him something of a cause célèbre, with UK distributor Metro Tartan championing his films.103

In fact, the legacy of Audition as an individual film is also significant, and Tartan’s shrewd marketing campaign still has evident influence on how the film is perceived and positioned years later. The novel by Murakami Ryu on which the film is based was published in the UK in 2009 and clearly sold on the basis of its relationship to Miike’s film: the promotional copy on the cover reads ‘the novel behind the acclaimed cult movie’ and the image on the cover, of the Asami character posing with a syringe, clearly recalls the image that Tartan made iconic through their campaign.

More significant than the international legacy of Miike, however, is the importance of the release of Audition for the invention of Tartan’s British-based Asia Extreme brand. Paul Smith has admitted that the notion of Asia Extreme was inspired, in part, by critical reactions to this film. The shock, curiosity, disgust and admiration that critics and audiences expressed in reaction to the film became what the brand repeatedly strove for with its later releases, and in that sense, it is easy to see how Smith can declare that ‘it was really the beginning of Asia Extreme’.

Indeed, the fact that critics repeatedly characterised Audition as ‘extreme’

was no doubt a hugely influential factor in the naming of the brand. As has been demonstrated in the analysis of the reviews above, the film’s content was described as excessive and extreme whether critics were praising the film or criticising it. Indeed, Tartan was trading on the power of the word ‘extreme’

to market Audition even before their banner-brand was devised, with one of their magazine advertisements leading with the words ‘extreme horror’. At the time of Audition’s release, Alan Jones’ comment that ‘ Audition is the last word in controversial shock extremism’104 seemed apt; looking back, it is clear that as far as Tartan were concerned, Audition was effectively the ‘first word’

in their brand based entirely around ‘controversial shock extremism’. Indeed, it is hard to see Audition as anything other than the defining film of the Asia Extreme brand: the film’s controversy, the love-it-or-hate-it effect on critics and audiences, became exactly the kind of reaction that subsequent films in the cycle were intended to generate. The President of Tartan Video, Tony Borg, admitted as much:

ciNema OF crueLtY 65

Our owner, Hamish McAlpine, likes to refer to films that we release as

‘cultural hand grenades.’ We want to entertain people but we also want to push their buttons, so that even if they don’t like the film they still have to talk about it the next day.105

Paul Smith supports this idea, suggesting that it was Tartan’s intention that Audition receives this reaction from its audiences, and that the criteria for choosing future Asian films for UK release was that the films should be ‘provocative, not passively watched’ and that ‘there should be an active, discursive, violent reaction’.106 This is a significant, and arguably obvious, aspect of the Asia Extreme films at this time: that their potentially controversial reception is what determines their selection; the textual qualities of the films are important only in their potential to excite, arouse and offend. Artistic quality was not a factor.

British critics, too, seemed to be aware of this even at the time of Audition’s release. The ever-cynical Alexander Walker noted with disapproval that films like Audition are ‘being presented in art-house terms, imported into the West by distributors ever eager to bring sensational new products to market’.107

Tony Rayns was clearly the most aware of this and the best informed –
although in retrospect, his comments (written at the time of Audition’s release in March 2001) seem premature. Rayns suggested that the British public ‘are lapping up the current wave of extreme Japanese cinema’ and makes direct reference to the Asia Extreme canon before it even really existed, by noting that ‘ Audition is the latest in a series of “out there” Japanese movies to reach British distribution, closely following Ring and Ring 2 and coming in just ahead of Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale.’ By the time of Audition’s release, Tartan had already announced their plans to distribute Battle Royale, so the trend was obvious. Rayns is understandably skeptical of this trend though, and his insightful perception of the situation is worth quoting at length: Since so few Japanese films have been seen on British screens for the past decade, this sudden proliferation raises some interesting questions. So does the character of the films themselves, all of which go further into violence, sex or socio-pathology than most other films around. British distributors have looked to Japan to deliver extremist thrills before, but the last time was nearly 40 years ago. Around the time of the Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial, such titles as Odd Obsession and Woman of the Dunes pulled both the art-movie audience and the sexploitation crowd

. . . When British film nudity moved from naturist quickies into the Ken Russell mainstream, much of the sensation value of Japanese movies vanished . . . Now, though, they’re coming thick and fast . . . If Japanese pop-culture is raunchier and more extremist than Britain’s, it’s because

66 extreme asia
such directors as Audition’s Takashi Miike have been pushing the enve-lope for years . . . When this country has an equivalent figure to its name, maybe we’ll outgrow the need for a certain kind of Japanese film import all over again.108

Rayns suggests here, as I have in this book’s first chapter, that Japanese films are most successful in the UK when they are seen to offer something lacking in the current dominant national cinema. Rayns charts the rise and fall of Japanese cinema imports as coinciding with moments in British cultural history when exotic or erotic media was lacking, linking two otherwise unrelated historical moments: the releases of Odd Obsession (Ichikawa Kon, 1959) and Woman of the Dunes (Teshigahara Hiroshi, 1964) in the 1960s109 with the Asia Extreme boom at the start of the twenty-first century.

In this sense, the apparent appeal of the Orient and the power of the transgressive text have something in common: in considering exactly why people are fascinated by transgressive acts and texts, Chris Jenks suggests that the

‘fascination of sin . . . may be little more (nor less) than an interest in difference, an envy or disbelief in the excess of others, a knowledge of or desire for the niceness of naughtiness’.110 So, released at a time when Japanese cinema could capitalise on not just its ‘Orientalness’ but also its newness, Audition (and Ring) demonstrated the power of the specific market Tartan would base its entire Asia Extreme brand upon. The ability of these films to generate scandal and controversy would be best demonstrated by Tartan’s next release, Battle Royale.

NOtes

1. Personal interview with Paul Smith, 14 July 2009, London.

2. Ibid.

3. Thomas Austin, Hollywood, Hype and Audiences: Selling and Watching Popular Films in the 1990s (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2002), p. 45.

4. Nick James, ‘You have 15 minutes to crawl from the cinema’, Sight & Sound, March 2000, p. 10.

5. Ibid. p. 10.

6. Personal interview, 14 July.

7. Tony Rayns, ‘This gun for hire’, Sight & Sound, May 2000.

8. Ibid. p. 30.

9. Oliver Dew, ‘“Asia Extreme”: Japanese cinema and British hype’, New Cinemas, 5: 1, 2007, p. 61. One major problem in Dew’s argument here is that he misleadingly supports his interpretation of Audition’s 2001 press campaign with quotes from marketing produced by Tartan in 2004. For my discussion of the changing tone of Audition’s publicity materials between 2001 and 2004, see this chapter’s conclusion.

10. Personal interview, 14 July.

ciNema OF crueLtY 67

11. Dew, ‘“Asia Extreme” ’, p. 61. Again, I take issue with Dew’s interpretation here, particularly the notion that Asami’s leather-gloved hand somehow signifies ‘body armour’.

12. Translation provided by Hitomi Kudo, 2006.

13. Personal interview, 14 July.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. Linda Ruth Williams, ‘The inside-out of masculinity: David Cronenberg’s visceral pleasures’, in The Body’s Perilous Pleasures: Dangerous Desires and Contemporary Culture, ed. Michele Aaron (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999), p. 34.

17. Michael Grant, ‘Introduction’, in The Modern Fantastic: The Films of David Cronenberg, ed. M. Grant (Westport: Praeger, 2000), p. 2.

18. Mark Kermode, ‘I was a teenage horror fan: or, “How I learned to stop worrying and love Linda Blair” ’, in Ill Effects: The Media/Violence Debate, eds Martin Barker and Julian Petley (London and New York: Routledge, 1997), p. 61.

19. Ibid. p. 61.

20. Ibid. p. 62.

21. Ibid. p. 63.

22. Michael Grant, ‘Fulci’s waste land: Cinema, horror, and the dreams of modernism’, in Unruly Pleasures: The Cult Film and its Critics, eds Xavier Mendik and Graeme Harper

(Guildford: FAB Press, 2000), p. 63.

23. Mark Jancovich, ‘Naked ambitions: Pornography, taste and the problem of the middlebrow’, Scope: An Online Journal of Film Studies, June 2001, http://www.scope.

nottingham.ac.uk/article.php?issue=jun2001&id=274&section=article, accessed 10

January 2006.

24. Tanya Krzywinska, ‘The dynamics of squirting: Female ejaculation and lactation in hardcore film’, in Unruly Pleasures: The Cult Film and its Critics, eds Xavier Mendik and Graeme Harper (Guildford: FAB Press, 2000), p. 33.

25. Mark Jancovich, ‘“A real shocker”: Authenticity, genre and the struggle for distinction’, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 14: 1, 2000, p. 25.

26. Ian Conrich, ‘An aesthetic sense: Cronenberg and neo-horror film culture’, in The Modern Fantastic: The Films of David Cronenberg, ed. Michael Grant (Westport: Praeger, 2000), p. 23.

27. Ibid. p. 45.

28. Chris Jenks, Transgression (London and New York: Routledge, 2003), p. 2.

29. Ibid. p. 7.

30. Geoff Andrew, ‘ Audition’, Time Out, 14–21 March 2001, p. 75.

31. Ibid. p. 75.

32. Tim Robey, ‘ Audition’, Daily Telegraph, 16 March 2001, p. 26.

33. Alan Jones, ‘ Audition’, Film Review, April 2001, p. 36.

34. Alan Jones is a prominent genre critic in this country, and the monthly magazine Film Review shares a publisher with Shivers & Starburst, catering to only slightly more mainstream readership.

35. Jones, ‘ Audition’, April, p. 36.

36. Ibid. p. 36.

37. Kim Newman, ‘ Audition’, Empire, April 2001, p. 48.

38. Lizzie Francke, ‘ Audition: Director’s focus’, Edinburgh International Film Festival 2000: Festival Programme, 2000, p. 92.

39. Edna Fainaru, ‘ Audition’, Screen International, 23 February 2000, p. 2.

68 extreme asia

40. Ibid. p. 2.

41. Tony Rayns, ‘From Tokyo, without love’, The Independent, 18 March 2001, Review section, p. 6.

42. Ibid. p. 6.

43. Personal interview, 14 July.

44. Julian Petley, ‘“A crude sort of entertainment for a crude sort of audience”: the British critics and horror cinema’, in British Horror Cinema, eds Steve Chibnall and Julian Petley (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), p. 38.

45. Anthony Quinn, ‘ Audition’, The Independent, 16 March 2001, Review section, p. 11.

46. Nigel Andrews, ‘ Audition’, Financial Times, 15 March 2001, p. 18.

47. Anne Billson, ‘ Audition’, Sunday Telegraph, 18 March 2001, Review section, p. 7.

48. Anne Billson, The Thing, BFI Modern Classics (London: BFI Publishing, 1997).

49. Michael Thomson, ‘Film reviews: Audition’, BBC Films Online, 13 March 2001, http://
www.bbc. co.uk/films/2001/03/13/audition_2001_review.shtml, accessed 10 January 2006.

50. Richard Falcon, ‘ Audition’, Sight & Sound, March 2001, p. 39.

51. Ibid. p. 39.

52. Ibid. p. 39.

53. Alexander Walker, ‘The cutting edge of censorship’, Evening Standard, 15 March 2001, p. 29.

54. Ibid. p. 29.

55. Ibid. p. 29.

56. Kate Egan, Trash or Treasure? Censorship and the Changing Meanings of the Video Nasties (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2007), p. 38.

57. Walker, ‘The cutting edge’, p. 29.

58. Ibid. p. 29.

59. Alec Worley, ‘ Audition’, Shivers, May 2001, p. 56.

60. Ibid. p. 56.

61. James Christopher, ‘ Audition’, The Times, 15 March 2001, p. 17.

62. Ibid. p. 17.

63. Peter Bradshaw, ‘Beauty and the beasts’, The Guardian, 16 March 2001, Section 2, p. 12.

64. Fiona Morrow, ‘Life, pared down to the bone’, The Independent, 16 March 2001, Review section, p. 11.

65. Ibid. p. 11.

66. James, ‘You have 15 minutes’, p. 10; Quinn, ‘ Audition’, p. 11; Bradshaw, ‘Beauty and the beasts’, p. 12.

67. William Goldman, Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade (London: Bloomsbury, 2000), p. 40.

68. Philip French, ‘ Audition’, The Observer, 18 March 2001, Review section, p. 7.

69. Billson, ‘ Audition’, p. 7.

70. Thomson, ‘Film reviews: Audition’.

71. Walker, ‘The cutting edge’, p. 29.

72. Worley, ‘ Audition’, p. 56.

73. Walker, ‘The cutting edge’, p. 29.

74. Linda Ruth Williams, The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), p. 2.

75. Ernest Mathijs, ‘The making of a cult reputation: Topicality and controversy in the critical reception of Shivers’, in Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional
ciNema OF crueLtY 69

Taste, eds Mark Jancovich, Antonio Lázaro Reboll, Julian Stringer and Andy Willis

(Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003), pp. 109–26.

76. Ibid. pp.109–26.

77. Walker, ‘The cutting edge’, p. 29.

78. Worley, ‘ Audition’, p. 56.

79. Mathijs, ‘The making of a cult reputation’, p. 122.

80. Walker, ‘The cutting edge’, p. 29.

81. Christopher, ‘ Audition’, p. 17.

82. Rayns, ‘From Tokyo, without love’.

83. Jonathan Ross on Japanorama. Episode 3: ‘Sex’ (BBC, 2002).

84. Ibid.

85. Ibid.

86. Rayns, ‘This gun for hire’, pp. 30–2.

87. These references are not necessarily obscure to British audiences. Imamura Shohei, known in Japan for his long career, from new wave erotic films like Insect Woman (1963) and The Pornographers (1966) to more recent festival success, has had several titles released theatrically in the UK: The Ballad of Narayama (1983) was released in British cinemas in 1984; his celebrated war film Black Rain (1989) screened in the UK in 1990.

Artificial Eye released the Palme d’Or-winning The Eel in 1998 and Tartan distributed his lighthearted sex comedy Warm Water Under a Red Bridge in 2002. In 2005 his 1979
film Vengeance is Mine was released in art-house cinemas nationwide. Suzuki Seijun’s work is perhaps less accessible, certainly at the time Rayns was writing, although Suzuki’s notorious prostitute drama Gate of Flesh (1964), refused a certificate by the BBFC (effectively ‘banned’) in 1968, had been finally released on video in the UK in January 2001, just two months before Audition’s release. Many of Suzuki’s films are now available on DVD in the UK, including the two titles mentioned by Rayns: Tokyo Drifter (1966) and Branded to Kill (1967).

88. Andrew, ‘ Audition’, p. 75.

89. Kid’s Return had, however, been released in UK cinemas in May 1997.

90. David Wood, ‘Takashi Miike interviewed’, BBC Films Online, 13 March 2001, http://
www.bbc.co.uk/ films/2001/03/13/miike_takashi_interview.shtml, accessed 10 January 2006.

91. Gavin Rees, ‘Getting busy with the Miike’, The Guardian, The Guide, 17–23 March 2001, p. 6.

92. Jenks, Transgression, p. 103.

93. Nick Fisher, ‘ Audition (18)’, The Sun, 17 March 2001, p. 43.

94. Ibid. p. 43.

95. From the back cover of Tartan Video’s Asia Extreme ‘Collector’s Edition’ UK DVD
release of Audition, June 2004.

96. Robert Mitchell, ‘ Audition attracts attention, but Enemy rules’, Screen International, 21

March 2001, http://www.screendaily.com/audition-attracts-attention-but-enemy-rules/405342.article, accessed 10 January 2006.

97. Dew, ‘“Asia Extreme” ’, p. 55.

98. Ichi the Killer was the most visible release among several Miike films making their way to the UK at this time. One striking indication of the legacy of Audition and the subsequent popularity of Miike among British audiences is that ten of Miike’s pre- Audition works were released on DVD in the UK between 2002 and 2006, the majority on Tartan’s Asia Extreme label: Bodyguard Kiba (1993) and its sequel Bodyguard Kiba: Apocalypse of Carnage (1994), Shinjuku Triad Society (1995), Fudoh: The New Generation (1996), Rainy

70 extreme asia

Dog (1997), Full Metal Yakuza (1997), Young Thugs: Innocent Blood (1997) and its sequel Young Thugs: Nostalgia (1998), Ley Lines (1999) and Silver (1999) were all available on DVD in a variety of British shops and online stores. Additionally, many of Miike’s post-Audition titles were also distributed in the UK, accounting for an additional 17 individual films released.

99. British Board of Film Classification website, www.bbfc.co.uk.

100. Chris Chang, ‘Japanese enfant terrible Takeshi Miike serves up a truly visceral experience’, Film Comment, May–June 2002, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_
m1069/is_3_38/ai_87148230/, accessed 11 January 2006.

101. Justin Bowyer, ‘Is this the world’s most dangerous filmmaker?’, Empire, July 2003, p. 94.

102. Ibid. p. 94.

103. Ibid. p. 94.

104. Alan Jones, ‘ Audition’, Film Review, April 2001, p. 36.

105. Jason Hahn, ‘World cinema as “cultural hand grenade” ’, OhmyNews International, 22

September 2005, http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.

asp?menu=c10400&no=249337&rel_no=1, accessed 10 January 2006.

106. Personal interview, 14 July.

107. Walker, ‘The cutting edge’, p. 29.

108. Rayns, ‘From Tokyo, without love’.

109. Odd Obsession, an erotic comedy-drama about an older man’s schemes to enhance his sexual performance in order to please his younger wife, was refused a certificate by the BBFC in 1960, though it played in repertory cinemas in London nonetheless. Woman of the Dunes, now canonised as one of the great Japanese films of all time, was given an X
rating by the BBFC in 1965, almost certainly because of its (really rather chaste) sexual content.

110. Jenks, Transgression, p. 2.

cHaPter 3

Courting Controversy: Hype,

Scandal and Fukasaku Kinji’s

Battle Royale

There is something reassuringly hysterical about extreme Japanese thrillers. I think of the mutilated body writhing around in a sack in Audition. Or the girl who spent 30 years in a bricked-up well in the nightmare trilogy, Ring. The horror in Battle Royale is delivered with the same unblinking enthusiasm.

James Christopher, The Times, 13 September 20011

The Japanese horror-action-thriller-satire Battle Royale (Fukasaku Kinji, 2000) was released in British cinemas in September 2001. It was the fifth film released in the later-branded Asia Extreme series, but the film’s theatrical release pre-dated the invention of the label. Following the limited but significant success of Ring and Audition, Tartan Films decided to distribute the controversial Battle Royale. Paul Smith, Tartan Video’s Press and PR

Manager, suggested that the notion of ‘Asia Extreme’ did not come from the company itself, but rather was inspired by critical commentary. He recalls that it was British film critics who first started noticing the connections between these films, and seized on these films as linked by neither theme nor genre, but rather their extremity.2 Ring had been universally praised by British critics, who saw the film as one of few original horrors released at a time of genre stagnation; Ring was something different, something better. The intense shock-horror of Audition, meanwhile, sparked a debate on the virtues of transgressive and explicit gore; though opinion was divided over the merits of the film, critics agreed that it was a significant release and almost every review carried with it a ‘warning’ to the faint-hearted. Audition’s success launched the philosophy within Tartan Films that their releases did not need to be liked; they functioned better as ‘cultural hand grenades’, creating recognition through evoking revulsion and offence as much as pleasure and admiration.3

Tartan began to create an identity for their as-yet-unbranded Asian releases

72 extreme asia
by increasingly courting controversy. Battle Royale first appeared in the pages of British newspapers when the film made international news by sparking parliamentary debate in Japan. The film faced censorship over fears that it would be morally harmful to Japan’s youth. These stories appeared in the UK
in December 2000. Following these morally hysterical newspaper reports, Tartan capitalised on a British perception of Japan as (stereotypically) culturally and morally distant, fuelling controversy by playing up this angle in its pre-release marketing. Even before the film was released, critics and journalists raised concerns over the spectacle of violence in the film and expressed confusion over the film’s intended audience. It was precisely this ‘negative’

reception that Tartan were courting. For the film to achieve its cult status and niche-market recognition, Tartan were determined to position the film as not just ‘alternative’, but as directly oppositional to mainstream, middlebrow culture. They needed the attention of the mainstream media, but not their approval. Over half a year before the release of Battle Royale, the decision to import the film was being questioned and the reputation of both the film and Metro-Tartan was established as possibly immoral and irresponsible.

Even the plot of Battle Royale sparked controversy. The film takes place in a post-millennium Japan that is plagued by youth crime and delinquency.

In order to curb the threat from schoolchildren, Japan introduces the ‘Battle Royale Act’. Every year, a randomly chosen class of schoolchildren is abducted to a secret island, where they are pitted against each other in a lethal game of survival. Each child is given a weapon and equipped with an explosive collar that will detonate should they defy the rules of the contest. The film’s narrative follows the fates of the children.

By the time of the film’s release in September 2001, the British press had seen four of Tartan’s ‘extreme thrillers’ released theatrically,4 and were well aware of the significance of Battle Royale. The timing of the film’s release allowed for one more troubling point of controversy: Battle Royale was released four days after the September 11 terrorist attacks in America. Critics writing about the film raised a series of questions about the appropriateness and morality of releasing such a violent and provocative film at such a time; the film’s relevance and meaning in the wake of the attacks was a major talking point in critical writing on the film.

These factors shaped how critics first understood Battle Royale. In the cases of the critical reception of Tartan’s earlier ‘extreme Japanese thrillers’, the texts were understood through a process of familiarisation. Critics analysed Ring and Audition based on their similarity to a series of Hollywood horror films and they placed the Japanese texts in specifically Western filmic traditions. In the case of Battle Royale, however, there was no attempt at familiarisation; there was no desire to understand the film as fundamentally similar to existing American or British films. Having sat through both Ring
cOurtiNG cONtrOVersY 73
and Audition, most of these critics had begun to make the associations that Tartan’s Marketing Director Paul Smith cites; they ceased seeing these films as variations on familiar themes. Battle Royale was seen as specifically and uniquely Japanese; the film was viewed as distinctly foreign, even ‘alien’, with connotations that were positive as often as negative.

This chapter therefore examines the British marketing and critical reception of Battle Royale. The following section discusses the impact of Tartan’s marketing campaign and press notes, considering the traceable influence of the press materials on many published reviews and the extent to which Tartan created and exploited controversy. Indeed, the controversy that Tartan drummed up often recalls the height of the ‘Video Nasties’ debate. The next section looks at the film’s critical reception and the discourse of Orientalism that surrounded it (the Othering of Battle Royale in particular and Japan in general); the debates over the virtues of the film’s violence and theme, in particular the claims made by many critics that the film was essentially a politically and socially aware satire disguised as a violent action film; and the confusion expressed by many critics over the intended audience for the film.

This chapter also considers how the press reacted to the sensationalism associated with the film in the light of unforeseen world events. In particular, how critical response was shaped by the difficult process of discussing the film in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Finally, the influence of critical discourse on Tartan is analysed, as well as the notion that press response was key in establishing the notion and inspiring the brand of Asia Extreme.

‘GrisLY JaPaNese FiLm cOmes tO uK’: BattLe
rOYaLe’s marKetiNG aND HYPe

Battle Royale was released in the UK amid a significant amount of sensationalism and controversy. In fact, the tone of both the articles and the press materials regarding Battle Royale’s UK release clearly recall the discourses and strategies surrounding the release and censorship of the ‘Video Nasties’: a notorious list of horror videos which were banned in the UK after campaigning from various tabloid newspapers during the 1980s.5

Battle Royale first appeared in the pages of British newspapers in December 2000 when the film made international news by sparking parliamentary debate in Japan: the film faced censorship over fears that it would be morally harmful to Japan’s youth. In an essay which considers Battle Royale in the context of debates on the effects of media violence, it is noted that the film ‘made world headlines, partially due to the fact that young viewers camped out on sidewalks for 2 days’ to see the first showing of the film.6 The authors here suggest that

‘the perceived problem with the film [in Japan] was the potential influence

74 extreme asia
that its content might have on criminal behaviour’ and that as a result, ‘Japan’s education minister, Nobutaka Machimura, discouraged owners of theatres from showing the film at all and clearly implied that its contents were “of a harmful nature”.’7

The reports on these issues in the British press, however, tended to focus solely on the film’s potential to corrupt youths, rather than its staggering popularity. An article in The Independent with the headline ‘Attacks and film violence alarm Tokyo’ was particularly alarmist, reporting that within hours of the film’s opening, a 17-year-old boy in Tokyo attacked a woman with a baseball bat. However, the article bashfully concedes that ‘there was no evidence that he had seen the film’.8 An article a week later in the Daily Telegraph went a bit deeper into the matter, consulting a film critic for insight. In the article, journalist Colin Joyce noted how unusual it is for a violent film to gain such attention in Japan. He quotes Japan-based American critic Gregg Starr, who suggested that the film ‘is not unusual in its level of violence’.9 Starr is then quoted characterising the violence as specifically (and stereotypically) Japanese, with a dubious choice of words: ‘That kind of chopstick-in-the-eye violence goes back a long way.’10 Starr attempts to demonstrate just how permissive the Japanese are by noting that ‘even television in Japan can be pretty violent’.11

Indeed, the notion that Japan has an entirely different moral code is a theme running throughout commentary on the film (and even extends to wider discussion of a series of Japanese films). Tartan certainly did not underplay Japan’s perceived cultural distance in promoting and establishing its Asia Extreme label. Even Tony Rayns, the British critic most famous for praising and championing Asian cinema, noted in a news piece on Battle Royale written for Sight & Sound

Censorship controversies are all but unknown in Japan. Eirin, the government-appointed ‘Ethics Committee’ which regulates films and videos, is famously tolerant of the most explicitly perverse sexual acts, the grossest horror scenes and the most splattersome violence.12

Even in this supposedly dispassionate and factual article the violence on display in Battle Royale is seen, not just as uniquely Japanese, but as coming from a Japan that feels no sense of moral objection to even the most explicit and excessive bloodshed. Japan is explicitly presented as cinematically permissive and excessive, and unimpeded by Western morals.

The first review of the film to appear in the mainstream British press came in the form of Jonathan Romney’s report from the Rotterdam Film Festival, appearing in The Guardian in early February 2001. It is here that Romney characterised the film using the same kind of language as the alarmist British
cOurtiNG cONtrOVersY 75
journalists, thus ensuring that the film’s controversial reputation is not diminished. Romney described the film as the festival’s ‘undisputed hot ticket’ and categorised it as a ‘gloating, mean-spirited shoot-up game’.13 Suggesting a comparison to Roger Corman’s stable of exploitation films, Romney went on to call Battle Royale ‘seedy’, ‘tawdry’ and a ‘cheap and cheerfully vicious exploiter’.14

These few articles aside, the British press did not really take much interest in Battle Royale, at least until later in February of 2001, when Tartan demanded attention by announcing that they had secured the rights to release the film in the UK. The Guardian ran a story on Battle Royale with the headline ‘Grisly Japanese film comes to UK despite crime fears’,15 accompanied by some provocative pictures from the film. This article repeated information about the film’s controversy in Japan (where it was linked in only the most tenuous ways to what the article calls ‘copycat crimes’). The article’s main focus, however, was the impending British release and it noted that ‘the film does not have a US release date because it is unlikely any distributor there would touch it’.16

The idea that it takes a British company to bring Battle Royale to the West was significant, as Tartan frequently promoted its Asia Extreme label (and, implicitly, the British fans who appreciate their films) as pioneering. The article also quoted a spokesman from Tartan, who acknowledged the positive impact he expects the ‘negative’ press to have, admitting that ‘we are expecting it to do very well. Already the word is out there about it.’17 While there had been some

‘positive’ (or at least attention-grabbing) reports from festival screenings (like Romney’s piece for The Guardian), the only ‘word’ about the film that the mainstream press had acknowledged was simply that the film was worryingly violent. But that reputation itself was exactly what Tartan was capitalising on.

Tartan Films was positioned in this piece exactly as it wanted to be: as a risk-taking, taboo-breaking, maverick force in the British industry. Over half a year before the film would even be seen by a British audience, Battle Royale’s cult reputation in the UK was already being secured, and its contribution to an emerging notion of ‘Asia Extreme’ is clear.

Additionally, the parallels here to the press reaction to the ‘Video Nasties’

are worth making clear. Kate Egan has noted that one of the central themes running through debates on the UK availability of potentially harmful horror films is a fear of the foreign Other. Egan suggests recurring links between these moral panics and ‘conceptions of national culture and particular scapegoats which are invariably conceived as “shapeless” and external threats to a British

“way of life” ’,18 something that is clearly evident in the way the British press characterised Battle Royale in the context of their constructed notion of Japan and Japanese cinema. Egan also notes that the initial press campaigns against these horror films gained support ‘through the “emotional selling-point” of the threatened child’.19 Again, this is also clearly present in the alarmist reports

76 extreme asia
of (totally unfounded) fears that Battle Royale would corrupt young viewers and inspire copycat violence. Finally, it is worth remembering that with the exception of Jonathan Romney and a handful of film critics, the journalists writing about Battle Royale for British newspapers had not actually seen the film. Egan has noted that during the ‘Video Nasties’ period individual horror films were discussed in this same way and that ‘the specific nasty titles began to take second place to the idea of evil horror videos, which was constructed primarily through second-hand descriptions of violent scenes and images of video cover art’.20 The article on Battle Royale in The Guardian clearly operates on the same level, creating meaning through minimal information and sensational images.

The relevance of these parallels is that Tartan’s marketing campaign clearly took advantage of the potential scandal and moral panic. As has been noted with reference to the British press campaign to ban David Cronenberg’s Crash (1996), there is a common (and typically accurate) perception that distributors are ‘only too pleased to see the controversy – it was all just free publicity for the film. It is certainly not unknown for producers to play to the gallery, and hope to coin in on a frisson of excitement.’21 It is safe to say that all of the press attention focused on Battle Royale was to Tartan’s advantage, and it is easy to see the parallels even between the ‘Video Nasties’ as a group of ‘forbidden’ and

‘exotic’ films and the very notion of ‘Asia Extreme’.

Indeed, Tartan were keen not to squander the good fortune of acquiring a film whose reputation was secure even before its release. The company engaged in its widest ever marketing and merchandising campaign, determined to spread the word of the film and broaden its potential impact. Tartan produced a range of merchandise, including t-shirts and posters. The film’s UK premier was at the 2001 Edinburgh Film Festival and, in an unusual example of promotional merchandising, and in keeping with the notion that the city is typically beset by bad weather, Tartan gave out Battle Royale-
branded umbrellas.22 Tartan also gave away less-innocuous t-shirts, the design of which clearly foregrounded the film’s violent spectacle, depicting a schoolgirl in the throes of death.

Tartan’s poster for the eventual nationwide (limited) theatrical release of the film emphasised the elements of the film which would continue to guarantee the film’s controversial and oppositional cultural status. The main image is a stark grey photograph of the ‘class’ of schoolchildren featured in the film, and while understated, makes the film’s children-killing-children content pretty clear. The most prominent quote on the poster compares the film to A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971), another film that was caught up in debates over copycat youth violence and which was eventually withdrawn from circulation by its own director due to pressure from the press. More aggressively potentially scandal-making is the film’s tagline, which reads: ‘Could you
cOurtiNG cONtrOVersY 77
kill your best friend?’ While in one sense emphasising the film’s thematic focus on moral choices, the question would seem to be directed specifically at schoolchildren, since they are the ones who, in the film, are forced to kill each other.

Directly addressing a British audience too young to legally see the film (the BBFC had certified Battle Royale ‘18’ in July 2001),23 in the context of public fears about the film’s potential harmful influence on British youths, seems to be an aggressive attempt to bait further opposition from the mainstream press, particularly the censorious and easily morally outraged tabloid media.

It is worth noting that Tartan’s poster campaign was not necessarily solely focused on emphasising the film’s violent excesses. Tartan were shrewdly hedging their bets and making nods to a wider established audience. The prominent credit on the poster for lead actor Beat Takeshi/Kitano Takeshi24
is undoubtedly an acknowledgement of the actor-director’s devoted following in the UK, an audience of connoisseurs of foreign-language cinema. Kitano’s work as a director of arty gangster films was routinely acclaimed by British critics and his recent film Hana-Bi (1998) had continued this trend, becoming particularly visible when it toured UK art-house cinemas in the summer of 1998.25 However, the attempt by Tartan to court this serious, mature audience was fairly limited, and the vast majority of their promotional activities did indeed focus on courting controversy.

In addition to these activities courting the attention of various members of the public and the press, Tartan also sought to control how British film critics contextualised and understood Battle Royale. For an example of the traceable influence of Tartan’s press notes on critics’ reviews, references to director Fukasaku Kinji’s career should be examined. Fukasaku was barely known in the West before Battle Royale. If he was known at all, it was for his co-directed American-Japanese co-produced World War II epic Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) or, among real aficionados of ‘bad’ cult film, for his other Japanese-American co-production, the science-fiction monster movie The Green Slime (1968). But being best known for a decidedly mainstream, Westernised, mediocre film like Tora! Tora! Tora! is not the perception of the director that Tartan wanted to promote; nor is The Green Slime the ‘right’ kind of cult film to impress their intended Asia Extreme demographic.26 Tartan’s official press notes, distributed to critics at every press screening, contained a biography of Fukasaku as well as an interview. Within this press release is no mention at all of Tora!

Tora! Tora! or The Green Slime; it is suggested that Fukasaku’s most significant achievement prior to Battle Royale was his series of yakuza films in the 1970s.27

Astonishingly, the British critics dutifully followed this line. Seven published reviews mention Fukasaku’s yakuza films; this quote from Time Out is typical: ‘Japanese veteran Fukasaku Kenji is known in the West (if at all) for tough, visually stylish but otherwise not particularly remarkable yakuza

78 extreme asia
thrillers.’28 In his review, Jonathan Romney described Fukasaku as ‘a 70-year-old veteran famous for his Sixties and Seventies yakuza films’,29 almost directly parroting the press notes’ declaration that ‘veteran director Kinji Fukasaku is responsible for some of his country’s best post-WWII yakuza films’.30 The only mention at all of Tora! Tora! Tora! in the British press came from one of the first reports on the film; significantly, from before Tartan acquired the film and started controlling the way it was presented to critics and journalists. These persistent references by British critics to this version of Fukasaku’s career demonstrate both how Tartan wanted the director to be seen and how much influence they had over critics (as well as showing just how little original research critics do). Indeed, it is not an uncommon practice for critics’ descriptions of directors and films to be led by official press notes; see, for example, Mark Jancovich’s discussion of ‘the role of promotional materials in framing the film for reviewers before reviewers frame films for audiences’

with specific reference to the American reception of the Hollywood film The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991).31

It is also worth considering the original circumstances of Battle Royale’s marketing, release and reception in Japan, if only to illustrate the differences between the two national contexts and the extent to which Tartan and the British press constructed their own, self-serving version of events. For example, it was widely reported in the UK that Battle Royale faced censorship in Japan over fears of copycat violence and other moral corruption. However, as Andrea Arai argues in an essay for the academic journal Postcolonial Studies, this was not the case at all. In fact,
objections to the film came from various quarters, but most virulent among them were the protests of members of the Japanese Diet to the portrayal of recent (real) education reforms, and other recessionary-motivated reorganisations of power, as indicative of a return to past repressions.32

The parliamentary debate on the subject of banning or censoring the film, therefore, had little to do with crime fears and much more to do with the film’s potentially scandalous political subtext. This information would hardly sell tickets to Tartan’s Asia Extreme fans though, nor would it justify the sensa-tionalist reporting seen from British journalists.

Another significant factor is Battle Royale’s popularity with the youth of Japan. Again, contrary to British reports, this is ascribed not to the film’s violence, but the film’s teenage melodrama and emotional resonance. The film was in fact marketed in Japan primarily on this basis, and audiences were urged to see the film in spite of its violence, rather than because of it. One of the aims of Arai’s essay on the film is to investigate ‘how can a film about the
cOurtiNG cONtrOVersY 79
mutual slaughter of kids be so moving ( kandō suru), as advertisements for Battle Royale so boldly proclaim?’33 So, in direct opposition to the Japanese campaign, which emphasised the film’s capacity to move young audiences, Tartan’s campaign (and indeed, the moral campaigning of the British press) emphasised the opposite message: the potential of the film’s violent spectacle to excite, arouse and corrupt.

Just as Battle Royale represented Tartan’s increasing awareness of the potential of its developing Asia Extreme brand, this also marked an increasingly effective manipulation of the British market on the company’s part. While, for example, Audition’s UK poster had relied on largely the same selling strategies as the Japanese poster, in the case of Battle Royale the company was willing to re-brand and re-define the supposed virtues of the film in order to maximise its appeal. This, of course, is hardly an unusual marketing tactic, but becomes problematic given that Battle Royale’s (deliberately misrepresented) Japanese reception context was so central to the film’s British marketing success.

cHOPsticK-iN-tHe-eYe ViOLeNce: OrieNtaLism
aND tHe OtHeriNG OF JaPaN

As has been seen, much of the discourse surrounding the impending release of Battle Royale was essentially Orientalist in nature, presenting the film as totally alien to British values and as the inevitable product of a morally corrupt modern Japan. In his essay on ‘Japanese cinema and Orientalism’, Gary Needham briefly considers how stereotypes and long-standing prejudices have influenced the promotion of films like Battle Royale: the repackaging in the West of contemporary popular Japanese films such as . . . Battle Royale, . . . as exotic and dangerous cinematic thrills, has a lot in common with the way in which the ‘yellow peril’ figure of the Japanese military sadist of Boy’s Own-style fantasies functioned as a dangerous Other of popular culture. In both cases, horror, sadism and cruelty are passed off as an essentially integral part of ‘the Japanese nature’ and inform the way in which Japan is perceived to be a dangerous other.34

As demonstrated in the previous section, this is clearly true, yet this exact same process of Othering continued into the film’s eventual critical reception.

According to theories of Orientalism, Japan has consistently been viewed by the West as ‘an unfathomable, exotic and erotic place where mysteries dwell and cruel and barbaric scenes are staged’.35 Seen as a country defined by its ‘cold-hearted cruelty’, Japan has been ‘feared for its inhuman martial

80 extreme asia
traditions ( samurai, bushido, ninja, kamikaze)’.36 Gary Needham notes that these distancing and Othering mechanisms are also a strong feature of the West’s reception of Japanese cinema, as he argues that ‘more than any other Asian cinema, Japan has consistently occupied a discursive position of otherness’.37 Essentially, as Needham suggests, ‘such imaginations, fantasies, gross misrepresentations and stereotypes serve not to define the other, but rather to enable the self to be more clearly defined by what it is not’.38

This essential quality of Orientalism is particularly relevant here, because it operates on the same fundamental principle as the vast majority of film reviewing. As I discussed with relation to the critical reception of Ring, Pierre Bourdieu has argued that ‘when [tastes] have to be justified, they are asserted purely negatively, by the refusal of other tastes’.39 Just as Orientalism relies on emphasising how Japan is not like the West, critical reception often relies on emphasising what it is that critics do not like about cinema. In the case of Battle Royale, whether critics liked or disliked the film, they all viewed it as distinctly and uniquely Japanese and emphasised its foreignness. There was no attempt at familiarisation here.

Alexander Walker, writing for the Evening Standard, went further than any other critic in discussing the film as a foreign object. For Walker, the film’s Japaneseness made it incomprehensible; he struggled to follow the plot and found the film ‘unbearably tedious’.40 Walker, who seemed to wear his prejudice and cantankerousness as a badge of honour, was unable to distinguish between individual characters, the cause of which he astonishingly attributed to ‘the vision of dozens of little girls and boys in identical school uniforms, with the clone-like features of oriental children’.41

Jonathan Romney, who reviewed Battle Royale again upon its general release for The Independent on Sunday, praised the film this time in an unusual way. Though he enjoyed the film, he admitted that it ‘whetted my appetite for a bigger, brasher Hollywood remake’.42 For Romney, the film’s only draw-backs were seemingly its foreign language and Japaneseness.

Other critics viewed the film’s unique Japaneseness through a kinder lens.

The film was often seen as a reflection of Japanese society and a commentary on specifically Japanese problems. When The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw reviewed the film at the Edinburgh Film Festival, he noted that the film is ‘a distinctly Japanese metaphor for an imperial destiny coming to its end’.43 Even Jonathan Romney’s review considered that Battle Royale ‘could be seen as a protest against the ways that, at a time of economic crisis, Japan’s ageing leadership has sacrificed the hopes of its youth’.44 However, even when the film was seen as socially conscious, it was still described as the product of a socially and politically ‘troubled’ nation.

Other frames of reference utilised drew upon knowledge of contemporary Japanese popular culture. Andrew Anthony’s review for The Observer noted
cOurtiNG cONtrOVersY 81
that the film’s main character, Shuya, is ‘a boy who looks like a Japanese animation character’.45 The Sunday Telegraph’s review saw the film as a reflection of ‘the childish “cuteness” and gadgetry, which is so highly celebrated in Japanese youth culture, [which] has soured into something sinister’.46 However, not all these references to Japanese culture and, indeed, Japanese stereotypes were positive, with Jonathan Romney mockingly accus-ing director Fukasaku Kinji of being a Japanese pervert with a schoolgirl fetish, suggesting that ‘there’s no mistaking an old man’s relish for the girls’

frilly petticoats’.47 While several other critics also questioned the voyeuristic potential of Battle Royale, none of them did it through quite such a bra-zenly sarcastic (and arguably racist) attack on the film’s director. Indeed, as Ziauddin Sardar has noted, ‘as description, Orientalism has always indulged in parody, ridicule and pastiche whether to belittle or create frightening demons’.48

What is most significant for Tartan and their as-yet still-unnamed Asia Extreme label, however, is that critics began to reference other Japanese films in their reviews. Critics were largely able to understand the film by employ-ing seemingly relevant frames of reference: other recent examples of Japanese cinema.

By the time Peter Bradshaw re-reviewed Battle Royale for its general release in September (having first reviewed it a month earlier when it screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival), he was able to make explicit connections that had only been hinted at in his first piece. Bradshaw observed that ‘Japanese cinema has recently given us some brilliant violent parables of cultural malaise – from the survivors of a bus hi-jacking in Aoyama Shinji’s Eureka, to the sadistic fetish-princess of Miike Takashi’s Audition.’49 Although Eureka (2000) was not released by Tartan, and there is arguably nothing ‘extreme’ about it (except perhaps its 217-minute running time), the connection between Battle Royale and other Japanese films, especially Audition, is significant. Bradshaw is not simply citing Eureka and Audition as other recent Japanese films, he is trying to make thematic connections between the films as well – in this case, that they collectively reflect a national malaise. This kind of critical connection is precisely what is claimed to have inspired the Asia Extreme brand.

The most obviously influential quote comes from James Christopher, writing for The Times. In the very first words of his review of Battle Royale, he observed that ‘there is something reassuringly hysterical about extreme Japanese thrillers’.50 He continued, ‘I think of the mutilated body writhing around in a sack in Audition. Or the girl who spent 30 years in a bricked-up well in the nightmare trilogy, Ring.’51 For Christopher, ‘the horror in Battle Royale is delivered with the same unblinking enthusiasm’.52 Christopher, likely not even aware of the fact that all these films were by that point part

82 extreme asia
of Tartan’s fledgling Asia Extreme canon, makes direct connections between them. His use of the term ‘extreme Japanese thrillers’ attempts to unify three films from different genres within one concept.

Ring and its sequels are suspenseful ghost stories in the tradition of restrained horror; Audition is a genre-bending romance-meets-torture film, discussion of which typically focused on the tradition of explicit and transgressive body horror. While both Ring and Audition can be defined as ‘horror’

(albeit at opposite ends of the scale), Battle Royale seems to be described most often as an action or combat film. Reconciling these disparate texts under one banner was a challenge that Tartan Films were, at this point, yet to undertake.

James Christopher’s simple but effective soundbite seizes on three key concepts: the extremity of the films (in terms of theme as well as violent content), the national origin of the films (in this case, Japan) and the emotional effect of the films (when Christopher uses the word ‘thrillers’, I think he is referring to emotional impact rather than the generic classification). It is perhaps too easy to conclude that ‘Asia Extreme’ came directly from this critical observation, but the response to Battle Royale in general was undoubtedly crucial in establishing the broader (i.e. not confined to horror) scope of Tartan’s Asian imports. Whether the connotations were positive or negative, the Othering of Japan and Japanese film that took place only served to strengthen the notion of Asia Extreme – that Japanese cinema offered something totally different, something excessive and transgressive.

tHe seDuctiON OF teeNaGe HOtHeaDs: BattLe
rOYaLe’s iNteNDeD auDieNce

One of the most consistent discussion points in reviews of Battle Royale was the question over the film’s intended audience. Critics repeatedly pondered who the film is made for, who it appeals to and what pleasures it gives.

Kim Newman, reviewing the film for Empire magazine, noted that despite

‘a level of violence that restricts it to adult cinemagoers, this will really play when seen by audiences the same age as its characters’.53 Newman suggested that the film was made for ‘14 and 15 year-olds’ and that it speaks primarily to that audience. Considering the film’s impact on a younger teenage audience is pertinent, given the pre-release controversy and the film’s marketing campaign. Indeed, many critics took for granted that the film would be popular with teenagers (which was indeed the case). However, the basis on which the film appealed to (first) teenagers in Japan and (then) teenagers in the UK are not necessarily identical. Indeed, Andrea Arai goes into some detail regarding the film’s multivalent meaning and culturally specific themes:

cOurtiNG cONtrOVersY 83

Battle Royale has also been popular with youth outside of Japan. The fascination with the film abroad seems not unconnected to the associations of war with camaraderie that resonate with Japanese youth. However, I want to emphasize that the specific kinds of identification and enjoyment that are derived from the viewing of Battle Royale, as well as the interchanges that occur on the internet about the film and its meanings, are not generalizable to youth in different countries. Which is to say that the associations of militarization and total war in the film evoke for Japanese youth the themes and tropes of war and defeat that continue to permeate Japanese society . . . I would argue that this broader attraction of the film has rather to do with the suggestion of resistance to the more insidious forms of indirect violences perpetrated upon individuals, and the young.54

Arai continues to emphasise the film’s political importance to its Japanese audience, and arguably expresses frustration that the film was appreciated on a

‘simpler’ basis by young audiences outside Japan.

Jonathan Romney is aware of the assumption that the film was made purely for teenagers, but questioned it in his review. Referencing the film’s domestic reception, Romney noted that the film was ‘a huge success with young Japanese audiences and a scandal among their elders’ and that it could be seen as ‘a protest against . . . Japan’s ageing leadership’.55 Romney questioned this reading of the film, however, and the perception of its audiences, by noting that ‘director Fukasaku is no hip young provocateur but a 70-year-old veteran

. . . it’s hard not to see Battle Royale as an authoritarian fantasy’.56

Alexander Walker made a very similar observation to Romney’s, concluding his review by pondering that ‘maybe it’s a movie made for the Schadenfreude of the middle-ageing grey-heads, not the seduction of teenage hotheads’,57
although Walker’s own incomprehension and hatred of the film would seem to be evidence for the contrary. Another contradiction raised by these readings is that they discount the multivalent nature of spectatorship. Different audiences will read the film in different ways. Even if, as Jonathan Romney suggests, Battle Royale has an authoritarian subtext, it would likely escape the notice of any fourteen-year-olds in the audience. Appealing to one demographic need not alienate all others.

The speculations made by critics above, however, referred largely to the (Japanese) audiences that had already seen the film, as well as the audience that the filmmakers intended to court. However, the market targeted by the Japanese filmmakers and the market targeted by the British distributors did not necessarily have anything in common. In a discussion that recalls the critical reception of Audition, many critics ‘warned’ their British readers about Battle Royale’s excessive violence and cautioned that the film is only suitable

84 extreme asia
for a specific audience. In the case of Audition, it was often claimed that the film was only suitable for ‘trained’ horror connoisseurs; much of the language used to describe Battle Royale’s violence recalls those claims.

The Sunday Telegraph’s review concluded with the warning: ‘don’t go to see this film if you’re feeling fragile: it delivers a bellyful of slaughter’.58 It is the reader who is ‘feeling fragile’ that is clearly Othered here; the reviewer’s sensibilities were not offended by the film, and she could appreciate its merit as a result. The review for the horror genre magazine Shivers took a typically fan-based perspective, encouraging readers to delight in the spectacle of violence: the review concluded that Battle Royale will ‘appeal to everyone’s inner sadist’.59 While many reviews argued that the film’s violence facilitates a deeper meaning, that the film’s transgressive bloodshed is essential to its function as a satirical social commentary, the review in Shivers, however, assumed a readership (and an audience) for whom excessive violence is its own virtue.

Interestingly, given the nature of the later fandom surrounding Battle Royale in particular and the Asia Extreme collection in general, the reading of the film offered by Shivers may be closer to the way it was consumed and appreciated by the majority of its audience.

That the film would appeal to the horror fanbase was taken for granted by many of the reviewers. Peter Bradshaw’s glowing review of the film noted that

‘some will find the explicit violence of this movie repulsive – or plain boring’.60

His warning implicitly acknowledged the audience for whom the violence will be just the opposite: pleasurable rather than repulsive, and as a result, exciting rather than boring. Andrew Anthony’s review for The Observer even used casual shorthand to characterise the film’s appeal: describing one scene of graphic violence, he noted that one character ‘stabs her would-be suitor in the groin instead. It’s that kind of movie.’61 Anthony assumed that the reader will know exactly what he means by ‘ that kind of movie’, and he is referencing by implication that kind of audience, the audience that will delight in such a gruesome act of violence. For all the critical debate Battle Royale inspired over its thematic merit, a large part of its appeal seems to hinge purely on the spectacle of violence. While the critics discussing the film do not represent this demographic, they explicitly acknowledge it.

seNsatiONaL timiNG: 9/11 aND BattLe rOYaLe

When Battle Royale was finally screened for critics in anticipation of its release in British cinemas for paying audiences, initial concerns that the film’s violent content and connections to contemporary real-world violence would make it offensive or even harmful became a major talking point once again, thanks to a totally unforeseeable twist of fate.

cOurtiNG cONtrOVersY 85

Battle Royale was screened for critics on the morning of Tuesday 11

September 2001. It was released the following Friday. Critics writing about the film (in fact, writing about all films released that weekend) were confronted with a dilemma over how to discuss the film in light of the terrorist attacks in America, or if indeed to reference the attacks at all. The choices made by British critics in their discussion of Battle Royale varied widely.

Several critics made passing reference to the ‘bad timing’ of the release and saw the film as in poor taste at such a time. Andrew Anthony’s generally positive review for The Observer noted that ‘it’s not the most timely week for graphic violence, but there is a touching story of sorts lurking somewhere here beneath all the plasma and body parts’.62 The Daily Mail’s typically censorious Christopher Tookey’s wholly negative review of the film argued that the timing of the release has simply made a bad film worse. His review concluded:

‘in a week that brought us very real violence on our screens, such carnage seems all the more mindless and objectionable.’63

Anthony Quinn, writing for The Independent, took the exact opposite position: for him, the events of September 11 had made a good film even more relevant:

Horrifically, real life has outstripped even this film’s grotesque imaginings

. . . In these circumstances, Battle Royale is both a reflection of the exor-bitant violence of our times and an escape into it . . . Fukasaku’s film poses questions about life and death which, since this Tuesday, have taken on a hideous new aspect.64

Quinn was one of the critics who defended the film, seeing it as an intelligent work of social commentary, rather than just an excuse for excessive violence (though the film has both fans and detractors that see it in such rudimentary terms).

Peter Bradshaw’s review opened with a similar discussion of the appropriateness and relevance of Battle Royale at such a time: Picking a film of the week which is about the spectacle of violence is maybe a little obtuse. Real-life events in the United States have comprehensively outdistanced the cinema in terms of what this spectacle can do in terms of astonishment and horror. But, as it happens, and for what it’s worth, this week we have a movie about violence and the state; how the state reacts to it, and how it endorses retaliatory violence of its own.65

The review most consumed with these issues, however, comes from the Financial Times. Nigel Andrews gave a vivid account of his viewing experience: having attended a press screening of Battle Royale on the morning of

86 extreme asia

September 11, he was in the auditorium with his fellow critics that afternoon when ‘breaking-news TV footage was being beamed by a diligent projection-ist’.66 The experience those critics had, of seeing that footage of the blazing, collapsing World Trade Center on the big screen, while sitting in a cinema, is itself surely a subject worthy of further consideration (but outside the scope of this chapter). Nigel Andrews writes about the difficulty of writing about the films he saw that day. His experience of Battle Royale was inextricably linked to his experience of seeing that news footage; his perception of one directly impacted the other. He noted that when he saw the news footage, he was ‘still mentally bloodspattered that afternoon from a morning movie, Battle Royale, that may be the most deranged Japanese film in modern memory’.67

For Andrews, the power of Battle Royale to shock, to be transgressive or offensive, had been entirely muted by the news that day. In Battle Royale, writes Andrews,
death by outlandish fantasy so tweaks our funnybones en route to turning our stomachs that its power to horrify is diffused, diverted . . .

even my colleagues’ moments of genuine revulsion at the film’s more giggle-free nastiness came nowhere near their/our dumbstruck response to the reality TV from America.68

Andrews here offered a third response to the film: the Daily Mail suggested that the film’s shocking violence is deeply inappropriate; The Independent suggested that the shocking violence is even more appropriate; while the Financial Times’ review suggested that, because of real world events, the film’s shocking violence simply is not shocking.

The impact of the timing of Battle Royale’s release on its reputation is difficult to gauge accurately. It certainly did not hurt Tartan’s reputation as a daring distributor when they went ahead with the film’s scheduled release.

Paul Smith believes that the impact of 9/11 definitely negatively affected Battle Royale’s box-office takings, recalling that a potentially ‘big buzz’ was met with a muted response.69 According to him, cinemagoers simply did not want to watch ‘children maiming each other’; the film’s appeal was diminished and ‘reality took over’.70 In fact, it is likely that the film would have received more attention if released in another week: the typically censorious and easily morally outraged tabloid press were occupied with bigger events.

Anthony Quinn’s review explicitly acknowledged this. He opened his piece by remarking that ‘in any other week, a film as morbid and gruesome as Battle Royale would prompt expressions of alarm. Issues of censorship would once again be aired, and perhaps an editorial would inveigh against its graphic depictions of slaughter.’71 In fact, it is very easy to imagine Battle Royale being caught up in a furious wave of censorious campaigning, the likes
cOurtiNG cONtrOVersY 87
of which befell the ‘Video Nasties’ or David Cronenberg’s Crash and Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1994) in the 1990s; indeed, the film’s hysterical pre-release press attention would seem to indicate that this was a distinct possibility. With an organised campaign to ban or censor the film, Battle Royale would have undoubtedly become even more significant, even faster.

cONcLusiON

Another reason that Battle Royale may have avoided the full wrath of the British press or, indeed, any formal censorship from the BBFC, is that its appeal was seen to be so limited, its potential audience seen to be so small.

Mark Kermode has noted that the BBFC is typically more lenient on horror films which are ‘less well made’ and ‘less obviously aimed at a popular audience’.72 For all the discussion of Battle Royale’s impact, it is worth remembering that Japanese cinema still constituted a minor niche market in the British industry at this time.

That market was, however, rapidly expanding thanks to Tartan’s aggressive development of a new and appreciative audience for its films. Indeed, as Paul Smith has admitted, while Tartan were disappointed with Battle Royale’s theatrical profits, the film did brisk business on DVD and became one of Tartan’s biggest titles ever.73 In fact, the film’s status as a canonical cult text seems undisputable at this point, and the British market has thus far supported the release of a variety of tie-in media. Tartan have released and re-released different versions of Battle Royale at different times: the film’s overwhelming success in Japan led to an alternate cut of the film being released in Japanese cinemas, which led to Tartan releasing a second version of the DVD to an appreciative market of obsessive British fans.74 In addition to the profitable DVD release of Battle Royale 2 (see Chapter 6), British fans can also purchase all fifteen volumes of the Battle Royale manga (Japanese comic book) series, and the original novel has also been translated into English and published in paperback.75 A prominent quote of endorsement from Stephen King on the book’s cover76 gives an indication of the canonical status of the franchise within the horror/cult fiction community.

To return to the reception of Battle Royale: a key moment in the development of the Asia Extreme brand, as well as the increasingly inter-dependent relationship between Tartan’s marketing machine and the British press.

Tartan’s Asian releases were more frequently being seen the way Tartan wanted them to be seen, and the way that critics understood the content of the films and the relationships between them increasingly influenced the choices Tartan made.

In some ways, the British critical and journalistic response to Battle Royale

88 extreme asia
represents a ‘step back’ after the overwhelmingly positive and clearly un-Orientalist response to Ring. British critics praised and contextualised Ring without falling back on stereotypes and generalisations about Japanese cinema and society.

However, at least in the case of Battle Royale, the film’s national origin was acknowledged and an attempt, however reductive, was made to appreciate the film in the context of its Japanese identity. As with the earlier release of Audition, the critical reception of Battle Royale is divided. However, as was also seen with Audition, whether critics think the film is good or bad, they agree it is significant.

Whether they like it or not, it provokes a reaction. This divided critical opinion parallels the exact philosophy behind Tartan’s choice of films to distribute under their Asia Extreme label, which is worth quoting again here: Our owner, Hamish McAlpine, likes to refer to films that we release as

‘cultural hand grenades.’ We want to entertain people but we also want to push their buttons, so that even if they don’t like the film they still have to talk about it the next day.77

In the specific case of Battle Royale, only the fourth ‘Asian thriller’ Tartan theatrically released, there is no question that these critics were responding exactly as Tartan had hoped and anticipated.

NOtes

1. James Christopher, ‘A finishing school with no rules’, The Times, 13 September 2001, section 2, p. 14.

2. Personal interview with Paul Smith, 17 October 2006.

3. Jason Hahn, ‘World cinema as “cultural hand grenade” ’, OhmyNews International, 22

September 2005, http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.

asp?menu=c10400&no=249337&rel_ no=1, accessed 10 January 2006.

4. Ring in August 2000, Ring 2 in January 2001, Audition in March 2001 and Nowhere to Hide in June 2001.

5. As the home video market developed in the UK in the early 1980s, concerns began to develop over the potentially offensive and harmful nature of the violence in some of the horror films widely available on UK VHS. A group of these films were dubbed ‘Video Nasties’ by a censorious tabloid media. With the introduction of the Video Recordings Act of 1984, many horror films were effectively banned and as a result gained notorious reputations for their supposedly shocking and extreme content, which in turn increased their desirability among horror fans and video collectors. These films are from a variety of countries and were made at different times. Some of the best known ‘Video Nasty’ titles include The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, 1981), Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, 1980), The Driller Killer (Abel Ferrara, 1979), Zombie Flesh Eaters (Lucio Fulci, 1979), I Spit On Your Grave (Meir Zarchi, 1978), SS Experiment Camp (Sergio Garrone, 1976) and Shogun Assassin (Robert Houston, 1980), the American re-edited version of two violent Japanese samurai films from the Lone Wolf and Cub series.

cOurtiNG cONtrOVersY 89

6. Glenn G. Sparks and Cheri W. Sparks, ‘Effects of media violence’, in Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, eds Jennings Bryant and Dolf Zillmann (Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002), pp. 269–70.

7. Ibid. pp. 269–70.

8. Richard Lloyd Parry, ‘Attacks and film violence alarm Tokyo’, The Independent, 19

December 2000, p. 17.

9. Colin Joyce, ‘Film inflames Japan’s youth crime fears’, Daily Telegraph, 26 December 2000, p. 15.

10. Ibid. p. 15.

11. Ibid. p. 15.

12. Tony Rayns, ‘Killer class’, Sight & Sound, February 2001, p. 6.

13. Jonathan Romney, ‘OK, kids – shoot!’, The Guardian, 3 February 2001, Arts section, p. 3.

14. Ibid. p. 3.

15. Gareth Rubin and Matt Wells, ‘Grisly Japanese film comes to UK despite crime fears’, The Guardian, 24 February 2001, p. 9.

16. Ibid. p. 9.

17. Ibid. p. 9.

18. Kate Egan, Trash or treasure? Censorship and the changing meanings of the video nasties (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2007), p. 78.

19. Ibid. p. 78.

20. Ibid. p. 5.

21. Martin Barker, Jane Arthurs and Ramaswami Harindranath, The Crash Controversy: Censorship Campaigns and Film Reception (London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2001), p. 6.

22. Ibid. p. 6.

23. As recorded on the official website of the British Board of Film Classification, at www.

bbfc.co.uk.

24. Known in Japan primarily as a comedian and light entertainer, Kitano Takeshi’s stage name there is ‘Beat’ Takeshi. However, he is also an internationally respected auteur director. Kitano, therefore, insists on the convention that he is credited as ‘Beat Takeshi’

for all acting roles and as ‘Kitano Takeshi’ as a director.

25. Almost all of Kitano’s films have been granted theatrical exhibition in the UK, which is still a rarity for a contemporary Japanese director. His films Violent Cop (1989) and Sonatine (1993) were both released in British cinemas in 1993 by ICA Projects. These were followed by theatrical distribution for Kid’s Return (1996) courtesy of ICA Projects in 1997; Kikujiro (1999) was released in the UK by Pathé Distribution the same year it came out in Japan. Kitano’s rising UK profile lead to the American-British-Japanese co-production Brother (2000), co-financed by Film Four, the film production arm of British TV’s Channel Four. Kitano’s success in the UK arguably reached its peak in 2003
with the release of both Dolls (2002) and Zatoichi (2003) courtesy of Artificial Eye. Zatoichi in particular was a genuine crossover hit, playing to appreciative audiences in both multiplex cinemas and art-houses; for example, in March 2004 the film was playing simultaneously at both the multiplex UGC and the independent Broadway cinema in the city of Nottingham.

26. The Green Slime was a relatively low-budget production even by the standards of the 1960s, and the majority of the cast were ex-pat Americans living in Japan or soldiers stationed at military bases there. The film is appreciated by contemporary audiences precisely because of its poor special effects and bad acting, in much the same way that, for example, Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) has become a ‘bad film’ cult classic.

90 extreme asia

27. Though none of these yakuza films are named individually, this is undoubtedly a reference to Fukasaku’s celebrated Battles Without Honor and Humanity series (also known as The Yakuza Papers). The series consists of five films, all directed by Fukasaku, released in Japan to great critical acclaim and popular success in 1973 and ’74. In the wake of Battle Royale’s high visibility in the UK, British distribution companies have released several of Fukasaku’s other yakuza-centric crime films on DVD. These include Street Mobster (1972), Cops vs. Thugs (1975), Japan Organised Crime Boss (1969), The Triple Cross (1992), and Graveyard of Honour (1975) – itself the subject of recent cult re-appraisal after the 2002 release of a remake directed by Miike Takashi ( Audition).

28. Geoff Andrew, ‘ Battle Royale’, Time Out, 12–19 September 2001, p. 86.

29. Jonathan Romney, ‘No stars, no characters, no plot – just punks in Japanese cars’, The Independent on Sunday, 16 September 2001, Review section, p. 10.

30. Battle Royale Press Notes, Tartan Films (UK).

31. Mark Jancovich, ‘Genre and the audience: Genre classifications and cultural distinctions in the mediation of The Silence of the Lambs’, in Horror, The Film Reader, ed. Mark Jancovich (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), p. 157.

32. Andrea G. Arai, ‘Killing kids: Recession and survival in twenty-first-century Japan’, Postcolonial Studies, 6: 3, 2003, p. 367.

33. Ibid. p. 368.

34. Gary Needham, ‘Japanese cinema and Orientalism’, in Asian Cinemas: A Reader and Guide, eds Dimitris Eleftheriotis and Gary Needham (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), p. 11.

35. Ziauddin Sardar, Orientalism (Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1999), p. 2.

36. Ibid. p. 111.

37. Needham, ‘Japanese cinema and Orientalism’, p. 8.

38. Ibid. p. 8.

39. Pierre Bourdieu, ‘The aristocracy of culture’, in Media, Culture and Society: A Critical Reader, eds Richard Collins, James Curran, Nicholas Garnham, Paddy Scannell, Philip Schlesinger and Colin Sparks (London: Sage, 1986), p. 192.

40. Alexander Walker, ‘Teacher, leave those kids alone’, Evening Standard, 13 September 2001, p. 28.

41. Ibid. p. 28.

42. Romney, ‘No stars’, p. 10.

43. Peter Bradshaw, ‘ Battle Royale’, The Guardian, 18 August 2001, section 2, p. 25.

44. Romney, ‘No stars’, p. 10.

45. Andrew Anthony, ‘Teenage kicks, plasma and body parts’, The Observer, 16 September 2001, Review section, p. 7.

46. Jenny McCartney, ‘Children, it’s only a game’, Sunday Telegraph, 16 September 2001, Review section, p. 9.

47. Romney, ‘No stars’, p. 10.

48. Sardar, Orientalism, p. 116.

49. Peter Bradshaw, ‘A time to kill’, The Guardian, 14 September 2001, section 2, p. 16. It is worth noting that Bradshaw does not mention Ring – possibly simply because he had not seen it. He did not review Ring for The Guardian, as it was not a ‘featured review’ –

Andrew Pulver reviewed it instead.

50. Christopher, ‘A finishing school’, p. 14.

51. Ibid. p. 14.

52. Ibid. p. 14.

cOurtiNG cONtrOVersY 91

53. Kim Newman, ‘ Battle Royale’, Empire, October 2001, p. 42.

54. Arai, ‘Killing kids’, p. 376.

55. Romney, ‘No stars’, p. 10.

56. Ibid. p. 10.

57. Walker, ‘Teacher’, p. 28.

58. McCartney, ‘Children, it’s only a game’, p. 9.

59. Alec Worley, ‘ Battle Royale’, Shivers, October 2001, p. 81.

60. Bradshaw, ‘A time to kill’, p. 16.

61. Anthony, ‘Teenage kicks’, p. 7.

62. Ibid. p. 7.

63. Christopher Tookey, ‘Like Lord of the Flies, with axe murders’, Daily Mail, 14 September 2001, p. 56.

64. Anthony Quinn, ‘Teacher, leave them kids alone’, The Independent, 14 September 2001, Review section, p. 10.

65. Bradshaw, ‘A time to kill’, p. 16.

66. Nigel Andrews, ‘An audiovisual adrenalin hit’, Financial Times, 13 September 2001, section 2, p. 18.

67. Ibid. p. 18.

68. Ibid. p. 18.

69. Personal interview with Paul Smith, 14 July 2009.

70. Ibid.

71. Quinn, ‘Teacher’, p. 10.

72. Mark Kermode, ‘The British censors and horror cinema’, in British Horror Cinema, eds Steve Chibnall and Julian Petley (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), p. 14.

73. Personal interview with Paul Smith, 14 July 2009.

74. In April 2001, four months after the original film was released, Battle Royale: Special Version was released in Japan. Fukasaku Kinji had re-edited Battle Royale and even inserted some newly shot scenes. This version of the film was, in fact, mildly less violent, reducing its certification in Japan and broadening its audience to younger teenagers.

Tartan’s DVD of this version of the film also sold well – although the BBFC failed to recognise any meaningful reduction in violent content, granting this version an ‘18’

certificate as well.

75. Koushun Takami, Battle Royale (London: Gollancz, 2007).

76. King describes the book as ‘an insanely entertaining pulp riff . . .’ on its cover.

77. Hahn, ‘World cinema’.

cHaPter 4

Brand Wagon: The Courtship of

Multiplex Audiences and the 2003

Asia Extreme Roadshow

Far Eastern film escapes from kung-fu clichés with Tartan Asia Extreme.1

Marketing slogan of Asia Extreme 2003

The first Asia Extreme touring film festival, in summer 2003, marked a key turning point for the brand. For the first time, Tartan added its Asia Extreme brand to theatrical releases, and screened films together, rather than separately. Promoting brand recognition was given priority over individual films. Also, for the first time, Asia Extreme films were released in multiplex cinemas: the 2003 Asia Extreme festival (referred to by Tartan as a ‘roadshow’) was exclusive to the now-defunct UGC chain of cinemas. Seven films went ‘on tour’ to eight UGC cinemas around the UK; each individual film would play for two weeks, then move on to another cinema. Each venue rotated through all seven films between May and August.

Prior to this new release strategy, Tartan’s cult Asian films had only been released in London cinemas and art houses nationwide. Between August 2000
and September 2001 Tartan released six titles,2 but it was not until 2002 that the Asia Extreme DVD brand became official. In 2002 Tartan released two more films theatrically, which would later bear the new Asia Extreme brand: the hitman thriller Bangkok Dangerous (1999) and the ‘restrained’ horror The Eye (2002). Both films were directed by the Pang Brothers, a transnational duo who have made films in both the Thai and Hong Kong film industries.

Though both films were accompanied by a more aggressive marketing strategy (free postcards were distributed at the art-house cinemas at which they were shown), they were still confined to repertory cinemas. The 2003 Asia Extreme festival was Tartan’s first push for multiplex audiences and the marketing strategy they employed demonstrates their determination to win the favour of a much wider audience.

The disparate group of films chosen for the festival indicates Tartan’s deter-

BraND WaGON 93
mination to expand the brand. Having launched the notion of an ‘Extreme Asian Cinema’ with the horror films Ring and Audition, Tartan increasingly moved away from ‘straight’ horror. Of the seven films in the Asia Extreme festival, none could be described as horror movies; several represent genre hybrids like Battle Royale. Four of the seven films chosen were from South Korea: Shiri (Kang Je-gyu, 1999), Bad Guy (Kim Ki-duk, 2002), Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Park Chan-wook, 2002) and Public Enemy (Kang Woo-suk, 2002). Of the other three, A Snake of June (Tsukamoto Shinya, 2003) and The Happiness of the Katakuris (Miike Takashi, 2002) were Japanese; and finally, Fulltime Killer (Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai, 2001) was from Hong Kong.

Shiri is an espionage thriller based around tensions between North and South Korea. The film had recently received a moderately successful, but limited, theatrical release in the US.3 The Japanese film The Happiness of the Katakuris is a wilfully bizarre horror-comedy-musical from the director of Audition and was promoted largely on the basis that it was ‘bonkers’. Sympathy for Mr.

Vengeance is a visually stylish kidnap thriller, directed by Park Chan-wook, whose later Oldboy would become Tartan’s single biggest Asia Extreme title.

A Snake of June is an artistic erotic odyssey, from director Tsukamoto Shinya, well known in the UK for his cyberpunk art-house hits Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) and Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992). Shot in an unusual aspect ratio, entirely in monochrome and featuring a partially incomprehensible narrative, A Snake of June was the most obviously avant-garde film in the festival. The Hong Kong film Fulltime Killer is largely typical (and highly derivative) of the

‘heroic bloodshed’ genre pioneered by John Woo. Bad Guy is an angry drama about prostitution from festival darling Kim Ki-duk. The final film of the festival was the Korean police procedural Public Enemy.

This chapter examines the marketing strategies of the Asia Extreme roadshow, as well as both critical and fan discourse around the films shown and issues raised. The first section offers a brief pre-history of the event by filling in a key gap between the release of Battle Royale in 2001 and the Asia Extreme roadshow in 2003: specifically, the incorporation of films from Thailand into the Asia Extreme brand in 2002. The following section examines the marketing for the roadshow itself, considering theatrical posters (‘sexed up’ in ways both subtle and obvious by Tartan), the Asia Extreme festival website and the promotional Unlimited magazine, in order to investigate how Tartan sold these Asia Extreme films to a wider audience on an often contradictory basis –
suggesting that the Asia Extreme films were similar to, but much better than, existing Hollywood output. The next section looks at the critical reception of the films in the roadshow, as critics raised questions over the audiences for the Asia Extreme films and discussed the state of the Asian film industry. The following section focuses on the Japanese art-house auteur Tsukamoto Shinya and his contribution to the festival: A Snake of June. Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo

94 extreme asia
films were big art-house hits when they were released in the UK in the early 1990s, and the critical and cult success of Tsukamoto’s UK-released pre-Asia Extreme films Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer and Tokyo Fist is important. Reviewers referenced Tsukamoto’s earlier work extensively, expressing discomfort at his new association with ‘lesser’ Asian films, and redefining his position as an art-house auteur. The final section of this chapter offers a study of a fan response to the festival, examining the contradictory strategies of fans to either embrace or reject these cult Asian films on the basis of their availability and popularity.

PaNGs OF Fear: tHai FiLm aND asia extreme

Following the success of the Japanese ‘extreme’ cinema released theatrically by Tartan, the distributor added South Korean and Thai films to its growing repertoire by releasing more films in 2001 and 2002. Yet while Korean cinema would come to occupy a central place in the Asia Extreme identity, with the brand partially responsible for a widespread surge of critical and audience fascination with Korean film, the position of Thai films and filmmakers in the Asia Extreme cycle is considerably more marginal. The Asia Extreme brand, even in its own marketing rhetoric, ‘officially’ constituted films from four territories, but little attention has been paid to the few Thai releases to reach UK audiences during this period – in spite of the importance of these films in developing and consolidating the Asia Extreme brand and critical perceptions of the pan-Asian ‘extreme’ film movement.

Bangkok Dangerous (Oxide Pang and Danny Pang, 1999) was released in UK cinemas in February 2002, Tartan’s first release after Battle Royale five months earlier. A Thai film co-directed by twin brothers born in Hong Kong and active in both national film industries, Bangkok Dangerous served the purposes of Tartan’s dawning Asia Extreme concept by conflating different styles and genres within a violent tale of professional assassins and organised crime. Marketing for the film, produced by Tartan, emphasised this explicit content, with a prominent promotional quote promising ‘explosive, stylised, bone-splintering violence’. Critics were likewise quick to seize on the violence of the film as a key talking point, with Anthony Quinn of The Independent commenting on the film’s ‘unregenerate ferocity’ as one of its defining features.4

The film’s visual style was frequently praised, though often in terms that reduced the film to a style-over-substance exercise in formal experimentation; Tom Charity of Time Out reflected the typical response when he noted the lack of either originality or significant dialogue in the film, instead focusing on its

‘gleaming visuals’.5 The film was seen to walk a fine line, in apparent danger of showcasing violence without meaning. Charity used the word ‘sleazy’ in

BraND WaGON 95
his review, and James Christopher of The Times employed the same rhetoric, describing the film as both ‘sleazy’ and ‘seedy’.6

The film’s violent and exploitative content (several scenes set in a strip club give the film a vaguely erotic charge) was seen through the typically Orientalist lens of ‘exotic’ Asian cinema, with Christopher’s review critical of ‘an Eastern taste for violence that borders on the pornographic’.7 Once again, the assumption that Asian filmmakers have an inherent ‘taste’ for violence – one that surpasses Western standards and therefore becomes ‘pornographic’ – becomes both a basis for critics to reject films not to their taste, while also serving Tartan’s promotional tactics; Christopher’s scathing and offensive comment could, ironically, virtually serve as one of the Asia Extreme brand taglines.

Alexander Walker predictably despised the film, describing it as lacking ‘story, characterisation and even intelligibility’ which likewise only added to its status as new and exciting.8

However, while the film’s energetic visual style might have represented the excitement of contemporary Thai cinema, Bangkok Dangerous was also frequently described as derivative and unoriginal, with numerous comparisons made to the film’s generic antecedents. James Christopher’s review actually expressed preference for the film over ‘a thousand like-minded clones’ while Catherine Shoard of the Sunday Telegraph noted the film’s numerous ‘blood-soaked shoot-out clichés’.9 Philip French in The Observer was critical of the film’s ‘derivative’ style and regarded the film as a ‘flashy thriller in the Hong Kong manner’.10 As with previous Tartan releases, the unfamiliar cultural context of the film led to critics deploying other frames of reference as a familiarising mechanism, yet in the case of Bangkok Dangerous, the utter newness of Thai film must be considered. When critics had encountered the Japanese films released by Tartan, although unfamiliar, they had some frames of reference for Japanese cinema; however, in 2002 Thai film was an almost entirely unknown quantity for UK audiences. Only two previous Thai films had ever been released theatrically in the UK: gay-themed sports-comedy The Iron Ladies (Youngyooth Thongkonthun, 2000) and the art-film western pastiche Tears of the Black Tiger (Wisit Sasanatieng, 2000), both receiving an extremely limited theatrical release in 2001. Rarely seen, these two films had done little, at this point, to raise the profile of Thai film; it was thus an unfamiliar entity for British critics encountering Bangkok Dangerous. While Tom Charity, in his review, made passing reference to Tears of the Black Tiger, most critics understandably avoided mention of other Thai cinema.11 Instead, they cited a variety of comparisons: Philip French mentioned the decades-old American military thriller The Presidio (1988) and Nicholas Barber compared the Pang brothers to directors Danny Boyle, Kitano Takeshi, and Luc Besson, drawing connections to Japanese, British and French filmmaking.12 However, just as one critic had defined Bangkok Dangerous as action ‘in the Hong Kong manner’, the most

96 extreme asia
common point of reference for critics was Hong Kong/Hollywood filmmaker John Woo, invoking a familiar sense of operatic, stylish violence (indeed, the meaning of John Woo in the context of this period of critical reception will be discussed in more detail shortly).

The release and reception of Bangkok Dangerous thus contributed to the mounting sense of an extreme Asian cinema movement by offering violent action scenes hyper-stylised to a rare degree and by appearing both specific and anonymous: recognisably ‘Asian’ to an audience who knew virtually nothing about Thai film. The frequent comparisons to Hong Kong cinema are understandable, both in terms of the viewing experience of British critics at this time, and the complicated national identity of the Pang brothers themselves: working primarily in the Hong Kong industry and engaging in frequent transnational co-production, their films are often difficult to define in terms of a single national cinema. This is especially true in considering The Eye (2002), the Pangs’ next film, released in the UK by Tartan just months after Bangkok Dangerous.

The Eye represents a culturally varied pan-Asian co-production: this Singaporean/Hong Kong film includes locating shooting in Thailand and stars a Malaysian actress. The Eye is therefore in many ways an ideal vehicle through which to sell the Asia Extreme concept, which aimed to elide individual national boundaries between the film industries of different countries in favour of packaging films simply as ‘Asian’. The 2003 Asia Extreme roadshow intended to achieve the same goal, but The Eye was an important precursor in many ways.

The film was sold on a basis quite unlike the Pangs’ previous film; rather than emphasise violent spectacle, the marketing of The Eye was firmly in the tradition of Ring, promising restrained, psychologically satisfying horror.

The critical reception of the film reflected (and, indeed, enabled) this marketing tactic. Catherine Shoard conceded that The Eye was ‘flawed but frightening’ and obliquely referenced The Sixth Sense in her review, an obvious point of comparison: the two films operate on a similar level of restraint, but also share a striking narrative similarity, with the protagonists of both films cursed with the unfortunate ability to see ghosts.13 In fact, almost every critic mentioned The Sixth Sense, so tempting was the comparison, with direct discussions of the similarity between the two films appearing in reviews in The Times, The Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and The Independent on Sunday.14 In particular, the film was seen as almost equal in quality and frightfulness to The Sixth Sense, and was held up by one critic as superior to M. Night Shyamalan’s then-recent, and apparently disappointing, Signs (2002).15

The Eye therefore strengthened the credibility of the Asia Extreme brand and appealed to proven taste formations among the British critical press, achieving a similarly warm reception as the earlier Ring. Alexander Walker, ever the sceptic, directly accused the Pangs in his review of being ‘clever

BraND WaGON 97
opportunists who cash in on global trends’.16 The comment could more accurately be applied to Tartan themselves, whose releases in 2002 of these two films (one Thai, one pan-Asian with a Thai dimension) served to develop the Asia Extreme brand in meaningful ways. Bangkok Dangerous expanded the definition of ‘extreme’ cinema with its ultraviolent action and ‘sleazy’

worldview, while The Eye demonstrated that the ‘chilling’ horror cycle is not confined to Japan. The next step for Tartan would be persuading consumers to invest in its new brand as a whole, rather than on the basis of individual films.

Kiss Kiss BaNG BaNG: seLLiNG sex, ViOLeNce aND
tHe LeGacY OF JOHN WOO

The 2003 Asia Extreme roadshow was symbolised by a central publicity image, appearing on the cover of a promotional leaflet distributed at participating cinemas, as well as on the home page of the Asia Extreme website. The image-as-logo emphasises sex and violence, or more specifically, the combination of sex and violence. Foregrounding scantily-clad women, some wielding guns, the image provides a simple visual shorthand for the Asia Extreme brand’s developing identity. Rather than represent the horror that the label was first known for, or the violent masculinity that is actually foregrounded in many of the festival films, this image promotes a stylish, cool ‘gun-chic’ that presents attractive Asian women as sexually available, dangerous and deadly. Tartan’s decision to focus on these elements in promoting its festival films was also evident in its poster designs. The poster, for example, for Bad Guy used by Tartan to advertise the film in British cinemas was virtually identical to the Korean poster, save for some inventive photo-manipulation that actually added more nudity to the female figure at the centre of the image. One possible explanation for the change is that South Korean standards of advertising would never allow that level of nudity on a publicly displayed poster, so it could be argued that Tartan’s poster is merely in line with the more liberal British advertising regulations. It is more likely, though, that Tartan wanted an immediate titillating effect. Frankly, the eye is immediately drawn to the nudity on Tartan’s poster and the promise of sexual content could hardly be clearer.

In designing its other posters, Tartan took greater creative liberties, often selecting or designing radically different images than those featured on the original posters. A clear example of this is the poster for Fulltime Killer, which reflects the different appeals the film was expected to have in its various exhibition contexts. Fulltime Killer is a hitman action film, very much in the tradition of the ‘heroic bloodshed’ genre pioneered by director John Woo in such films as The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992) which typically foregrounds

98 extreme asia
either a conflict or partnership between two violent professional men.17 The domestic Hong Kong poster for Fulltime Killer emphasises these generic elements: its dominant image is of the two main male characters (they are rival assassins: one is Chinese, the other Japanese). The British poster, however, displayed a different image from the film, instead depicting one of the assassins (Tok, played by Andy Lau) showing a woman (Chin, played by Kelly Lin) how to use a gun. It is hardly a representative image from the film, but it suits Tartan’s purposes well. The poster foregrounds the romantic/sexual sub-plot of the film (interestingly, Kelly Lin was nowhere to be seen on the Hong Kong poster) and continues to emphasise the combination of sexuality and violence.

The tagline on Tartan’s poster, ‘Two assassins, two ideals and a love to die for’, gives every indication that the woman is herself one of the two assassins and that she will be a central participant in the film’s violence (this is not quite the case, as Kelly Lin’s character, though occasionally pro-active, functions more as the focus of a love triangle between the two male assassins, and as a vulnerable figure to be rescued from peril). Indeed, the dominant image on Tartan’s poster, other than the couple, is the barrel of the gun, which, thanks to the perspective of the camera, looks huge.

At the time of this film’s release, there was a small, but established market for these kinds of Hong Kong heroic bloodshed films in Britain. John Woo’s Hong Kong films have had a public reputation and cult following in the UK
since the early 1990s. Tartan’s decision to move away from promoting the generic elements of the film could indicate the extent to which their focus was on courting a new market. On the other hand, Tartan may have simply considered the John Woo-fan market as pre-sold; there was not necessarily any need to aggressively court an audience that would attend anyway.18

Another interesting example of Tartan’s particular marketing concept is the poster used for Shiri, a film that had been previously theatrically released in the USA, with a radically different poster from the original Korean image.

Tartan were therefore offered a choice of two designs that could hardly be more different: in fact, they could easily be for totally different films. Shiri is an espionage thriller about North Korean spies planning terrorist attacks in South Korea. The plot involves the efforts of two detectives to foil the North Koreans’ plot and capture their leader. Their efforts are complicated, however, by the fact that the protagonist’s fiancée is actually a North Korean spy. The Korean poster for the film emphasises the conflict between North and South, showcasing a simple image of the protagonist facing his enemy, the leader of the rogue North Koreans, in full-figure form. While the infiltrat-ing female assassin is central to the film’s narrative, she is not featured on the poster, mainly because her true identity is not revealed until late in the film.

The US poster, however, foregrounds the female assassin at the expense of the masculine conflict that dominates the Korean poster: the frame is dominated

BraND WaGON 99
by the image of a woman, wearing a revealing evening dress, clutching a gun.

Her face is cropped, which has the benefit of preserving her identity and thus one of the film’s central plot twists, but also the unfortunate consequence of de-personalising the female body, rendering it little more than an object for the heterosexual male gaze. It should be noted, too, that the image on this poster has been generated purely for promotional purposes (at no point in the film do any of the female characters wear such a figure-hugging, skin-baring dress).

Using a female assassin as the dominant image allowed Tartan to promote Shiri, in part, on the basis of its surface similarity to the cult French thriller Nikita (Luc Besson, 1990), the plot of which is focused on a female assassin.

Other references to Nikita in Tartan’s marketing of Shiri come from another of their key promotional tools: Unlimited ‘magazine’, a free publication given away at UGC cinemas. The slim monthly magazine offered information about forthcoming releases, as well as interviews, competitions and cinema listings.

The May 2003 issue featured previews of many of the Asia Extreme films, as well as carrying a lengthy article on the festival, a special offer for a £20 full-festival pass, and a competition to win Asia Extreme DVDs.

The short preview of Shiri included in the publication demonstrates the varied (and often contradictory) ways that Tartan and UGC tried to sell the film to multiplex audiences. On one hand, Tartan wanted to position the film as alternative and as coming from a culturally distant country. A still from the film shows a moment of violent conflict between its two leading characters: one of the men is attacking the other with a knife and there are explosions visible in the background. The short caption underneath this photo simply says: ‘It’s Korea, it’s dangerous, it’s great.’19 Tartan are clearly trying to suggest that violent action is typical in Korea, and that by seeing the film the viewer will receive an intensity of experience that can only be offered by a Korean film. The preview concludes by declaring ‘ Shiri is easily more stylish, better written and acted than many of its rival Hollywood action films.’20

So, Tartan’s message is apparently clear: this film is totally different from, and therefore much better than, Hollywood action films. However, under the section entitled ‘See this if you liked’, the Vin Diesel vehicle xXx (Rob Cohen, 2002) is listed. It seems that a mainstream action film like xXx is precisely the kind of film that Tartan would position Shiri in opposition to, yet this promotional copy suggests that the two films share an audience. The magazine also emphasises Shiri’s commercial success, noting twice that it out-grossed Titanic in Korea and reporting that the film ‘explodes on to UK screens fresh from its recent box-office success in the USA’.21 Tartan were determined to emphasise the film’s commercial appeal, that a wide and Western audience will appreciate it, that it is not just for ‘culty’ fans of Asian cinema. The message is contradictory and confusing, equating to the message that these films are totally different, they are unlike anything you have seen before – but they are not

100 extreme asia
that different and they are a bit like some of the films you have seen before. A further point of comparison is made, as audiences are also informed that Shiri bears resemblance to the largely forgotten Russian-set, Hollywood-produced political thriller Gorky Park (Michael Apted, 1983). The reference to xXx makes sense as the film had been released in the UK the previous October and Nikita, though over a decade old at this point, maintained a public reputation as a seminal assassin thriller. The reference to Gorky Park, however, is surprising and was likely to mean very little to the average reader of a free multiplex cinema magazine. The choice of Gorky Park could indicate that Tartan were casting their net really wide, and trying to attract a middle-aged audience with a fondness for 1980s-style spy thrillers (the thinking behind this could have been that Shiri would appeal to 40+ audiences the way a new James Bond film does).

The directly contradictory address is even more obvious in the preview for The Happiness of the Katakuris. The preview declares that ‘this is a wonderfully bizarre black comedy musical. It’s got the energy of Moulin Rouge, the camp black comedy of Eating Raoul and the looniness of early Woody Allen.’22

The ‘See this if you liked’ section also lists The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965) as a likely point of comparison. These references to musicals and the anarchic comedy of Woody Allen23 clearly try to define and promote the film based on comparisons with American films. Yet, just three sentences later, the preview concludes with the declaration ‘it’s incredibly funny and not comparable to anything produced by European or American cinema’.24 The extent of the contradiction here makes the goal of the piece almost incomprehensible.

Elsewhere in the magazine, the film gets attention as the most ‘alien’ of all the festival’s films, with its promotion in the Asia Extreme feature article based on the Western perception of Japan as culturally distant. The Happiness of the Katakuris is described as ‘the maddest film ever made’.25 The most prominent quote from the entire feature suggests that the film is ‘a cross between The Sound of Music and Return of the Living Dead!’, and it is precisely the impos-sibility of this combination that suggests the film’s appeal.26 The underlying notion is that a zombie musical has to be seen to be believed; the film is sold on more of a ‘trash’ aesthetic than actual cinematic merit.

Another recurring point made in the films’ marketing, seemingly intended to emphasise the commercial appeal of Asian cinema, is the wealth of Asian films being remade in Hollywood. The article in Unlimited magazine notes that the ‘daring style and plots’ of Asian films ‘have made Hollywood sit up and take notice’.27 The article lists Ring as ‘the first to be remade as a Western movie’; indeed, Gore Verbinki’s The Ring had been released in the UK just a few months earlier, in February 2003. The article also mentions The Eye (‘Tom Cruise has personally bought the rights!’) and Infernal Affairs (‘Brad Pitt pencilled in to star!’).28 The article seems to be suggesting that the fact

BraND WaGON 101
that Hollywood wants to remake these films somehow validates them. If Hollywood thinks they are good, then they surely must be good. Hollywood is again being presented as the benchmark of quality against which these films can be measured, rather than the inadequate, sanitised competitor it has elsewhere been presented as. Also significantly, none of the three films mentioned ( Ring, The Eye, Infernal Affairs) are actually included in the festival currently being promoted. Further to the notion that the brand is more important than the individual films, Tartan are happy to promote Asian cinema in general, rather than their seven roadshow films specifically. They seem to be implying a simple brand logic, whereby if Ring, The Eye and Infernal Affairs are great films, then any other extreme Asian thrillers will be of equal quality. This broad collective branding is at the heart of the success of the Asia Extreme brand: Tartan are aiming to create a market which will consume a film with a series of demands and expectations simply based on the Asia Extreme logo.

Another way that Tartan is promoting its films is through invoking the legacy of John Woo – although it is unclear whether this strategy is primarily intended to court a niche or a mainstream audience. The article in Unlimited promises ‘Hong Kong police dramas that outgun even the legendary John Woo’.29 The introduction to the festival on Tartan’s Asia Extreme website had almost identical copy, promoting the festival as offering ‘Police films from Hong Kong which outdo the master himself, John Woo’.30 In fact, the 2003
festival had only one Hong Kong film, so Tartan’s use of the plural suggests, again, that they are selling a much wider range of films than are actually on offer in the festival. The idea seems to be that this festival is merely a ‘taster’

for the films of the brand as a whole. Each film is supposed to be representative and Tartan are using the festival as an advertisement for their Asia Extreme DVD catalogue. The synopsis of the festival’s single Hong Kong film, Fulltime Killer, concludes with the promise that the film is ‘dynamic, gun-toting John Woo-style action’.31

It is worth considering here what a reference to ‘John Woo-style action’

actually invokes. For fans of cult Asian cinema, John Woo is a figure of tower-ing significance and can legitimately be described as one of the originators of the notion of an ‘Extreme’ Asian cinema. His reputation in the UK throughout the 1990s was as a highly original artist of super-violent action films. His heroic bloodshed film The Killer was released in London cinemas in 1990, and was more significantly re-released in October 1993 to screen in a double-bill with Hard Boiled. This Woo double-bill gained a great deal of critical attention and fan acclaim. Indeed, for the rest of the decade John Woo was one of the only contemporary Asian directors to have his work available in any significant quantity on video. The 1994 VHS release of his two first heroic bloodshed films, A Better Tomorrow (1986) and A Better Tomorrow II (1987),

102 extreme asia
was particularly significant in consolidating his UK fanbase and reflecting the niche-market demand for his Hong Kong action films.

However, by 2003 John Woo had been working in Hollywood for a decade.

While most middlebrow audiences would be dimly aware of his reputation as the originator of some significant Hong Kong action films, they would be much more likely to associate Woo with his Hollywood action films. Broken Arrow (1996), Face/Off (1997) and Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) had all been significant commercial successes in both the US and the UK, and Woo’s most recent film, Windtalkers (2002), had been released in Britain less than a year before the first Asia Extreme festival. A reference to John Woo at this time would have been more likely to evoke (for the majority of multiplex audiences) a sense of a commodified and Westernised Hong Kong- style Hollywood action, rather than a genuine, authentic foreign cinema. Tartan’s persistent references to John Woo in promoting their festival represents their shrewd assimilation of two very different conceptions of Asian cinema, and allowed them to use exactly the same frame of reference to sell their films to two totally different audiences. In this period, Tartan were determined to maintain their niche market of devoted cult film consumers, while putting every effort into expanding the market far beyond its current bounds.

‘it’s stYLe, NOt cONteNt, tHat cOuNts’: tHe
criticaL recePtiON OF tHe asia extreme
rOaDsHOW

When critic Tom Charity reviewed A Snake of June in the summer of 2003, he noted, ‘London cinemas are awash in cheap Asian imports – which is good news for anyone jaded by the bland fare Hollywood has been serving up in the name of entertainment, less so for those of a sensitive disposition.’32

Tartan’s (almost simultaneous) release of seven Asia Extreme films meant that critics were confronted with the task of reviewing cult Asian films in a greater quantity than they had ever had to before. The increasing availability of Asian cinema – not just through Tartan – meant that spring and summer of 2003 was a period of broad visibility for these films and increased levels of distribution. In addition to Tartan’s festival, which started in May, the company also released Dark Water (Nakata Hideo, 2002) as a stand-alone Asia Extreme title in June. Dark Water, a restrained horror from the director of Ring, played at both art-house cinemas and multiplexes. Additionally, Tartan’s first rival and imitator, Contender Entertainment’s ‘Premier Asia’ brand, released its first film in May – Ichi the Killer (Miike Takashi, 2001), an excessively violent and bizarre horror/thriller from the director of Audition.33 In addition to these cult films, an increasing number of art-house Asian films were released

BraND WaGON 103
during this period.34 However, even a sensitive, beautiful historical drama like Chihwaseon (Im Kwon-taek, 2002) was promoted on the basis of its sex scenes and sold to the public as a kind of ‘erotic odyssey’.35

Given this unprecedented proliferation of Asian cinema in the UK, it is perhaps unsurprising that critics often responded more to the films as a group than to individual titles in their discourse. Tom Charity’s quote above seems to indicate confusion over whether this influx of Asian cinema is to be welcomed or dismissed. His description of the Asian imports as ‘cheap’ would seem to be derogatory, yet he suggests that these films are superior to current American cinema. Charity’s comment reflects critical debates on Asian films that have been present since the British release of Ring: the underlying notion is that these films are better than Hollywood, but not for everyone. Hollywood is defined as ‘bland’, but these Asian films are not suitable for viewers with ‘a sensitive disposition’.36 Indeed, familiar questions over who these films are for, and whether they are better regarded as exploitation or art, appear throughout reviews of the festival’s films.

Empire’s Alan Morrison dismissed Bad Guy on the grounds that it ‘strays too much into exploitation territory’,37 and Total Film’s Jamie Russell agreed, describing the film as ‘another exploitative offering’ from a director ‘infamous

. . . for wince-inducing scenes involving sexual violence’.38 Sight & Sound magazine weighed in on the art versus exploitation debate with a typically thoughtful response to the film. Kim Newman, in his review of Bad Guy for the magazine, suggested that the director has attempted to make an art film, but failed:

This alternately involving and enervating film suggests the director is in danger of painting himself into a corner by trying for artfilm-like interiority in his sad little stories without first gifting his characters with sufficient psychological reserves for the melancholia to resonate beyond gangster soap.39

Criticism of these Asian films on the grounds that they are shallow and meaningless often involved, at this point in critical discourse, directly discussing the audiences that these films supposedly appealed to. In fact, rather than use the claim that these films are shallow and meaningless as the basis of dismissal, some critics suggested that these attributes are the films’ virtues. Danny Scott, reviewing Fulltime Killer for Total Film, noted that there ‘are more slo-mo gun battles than hours spent on the script’.40 He concludes, however, that ‘that’s the point: lovers of Asian action flicks know it’s style, not content, that counts.’41

Scott’s generalisation, though meant as praise (with a definite element of camaraderie), furthers a negative stereotype associated with cult film fans.42

The review of Fulltime Killer for Empire, also generally highly positive, noted

104 extreme asia
that the film hails from the ‘school of style over content’.43 Andrew Osmond’s review of Shiri for Sight & Sound saw the film as containing little real meaning for Western audiences, noting that outside the context of South Korean reception, ‘ Shiri feels like a mediocre, faintly distasteful action-thriller’.44 Osmond argued that British audiences would understand little of the film beyond its violence, and that in this context it has ‘no more weight than the pontifications of Steven Seagal’.45

Reviewing Miike Takashi’s The Happiness of the Katakuris for Empire, Nick Dawson praised Miike for ‘embracing the trash aesthetic’.46 Kim Newman’s review of the film for Sight & Sound revealed an interesting conception of the director’s British audiences:

It may take a while, especially as a sizeable backlog becomes available, for western audiences to get a handle on this unpredictable auteur, especially since the first Miike film seen widely outside the festival or cult video/

DVD circuit was the atypically controlled and icily perfect Audition.47

Newman’s comment is significant in reflecting the mass penetration of the Asia Extreme films, or at least a perception of mass penetration, at this stage in the brand’s development. Specifically, Newman’s assumption that Audition was ‘seen widely’ speaks to the significance of that film and the continuing influence of its reputation. Furthermore, Newman makes a clear and surprising distinction between Tartan’s Asia Extreme label and the ‘cult video/DVD
circuit’. Newman apparently sees Asia Extreme as operating very much within the mainstream, and implied that the cult DVD market exists separately.

However, confusingly, he also suggested that it is only the cult viewers who will actually appreciate the film – that the ‘mainstream’ Asia Extreme fans are not yet equipped with enough experience to truly understand this director or his intentions. Newman therefore, unsurprisingly, positioned himself as a true aficionado, whose knowledge of Miike extends into real cult fandom, far beyond the widespread, but limited, understanding of Miike based on Audition. This growing distinction between ‘new’ and ‘old’ Asia Extreme fans is significant.

Reviews of Fulltime Killer often involved discussion of the legacy of John Woo, which Tartan were so eager to invoke when promoting this film. Many critics saw Fulltime Killer as straightforwardly derived from John Woo’s Hong Kong films: Danny Scott of Total Film described the film as ‘so in awe of John Woo’,48 and The Independent’s Anthony Quinn advised the directors of Fulltime Killer to ‘quit studying old John Woo movies and get out a little’,49
while The Independent on Sunday’s Nicholas Barber noted that the film ‘is content to lift its style from other people’s work’,50 an indirect but unmistak-able reference to Woo.

BraND WaGON 105

Many reviewers struggled to find anything distinctive or original in the film. Peter Bradshaw concluded his review by asking: ‘doesn’t the Hong Kong action industry have a thousand films like this?’51 Kim Newman observed that

‘similar efforts have been common in Asian territories since John Woo’s breakout The Killer’ and that ‘the heirs of John Woo . . . have exhausted this subject matter’.52 Justin Bowyer’s review of the film for Empire 53 suggested that ‘if you hanker for the halcyon days when John Woo films left you breathless from gun-play, then Fulltime Killer hits every target dead centre’.54 For many of these British critics, there was no distinction, in terms of quality or appeal, between Fulltime Killer and the films of John Woo. Bowyer’s review suggests, in a very simple way, that if you like John Woo films, you will like Fulltime Killer. This argument reveals an (understandable) inability among these (non-expert) critics to distinguish between two distinct and distinctive Hong Kong directors. John Woo’s heroic bloodshed films, made between 1986 and 1992, are representative of the greatest achievements of Hong Kong cinema during that period. Fulltime Killer, however, was made during a period of crisis and decline in the Hong Kong film industry, after the 1997 handover; indeed, the film is postmodern reinvention of the action film, an example of a director adapting to the troubled industry and attempting to move the genre forward in significant ways. The fact that the majority of British critics were unable to appreciate these significant differences in both production history and directorial intent indicates the level of their unfamiliarity with Hong Kong cinema, as well as the effectiveness of Tartan’s shrewd (but misleading) press campaign, which presents Johnnie To as nothing more or less than a John Woo clone.

That this new style of Hong Kong action film was promoted on the basis that it recalled the glories of a generation past reflects Tartan’s lack of faith in the contemporary Hong Kong industry at this time. Hong Kong cinema, at this point in the development of Asia Extreme, made up an ever-smaller part of the label (this would, however, shortly change, as is discussed in Chapter 6). The Asia Extreme brand focused much more on Japanese and especially South Korean cinema, aiming to re-shape the cult Asian film market in the UK. There had been a niche audience for cult Asian cinema in Britain in the 1990s, long before Tartan invented Asia Extreme, but it had circulated almost entirely around Hong Kong cinema, with almost no Japanese, Korean or Thai films finding audiences. The extent to which this re-focusing of cult attention on other national cinemas is down to political and financial trends in Hong Kong (at a time when its film industry was in relative decline), and how much it is down to Tartan’s unique conception of the best source material for Asia Extreme, is a question for later consideration.

However, before the millennium, most cult fandom for Hong Kong cinema in Britain was focused on a handful of central figures and genres: John Woo, Ringo Lam, Chow Yun-Fat and the heroic bloodshed films; and Bruce Lee,

106 extreme asia

Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung (representing various distinct categories of the martial arts action film). Probably the only non-Hong Kong East Asian filmmaker to generate significant cult and critical acclaim in this period was the Japanese director Tsukamoto Shinya.

a miND-BOGGLiNG KaLeiDOscOPe OF KiNKY

VisiONs: tsuKamOtO sHiNYa aND tHe criticaL
recePtiON OF a sNaKe OF JuNe

Tsukamoto Shinya’s nightmarish body-horror cyberpunk feature film Tetsuo: The Iron Man was released in the UK in September 1991. The film achieved worldwide exposure at this time, including a brief theatrical release in New York. An article written for the American magazine Premiere posed the question: ‘Is America ready for the new Japant-garde?’55 Indeed, the film was particularly well-appreciated in Britain as an artistic triumph, a work of great originality. The limited theatrical release of both Tetsuo and its sequel, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (one year later, in November 1992), helped establish the artistic credentials of the films. British academic Ian Conrich notes that ‘the Tetsuo films had a limited initial release in British cinemas where, restricted to arthouse venues, they benefited from the support of London’s ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts), and, subsequently, received UK video distribution through ICA Projects.’56 Conrich briefly discusses the British critical response to Tsukamoto, characterising it as mostly negative:

In the main, critics were unused to viewing such extreme examples of Japanese film-making and found the unconventional and low-budget narratives, demanding rapid editing and heightened soundtracks, to be both a curiosity and a challenge, as well as an uncomfortable sensory assault . . . critics were unsettled not just by the kinetic force of the film and the bizarre series of monstrous creations; they also reacted against the levels of crude violence, the improvisational nature of the effects and the perceived weakened storyline.57

Conrich’s assessment largely underplays the varied critical response to the Tetsuo films. Tony Rayns, for instance, wrote a feature article for Sight & Sound championing Tsukamoto as evidence that independent Japanese cinema was flourishing at the time.58 A review of Tetsuo in City Limits remarked that the film ‘heralds a new wave of Japanese Grand Guignol cinema’,59 and another reviewer praised the film for its ‘high energy, inventive’ aesthetic.60

Part of the reason that Conrich characterises the response to the film as negative is that Tetsuo does, as he points out, have an uncomfortable and unsettling

BraND WaGON 107
effect on its reviewers. This does not necessarily translate to criticism though, as Geoff Andrew’s review for Time Out demonstrated: A dazzlingly inventive first feature . . . the emphasis on sado-masochistic fetishism is deeply disturbing. A colleague has likened watching the relentless stream of startling images to being hammered on the head for an hour, and enjoying it; personally, I’m not sure I felt enjoyment, but I was certainly shaken, stirred and entranced.61

Andrew’s reaction is characteristic of the way that critics assigned the film artistic value: it was to be appreciated, rather than enjoyed, and was therefore suitable for only the most limited (art-house) audiences. The review in The Times sarcastically noted that Tetsuo is definitely not ‘a film to show to Aunt Edna’.62 The film did have its detractors though, and interestingly, Christopher Tookey’s attack on the film in the Sunday Telegraph expressed bitterness that the film had been so wholeheartedly embraced by the art-house community:

Tsukamoto says nothing, and at hideous length and volume, with risible special effects and an unhealthy appetite for sexual mutilation. My own apocalyptic prediction as the millennium approaches is that there will be more of this tosh, and no shortage of trendies ready to read significance into it.63

Tookey’s review came a week after the film had been first reviewed in the British press, so his comments were informed by the initial response to the film.

Tookey’s dismissal of the film’s supporters as ‘trendies’ only served to support the notion that Tetsuo was a significant art-house hit, but was rejected by the mainstream media. By the time Tetsuo II was released a year later, the artistic reputation of its predecessor had been confirmed, with Nick James noting that

‘the original Tetsuo built up quite a following’,64 and Jonathan Romney (one of the most vocal supporters of the first film) suggesting that Tsukamoto eclipsed even the most celebrated American art-house auteurs (such as David Lynch).

He explained that Tetsuo II ‘puts Lynch in the shade. It comes from Japan, and bristles with an aggressive cultural expansiveness poles apart from a form of Americana that seems increasingly old-world.’65 Finally, for the Sunday Telegraph’s resident genre expert Anne Billson, Tsukamoto represented an exemplar of art-house filmmaking, and she noted that ‘these days, if you want a proper art movie – the sort with unfathomable plot, demented camerawork and subtitles – you’ll have to look to Japan’.66

Tsukamoto’s films retained their reputation, and in 1997 his film Tokyo Fist was released theatrically in the UK under the niche Manga Films label (which

108 extreme asia
typically specialised in Japanese animation, rather than live action). When Tartan first conceived of Asia Extreme, it seems likely that the Tetsuo films were forerunners. Tartan acknowledged this by assimilating the Tetsuo films into the Asia Extreme brand. In April 2002, shortly after the Asia Extreme label was officially established, Tartan released new Asia Extreme-branded editions of both Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Tetsuo II: Body Hammer on DVD, having acquired the rights from another company. By incorporating these two, decade-old films into the Asia Extreme brand Tartan were acknowledging that to an extent, Asia Extreme really was not an entirely new concept, that it did not just circulate around strictly new films from Asia, and that it had existed in the UK for a longer time. Tartan evidently considered Tsukamoto a figure of importance to the identity of the Asia Extreme label, and by incorporating his best-known films into the brand it gained a decade’s worth of cult fandom and art-house appreciation.

The packaging and content of these DVDs emphasised the films’ significant reputations. The back cover of the Tetsuo: The Iron Man DVD includes copy delcaring that the film ‘caused a sensation when it was first released’ and the front cover contains a prominent quote from influential author William Gibson, the presence of which makes implicit connections between the film and the origins of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction.67 The ‘Film Notes’ on the DVDs of both films, written by Empire journalist Justin Bowyer, remind readers that ‘Shinya Tsukamoto remains one of the most progressive Japanese directors working today and his breakthrough film, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, is as complex, bewildering and overwhelming as ever.’68 Bowyer also maintains that Tsukamoto’s first film ‘earned him global platitudes and a reputation as a force to be reckoned with’.69 Tartan were clearly keen to emphasise Tsukamoto’s place in history and, more importantly, Tsukamoto’s place in the current Asia Extreme catalogue; both DVDs, predictably, contained trail-ers for Tartan’s first five Asia Extreme titles. Tartan’s real push at integrating Tsukamoto and the Asia Extreme brand, however, came with their decision to include Tsukamoto’s most recent feature, A Snake of June, in the 2003 touring film festival.

Of all the titles in the festival, A Snake of June was almost certainly the most likely candidate for a stand-alone release. Given the director’s history in the UK, Tartan could have easily released the film individually, as they had done with their prior Asia Extreme titles. However, releasing the film only as part of the multiplex festival served their purpose in that it made the Asia Extreme branding of the film inescapable. All of the marketing and promotional discourse emphasised the festival as a whole over individual films. The most widely distributed still from the film was prominently used in the flagship festival logo, and Tartan’s theatrical poster for A Snake of June deliberately recalled the visual style of the DVD covers of their Tetsuo releases. A four-

BraND WaGON 109
image poster enabled Tartan to emphasise the film’s varied themes, displaying images both sexual and bizarre, with an obvious overtone of ‘perverted’ sexuality (voyeurism, sado-masochism).

On Tartan’s 2003 Asia Extreme roadshow website, Tsukamoto was one of the only directors who had a featured profile and filmography, again indicating the importance placed on his prior achievements. Tartan’s synopsis of A Snake of June attempts to sensationalise what is already admittedly risqué material, by promising ‘a disturbing, sexually explicit, compelling psychological drama which makes Audition look tame’.70 This declaration continues Tartan’s prac-tise of associating current films with other releases to draw positive responses from the comparison, while dismissing the object of comparison in the process. In this case, A Snake of June is presented as both similar and superior to Tartan’s own centrally important Asia Extreme title Audition.

These branding and marketing strategies did not escape the notice of British critics reviewing A Snake of June, and Tartan’s attempted recontextualisation of the film was central to the critical discourse. Many reviewers reconfirmed Tsukamoto’s significant reputation, and their own expertise, by referring to his past works and placing A Snake of June firmly within the tradition of his recurring themes. A typically comprehensive review from Sight & Sound referenced all three of his previous UK-released films, noting that ‘Tsukamoto first made his name with the surreal cyberpunk extremities’ of the Tetsuo films and has since ‘matured from his sci-fi roots into the violent eroticism of pictures such as Tokyo Fist’.71 Jamie Russell, reviewing the film for the BBC, praised the film as ‘a stylish return to the filmmaker’s most obsessive themes’72
and referred not just to the two Tetsuo films, but also the rarely-seen Bullet Ballet, which had not (at this point) received any kind of official release in the UK.73 Russell also reviewed the film for Total Film and declared that ‘this porno/sci-fi/horror hybrid guarantees Tsukamoto’s continuing reputation as one of Japan’s most original filmmakers’.74 Alexander Walker, reviewing A Snake of June for the Evening Standard, dismissed the film, but concluded that it is ‘a film for Western connoisseurs of director Tsukamoto’s usually even more robotically engineered shockers’.75 The casual familiarity with which Tsukamoto’s past films were mentioned indicates the widespread awareness of his achievements, and that the director has a devoted following in the UK was acknowledged even by his detractors.

Indeed, the critical reception of A Snake of June often recalled the reception that Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo films received, with critics emphasising their admiration for the film despite the experience of watching the film itself being generally unpleasant. Anthony Quinn warned that ‘dread seems to be the principal emotion explored, though whether its object is fear of drowning, sexual intimacy, or penetration itself, I couldn’t be quite sure. Just be warned, it’s strong meat.’76 Mark Kermode, reviewing the film for The Observer, saw

110 extreme asia
the discomfort created by the film as central to the experience of watching any Tsukamoto film:

A Snake of June offers a mind-boggling kaleidoscope of kinky visions, some of which (such as a stageshow involving sexualised drowning) you may wish had remained unseen. Heaped with cancerous metaphors about liberation and repression, this often leaves us uncertain whether to laugh, scream or squirm. For sheer pulverising weirdness, though, it’s hard to top, and reconfirms Tsukamoto as some sort of eccentric, extreme cinema pioneer.77

Kermode placed A Snake of June within the emotional, as well as thematic, tradition of Tsukamoto’s work; this discourse also, significantly, fits well with Tartan’s ‘cultural hand grenade’ philosophy of releasing films that provoke strong responses and are ascribed significance, whether popular or not. Nigel Andrews of the Financial Times clearly felt the film’s impact: he described A Snake of June as ‘a weird and wondrous sex-‘n’-horror film from Japan’, concluding that ‘it feels partly like a surrealist’s party-piece, partly like being mugged on a dark night in a red-light district. You can’t forget it, though for a while you try.’78 Tom Charity had a similar response, admitting that he could not recall the exact details of the plot because ‘I confess I was tearing up at the time’, and warns potential viewers that ‘you risk spending most of its 77
minutes squirming in your seat’.79

One of the most consistent and troubling questions for critics was over A Snake of June’s cultural value. Now that Tsukamoto’s work was in the multiplexes rather than the art houses, and available to a much wider (and significantly different) audience, critics expressed concern over the meaning of his work, and whether that meaning would be understood by this new audience.

Mark Kermode’s thoughtful review for Sight & Sound directly explored this question, articulating some of the concerns over understanding such a ‘challenging’ film. He described the film as
somewhat unruly, treading a bumpy path between high-brow asceticism and low-rent schlock, and occasionally leaving the viewer wondering whether to laugh or cry. Certainly, Tsukamoto’s declaration that the original idea was ‘more violent, more pornographic, more immoral’

goes some way towards explaining the residual shock tactics that tend to disrupt rather than elucidate the film’s ‘higher’ ambitions. The sexual tortures . . . seem inappropriate in such supposedly cerebral surroundings . . . there are occasions when A Snake of June wanders into areas that may be better served by the crude honesty of exploitation rather than the upmarket sheen of art-house sincerity.80

BraND WaGON 111

The question of whether this film is art or exploitation appears consistently.

Jamie Russell’s review for the BBC was full of praise for the film, noting that

‘although it’s distinctly kinky, Tsukamoto’s film is no cheap exploitation thriller’.81 Russell felt a need to emphasise that the film is not exploitation in order to praise it. Peter Bradshaw took an opposite view of the film in an equally positive review, describing it as ‘a delirious shocksploitation thriller with its own uncompromising hardcore aesthetic . . . it certainly leaves the barriers of good taste and correctness far, far behind’.82 Though Bradshaw classed the film as exploitation, his tone suggests that he appreciated the film on a sophisticated level – he was not titillated by the film’s sexuality, but rather was impressed on an aesthetic basis. The difference of opinion between Russell and Bradshaw is really just a matter of semantics – both reviews have the same fundamental argument: that A Snake of June is a challenging, impressive and original creation.

Tom Charity, reviewing the film for Time Out, saw little actual distinction between art and exploitation beyond pretence. He described the film as ‘typically outré (read “pervy”)’, suggesting that most art-house films are merely excuses for sexually explicitness.83 Nigel Andrews also criticised the film on the basis of pretentiousness, describing it as an example of recent ‘postmodern genre-mania, which prefers a sophisticated take on the tacky to a plain look at human truth’.84 The review in Total Film was certainly the most confusing in regard to this argument. Jamie Russell (again) acknowledged debates on the film’s value, but refused to engage with them. Russell states that ‘whether it’s a “feminist” movie as some have claimed is a moot point’.85 Russell’s point is particularly baffling because he never actually explained why the issue of feminism is moot (or why, amusingly, he chose to put quotation marks around the word feminist). Russell’s basic point seems to be that viewers should not worry about ‘reading’ the film for ‘meaning’; they should just enjoy the ‘disturbing, erotic, bizarre adventure’, as Russell concludes.86

For other reviewers, A Snake of June was too ‘arty’ and placed too many demands on a casual viewer. Kim Newman’s review for Empire concluded that the film is ‘too enigmatic for its own good’, too much of a self-conscious ‘weird exercise’ to be enjoyable.87 Nicholas Barber echoed this criticism in his review for The Independent, acknowledging that the film is ‘artily shot’ and that after the first half hour ‘it goes bananas’.88 Barber used his own confusion as a source of humour, and concluded his review with the request ‘if you do see it, feel free to email me and tell me what on earth was going on’.89

For many of the reviewers familiar with Tsukamoto’s work, he is an auteur, and familiarity with his past works is essential to an understanding of his latest film. Yet critics also acknowledged that in the decade since Tsukamoto’s films were first released in the UK, the market for Asian cinema has changed, and that many new fans have been created. Jamie Russell’s review for the BBC

112 extreme asia
observed this, and addressed fans both old and new. Though he referred to both Tetsuo films in his review, he also explained Tsukamoto to readers who may have only recently discovered Japanese cinema through Asia Extreme.

Addressing Tsukamoto’s role as an actor (he takes a lead role in A Snake of June as well as directing), Russell suggested that ‘Japanese cinema fans may recognise him [Tsukamoto] from Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer and Dead or Alive 2: Birds’.90 The fact that Tsukamoto, a director of huge importance for many critics and fans, may be familiar to contemporary audiences only through his cameo roles in a couple of Miike’s hitman thrillers is taken for granted by Russell, but was undoubtedly a source of anxiety for many critics and fans. Indeed, the notion that ‘original’ audiences were ‘there first’, and

‘know better’, is quite evident in fan discourse.

‘i’Ve HaD a BONer FOr asiaN ciNema FOr sOme
cONsiDeraBLe time NOW’: a FaN resPONse tO asia
extreme

Joanne Hollows has argued that the cult film fan finds his status and identity validated by the venue in which he sees his films. Indeed, the cult film fan is invariably, according to Hollows, not just a ‘he’, but a ‘he’ whose masculinity is inextricably connected to the potentially dangerous nature of the alternative cinemas and shops where cult media is consumed and purchased.91 The alternative nature of these venues symbolises an alternative set of values and identity. The multiplex, associated with both femininity and American commercialism, represents the Other to the cult film fan, and is precisely the context of viewing which he finds himself in opposition to. How, then, would a fan of Asian cult cinema respond to the multiplex-based Asia Extreme roadshow?

This section is concerned with a fan response to the Asia Extreme festival, written by a fan with the alias ‘Spank the Monkey’. The article, a lengthy review of the Asia Extreme roadshow in its entirety, was taken from the website The Unpleasant Lair of Spank The Monkey, which was ‘an arts and entertainment review site which covered material suggested for a mature audience’,92 with an obvious connotation of exploitation and/or pornography, given the author’s masturbation-referencing punning moniker. However, this particular article represents an uncommonly thoughtful, passionate and extensive response to the festival. ‘Spank’ describes himself as a ‘fanboy’ and admits at the outset of his article that ‘I’ve had a boner for Asian cinema for some considerable time now.’93 These kinds of fan websites are crucial to the more serious and obsessive Asia Extreme fans, and represent a way for them to retain their sense of a shared – and crucially, small – community at a time

BraND WaGON 113
when the identity of Asia Extreme was becoming increasingly mainstream. A potential problem here, though, is that the increased attention falling on Asia Extreme will encourage an increase in web-traffic to The Unpleasant Lair of Spank The Monkey from more casual audiences, perhaps only discovering Asia Extreme (and Asian cinema more generally) for the first time. This potential irony is common among a variety of fan-based media, and as Joanne Hollows notes,

Therefore, while varieties of niche media – magazines, fanzines and websites – circulate the subcultural knowledges which are central to membership of the ‘imagined community’ of cult, they also threaten to make these knowledges available to all. For these reasons, cult media are a source of ambivalence for the cult fan. However, certain strategies can be employed to ward off ‘outsiders’ and maintain a sense of exclusiveness.94

These strategies, according to Hollows and Nathan Hunt,95 include emphasising a clear ‘obsession with trivia’ which is ‘crucial in constructing a sense of shared expertise and subcultural capital within cult fandom’.96 This is consistently evident in the article, where from the outset ‘Spank’ is determined to emphasise his status as expert, and the long duration of his fandom. Recalling the nature of cult Asian cinema spectatorship in the pre-Asia Extreme period, he suggests:

The real turning point probably came . . . when Hong Kong action flicks started showing on a regular basis at the Scala cinema, along with revivals of the old seventies kung-fu movies. As tatty VHS copies of Chow Yun-Fat films changed hands in the foyer, us fanboys felt we knew about a whole world of thrills that most people in the west could only dream of.97

‘Spank’ recalls the ‘specialness’ and exclusivity of fandom during that period, when he and a few peers were the only people privy to films that ‘most people in the west’ had no knowledge of. Again, ‘Spank’ demonstrates one of the central elements of masculine cult fandom, as defined by Hollows, when he emphasises the pleasure and meaning derived from trading ‘tatty VHS’

tapes. Hollows argues that the collecting and, crucially, the exchanging of materials provides peer validation of very specific taste formations; that no money changes hands when these tapes are swapped between friends is also crucial, ‘because the very category of cult is based on a rejection of the products of consumer capitalism, it becomes problematic to think of the cult fan as a consumer, an identity associated with the passive feminized consumer of “mainstream” cinema’.98 This particular fan, therefore, is lamenting the

114 extreme asia
transformation of the previous period of genuine underground cult fandom into something more accessible.

‘Spank’ laments the changing context for cult Asian film in 2003, and blames the efforts of Tartan’s Asia Extreme label and Contender’s Hong Kong Legends brand:

South East Asia still manages to get a fair amount of its product over here, albeit mainly via video and DVD. Labels such as Hong Kong Legends have been lovingly repackaging all those classics we were buying bootlegs of ten years ago, while Tartan Video have been giving cinema and video releases to the more outrageous and controversial films from the continent.99

‘Spank’ is again emphasising that he has already seen the films being ‘lovingly repackaged’ on DVD, and suggests that the market courted by these new DVD releases is new fans, unfamiliar with these titles. ‘Spank’ notes later in the article that he had already seen The Happiness of the Katakuris twice before it was released as part of the Asia Extreme festival.

With self-aware irony, ‘Spank’ suggests that anyone who saw all seven films would have to be ‘mental’, before moving on to his detailed film-by-film reviews. In considering The Happiness of the Katakuris, ‘Spank’ notes the inconsistency of the Asia Extreme label, speculating that ‘anyone who came to the Asia Extreme Festival expecting depraved sex and violence, and got this film, must have been confused as hell. Which only makes it funnier.’100 ‘Spank’

therefore suggests that Asia Extreme has become a misleading description now that the brand has expanded to include this kind of film (an ‘outrageous’

zombie-horror-musical-comedy), yet he seems to delight in the idea of a viewer being misled by the promise of sex and violence. ‘Spank’ is acknowledging the reductive and potentially misleading nature of Tartan’s marketing tactics and further mocking the multiplex viewer as a philistine whose only interest in Asian cinema is the spectacle of violence and the erotic thrill of sex and nudity.

His comment reflects an anxiety that is widely implied in discourse on the festival: namely, that by releasing these films so widely, and advertising them in this way, the films risk being consumed by casual audiences who lack the expertise to understand them ‘properly’. Fans and critics who value the artistic merit and thematic weight of certain violent Asian horror films are aghast at the thought that people might enjoy or reject the films on a purely ‘basic’ level of the films’ violence and sex.

The review of A Snake of June, like many critical reviews, begins with a comment on Tsukamoto’s career. ‘Spank’ notes that ‘Tsukamoto’s been absent from British cinemas for a few years now’,101 a fact that many of the

‘new’ audiences would be unaware of; ‘Spank’ seems to be addressing his com-

BraND WaGON 115
ments to a reader who has also felt this absence. Elsewhere in the article, too,

‘Spank’ demonstrates a keen awareness of Hong Kong cinema that goes far beyond basic promotional discourse, identifying himself as a long-term fan.

However, his discussion of South Korean cinema demonstrates some significant gaps in knowledge, as he attempts to broadly characterise Korean cinema as ‘producing their own slick variations on standard Hollywood product’.102

‘Spank’ continues to characterise the entire national cinema, stating that

‘not wishing to stereotype or anything, but as far as I can make out, South Korean cinema comes in two flavours: slavish Hollywood copies like Shiri, and films like Sympathy For Mr Vengeance which alternate long slow stretches of atmosphere with short nasty bursts of sharp things being stuck into people.’103

Despite his stated aim to avoid stereotyping, ‘Spank’ does exactly that in his assessment of South Korean cinema. The generalisation that ‘South Korean cinema comes in two flavours’ discounts the huge variety that exists in the domestic market, and his description would not even be appropriate to characterise the few Korean films that had been released in the UK by this point, both within and outside Tartan’s Asia Extreme brand.104

Yet ‘Spank’ is particularly determined to emphasise his passion for South Korean director Kim Ki-duk. Considering both his own, and a much wider, response to Bad Guy, ‘Spank’ notes that ‘all the reviews of Kim Ki-Duk’s Bad Guy have mentioned his earlier notorious fishhook fest The Isle, but I suspect most British critics only know of it by reputation. Well, I’ve actually seen it, in Hong Kong back in 2001.’105 In fact, his principal complaint about Bad Guy is simply that it is not The Isle: ‘ Bad Guy is nothing like as extreme as The Isle, and unfortunately that’s a bad thing . . . it’s a shame Tartan didn’t just bite the bullet and put The Isle in this slot in the first place.’106 This display of specialist knowledge serves to further establish this fan’s expert credentials. He’s critical of Tartan for delaying the release of his preferred film, The Isle, and is claiming ownership of the brand in a sense, indirectly insisting that fans like him should be Tartan’s first consideration.

Finally, ‘Spank’ encourages fans to seek their Asian films elsewhere, noting that most of the films showing in British cinemas are already available on DVD
in Asia, and can be imported for a moderate cost. He recommends a specific retailer, ‘your best bet for picking these films up on DVD if you can’t wait for the Tartan release – they sell Hong Kong DVDs of films from all over Asia, fairly cheap and generally region-free, with English subtitles (of variable quality).’107 This recommendation reflects a peculiar problem that Tartan faced with their Asia Extreme brand. Tartan aimed to introduce its titles to audiences that had never seen films like these before, and were as a result creating fans who want to see more of the same. These fans have the potential to ‘outgrow’ the Asia Extreme brand, and to start importing recently released Asian films on DVD, rather than wait the (typical) several years it is between

116 extreme asia
domestic Asian release and British cinema release courtesy of Tartan. For

‘Spank’ and many of his peers, the Asia Extreme festival is almost redundant, because he’s seen the films before, and his taste in Asian film has become so specific that the brand no longer caters to his demands. In this contradictory sense, though Asia Extreme is a niche brand, it is of limited interest to a niche audience, and is always courting new consumers.

cONcLusiON

Tartan’s attempt at expanding the Asia Extreme brand was successful, increasing awareness on a national level. The logic of Tartan’s partnership with the UGC cinema chain was mutually beneficial. Tartan could reach the previously unreachable audience of multiplex viewers; as has been demonstrated by the work of Douglas Gomery and Mark Jancovich, multiplex patrons are there for the experience rather than a particular film.108 A trip to the cinema becomes an act of habit rather than a choice to see a specific film. Thus, not only would these audiences be unlikely to go to a repertory or art-house cinema, they are also unlikely to automatically reject an Asia Extreme title based on its unfamiliarity, provided they are in familiar surroundings (with popcorn in hand).

Likewise, UGC cinemas were able to compete with nearby art-house cinemas for the local audience for foreign-language cinema, and were able to shake off their typical associations with homogeneity; Mark Jancovich and Lucy Faire determined that the majority of cinemagoers viewed ‘the choice provided by the multiplex as no “real” choice, but only a homogeneous and standardised fare’.109 In fact, Asia Extreme’s whole brand identity is clearly at odds with the widely held view of the multiplex as a feminised, sanitised space, with Tartan’s campaigns based on ‘dirty’ concepts and the overt sexualisation of violent women. These images are arguably intentionally designed to offend, and are clearly unsuitable for the family patronage that apparently typifies the multiplex audience. The success of the festival arguably challenges assumptions that the multi-screen cinema has a fixed and familiar identity.

Tartan and UGC’s arrangement worked precisely because of the size of the cinemas involved: according to Paul Smith, each venue could afford to sacrifice a single screen to this experimental venture.110 Additionally, Tartan were careful not to alienate their traditional exhibitors and audiences, making all of the roadshow films available to art-house cinemas for individual bookings later. The multiplex venues were mostly in university towns, chosen specifically to target younger and student audiences.111

The real triumph of the notion of the roadshow was not in selling cinema tickets to audiences though, it was in creating an even wider audience for the eventual DVD releases. As Paul Smith has said, Asia Extreme was not primar-

BraND WaGON 117
ily a theatrical concept; it was a DVD brand aimed at collectors. An additional advantage of the roadshow, according to Smith, is that the films were seen together, by repeat patrons, but were reviewed individually in national newspapers. Thus, even though the films were not available in cinemas nationwide, they would all shortly be available to purchase on DVD; one of the aims of the festival was to create an appetite among audiences in cities without a participating cinema, building their curiosity (and indeed, as has been made clear, addressing curiosity about the Orient is what Tartan’s press campaigns did best) – or, as Smith calls it, a ‘hunger’ – for an eventual DVD release.112

For Tartan, the roadshow was deemed to have ‘worked very well’ in establishing a strong and clear identity for the Asia Extreme brand; according to Smith, after the festival people knew precisely what the brand represented.113

The problem now facing Tartan was that the brand would be in danger of becoming a victim of its own success. Asia Extreme’s status as a niche brand, and its fans’ pride at their marginal, ‘outlaw’ status, were being threatened by mainstream commercialisation. Indeed, the vast and unprecedented visibility of Asia Extreme’s subsequent releases was the cause of growing concern for both expert critics and authentic fan audiences.

NOtes

1. From the cover of Unlimited, the UGC Cinemas magazine, May 2003.

2. Ring in August 2000, Ring 2 in January 2001, Audition in March 2001, Nowhere to Hide in June 2001 and Battle Royale in September 2001. All of these films are Japanese, with the exception of Nowhere to Hide, which is from South Korea.

3. Shiri was released on seven screens across America in February 2002 and had grossed just under $100,000 by the end of March.

4. Anthony Quinn, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, The Independent, Review, 22 February 2002, p. 10.

5. Tom Charity, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, Time Out, 20–27 February 2002, p. 78.

6. James Christopher, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, The Times, section 2, 21 February 2002, p. 13.

7. Ibid. p. 13.

8. Alexander Walker, ‘Let your trigger do the talking’, Evening Standard, 21 February 2002, p. 35.

9. Christopher, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, p. 13; Catherine Shoard, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, Sunday Telegraph, Review, 24 February 2002, p. 9.

10. Philip French, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, The Observer, Review, 24 February 2002, p. 7.

11. Charity, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, p. 78.

12. Nicholas Barber, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, The Independent on Sunday, 24 February 2002, p. 8.

13. Catherine Shoard, ‘ The Eye’, Sunday Telegraph, Review, 29 September 2002, p. 16.

14. Ian Nathan, ‘ The Eye’, The Times, section 2, 26 September 2002, p. 13; Peter Bradshaw,

‘ The Eye’, The Guardian, section 2, 27 September 2002, p. 19; Tim Robey, ‘ The Eye’, Daily Telegraph, 27 September 2002, p. 24; Nicholas Barber, ‘Horror! And not just the chick flick’, The Independent on Sunday, 29 September 2002, p. 11.

118 extreme asia

15. Barber, ‘Horror!’, p. 11.

16. Alexander Walker, ‘Spooky sights for sore eyes’, Evening Standard, 26 September 2002, p. 50.

17. ‘Heroic bloodshed’ is the specifically Western conception of a genre in Hong Kong cinema, the yingxiong pian, or ‘hero’ movie. The yingxiong pian genre entered into public discourse with the unprecedented commercial and critical success of John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow (1986), along with its many sequels and derivatives. The genre is synonymous with Woo’s film (and, by extension, all his subsequent Hong Kong films): Karen Fang notes that the term was ‘invented by local critical and consumer discourse by drawing directly on the Chinese title of A Better Tomorrow (“Yingxiong bense,” or “The essence of heroes”).’ It is also worth noting that the English term used to describe this genre, ‘heroic bloodshed’, was coined by Rick Baker, editor of the British fanzine Eastern Heroes. Karen Fang, John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, The New Hong Kong Cinema Series (Aberdeen, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004), p. 50.

18. Another interesting detail on the British Fulltime Killer poster is the Chinese script.

Tartan decided to retain the original language title on the poster: the Chinese text is just as large and prominent as the English. On no other posters does any original language appear – this case is a true exception. Possibly, this was a nod to hardcore Hong Kong cinema fans, who would be used to dual-language packaging on the videos and DVDs they would regularly import. On the other hand, the inclusion of Chinese text on the poster might just be visual whimsy or even a design choice made to further emphasise the film’s foreignness.

19. Unlimited, May 2003, p. 19.

20. Ibid. p. 19.

21. Ibid. p. 30.

22. Ibid. p.19.

23. The reference to ‘the looniness of early Woody Allen’ almost certainly refers to some of his first films, where his comedy was more anarchic in style. Key films from this period are Bananas (1971), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972), Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975).

24. Unlimited, May 2003, p. 19.

25. Ibid . p. 30.

26. Ibid. p. 30.

27. Ibid. p. 30.

28. Ibid. p. 30.

29. Ibid. p. 30.

30. Welcome to the World of Tartan Asia Extreme, Asia Extreme 2003 website, www.

asiaextreme.co.uk/archive/asiaextreme2003/home.html, accessed 12 August 2006.

31. Fulltime Killer Synopsis, Asia Extreme 2003 website, www.asiaextreme.co.uk/archive/
asiaextreme2003/fulltimekiller/index.html, accessed 12 August 2006.

32. Tom Charity, ‘ A Snake of June’, Time Out, 11–18 June 2003, p. 74.

33. Contender Entertainment was originally positioned in the market as a distributor of classic Hong Kong action films on DVD, through their Hong Kong Legends label, which was best known for releasing old Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan films. Contender’s Premier Asia label marked their move into both theatrical distribution and contemporary, non-Hong Kong titles. There can be little doubt that the release of Ichi the Killer was a deliberate attempt to claim a piece of the market that Tartan had created through their pioneering brand.

34. Other Asian films released theatrically in the UK at this time were the cult Japanese

BraND WaGON 119
feature animation Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, the Thai comedy-musical Monrak Transistor, the South Korean historical biopic Chihwaseon, and two dramas from mainland China: Unknown Pleasures and Springtime in a Small Town.

35. The full British release title for this South Korea film was Chihwaseon: Drunk on Women and Poetry, and the film’s misleading marketing was no doubt influenced by the inescapable legacy of In the Realm of the Senses.

36. Charity, ‘ A Snake of June’, p. 74.

37. Alan Morrison, ‘ Bad Guy’, Empire, August 2003, http://www.empireonline.com/
reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=9216, accessed 5 January 2007.

38. Jamie Russell, ‘ Bad Guy’, Total Film, August 2003, p. 79.

39. Kim Newman, ‘ Bad Guy’, Sight & Sound, August 2003, p. 36.

40. Danny Scott, ‘ Fulltime Killer’, Total Film, July 2003, p. 78.

41. Ibid. p. 78.

42. See, for example, the discussion in Chapter 2 of debates on body horror, particularly Mark Kermode’s argument that horror fans do not take pleasure from the simple spectacle of violence, that it facilitates a deeper meaning.

43. Justin Bowyer, ‘ Fulltime Killer’, Empire, July 2003, http://www.empireonline.com/
reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=9923, accessed 5 January 2007.

44. Andrew Osmond, ‘ Shiri’, Sight & Sound, June 2003, p. 56.

45. Ibid. p. 56. Osmond is likely referring to actions films such as Under Siege (Andrew Davis, 1992) and On Deadly Ground (Steven Seagal, 1994), films whose themes address US military policy and environmentalism, respectively.

46. Nick Dawson, ‘ The Happiness of the Katakuris’, Empire, June 2003, http://www.

empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=9593, accessed 5 January 2007.

47. Kim Newman, ‘ The Happiness of the Katakuris’, Sight & Sound, June 2003, pp. 47–8.

48. Scott, ‘ Fulltime Killer’, p. 78.

49. Anthony Quinn, ‘ Fulltime Killer’, The Independent, 27 June 2003, http://findarticles.

com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20030627/ai_n12698280, accessed 21 May 2007.

50. Nicholas Barber, ‘Dotheboys Hall at top speed’, The Independent on Sunday, 29 June 2003, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20030629/ai_n12741723, accessed 21 May 2007.

51. Peter Bradshaw, ‘ Fulltime Killer’, The Guardian, 27 June 2003, http://arts.guardian.

co.uk/fridayreview/story/0,,985557,00.html, accessed 21 May 2007.

52. Kim Newman, ‘ Fulltime Killer’, Sight & Sound, July 2003, p. 45. It might be worth noting that Newman is actually mistaken in his appraisal of the Woo-influenced Asian market: it was Woo’s 1986 film A Better Tomorrow that was the true genre-defining, imitation-inspiring breakout hit. The Killer is arguably the film that introduced the director to the Western world (and certainly to Britain), but had minimal influence in Asia. Newman’s error reflects his lack of true expertise in this area.

53. It may be worth questioning the editorial independence of this review. The piece is written by Justin Bowyer, who regularly provides Tartan with ‘Film Notes’ to accompany their DVD releases, and he had been doing so since before this review was published. He references another Asia Extreme title ( Bangkok Dangerous) in this review, and his praise seems to be largely derived from the selling points that Tartan promoted this film on. However, Bowyer does give Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance a so-so review in the very same issue of Empire.

54. Bowyer, ‘ Fulltime Killer’.

55. J. Hoberman, ‘Cyborg chic, marquis madness’, Premiere, July 1991, p. 29.

120 extreme asia

56. Ian Conrich, ‘Metal-morphosis: Post-industrial crisis and the tormented body in the Tetsuo films’, in Japanese Horror Cinema, ed. Jay McRoy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), p. 97.

57. Ibid. pp. 97–8.

58. Tony Rayns, ‘Tokyo stories’, Sight & Sound, December 1991, pp. 12–15.

59. Tommy Udo, ‘ Tetsuo: The Iron Man’, City Limits, 5 September 1991, p. 25.

60. Jeremy Clarke, ‘Man of parts’, What’s On in London, 4 September 1991, p. 83.

61. Geoff Andrew, ‘ Tetsuo: The Iron Man’, Time Out, 4 September 1991, p. 58.

62. Geoff Brown, ‘ Tetsuo: The Iron Man’, The Times, 5 September 1991, section 2, p. 15.

63. Christopher Tookey, ‘ Tetsuo: The Iron Man’, Sunday Telegraph, 18 September 1991, p. xiv.

64. Nick James, ‘ Tetsuo II: Body Hammer’, City Limits, 19 November 1992, p. 18.

65. Jonathan Romney, ‘Nothing to declare’, New Statesman and Society, 20 November 1992, p. 33.

66. Anne Billson, ‘ Tetsuo II: Body Hammer’, Sunday Telegraph, 20 November 1992, p. xvi.

67. William Gibson is frequently credited as one of the pioneers, in literature, of the cyberpunk sub-genre of science fiction. His first three novels were particularly influential in this regard: Neuromancer (1984), Count Zero (1986), and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988).

Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo films are similarly described as paragons of cinematic cyberpunk.

68. Justin Bowyer, ‘Justin Bowyer Film Notes’, Tetsuo: The Iron Man UK DVD, released April 2002.

69. Justin Bowyer, ‘Justin Bowyer Film Notes’, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer UK DVD, released April 2002.

70. A Snake of June, Asia Extreme 2003 website, www.asiaextreme.co.uk/archive/
asiaextreme2003/asnakeofjune/index.html, accessed 12 August 2006.

71. Mark Kermode, ‘ A Snake of June’, Sight & Sound, July 2003, p. 56.

72. Jamie Russell, ‘ A Snake of June ( Rokugatsu No Hebi)’, BBC Films Online, 2 June 2003, bbc.co.uk/films/2003/06/02/a_snake_of_june_2003_review.shtml, accessed 5 May 2007.

73. Bullet Ballet was released on DVD in the UK in February 2005, the first time the film had been officially available in any format.

74. Jamie Russell, ‘ A Snake of June’, Total Film, July 2003, p. 78.

75. Alexander Walker, ‘ A Snake of June’, Evening Standard, 12 June 2003, p. 29.

76. Anthony Quinn, ‘ A Snake of June’, The Independent, 13 June 2003, http://enjoyment.

independent.co.uk/film/reviews/article108654.ece, accessed 5 January 2007.

77. Mark Kermode, ‘ A Snake of June’, The Observer, 15 June 2003, http://film.guardian.

co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_review/0,,977724,00.html, accessed 5

January 2007.

78. Nigel Andrews, ‘The rare sight of emotion for its own sake’, Financial Times, 11 June 2003, http://www.fortissimo.nl/articles/default.asp?id=468&type=2, accessed 5

January 2007.

79. Charity, ‘ A Snake of June’, p. 74.

80. Kermode, ‘ A Snake of June’, Sight & Sound, p. 57.

81. Russell, ‘ A Snake of June’, BBC Films.

82. Peter Bradshaw, ‘ A Snake of June’, The Guardian, 13 June 2003, http://arts.guardian.

co.uk/fridayreview/story/0,,976079,00.html, accessed 5 January 2007.

83. Charity, ‘ A Snake of June’, p. 74.

84. Andrews, ‘The rare sight of emotion’.

85. Russell, ‘ A Snake of June’, Total Film, p. 78.

BraND WaGON 121

86. Ibid. p. 78.

87. Kim Newman, ‘ A Snake of June’, Empire, July 2003, p. 52.

88. Nicholas Barber, ‘ A Snake of June’, The Independent on Sunday, 15 June 2003, http://
enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/reviews/article109111.ece, accessed 5 January 2007.

89. Ibid.

90. Russell, ‘ A Snake of June’, BBC Films.

91. Joanne Hollows, ‘The masculinity of cult’, in Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Taste, eds Mark Jancovich, Antonio Lázaro Reboll, Julian Stringer and Andy Willis (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003).

92. ‘Spank the Monkey’, Welcome To The Abandoned Lair of Spank the Monkey, 14 July 2006, http://www.gleeson0.demon.co.uk/index.htm, accessed 5 May 2007.

93. ‘Spank the Monkey’, Tartan Asia Extreme Festival, 1 August 2003, http://www.

gleeson0.demon. co.uk/tartasia.htm, accessed 5 May 2007.

94. Hollows, ‘The masculinity of cult’, pp. 44–5.

95. Nathan Hunt, ‘The importance of trivia: ownership, exclusion and authority in science fiction fandom’, in Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Taste, eds Mark Jancovich, Antonio Lázaro Reboll, Julian Stringer and Andy Willis (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003).

96. Hollows, ‘The masculinity of cult’, p. 45.

97. ‘Spank the Monkey’, Tartan Asia Extreme Festival.

98. Hollows, ‘The masculinity of cult’, p. 46.

99. ‘Spank the Monkey’, Tartan Asia Extreme Festival.

100. Ibid. Emphasis in original.

101. Ibid.

102. Ibid.

103. Ibid.

104. South Korean films released theatrically in the UK before 2003 by companies other than Tartan include, for example, the feminist drama Take Care of My Cat (Jeong Jae-eun, 2001) and the art-house porno Lies (Jang Sun-woo, 1999).

105. ‘Spank the Monkey’, Tartan Asia Extreme Festival.

106. Ibid.

107. Ibid. ‘Links’.

108. Douglas Gomery, Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in America (London: British Film Institute, 1992), pp. 34–56.

109. Mark Jancovich and Lucy Faire with Sarah Stubbings, The Place of the Audience: Cultural Geographies of Film Consumption (London: British Film Institute, 2003), p. 208.

110. Personal interview with Paul Smith, 14 July 2009.

111. Ibid.

112. Ibid.

113. Ibid.

cHaPter 5

Savagery and Serenity: Extreme

Cinema and the Films of Kim

Ki-duk

You could say that it started with a fishhook.

Grady Hendrix, Sight & Sound, February 20061

For Asian cinema in the UK 2004 was a significant year. Tartan Films released more Asian films in British cinemas than ever before, offering another Asia Extreme seven-film roadshow, the high-profile stand-alone releases of Oldboy (2003) and the first two Infernal Affairs (2002, 2003) films under the Asia Extreme brand, not to mention several art-house-confined

‘non-extreme’ Japanese and Korean films. But if 2004 was an important year for Asian film in general, it was even more significant for the work of one South Korean director in particular: Kim Ki-duk.

Kim’s Bad Guy (2002) was the first of his films released in the UK, having been part of Tartan’s first Asia Extreme roadshow in 2003. In 2004, Tartan released two Kim Ki-duk films, but there were significant differences in the promotion of the films: while The Isle (2000) was Asia Extreme branded and sent out with that year’s roadshow, Kim’s Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . .

and Spring (2003) was released outside of the Asia Extreme label and sold to a very different audience, on very different terms. However, despite the marked difference in the way these two films were presented to British critics and audiences, an inclusive impression of Kim’s body of work began to emerge in discourses. Indeed, Kim’s profile among Western critics was arguably at its peak in 2004, thanks as well to two high-profile festival awards. Kim’s Samaritan Girl (2004) won the Silver Bear award for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival, and just a few months later, Kim’s 3-Iron (2004) won Best Director at the Venice Film Festival.

However, despite Bad Guy being the first of Kim’s films to receive a theatrical release in the UK, it was The Isle that first received critical attention.

Tartan acquired the rights to the film back in 2001, around the time of their
saVaGerY aND sereNitY 123
acquisition of Battle Royale, and began hyping the film immediately. The Isle had notoriously caused vomiting and walk-outs when it first screened at the Venice Film Festival in 2000, and the film was immediately caught up in nego-tiations between Tartan and the British Board of Film Classification when cuts were demanded by the latter. The film’s eventual release in 2004 was, therefore, accompanied by a great deal of prejudice and anticipation.

In 2004, Kim Ki-duk became the focal point for a variety of critical debates on violence in cinema, the morality of Asian films and filmmakers, the value of Asian films versus the commercialism of Hollywood, and the consequences of the dramatically increased exposure of Asian film to Western critics and audiences. This chapter therefore examines Kim Ki-duk’s reputation in the UK, from 2001 to 2004. The first section covers the marketing and pre-release hype of The Isle, in particular the public debates and critical discourse surrounding the film’s censorship woes. This section also offers an overview of the film’s eventual critical reception, specifically considering the familiar debates over questions of art and exploitation. The second section discusses the release of Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring (hereafter referred to as Spring, Summer). By examining the marketing and reception of a film that is superficially unlike The Isle, but thematically actually very similar, this section investigates exactly what the Asia Extreme brand included and precluded at this point in 2004, and how Tartan increasingly differentiated its ‘quality’

art-house releases from its ever more successful Asia Extreme titles. The final section of this chapter assesses the critical and fan debate on the films of Kim Ki-duk that was sparked by a controversial article by Tony Rayns, in which he essentially argued that Western critics and audiences are ‘wrong’ about Kim’s films being worthy of acclaim or attention. Rayns’ piece expressed extreme anxiety over the increasing exposure and popularity of Asian cinema, particularly in the UK, and concerns over whether the ‘right’ Asian films are being seen and understood.

art cOLLiDes WitH exPLOitatiON: HYPiNG aND

DeBatiNG tHe isLe

In February 2006, Grady Hendrix wrote an article for Sight & Sound which attempted to address what he saw as a widespread misconception of South Korean cinema as violent, excessive and exploitative. Hendrix blamed this misconception on the influence of a single film, Kim Ki-duk’s The Isle: You could say that it started with a fishhook. Or, more specifically, a handful of fishhooks crammed down the gullet of a desperate fugitive in Kim Ki-duk’s The Isle (2000). Scooping up prizes across Europe, the

124 extreme asia
movie prompted front-row vomiting fits in Venice and fainting spells in New York. Art collided with exploitation, distributors heard cash regis-ters ringing and in that single, cringe inducing moment a whole slew of misconceptions about Korean movies and violence were cemented in the minds of western audiences.2

The importance of festival hype really cannot be underestimated here, and Paul Smith has admitted that the reaction to The Isle at the Sitges Film Festival (a feeling of ‘collective discomfort’) was important to Tartan’s decision to acquire the film.3 The Isle became instantly notorious worldwide specifically for its disturbing images of human violence, most famously those involving two attempted fishhook suicides. In one scene, the film’s protagonist swallows a bunch of fishhooks attached to a fishing line, and then pulls them back up his throat with all his strength. The scene is later mirrored by the film’s leading female character, who inserts the same device into her vagina rather than down her throat. It was these sequences that attracted attention worldwide, but it was quite different scenes of violence and cruelty that initially alarmed British critics and censors. The Isle also features several (clearly unfaked) scenes in which a variety of animals are tortured or killed. A dog is beaten, a live fish has its flesh sliced off, a caged bird is drowned and a frog is skinned alive.

When Sight & Sound critic Richard Falcon watched an uncut preview version of the film in summer 2001, he noted that ‘these sequences will, without doubt, be censored by the BBFC under the 1937 Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act’.4 The act in question straightforwardly states that ‘it is an offence to distribute or exhibit a film whose creation involved actual cruelty to an animal’, so Falcon can predict the fate of The Isle with confidence.

During this period, however, few critics and reporters had actually seen the film. Whenever the film was mentioned, it was referred to as the subject of a dispute with the BBFC over scenes of violence; there was some confusion, however, over whether it was the violence to people or animals that was the trouble.

Tartan used their acquisition and planned exhibition of the film, and its BBFC conflict, to whip up controversy surrounding the film, much as they had during the period between their acquisition and exhibition of Fukasaku Kinji’s Battle Royale. In fact, Tartan’s president Hamish McAlpine used this opportunity to present himself as a pioneering individual, fighting the censorious powers-that-be to get this artistic, extreme film in British cinemas.

In a newspaper interview with McAlpine published in June 2002, he is characterised as a contradictory figure, interested in both art and exploitation. It is suggested that McAlpine is best known as ‘an earnest cinephile whose goal is to bring edifying film fare to British audiences sick of being force-fed studio blockbusters’, but the article also notes that McAlpine has ‘a mischievous,
saVaGerY aND sereNitY 125
even, perverse, streak’.5 The article also presents McAlpine as central to Tartan’s conflict with the BBFC over The Isle: When he is not producing movies or planning how to release them, he spends much of his time wrangling with the censors . . . he has been struggling for more than a year to get a certificate for Kim Ki-duk’s Venice Festival entry, The Isle (notorious for its extreme sexual imagery), and has hired the QC Anthony Scrivener to represent him against the BBFC.6

The perception that McAlpine created of himself (and of The Isle) with this article is impressive, in the sense that it suited Tartan’s purposes so clearly.

Tartan maintains its ‘underdog’ reputation by appearing to have its president and founder personally involved in the release of the film, and the description of The Isle offered by the article, though limited, is ideal. The film is referred to both as a ‘Venice Festival entry’ (arguably a shorthand for ‘artistically valuable’) and as ‘notorious for its extreme sexual imagery’ (the use of the word ‘extreme’ could obviously not be better placed). It would be two more years before the film was finally released, yet it was already instrumental in the developing reputation of Tartan Films, and the invention of their Asia Extreme brand.

The Isle, therefore, became representative of precisely the kind of controversial Asian cinema that Tartan was promoting in the UK. While the film divided critics on its eventual release, the backlash started long before it reached British screens. Writing in 2003, The Observer’s Kevin Maher categorised Kim Ki-duk, along with Claire Denis and Gaspar Noé, as ‘a new wave of arthouse filmmakers [using] extreme violence as a gimmick to grab the audience’s attention’.7 It is worth noting initially that Maher groups the Korean film The Isle with two French films ( Trouble Every Day and Irreversible), in a rare case of contextualising the film outside the confines of Asian cinema.

Maher’s piece, however, was essentially an attack on these films. He opens by identifying the films as ‘part of a trend that is currently endemic in so-called art-house (non-Hollywood) cinema, one that embraces the kinetic glory of extreme cinema violence without applying much, if any, intellectual rigour to the process’.8 Maher is seemingly scornful of the very notion of ‘art-house’

cinema, and objects to the idea that a film is automatically ‘artistic’ just because it is not American. One of the purposes of his article was to ‘expose’ these fraudster filmmakers, who use cheap, exploitative tricks to win attention and acclaim. Maher explains this ‘deep-rooted intellectual snobbery that controls the arbitrary line between vapid American movies and precious cinema d’art’

as the result of ‘the Pavlovian response in all of us that salivates at the sight of cinema subtitles as if they confer some integrity on the film that appears

126 extreme asia
above them’.9 This article recalls the debates that emerged at the same time in discussion of Tartan’s 2003 Asia Extreme roadshow: a discomfort that foreign cinema is suddenly cheap and exploitative, and that it appeals to an unsophisticated audience. Yet this perceived ‘cheapening’ of art cinema was unlikely to clash with Tartan’s intended image of its Asia Extreme films.

Their promotional campaigns had always emphasised the scandalous and provocative aspects of their films, in keeping with their ‘cultural hand grenade’

philosophy.

Indeed, the goal of Maher’s piece was to criticise precisely this situation, of films gaining notoriety based on their ability to provoke scandal and outrage.

Maher blamed the directors themselves though, and urged viewers to take a more critical view of these films:

In all these movies the Big Disturbing Set-Piece Scene Of Violence has become its very own raison d’être, irrespective of its place in any supposed narrative order. It’s the one scene that will have them running for the exists, the one that will kick-start the controversy, and the one that will ultimately immortalise the movie . . . and so, the next time you hear about a scandalous art-house festival smash that’s pushing the acceptable boundaries of cinema violence, don’t imagine that it is obviously a deeply intellectual examination of social rage, power relations and the extremities of life itself.10

While this argument directly recalls the debate that Audition, with its foot-garrotting finale, caused, it is also important to consider the kind of audience member that Maher seems to be addressing. Tartan’s promotion of its Asia Extreme films has always been based on the notion that these films offer levels of sex and violence that Hollywood films simply cannot provide, restricted as they are by their Western morals. The audiences that Tartan are courting with their Asia Extreme brand were not the kind of audience that expects a deeply intellectual experience. Maher was warning readers that they will be disappointed by the cheap shock tactics of these films, but he discounts the audience for whom a lack of narrative cohesion will not make the slightest bit of difference. This is not to say that Tartan’s Asia Extreme films in general, or The Isle in particular, are not intellectually satisfying films, nor that only the most unsophisticated of viewers can enjoy them; merely that Tartan’s marketing has generally sold films on the basis of their shocking, rather than intellectual, content. Obviously, the disapproval of the broadsheet press plays perfectly into the perception of the film that Tartan want to cultivate, making The Isle, in many respects, the exemplary Asia Extreme film.

Indeed, in precisely the way that Tartan’s Marketing Director Paul Smith suggested, critical commentary drew attention to the film as part of a wider
saVaGerY aND sereNitY 127
group of extreme Asian titles. The earliest review of The Isle, in August 2001’s Sight & Sound, was written before the Asia Extreme brand officially existed, and may well have been one of the most influential pieces. Richard Falcon’s main comparative reference point was Audition, and he suggested that ‘ The Isle sees itself as “defying genre,” but, like Takashi Miike’s Audition, it’s a gross-out movie in arthouse clothing.’11 At this point, the as-yet-unnamed Asia Extreme cycle was still confined to art-house cinemas, and for Falcon, the collision of exploitation and art house is specific to these two Asian films:

There’s no gainsaying The Isle’s success as exploitation – this case-hardened critic had to avert his eyes three times . . . The traditional aspirations of arthouse cinema presuppose an engaged and patient audience, tolerant of difficulty. Kim Ki-Deok12 seems to have in mind an (emotionally at least) adolescent audience demanding regular shocks and bouts of barely defensible sexual violence to keep it interested.

Like Audition, The Isle ultimately addresses us with a startling level of contempt and patronage [and] is perhaps talismanic for the expanding self-conscious paragenre of ‘Extreme Cinema’, increasingly supported by arthouse forms of distribution and exhibition.13

By the time the film was finally released and widely reviewed in 2004, it was fully integrated into the well-established Asia Extreme brand and reviewers dutifully warned readers that the film kept its promises. Philip French described the film’s frequent violence as ‘of an extreme kind’,14 Jamie Russell acknowledged that it was ‘a notoriously extreme film’15 and Roger Clarke described some of the film’s incidents as literally ‘unspeakable’.16 The influence of Kim Ki-duk and Tartan’s Asia Extreme releases on the British critical perception of wider South Korean cinema can also be seen. In his review of The Isle, Steve Rose characterised all of South Korean cinema in exactly the way that critics have described individual Asia Extreme titles: as violent films combining art and exploitation. Rose made sweeping statements based solely on the Korean Asia Extreme titles he had seen:

The country seems to excel at this type of hard-boiled material; there seems to be a distinctively Korean style emerging here and in previous releases like Nowhere to Hide, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Bad Guy

– a combination of art film sensibilities and commercial slickness, with a tone that floats somewhere between tragedy, horror and absurdity. For those who can stomach it, it’s uniquely invigorating . . . the gruesome streak running through these movies should perhaps be attributed less to the individuals than to the country in which they grew up.17

128 extreme asia

Rose’s article is staggeringly misinformed, and the conclusions he draws about an entire national cinema are fairly offensive. However, Rose’s comments are useful in demonstrating the influence that the Asia Extreme brand now had: for many critics and audiences, the brand that Tartan had created had become entirely representative of filmmaking from the entire South Korean nation (and, indeed, the East Asian region).

As awareness of the Asia Extreme brand spread, and the connections between its films were becoming clearer, critics increasingly struggled with classifying the films by genre. While the very first Asia Extreme title, Ring, was unambiguously seen as a horror film, that label became more and more limiting in accurately describing these films. Reviewing The Isle, Jamie Russell repeatedly used the term ‘horror film’ while at the same time undermining that phrase as a useful description. In fact, Russell’s review seems confused and contradictory throughout. He described The Isle as both ‘a mournful cine-poem of love and loss’ and a ‘shocking South Korean horror movie’ in the space of a single sentence, and further remarked that, ‘shocking in its brutality yet hauntingly beautiful in its sumptuous sense of space and place, this is no ordinary horror film’.18 Russell is at such pains to emphasise how atypical of horror The Isle really is that one wonders why he chose to classify it as such in the first place. His confusing conclusion was that The Isle is ‘less a conventional horror movie than an angst-ridden exploration of the outer limits of despair’.19

Sight & Sound’s Richard Falcon had a much clearer idea of how to address the Asia Extreme films when he first reviewed The Isle back in 2001, noting that

‘ The Isle sees itself as “defying genre” . . . like Takashi Miike’s Audition’.20

Russell’s confused piece is nonetheless distinctive for the way in which it confers artistic depth and meaning on the film. The majority of critics were preoccupied with the film’s extreme violence and perceived misogyny, while the critics who saw the film as intellectually significant were few and far between. Genre critic Alan Jones represents one of these exceptions though, and took a sympathetic view of the film. He characterised the film as ‘provocative and highly controversial material for adult audiences’, praising Kim’s use of ‘dream-like imagery and raw shock . . . to create an avant-garde work of cruel beauty and overwhelming honesty’.21

In fact, there were few reviews that seemed to have particularly strong opinions on the film either way. It is as if critics were so preoccupied with discussing the impact of the film’s extreme and unusual violence that they had no space left to praise or condemn the film. Empire’s review was limited in both its praise and its criticism of the film, concluding that ‘this is successful as a shocker, sadly, though, all this arthouse exploitation fails to reveal as much about contemporary Korea as, say, Texas Chainsaw did about the States’.22 Empire also wryly commented on the result of the film’s submis-sion to the BBFC. When The Isle was finally released in 2004, 1 minute and
saVaGerY aND sereNitY 129

50 seconds had been cut from the film. Just as Richard Falcon had predicted back in 2001, the BBFC would simply not permit the scenes of unsimulated cruelty to animals. Mindful of the fact that the film’s human violence had not been subject to the censors’ cuts, Empire quipped that ‘judging by the BBFC’s scissor work on Kim Ki-duk’s savage study of dangerous obsession, it’s fine for filmmakers to depict the insertion of sharp metal implements into a woman’s labia, but heaven help them if they harm a fish’.23

As gentle and humorous as their criticism is, Empire was still drawing attention to the BBFC’s double standard. Indeed, many critics used their discussion of The Isle to weigh in on the issue of censorship. Richard Falcon referred directly to the director’s own position on these debates, noting that

‘in interviews Kim Ki-duk attributes western protests to cultural difference’.24

Horror expert and widely-exposed film critic Mark Kermode weighed in on the debate with a pro-BBFC argument. Kermode wrote a lengthy polemic against Kim Ki-duk and other animal-abusing foreign filmmakers, deeming their behaviour unacceptable, and praising the BBFC’s strict adherence to the 1937 Cinematograph Films Animals Act:

The much maligned Animals Act is in fact a perfectly sensible piece of legislation which simply requires that filmmakers do not treat animals like trash, and encourages them not to resort to acts of cruelty whenever artistic inspiration fails them. In the past few years, the Animals Act has been responsible for scenes of animal abuse being cut from every-thing from Ruggero Deodato’s relentlessly sleazy Cannibal Holocaust to Ki-Duk Kim’s supposedly highbrow The Isle – cuts which, incidentally, I wholeheartedly support and endorse . . . Freedom of expression is one thing – freedom of behaviour is something else . . . As for the BBFC, they continue to prove that they have indeed put the adolescent silliness of the Ferman years behind them, and matured into one of the most sensible and accountable regulating bodies in the world.25

The ultimate result of this debate, though, was to position Kim Ki-duk as a filmmaker who met with the disapproval of official bodies and highbrow critics. Kermode’s description of The Isle – as ‘supposedly highbrow’ – was an attack not just on the film, but on those who see it as artistically significant and meaningful. On the whole, The Isle received precisely the kind of critical attention that Tartan wanted. The film was one of their roadshow films, and was never intended to have the breakout mainstream success that Oldboy and Infernal Affairs achieved at this same time. Few critics liked the film, and there certainly was not a consensus of support. The release of Kim’s Spring, Summer, however, outside of the Asia Extreme label, could not have been more different.

130 extreme asia
a secOND cHaNce at LiFe: tHe marKetiNG aND
criticaL recePtiON OF sPriNG, summer, autumN,

WiNter . . . aND sPriNG

In May 2004 Tartan Films released Kim Ki-duk’s Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring, the first Korean film they had released outside of the Asia Extreme label since it was invented. While The Isle showed exclusively in multiplex cinemas as part of the 2004 Asia Extreme roadshow, Spring, Summer was confined to art-house cinemas nationwide. Though Spring, Summer and The Isle were both released in 2004 (in May and September, respectively), neither film’s promotion mentioned the other, and the marketing campaigns were drastically different. Kim’s previously released Asia Extreme title Bad Guy was mentioned frequently in press and promotional materials for The Isle, as Tartan were obviously keen to link the two controversial Asia Extreme releases. The dominant marketing image for The Isle was also simple and direct, and recalls the marketing tactics used for Bad Guy. The theatrical poster for The Isle is the simple superimposition of two images – fishing huts on a lake, and (much more eye-catchingly) a naked woman covering her breasts with her arm. The promise of sex and nudity seems to be obvious, and continues Tartan’s eroticisation of the Oriental in its Asia Extreme marketing.

On the other hand, Spring, Summer was clearly sold as a more prestigious and cerebral film. While Tartan relied on The Isle’s image to speak for itself, their marketing for Spring, Summer was more explanatory. That film’s theatrical poster included a comprehensive list of all the film festival awards and nominations the film has received, emphasising the film’s prestigiousness and international critical acclaim. Quotes featured on other promotional materials emphasised critical acclaim, in direct contrast to The Isle (which has a notable lack of festival award information or quotes on its poster). The marketing campaign for Spring, Summer presents the film as deeply serious and meaningful, and as an artistic and even spiritual experience, seemingly in total contrast to The Isle.

Yet when the film’s promotion was out of Tartan’s direct control, the basis on which it is sold can change slightly. When Spring, Summer was shown at the independent Broadway Cinema in Nottingham (the city’s major art-house cinema), it was presented as that month’s main attraction, featuring on the cover of the June 2004 programme catalogue. The choice of still used is interesting: rather than use the film’s poster image, or any of the other available images that emphasise the film’s spiritual dimension, the Broadway chose to use an image from the film’s only sex scene. The image used is not necessarily misrepresentative of the film, nor does it suggest that Spring, Summer offers ‘cheap’ titillation (in the way that the poster for The Isle so bluntly and obviously promises nudity). However, the image used by the Broadway does
saVaGerY aND sereNitY 131
continue the eroticisation of the Orient that has been present in the promotion of Asian art films and exploitation alike since the release of In the Realm of the Senses, and demonstrates that there are some fundamental similarities in the way that Asian films, whether art or exploitation, Asia Extreme or not, are expected to appeal to British cinemagoers of every description.

The British critical reception of Spring, Summer, however, could not be more different than that of The Isle. While critics struggled to find value in The Isle, their response to Spring, Summer was overwhelmingly positive.

Peter Bradshaw felt that the film was deeply meaningful, describing it as ‘one of the very few films which has a real spiritual dimension . . . charming and rewarding’.26 Sight & Sound’s Leslie Felperin praised the film’s ability to bring a specifically Asian spiritual message to a Western audience, noting that

‘the circular narrative, suggesting the wheel of life, has particular resonance for Buddhist viewers, but the parable is told with the lightest of touches and requires no culturally specific knowledge to comprehend. For once, the descriptor “universal” is appropriate.’27 Philip French also responded positively to the film’s specifically Asian depictions of sex and religion, describing the film as ‘erotic in a youthfully innocent fashion, and witty in a Zen-like way . . . this film might well become some sort of classic’.28 Peter Whittle saw the film as the antithesis of busy Western civilisation, suggesting that ‘an atmosphere of rarefied spirituality is avoided by the delicateness, charm and occasional humour in the director’s approach. And for those harassed souls who can’t afford a week-long peaceful retreat, it’s an effective substitute – I certainly felt my pulse slowing.’29

Although Spring, Summer was released several months before The Isle, the latter film had been a topic of critical discourse for years, and so critics (having also seen, or heard about the previous year’s Bad Guy) were well aware of Kim Ki-duk’s typical authorial preoccupations. Attempts to reconcile Kim’s reputation as an exploitative provocateur with this seemingly profound and artistic film were, however, a surprisingly minor feature of reviews. Of those critics who did reference Kim’s other work, Peter Bradshaw’s comment is typical: he opened his review with the declaration that ‘Korean director Kim Ki-duk is best known on the festival circuit for his studies in violence and cruelty, but this delightful, meditative film could not be more different’.30

Leslie Felperin interviewed Kim for a feature article on the film in Sight & Sound, and tried to challenge the perception of him and his work as ‘angry’, arguing that ‘Kim Ki-duk’s spare meditation on Buddhism belies his raw image’.31 Felperin notes that ‘somewhere in the course of his career Kim Ki-duk picked up the label “the angry young man of Korean cinema”, an epithet that doesn’t quite fit now’.32 Felperin then tries to offer an explanation for the limited intellectual depth of Kim’s previous films ( The Isle included) by noting that ‘Kim comes from a working-class background, started his career as

132 extreme asia
a painter and had no formal film-school training. This partly accounts for his movies’ sometimes simplistic engagement with class and politics.’33 Felperin’s logic here seems dubious and, frankly, offensively classist, but she does at least attempt to explain the jarring effect of seeing Spring, Summer after the rest of Kim’s films. Her conclusion ultimately mirrors the comments of many critics, as she remarks that ‘few anticipated Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring, arguably his finest and most mature film to date and a complete depar-ture from the violent canvases of his earlier work’.34

David Jays, reviewing the film for Sight & Sound in that same issue, successfully drew connections between Spring, Summer and both The Isle and Bad Guy, making an effort unusual among British critics to see Kim’s entire oeuvre as a cohesive whole. Jays noted that ‘beyond its poetic composition and references to Buddhist mysticism, it deals with the same alienated and marginal characters struggling to attain some kind of peace’.35 He correctly observed that ‘Kim’s withholding, wounded characters typically stint on dialogue’.36

Indeed, there is very little dialogue in Spring, Summer, and none at all in its final act. Likewise, the protagonist of Bad Guy speaks only once in the entire film, and the central couple of The Isle barely say a word to one another. Jays insightfully concludes that Spring, Summer is an unusual but not anomalous film in Kim’s career, remarking that ‘although not as gut-wrenching or politically pugnacious as some of his previous work, Kim’s film allows a sense of moral renewal unclouded by sentimentality and without blurring his remarkable cinematic idiom’.37

That the majority of critics did not make much, if any, reference to Kim’s other work is perhaps not surprising given Tartan’s lack of cross-promotion.

It seems that they were determined to position this film firmly outside the Asia Extreme label, and discouraged any association of Spring, Summer with Kim’s other work. Tartan clearly saw their Asia Extreme and non-Asia Extreme audiences as different and distinct, and engaging them required not just separate marketing tactics but a total lack of cross-promotion. It is as if Tartan thought that art-house audiences would run a mile if they knew that Spring, Summer was directed by a notorious Asia Extreme auteur, or that likewise, Asia Extreme audiences would be turned off The Isle if they knew its director was capable of sensitive and meditative art films.

Another example of Tartan’s tight control over the way its films were reviewed and discussed, as well as a clear demonstration of their wildly differing marketing tactics for these different films, can be found by considering the following: Spring, Summer was also the subject of censorship by the BBFC. When The Isle ran into trouble with the BBFC over its scenes of animal cruelty, Tartan took the opportunity to make the whole process of certifying the film public. There were articles and numerous references made to the ‘battle’ between Tartan and the BBFC to get The Isle released uncut.

saVaGerY aND sereNitY 133

The whole situation only served to promote the desired reputation of the film and the label, and The Isle can barely be mentioned without noting its censorship woes. However, Spring, Summer fell victim to the exact same legislative difficulty. That film, too, featured the unsimulated killing of various animals, and was subsequently cut by the BBFC before release. However, it obviously did not suit Tartan’s purposes to present Spring, Summer as a scandalous and violent film in danger of being repressed by the censors. Rather than actively drawing attention to this situation, Tartan suppressed any mention of the BBFC’s ruling. In all the reviews and articles written on the film for British publication there is not a single reference to the fact that the film was cut before release, or that the version being seen in the UK is by no means complete.

Tartan’s Asia Extreme films were always critic-proof in the sense that it did not matter if they were badly reviewed, it simply appeared to audiences that these films were too ‘extreme’ to meet the approval or understanding of the critical establishment. Indeed, Tartan often controlled the flow of information to the British press specifically in order to court a ‘negative’ critical reaction.38

In the case of Spring, Summer, Tartan was equally determined to control the critical perception of the film, but in this case it was to foster a positive reception. Tartan withheld potentially damaging information about the film’s violence in order to cultivate acclaim, especially from highbrow publications and broadsheet newspapers. The kind of audience that would go to an art-house cinema to see a modern Buddhist fable for Korea is, frankly, exactly the kind of audience that will read broadsheet newspapers, and place value on the opinions therein.

However, despite Tartan’s best (and mostly successful) efforts to keep its Asia Extreme and other Asian art-house releases distinct, critics were starting to make wider associations. Tim Robey’s review of Spring, Summer in the Daily Telegraph made a unique and striking observation, canonising the film in a way that no other reviewer did. Rather than compare the film to Kim Ki-duk’s other work, or Tartan’s other Asian art-house films (like, for example, the Japanese drama The Twilight Samurai, released by Tartan around this time), Robey makes the following declaration:

After last year’s Chihwaseon and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, this is another example of what makes Korean art cinema one of the most rewarding discoveries on offer at the moment.39

Robey’s canonisation and classification of these three films as ‘Korean art cinema’ is atypical, and therefore significant, as all three had distinct release contexts: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Park Chan-wook, 2002) was an Asia Extreme-branded title, released as part of 2003’s roadshow, and Chihwaseon (aka Chihwaseon: Drunk on Women and Poetry, Im Kwon-taek, 2002) had

134 extreme asia
been released in a few art-house cinemas nationwide in June 2003, by Pathé Distribution. The Asia Extreme brand consciously elided individual national differences between films, yet Robey’s review took an Asia Extreme film out of the brand and canonised it with non-Asia Extreme films. Robey latched on to the distinctive ‘Korean-ness’ of the films, rather than any general, vague notion of Asia, and tied them together on that basis. The increasing exposure of South Korean cinema, under whatever brand, inevitably led to a dawning critical and audience awareness of national identity. Whether or not the films being shown offered a fair representation of this national cinema, however, was a subject of bitter debate.

eurOPeaN stOOGes, creDuLOus critics aND

BuLLsHit DetectOrs: tONY raYNs ON Kim Ki-DuK

If 2004 can be considered a high point for Korean cinema in the UK generally, and Kim Ki-duk in particular, this peak in acclaim and exposure led to an aggressive and articulate attack on the director from film critic Tony Rayns. Rayns writes for Sight & Sound magazine in the UK and a variety of other international publications (most notably, Film Comment), and is also a high-profile film festival advisor. Rayns is without question the leading Asian cinema critic in Britain. His commitment to, and expertise in, Korean cinema has been long established. For example, Rayns was championing Korean cinema in the UK years before its recent boom in British visibility: he proposed and curated Britain’s first ever Korean film festival back in 1994.40 Given his genuine expertise in this area, and his familiarity with a much broader range of Korean cinema than is released in the UK (or indeed, in the West), Rayns often positions himself in opposition to the general British critical consensus.

Rayns tends to emphasise in his writing that he was ‘here first’ and ‘knows better’ than the critics who are only just discovering Korean cinema through a few British releases.

Rayns’ brief reviews of The Isle and Spring, Summer for the Time Out Film Guide, for example, reveal his disdain for this director and his admirers. Rayns describes The Isle as ‘juvenile’, concluding that ‘the ideas are banal, the shock tactics are desperate . . . and the cruelty to animals is indefensible. In a sum, obnoxious.’41 While this scathing critique echoes (and even summarises) the scorn that some critics heaped on the film, Rayns’ equally negative position on Spring, Summer is much more contrary. Rayns notes that the film was

‘acclaimed by credulous western critics (but not by Koreans)’, and refutes the notion that the film is a meaningful meditation on Korean Buddhism.42 He concludes that Spring, Summer has ‘no coherent meaning’ and is ‘a meditative experience for the dumbed-down’.43 Rayns’ comments openly attack those
saVaGerY aND sereNitY 135
critics who praised and championed the film, and he is suggesting the ignorance of British critics has allowed them to be totally fooled by Kim’s unoriginal and superficial film.

Rayns’ most significant and controversial contribution to the critical Kim Ki-duk debate came with the publication of his article ‘Sexual terrorism: The strange case of Kim Ki-duk’ in the November–December 2004 issue of Film Comment. Rayns’ aim in this article is to explain Kim’s rise to international acclaim. In his opening paragraph, Rayns describes the situation thus: Kim Ki-duk is a singular, possibly unique, figure in world cinema. He’s an authentic primitive, an autodidact who has successfully parlayed his limited talents into an international career [and] he couldn’t have done it without the help of several European stooges.44

Rayns’ directly stated purpose in the article is to criticise both Kim’s work, and the Western critics and distributors who have led to his exposure and acclaim.

Rayns is unique in shifting his attack from the films themselves to the ‘stooges’

who have promoted them.

Part of the source of Rayns’ obvious anger is his feeling that the ‘wrong’

Korean films are being celebrated in Europe. Distressed by the fact that ‘the government-funded Korean Film Council, KOFIC, reports that it receives more requests for help with Kim Ki-duk retrospectives than for all other Korean cinema projects put together’, Rayns laments the conclusion that ‘this means that, in Europe, at least, Kim would appear to be better known than Im Kwon-taek, Lee Chang-dong, Hong Sang-soo, Jang Sun-woo, and Bong Joon-ho’.45 For Rayns, the directors he lists are not just more deserving of international acclaim, they are also implicitly more representative of South Korean cinema in general. Part of Rayns’ anxiety must come from the fact that Kim’s films are being seen as somehow ‘typically’ Korean (as was the case with the critical reception discussed in the previous sections).

Rayns summarises and characterises Kim’s work with a sarcastically comprehensive list of the director’s weaknesses:

He is not a master of psychosexual sophistication. Nor, as it happens, is he a great director of actors or an acute analyst of Korean society, politics, or history. In fact, to be frank, the writer-director you can infer from his films comes across as just a teensy bit naïve when it comes to sexual politics, social criticism, and religious inklings.46

Rayns argues that, rather than any artistic merit, what Kim’s films possess is an ability to provoke. Rayns demonstrates his point by comparison to the German director, Rainer Werner Fassbinder:

136 extreme asia

He’s an instinctive provocateur, as gleefully malicious in his punishment of audiences as Fassbinder ever was . . . Fassbinder, of course, was also an autodidact, and just as Rainer Werner’s delight in winding up his ‘liberal’

audiences had an element of one-upmanship about it, so Kim’s provocations no doubt express his rage at bourgeois society. . . (harping on this class resentment when you’re feted everywhere from Berlin to Karlovy Vary may seem a little forced, but we’ll let that pass). Anyhow, the comparison ends there. If Kim is a Korean Fassbinder, he’s a Fassbinder without the questioning intelligence, without the cinephile knowledge of his own antecedents, and without the kind of self-awareness that allows personal trauma to be turned into viable drama.47

By calling Kim a ‘provocateur’, Rayns is acknowledging and explaining precisely why the director has achieved such international attention. In terms of Tartan’s Asia Extreme label, it is exactly Kim’s ability to provoke scandal, outrage, disgust and censorship that makes him such a heavily promoted and central figure in their brand. Rayns argues that Kim’s ability to provoke is not an aspect of his work, it is the extent of his talent, and the one attribute on which he has based his international career (it is worth noting that Rayns repeatedly emphasises how marginal Kim is for domestic South Korean audiences, who generally totally ignore his work).48

Having thoroughly criticised Kim and his work, Rayns turns his attack on the European distributors of Kim’s films:

I don’t know why Venice chose the film [ The Isle] for competition, so I can only speculate. Was it because they took a serene overview of Korean cinema in 1999 and found The Isle more interesting and achieved than, say, Lee Chang-dong’s Peppermint Candy or Lee Myung-se’s Nowhere to Hide or Kim Sang-jin’s Attack the Gas Station? . . . Was it because they were eager to present their audience with the best face possible of Korea’s emerging cinema? Or was it because they were looking for cheap shock value and an easy source of controversy? Alas, the questions must sit there unanswered.49

Though he is referring to the specific case of the Venice Film Festival, Rayns is attacking all of the festivals and distributors who favour the ‘cheap’ sensationalism of Kim’s films over the artistic value of better Korean films. He is indirectly (but obviously) criticising Tartan and the brand they created which suits Kim Ki-duk so well. The success of the Asia Extreme brand has propelled Kim and other ‘undeserving’ Korean films to international acclaim, creating a specific audience with a particular conception of Korean cinema that has no room for the films and filmmakers Rayns mentions. Rayns is the first
saVaGerY aND sereNitY 137
critic to discuss the limiting and harmful consequences of this niche market, narrow-focus representation of Asian (in this case, Korean) cinema.

Rayns also attempts to explain how these British critics and European festival juries can be so ‘wrong’ about the quality of Kim’s work.50 To Rayns, the curious fact that Kim’s films are so widely celebrated must be explained. He proposes that the central problem is Orientalism, and ignorance: It must come down to the age-old problem of the blind spot that some Westerners have for East Asian films. It’s as if they’re so hung up on the

‘otherness’ of Oriental cultures that their bullshit detectors stop working

. . . some of the problem, sad to say, is due to ignorance and ‘dumbing down.’ Those commentators who sincerely believed that Spring, Summer was a profound meditation on Buddhist expiation and the natural cycle not only know nothing about Buddhism; they’re also oblivious to the existence of Korean classics from which Kim borrowed many of his ideas.51

Though he takes a harsh and damning view of the process of critical reception in general, Rayns also acknowledges that it is indeed the exoticisation of the Orient on which Tartan based its brand. As I have demonstrated, the Otherness of Battle Royale and Audition is precisely what made them ‘special’

for British critics. The fact that the majority of critics and audiences are

‘oblivious’ to older Asian films only adds to the strangeness and ‘newness’ of the Asia Extreme cycle. As I have shown, the Asia Extreme brand has relied on Orientalism and ignorance among critics and audiences since it started. Rayns’

sarcastic, contemptuous attack has reached the heart of the situation, and he remains one of the only critical or academic commentators to acknowledge the basis of the cycle’s success.

However, Rayns’ article caused considerable backlash (albeit mostly in online film forums), and understandably, people did not appreciate being told that they only liked Kim Ki-duk because they were so ignorant. In fact, the response to the article was so considerable that the editor of Film Comment, Chuck Stephens, wrote a rebuttal to the ‘muddled outrage and spittle-flecked defences of the director that Rayns’ article continues to inspire online’, in the form of a review of Kim’s 3-Iron for Cinema Scope.52 Stephens defended Rayns, and made the purpose and timing of Rayns’ polemic even more clear: My initial hope in asking Rayns to rework his already familiar-in-Korea thesis was to sound a cautionary note at precisely the moment Kim stood on the verge of greatly expanding his American profile. Well aware that the welter of hardcore festival bloggers and region-free DVD-shoppers who’d been wowed by The Isle (2000) were the last minds we’d be likely

138 extreme asia
to change, I found myself even more worried by the possible effect a typically overwrought, if thematically anomalous, Buddhist tchotchke like Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter . . . Spring (2003) might have on Kim’s career. The umpteenth incarnation of exportable Asian cinema was the last thing anyone needed, with Kim cast as a more scabrous variation on Zhang Yimou. But critics everywhere were taking the bait.53

Stephens makes his position very clear, as well as drawing an interesting distinction between audiences. Stephens acknowledges that Kim stands on the verge of major American acclaim, and hoped that Rayns’ article would pre-empt a widely positive critical reception of the director’s films. But he makes it clear that he does not care about, or value, the opinions of the ‘hardcore festival bloggers and region-free DVD-shoppers’ who would watch The Isle; rather, it is the audience for the more upmarket Spring, Summer that Stephens wants to influence. Although he is writing about the American context, his examples are clearly applicable to the UK, where Tartan also saw its audiences for the two films as clearly distinct. Stephens articulates a view that dismisses The Isle’s (the Asia Extreme) audience on the basis that they are unlikely to be swayed by critical disapproval; indeed, this is something that has been seen repeatedly in the British context. Stephens makes clear an implicit anxiety of Rayns’ piece; that it is acceptable for gore-hungry exploitation fans to be satis-fied by Kim’s dubious output, but it is much more disturbing for the majority of highbrow critics to find genuine artistic merit to Kim’s work.

Stephens’ piece reflects the specific moment in which it was written.

Propelled in no small part by Asia Extreme, a hugely increased number of Asian films were being seen in the UK (and Europe and America). Yet, as the British release of the two Kim Ki-duk films demonstrates, the audience was increasingly fracturing (both by design and by increasingly different taste formations). That Stephens could dismiss one Asian cinema audience as unworthy of engagement demonstrates changing critical attitudes to niche market Asian film. Where once the niche market Asia Extreme titles were the Asian films to see, they were increasingly being viewed as a lesser cousin to both prestige art-house releases and slick multiplex Asian hits, like Oldboy and Infernal Affairs.

cONcLusiON

Kim Ki-duk’s most notorious films were central to the Asia Extreme brand identity, and he was emblematic of the provocative nature of the cycle. Yet as the brand developed and expanded beyond 2004, Kim became an increasingly marginal figure. With the success of Oldboy looming large (as discussed in the
saVaGerY aND sereNitY 139
next chapter), director Park Chan-wook became the new poster boy for Asia Extreme. In fact, Tartan went on to release four more of Kim’s films to take advantage of his UK fanbase, but none of these DVDs were Asia Extreme branded.54 Paul Smith has admitted that after the dust settled on the release of The Isle, Kim became ‘trickier to promote’ because his films were, apparently,

‘not quite art house’ and not quite in line with an Asia Extreme brand rapidly growing in impact and exposure.55

Ultimately, what Tony Rayns – and webmaster ‘Spank’, in his article discussed in the previous chapter – are expressing is anxiety and discomfort about their changing roles in relation to mainstream culture. With the increasing accessibility and visibility of what had (for a very long time) been a small, niche, cult area, their status as experts with cultural capital has been diminished. Theorists from Bourdieu, in his seminal work on culture and reception, to Sarah Thornton, with her studies of dance club culture, have found that people identify their own tastes in opposition to the mainstream, homogenised mass.56 In this case, however, a cult media with a typically niche audience is being rapidly appropriated by the mainstream, causing significant alarm.

Again, however, the basis on which Tartan’s Asia Extreme brand has been built is starting to fade, and while the visibility of these films increases, their credibility and newness wanes.

NOtes

1. Grady Hendrix, ‘Vengeance is theirs’, Sight & Sound, February 2006, p. 18.

2. Ibid. p. 18.

3. Personal interview with Paul Smith, 14 July 2009.

4. Richard Falcon, ‘ The Isle’, Sight & Sound, August 2001, http://www.bfi.org.uk/
sightandsound/ review/2023/, accessed 2 August 2007.

5. Geoffrey MacNab, ‘Fit to beat the banned’, The Times, 27 June 2002, section 2, p. 15.

6. Ibid. p. 15.

7. Kevin Maher, ‘What’s behind the gore?’, The Observer, 12 January 2003, p. 8.

8. Ibid. p. 8.

9. Ibid. p. 8.

10. Ibid. p. 8.

11. Falcon, ‘ The Isle’.

12. Kim Ki- deok is a legitimate alternative Romanisation of the director’s name.

13. Falcon, ‘ The Isle’.

14. Philip French, ‘ The Isle’, The Observer, 12 September 2004, http://film.guardian.co.uk/

News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_review/0,,1302427,00.html, accessed 29 August 2007.

15. Jamie Russell, ‘ The Isle review’, Channel 4: Cinema, http://www.channel4.com/film/
reviews/film.jsp?id=136329, accessed 30 August 2007.

16. Roger Clarke, ‘ The Isle’, The Independent, 11 September 2004, http://findarticles.com/p/
articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040911/ai_n12798374, accessed 2 August 2007.

140 extreme asia

17. Steve Rose, ‘I’ve done a lot of cruelty to animals’, The Guardian, 2 August 2004, p. 8.

18. Russell, ‘ The Isle review’.

19. Ibid.

20. Falcon, ‘ The Isle’.

21. Alan Jones, ‘ The Isle’, Film Review, September 2004, p. 120.

22. Patrick Peters, ‘ The Isle’, Empire Online, http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/
reviewcomplete.asp?FID=10317, accessed 29 August 2007.

23. Ibid.

24. Falcon, ‘ The Isle’.

25. Mark Kermode, ‘It is an ex-pigeon’, Channel 4: Film Features, http://www.channel4.

com/film/reviews/feature.jsp?id=143314, accessed 30 August 2007.

26. Peter Bradshaw, ‘It shouldn’t happen to a monk’, The Guardian, 14 May 2004, p. 18.

27. Leslie Felperin, ‘The temple on the lake within’, Sight & Sound, June 2004, p. 33.

28. Philip French, ‘ Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring’, The Observer, 16 May 2004, http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_
review/0,,1217667,00.html, accessed 29 August 2007.

29. Peter Whittle, ‘ Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring’, The Sunday Times, 16

May 2004, p. 12.

30. Bradshaw, ‘It shouldn’t happen to a monk’, p. 18.

31. Felperin, ‘The temple’, p. 33.

32. Ibid. p. 33.

33. Ibid. p. 33.

34. Ibid. p. 33.

35. David Jays, ‘ Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring’, Sight & Sound, June 2004, p. 70.

36. Ibid. p. 70.

37. Ibid. p. 70.

38. See Chapter 3.

39. Tim Robey, ‘ Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring’, Daily Telegraph, 14 May 2004, p. 19.

40. ‘Seoul Stirring: 5 Korean Directors’, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, October–November 1994, in association with the Korean Motion Picture Promotion Corporation.

41. Tony Rayns, ‘ The Isle’, Time Out Film Guide, http://www.timeout.com/film/
reviews/76221/the-isle.html, accessed 29 August 2007.

42. Tony Rayns, ‘ Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring’, Time Out Film Guide, http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/75194/spring-summer-autumn-winter-and-spring.html, accessed 29 August 2007.

43. Ibid.

44. Tony Rayns, ‘Sexual terrorism: The strange case of Kim Ki-duk’, Film Comment, November–December 2004, p. 50.

45. Ibid. p. 50. The directors that Rayns lists here are notable and prominent directors in the Korean film industry, and obviously his personal favourites. In fact, most of the directors mentioned have had their work released commercially in the UK. Im Kwon-taek’s Chihwaseon has been mentioned already (see Chapter 4). Jang Sun-woo’s provocative erotic art film Lies was released on video by the ICA in 2001. Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder was released in August 2004 to much critical acclaim and a much higher-profile release accompanied his next film, The Host, in 2006. Hong Sang-soo’s work has yet to be released commercially in the UK. Finally, Lee Chang-dong’s Green Fish had one British
saVaGerY aND sereNitY 141
screening in 2005 as part of the Firecracker Showcase film festival; reportedly, only one ticket was sold.

46. Rayns, ‘Sexual terrorism’, p. 50.

47. Ibid. pp. 50–1.

48. There is more work to be done on Rayns’ complex position in the Asian film industry. As well as being a critic, he is also a festival programmer and a promoter. His varied positions often demand that he takes contradictory positions. For example, in his role as a festival programmer Rayns once described Kim Ki-duk’s Address Unknown as a ‘rich and complex melodrama’, going on to declare that ‘Kim’s work has always been powerfully visual’.

Clearly, Rayns’ position on Kim is not as black-and-white as his Film Comment article might suggest. Address Unknown quotes come from Hae-jin Lee, KIM Ki-Duk, from Crocodile to Address Unknown (Hongjin: LJ Film, 2001), p. 8.

49. Rayns, ‘Sexual terrorism’, pp. 51–2.

50. An example of the kind of deeply serious and thoughtful acclaim and attention that Kim Ki-duk receives, a recently published French book compares Kim to Chinese philosophers, American artists and Korean poets. One typical quote muses: ‘surgeon, anthropologist or sociologist, Kim Ki-duk is a bit of each. Who else could have probed better than him the depths of the Korean soul?’ Anaïd Demir, ‘Kim Ki-duk, serial painter’, in Kim Ki-Duk, eds Adrien Gombeaud, Anaïd Demir, Cédric Lagandré, Catherine Capdeville-Zeng and Daniele Rivière (Paris: Dis Voir, 2006), p. 37.

51. Rayns, ‘Sexual terrorism’, p. 52. The ‘Korean classics’ that Rayns goes on to cite are Im Kwon-taek’s Mandala (1981) and Bae Yong-kyun’s Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (1989), neither of which have ever had a commercial release in the UK.

52. Chuck Stephens, ‘ 3-Iron’, Cinema Scope, 22: 7: 1, Spring 2005, http://www.cinema-scope.com/cs22/cur_stephens_iron.htm, accessed 29 August 2007.

53. Ibid.

54. These were Address Unknown (2001), The Coast Guard (2002), Samaritan Girl (2004) and The Bow (2005).

55. Interview with Smith, 2009.

56. Sarah Thornton, Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital (Cambridge: Polity, 1995).

cHaPter 6

From the Margins to the

Mainstream: Asia Extreme in 2004

Asia Extreme is no longer ‘the next big thing.’ It’s here to stay.

Hamish McAlpine, owner and founder of Tartan Films, 20041

The year 2004 represented the peak of the Asia Extreme brand in the UK, in terms of both commercial success and mainstream critical attention.

Tartan devoted its energies to a range of Asia Extreme projects, including another multiplex-only touring film festival, several high-profile DVD
releases (and re-releases), and its most aggressive marketing campaign yet for two soon-to-be-seminal stand-alone theatrical releases: Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003) and Infernal Affairs (Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, 2002).

Building on the already impressive showing in 2003, the high number of Asian films on release in the UK in 2004 included many non-Asia Extreme titles. Released by Artificial Eye, the artistic samurai film Zatoichi, by critically beloved auteur Kitano Takeshi, was drawing audiences in both art-house cinemas and multiplexes. Also attracting audiences was the derivative but popular J-horror film Ju-on: The Grudge (Shimizu Takashi, 2003) and the Thai art film Last Life in the Universe (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, 2003). This

‘Asian Invasion’2 even extended to more familiar Western cinema, as a variety of Hollywood films engaged with Japaneseness (with varying degrees of Orientalist fascination); Quentin Tarantino’s two Kill Bill films (2003, 2004) were immediately popular, superstar Tom Cruise embodied the Japanese warrior code in The Last Samurai (Edward Zwick, 2003) and Sofia Coppola’s Tokyo-set Lost in Translation (2003) proved to be an unexpected critical and commercial success.3

Tartan, meanwhile, were expanding the Asia Extreme brand to include an even greater variety of cult Asian cinema, incorporating themes and genres that were arguably less and less ‘extreme’. Tartan set their sights on a new, wider audience for Asia Extreme titles while trying to retain their original

FrOm tHe marGiNs tO tHe maiNstream 143
target market. The release(s) of Infernal Affairs in 2004 were crucial to the expansion of the Asia Extreme brand. Part of a popular trilogy of Hong Kong films that have come to be regarded as ‘transnational blockbusters’,4 Infernal Affairs was sold and consumed in the UK as a more prestigious example of the familiar Hong Kong police thriller. With a solid marketing campaign and a staggered release timed for maximum exposure, the first Infernal Affairs film was released in mainstream commercial UK cinemas in February, then going on to screen in art-house cinemas nationwide. In June, the film was released on DVD in an Asia Extreme-branded special edition, ensuring maximum exposure before the theatrical release of Infernal Affairs II in August.

Oldboy, meanwhile, was an even more significant release. Having gained attention and prestige at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury’s Grand Prix and famously reduced Quentin Tarantino to tears, Oldboy was set to make a major impact on the British market. Bolstered by Tartan’s most expensive marketing campaign to date and overwhelming press attention, the film became the most successful release in Tartan’s history. Furthermore, Tartan’s 2004 Asia Extreme roadshow was again exclusive to the UGC multiplex cinema chain, and once again the titles were a mixture of Japanese and Korean films (this year, no Hong Kong or Thai films were present). The seven films released as part of this roadshow were Kim Ki-duk’s The Isle (discussed in the previous chapter); the Japanese thriller Chaos (2000), directed by Ring’s Nakata Hideo; the bizarre Japanese yakuza horror Gozu (2003), from Miike Takashi, director of Audition; and four other South Korean films: the horror-mystery Into the Mirror (Kim Sung-ho, 2003), the derivative Ring-style horror Phone (Ahn Byung-ki, 2002), the gothic ghost story A Tale of Two Sisters (Kim Ji-woon, 2003) and the bizarre horror/comedy/sci-fi torture film Save the Green Planet! (Jang Jun-hwan, 2003). These films repeated the pattern of marketing and distribution of the previous year’s festival, and represent the same contradiction of niche-market cult films with obviously limited appeal being shown in mainstream multiplex venues.

Given this massive saturation of the Asia Extreme brand, British film critics were exposed to a greater number of titles for consideration than ever before.

That being the case, many individual titles received little attention and only passing comment. Chaos, Phone and Into the Mirror in particular hardly reg-istered at all in the critical community. A Tale of Two Sisters was admired by those who saw it, and the film was praised in familiar ways for its restraint, sophistication and ambiguity.

The way that Gozu divided critics is perhaps typical of the response to Asia Extreme films. Undeniably bizarre and obscure, the film was claimed by some to be pointless and offensive, but by others to be worthy of finding an appreciative audience. The Times’ Nigel Kendall praised director Miike’s work as ‘visually striking, but no one understands what the heck he’s banging

144 extreme asia
on about’.5 Kendall concluded that the film’s ‘very incoherence is entertaining all the same’.6 On the other hand, in the same paper’s Sunday edition, critic Peter Whittle derided Gozu and its potential audiences, characterising the film as ‘two hours of tedium punctuated by a number of stomach-churning set pieces’, and noting that ‘spotty 13-year-old schoolboys who sneak in might find it cool. Hopefully they will be sitting in an empty cinema.’7

Responding more to the general influx of Asia Extreme films than any film in particular, reviews in Sight & Sound passed comment on the situation: Linda Ruth Williams, for example, noted the geographical (but not thematic or stylistic) variety among several Asia Extreme gothic ghost stories, noting that it is ‘a banner that has come to encompass a geographically eclectic range of work, from Japan’s Ringu to Hong Kong’s The Eye’.8 In considering the admittedly derivative South Korean horror film Phone, Kim Newman noted: With so many similar films seeping on to the market, these Asian haunt-ings are starting to crowd together, overlapping (what is it about Asian ghosts and lifts?) and repeating riffs. Like most of the others in the cycle, Phone works reasonably well in isolation; less so as one of the batch.9

Newman’s observation contrasts with Williams’ (note that both reviews appeared in the very same issue of the same magazine) in that he ignores the individual national origins of the films. Taking ‘Asia’ as an unproblematically single entity, Newman identifies the apparent production-line mentality (each film as part of a ‘batch’) that has produced such similar films. In the case of Phone, however, the film was designed by its Korean filmmaker with a homog-enously ‘Asian’ style in mind, and so the effect was somewhat intended.10

This prevalence and perceived commercialism of the films of the Asia Extreme brand meant that it was more difficult for a film to ‘stand out’ from the crowd and achieve meaningful attention. It is in this period of expansion and over-exposure that a range of discourses emerge, for the first time, of ‘good’ cult Asian cinema versus ‘bad’ cult Asian cinema. Whereas critics had previously used Asian films rhetorically to present their difference from, and opposition to, either the worst examples of American cinema or, indeed, the entire Hollywood system, critics were now able to align themselves with certain Asian films in order to Other a different kind of Asian cinema. As awareness developed of the range, depth and breadth of Asian cinema, so the complexities of the critical debates increase, and the simple dichotomy of East versus West no longer applied.

This chapter offers an overview of the range of Asia Extreme releases in 2004, paying attention to both the commercial strategies of Tartan and the debates that took place in the critical reception of these films. The first section examines the release of the first two Infernal Affairs films, and analyses the

FrOm tHe marGiNs tO tHe maiNstream 145
major critical debates; in particular, Infernal Affairs was seen to be validated by Martin Scorsese’s interest in remaking the film, and its supposed similarity to The Godfather trilogy set it up in opposition to the more straightforwardly action-oriented, John Woo-style Hong Kong action films. The second section focuses on Oldboy, from its Cannes success and pre-release ‘buzz’ to its universal critical acclaim. The extreme violence of the film was seemingly excused by the way the film’s director, Park Chan-wook, was positioned in the press as sophisticated and intellectual, a ‘highbrow’ director. The following section explores the case of Battle Royale II, a film that was scheduled for a theatrical release in the summer of 2004 but which eventually went straight to DVD, despite a great deal of pre-release hype (fuelled by Tartan) and controversial critical attention. The reasons for such a prototypical Asia Extreme release being cancelled are investigated. The final section of the chapter covers the various ways that Tartan tried to establish a sense of history and continuity for the Asia Extreme brand, by re-releasing new DVD editions of its first Asian horror titles, Ring and Audition; by releasing a new Asia Extreme-branded DVD of John Woo’s seminal, canonised Hong Kong action film Hard Boiled; and by publishing a slim book – Tartan’s Guide to Asia Extreme – which presented a neat narrative history and a unified brand identity.

sPectacLe aND susPeNse: tHe reLease aND
recePtiON OF iNFerNaL aFFairs aND iNFerNaL
aFFairs ii

The first Infernal Affairs film proved to be a genuine critical hit on its release in February 2004. Drawing almost universal acclaim from newspaper and magazine critics, most of the praise for the film revolved around a few key discussion points. As Tartan had done before, in their press materials for Infernal Affairs the fact that the film was due for a Hollywood remake was emphasised.

That the film was apparently original enough to warrant an American remake, and by celebrated auteur Martin Scorsese no less, seemed to validate the film and give it a measure of value outside of its textual artistic merits. Several critics mentioned the forthcoming remake, their comments often characterised by disbelief, optimism or derision.

These mentions of a high-budget remake in the works are just one strategy used by critics to express how Infernal Affairs is a more prestigious and worthwhile Hong Kong film than usual. The film takes a familiar genre, the Hong Kong police-vs-criminal action film, and adds several twists and new themes: the central story concerns the unwitting rivalry between an off-the-records police officer deep undercover in a criminal gang, and an ambitious gang operative working as a double-agent within the police force.

146 extreme asia

Infernal Affairs is the kind of narratively complex and rewarding film that critics love to write about, and the film triggered many lengthy reviews and feature articles. In this period, during which Asian cinema was more common than ever, critics were determined to appear discerning when praising the film. A major argument constructed in order to celebrate Infernal Affairs, therefore, was that it surpassed previous Hong Kong action films and police thrillers through its psychological sophistication and restrained treatment of violence.

Wendy Ide, reviewing the film in The Times, noted that ‘this Hong Kong cop thriller is a cut above the usual bullet-riddled Asian action fare . . . it has a complexity and depth of characterisation that helps the appeal extend further than the stunts and gun fights’.11 Kim Newman, writing for Sight & Sound, made a similar observation, suggesting that
traditionally, Hong Kong cop-gangster films have been fast and loose, intent on spectacle rather than suspense . . . This is very different, a precision exercise which makes its few fatalities count and typically sees them off with a single shot; [the directors] prefer trapped people talking to shooting . . . the most potentially ultra-violent scene is described but not shown.12

A review of Infernal Affairs in Film Review magazine took a similar line, and suggested a conscious move on the part of the filmmakers to depart from traditional populist Hong Kong genre styles. James Mottram argued that the film does not hinge on a spectacular shoot-out sequence which, given its country of origin, is perhaps unusual. Words are its weapons as it cranks up the tension through good old-fashioned plotting . . . Infernal Affairs is a valiant attempt to move the Hong Kong cop thriller away from the bullet-riddled efforts that have dominated for so long.13

The Guardian’s Steve Rose wrote that the film is distinguished from ‘a classic Hong Kong cop thriller’ by its unconventional conclusion, ‘dispensing with a clichéd “let’s drop our guns and duke it out” ending in favour of something more simple and elegiac’.14 This argument, based on an association between sophistication and restraint, that a lack of violent action is a sign of high quality Hong Kong cinema actually runs counter to the critical discourses that originally celebrated Hong Kong action films. When John Woo’s Hard Boiled (1992) and The Killer (1989) were released in the UK in the early 1990s, and met with an equally positive and passionate critical reception, it was precisely the explicit visual violence of the films that was celebrated. This discourse is perhaps best epitomised by Quentin Tarantino’s famous, now mytholo-

FrOm tHe marGiNs tO tHe maiNstream 147
gised quote: supposedly, when a studio executive dismissed John Woo as a director who can ‘only direct action scenes’, Tarantino retorted ‘yeah, and Michelangelo can only paint ceilings’.15

Indeed, while Infernal Affairs was frequently held up as being unlike the work of John Woo and the best known Hong Kong action films, it was simultaneously familiarised and canonised with the most celebrated American crime dramas. The film was frequently compared to Michael Mann’s Heat (1995), and Tartan’s theatrical poster for the film led with the critical quote

‘Out-Heats Michael Mann’. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian suggested that the film ‘carries the DNA of undercover thrillers like Serpico [Sidney Lumet, 1973], The French Connection [William Friedkin, 1971], Donnie Brasco [Mike Newell, 1997]’16 and went on to cite similarities to Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) and James Bond films. Making the best of its genre, the film was described by one critic as ‘thought-provoking’ and ‘existential’.17

Another strategy used to confer merit and meaning on Infernal Affairs, and distance the film from the more commercial notions of Hong Kong cinema, was through discussion of the film’s lead actor, Tony Leung.18 Leung came to the UK to participate in press interviews to promote Infernal Affairs, and his associations with Hong Kong art cinema were essential to opening up a new reading strategy of the film. Although Leung had starred in two of John Woo’s best-known action films (the seminal Hard Boiled and the critically acclaimed Bullet in the Head)19 these films were evidently out of critical favour in early 2004, and it was therefore Leung’s association with the critically celebrated and much-loved art-house director Wong Kar-Wai that proved to define his identity in many British newspaper articles, with many critics citing Leung’s performances in Wong’s Days of Being Wild (1991), Chungking Express (1994), Happy Together (1997), In the Mood for Love (2000) and the then-forthcoming 2046 (2004). Critics ignored Leung’s action-film persona and instead positioned him as a ‘new’ kind of Hong Kong performer, and by association celebrated Infernal Affairs as a Hong Kong film offering a ‘new’ kind of spectacle: intellectual, rather than kinetic.20

Empire magazine’s verdict on the film was that it ‘should play beyond UK
arthouses to become more than another cult favourite’.21 This prediction proved to be accurate, as the film was screened at both art-house cinemas and multiplex chains (sometimes at two venues in the same city almost simultaneously) and went on to become a major commercial success, drawing larger audiences than any other Asia Extreme release so far. Indeed, it is worth noting that the initial theatrical poster for the film did not actually have the Asia Extreme banner or logo on it at all. Internally at Tartan Films, Infernal Affairs was considered an Asia Extreme release, and the film would later have its brand identity confirmed with its banner-headed Asia Extreme DVD release in June. However, the choice made by Tartan to initially market the film

148 extreme asia
outside the brand is a striking indicator of their efforts to expand their Asian cinema audiences and achieve mainstream success.

The commercial success of Infernal Affairs was made possible by the film’s ability to attract a wider and more diverse audience than previous Asia Extreme films. As has been seen in the critical discourse around the film, Infernal Affairs was recommended to a non-fan audience of Asian art film connoisseurs on the basis of its associations with ‘higher quality’ Asian cinema. Furthermore, the film was able to attract a ‘new’ audience possibly unfamiliar with Asian cinema altogether, thanks to its prominent association with American crime thrillers and action films. Finally, despite the efforts of critics to draw a neat line between Infernal Affairs and the work of John Woo, the film undoubtedly attracted the ‘old’ Hong Kong film fans, the ‘heroic bloodshed’ audience to whom any new Asian thriller playing at UK cinemas is an unmissable opportunity to see one of ‘their’ films on the big screen.

By the time Infernal Affairs II hit British cinema screens in August, the first film had been available on DVD for several months, part of a release strategy by Tartan to ensure maximum exposure for the franchise. The first film was still in the minds of critics (and audiences) as they considered its sequel (actually a prequel). Tartan’s press notes for Infernal Affairs II achieved a careful balance in pitching the franchise as both financially successful and critically acclaimed, describing the first film as ‘one of the most artistically made commercial blockbusters ever to come out of Hong Kong’ before going on to emphasise both prestigious film awards and impressive box-office returns and, in a further bid for cultural capital, describing lead actor Anthony Wong as

‘the Anthony Hopkins of Hong Kong’.22

Infernal Affairs II also gained largely positive reviews and, described as

‘quasi-operatic’23 by one critic, the scope of the two films together drew repeated comparisons to Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy.24 This canonisation of the film(s) in the tradition of Hollywood crime classics also allowed for continued rejection of the John Woo-esque Hong Kong thriller.

Articulating the most vehemently anti-Woo argument yet, The Times’ Daniel Rosenthal wrote a lengthy feature article on Infernal Affairs II in which he argued that the first film had been ‘evidence’ that
the popular cops’n’Triads genre could produce work of far greater merit than the fantastically violent John Woo thrillers that defined many Western cinemagoers’ view of commercial Hong Kong cinema in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Woo’s trademark style in Hard Boiled and The Killer illustrated the law of diminishing returns; any emotional connection to thinly drawn characters withered away as the piles of cartridge cases and bodies rose. Infernal Affairs favours cat-and-mouse tension and existential angst over gunplay.25

FrOm tHe marGiNs tO tHe maiNstream 149

Classic Hong Kong action was not the only cinema Othered and rejected as a strategy to praise Infernal Affairs II, though. The Guardian’s Rob Mackie set the supposed classiness of Infernal Affairs II against the crass commercialism of Japanese horror sequels, noting that

I’ve been wary of Asian prequels and sequels after letdowns like Ring 0
and, especially, Battle Royale 2, but the Infernal Affairs films come from Hong Kong, not Japan, and this prequel to the popular summer thriller is just as satisfying as its predecessor.26

The above comment is interesting for several reasons, not least the suggestion that Hong Kong cinema is implicitly more credible than Japanese, that Infernal Affairs II will not be a letdown because it is not from Japan. It is also worth noting the evident success of Tartan’s campaign to keep Infernal Affairs alive in the minds of audiences and critics throughout the year: Mackie refers to the first film as a ‘summer thriller’ when it was, in fact, released in February.

The critical reception of the first two Infernal Affairs films in many ways recalls the reception of Ring five years earlier. When Ring was released, it was used rhetorically to present an opposition to ‘bad’ American horror while being familiarised with (and canonised among) prestigious American and British gothic horror. In the case of Infernal Affairs and its prequel, the significant development is that the film is being associated with both Asian and Western cinema with the effect of Othering and rejecting (a certain tradition of) Hong Kong cinema. As was the case with Ring, and recalling Bourdieu’s theories about the way taste is defined against ‘bad’ culture, Infernal Affairs can only be celebrated by deriding and criticising its cinematic antecedents. It is indicative of the fracturing of the Asia Extreme brand that its films no longer have the thematic and stylistic consistency for an inclusive critical appreciation of the brand’s entire catalogue.

tHe GeNtLemeN OF GOre: QueNtiN taraNtiNO,

ParK cHaN-WOOK aND OLDBOY

Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy is one of the most celebrated South Korean films to reach Western audiences. A violent tale of revenge, the film charts the kidnap-ping and fifteen-year imprisonment of an apparently typical man; when he is mysteriously released, he embarks on a quest to investigate his captor and seek retribution. The UK release of the film in October 2004 was preceded by a huge amount of critical interest, thanks almost entirely to the positive ‘buzz’

coming from the Cannes Film Festival. Tartan had experience with taking advantage of pre-release attention and controversy for many of their most

150 extreme asia
significant Asia Extreme titles, whipping up a storm of moral outrage before the release of Battle Royale and capitalising on reports of the violent bodily reactions of festival audiences against Kim Ki-duk’s The Isle. However, in the case of Oldboy, the emerging reputation of the film was highly positive and entirely agreeable.

S. F. Said, writing for the Daily Telegraph, began his pre-release feature article on Oldboy by noting that ‘at Cannes this summer, it was widely hailed as the most entertaining movie in competition, and Quentin Tarantino’s jury awarded it the coveted Grand Jury Prize. Indeed, Tarantino is director Chan-Wook Park’s biggest fan.’27 Reflecting a consistent British critical discourse that invariably associated Oldboy with Quentin Tarantino and conferred great value on its Jury Prize, The Observer’s Philip French suggested that having Quentin Tarantino as president of the jury pretty well ensured that some award would go to Park Chan-wook’s ingenious, extremely violent South Korean thriller Oldboy. It took the second prize, the Grand Prix du Jury, which unlike the Palme d’Or is traditionally reserved for the picture in competition that most advances the art of cinema.28

Chris Sullivan of The Times even went as far as to suggest that ‘Tarantino believed that the big prize should have gone to Oldboy’.29 The film therefore arrived in the UK on a wave of acclaim and goodwill, and with a pre-existing framework of familiarisation thanks to its first Western champion, Quentin Tarantino.

British critics greeted Oldboy with a rare, almost unanimously positive response. The film was described variously as ‘polished [and] highly accomplished’,30 ‘fantastically watchable . . . very slick, assured filmmaking’,31

‘distinctive and impressive . . . a masterpiece of fiendish, shattering power’,32

‘brilliantly staged’,33 ‘outrageously cool’34 and as ‘a truly astonishing work of art’.35 This overwhelming praise is perhaps surprising given just how explicitly violent Oldboy is. A harrowing tale of revenge, Oldboy includes several notoriously violent scenes: the main character eats a live octopus; engages in a fist-fight with over forty opponents at once; wrenches out one man’s teeth with the back of a hammer, stabs another man in his ear with a toothbrush, and finally cuts out his own tongue with a pair of scissors. The consumption of the live octopus in particular was referenced endlessly, and the acts of violence in the film became infamous set-pieces, and were major talking points among both critics and audiences. All of the praise bestowed upon the film in reviews sat alongside repeated discussions of these acts of extreme violence, and Oldboy was also variously described by British critics as full of ‘gruesome moments’,36
as ‘cinema of cruelty’,37 a ‘slice of ultra-violence . . . not for the squeamish’,38 a ‘grisly movie’ containing ‘gut instinct violence’,39 ‘gut-wrenchingly

FrOm tHe marGiNs tO tHe maiNstream 151
violent, [the film] opens up a whole new sicko frontier of exotic horror’,40
as ‘bloody, meaty, tender’,41 and is labelled ‘Grand Guignol’ by at least two critics.42

Academic Nikki Lee has written on the subject of Oldboy’s international significance. Drawing on Timothy Corrigan’s theory of ‘the commerce of the auteurist’, Lee dubs Park Chan-wook a ‘transnational auteur’ and discusses his importance in the West. Lee acknowledges that generalisations will be made about Park, noting that ‘viewers who first encounter Park through Oldboy

. . . will inevitably receive encouragement to perceive Park as the director of revenge and violence’.43 But ‘perceiving’ Park as a director of violence and celebrating him as such are quite different, and the curious case of such high levels of critical acclaim for such a violent film must be explained.

In fact, various reading strategies were deployed by critics to justify the film’s extreme violence. Whereas the British release of Audition had triggered a debate over the virtue and value of visually explicit horror, those critics who admired the film did so precisely because of the film’s violence, not in spite of it.

In the case of Oldboy, however, critics appreciate the film by ‘reading around’

the violence and excusing it in a variety of ways: Catherine Shoard sums up the way the film was praised when she warned readers that the film is so gory that it is difficult to watch, but concluded that ‘if ever a film was worth it, it’s Oldboy’.44

The fact that the violence in the film took place as part of a narrative of revenge allowed critics to canonise the film with the finest and most respectable examples of the ‘revenge drama’. The film was described in Sight & Sound as ‘half Greek tragedy, half existential thriller . . . a hyperviolent South Korean action movie about the metaphysics of revenge’.45 Indeed, the film was compared to Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex by Kim Newman46 and Philip French suggested that ‘it’s a modern variation on the Oedipus myth’.47 Newman also posited that Park Chan-wook ‘is as interested in revenge as a Jacobean drama-tist’,48 and Derek Malcolm followed suit in the Evening Standard by calling Oldboy ‘a Jacobean tragedy with Eastern knobs on’.49 Through these associations critics elevate their own tastes and emphasise, as they did in the case of Infernal Affairs, that they are being stimulated intellectually rather than titillated by the spectacle of violence.

Perhaps the most earnest effort to confer meaning and artistry on the film was through comparisons between William Shakespeare and Park Chan-wook, and between Titus Andronicus and Oldboy, an association suggested by at least five British critics. Shakespeare is often invoked by critics and intellectuals as an example of the value of violence, the merit of being subjected to images and descriptions of extreme actions – the blinding of Gloucester in King Lear a typical example. It is in precisely this way that Oldboy was seen to have value, and in stark contrast to other controversial Asian directors like Kim Ki-duk

152 extreme asia
and Miike Takashi, Park Chan-wook was described as a confrontational artist rather than an exploitational provocateur.

Indeed, this reading is one that Park himself was keen to encourage, and there was a mutually beneficial dialogue between the director and critics –
seen in several interview articles – which emphasised his intellectualism. For example, Park himself proposed the Shakespearean comparison in an interview for The Times when he suggested that the dark humour of Oldboy was inspired by lessons he learned from studying the bard’s greatest works.50 In an interview in Sight & Sound, Park also suggested a parallel between Oldboy and Ran (1985), the much-loved samurai retelling of King Lear by Japanese director Kurosawa Akira.51 It is a shrewd comparison to draw attention to (and it was one suggested by Park himself rather than any British critics) precisely because Kurosawa is celebrated by Western critics and academics for his Oriental Shakespeare adaptations,52 and is arguably seen as the greatest East Asian auteur director of twentieth-century cinema.

Park’s credentials as an artist and intellectual include having ‘studied philosophy at university’, which, according to the Daily Telegraph’s S. F. Said, had the direct result of his work showing ‘a preoccupation with ethical questions’;53 again, in direct contrast with other Asia Extreme directors, like Kim Ki-duk, who are often accused of a total lack of ethics and morality. A feature in Sight & Sound also positioned Park’s education as central to his identity, describing the director as a ‘philosophy graduate’ whose film poses challenging

‘metaphysical dilemmas’ to audiences.54

It has already been noted that the first point of comparison for Oldboy and its director was Quentin Tarantino. There was a commonly stated assumption among critics that the two directors share a certain approach to filmmaking, and it was frequently suggested that Oldboy’s Cannes prize was almost inevitable, given that Tarantino headed up the jury – the admiration that one director had for the other seemed to make perfect sense. Tim Robey, suggesting that both directors were basically making the same kind of films, praised Oldboy by arguing that ‘it [ Oldboy] beats him [Tarantino] at his own Kill Bill game’.55

Tarantino’s ‘game’ in this case was his own ultra-violent revenge two-film epic Kill Bill, and Wendy Ide suggested that ‘Park shows a Tarantinoesque taste for stylised, slightly absurd scenes of extraordinary violence’.56 The way Ide characterises the violence of Tarantino’s films is apt, and the significant similarity between the two directors extends to how their films are received in Britain. Just as Oldboy had been embraced by critics and audiences in spite of its violence, Tarantino’s equally violent films also found widespread acclaim and attracted populist audiences. Prior to the then-recent Kill Bill films, Tarantino’s reputation had been built primarily on the success and enduring popularity of Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994), two films

FrOm tHe marGiNs tO tHe maiNstream 153
that became cultural milestones even while showcasing some explicit content (examples of which include torture with a switchblade and homosexual anal rape).

Thanks to its exposure at Cannes and the great deal of attention and praise the film received in the British press, Oldboy was a huge commercial success for Tartan. Sold to ‘new’ audiences thanks to its wide exposure, and bolstered by the increasingly visible Asia Extreme brand, the film became Tartan’s most successful Asian release in the company’s history. Keen to follow-through on the film’s theatrical success, Tartan engaged in an aggressive marketing and distribution campaign for Oldboy’s DVD release. An industry sales flyer was sent out to sales agents, chain-store purchasers and DVD dealers to encourage orders and suggest marketing tactics.

The flyer boasts critical quotes comparing the film to Kill Bill, the Brazilian crime film City of God (Fernando Meirelles, 2002) and the Chinese wuxia (swordplay) film Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002), carefully chosen to represent a variety of appeals and audiences (references to Hero and City of God seem to court a mainstream audience for Asian cinema and an art-house crowd demanding a powerful and provocative world cinema, respectively). Oldboy’s critical reception is summarised thus: ‘UK theatrical release has become one of the most critically acclaimed of the year. It will doubtless feature heavily in the end of year “best of” lists.’ Evidently proud of the film’s critical acclaim and determined to maintain and expand the film’s fanbase for its home video release, Tartan reveal that the Oldboy DVD will be ‘supported by Tartan’s biggest ever advertising campaign for an Asia Extreme release’ which included national television advertising – a real rarity for Tartan.

Given the way the film was positioned in critical and industrial discourse, it seems evident that Oldboy was seen by a wider audience than any other Asia Extreme title, and that the film was a point of ‘discovery’ for many audiences (and critics) getting their first exposure to South Korean cinema. One critic was so shocked by this ‘new’ Asian cinema that they remarked: ‘once in a while a film comes along that so perplexes you – so leaves you feeling that you’ve wandered into unfamiliar and perhaps unsafe territory – that you might as well be watching cinema from another planet’.57 This unfamiliarity with – and unpreparedness for – Asia Extreme was increasingly rare though, and many critics who had been paying attention were developing a conception of South Korean national cinema as a whole.

Tim Robey suggested that South Korea is ‘producing the most distinctive and impressive films right now’, so much so that ‘even mainstream audiences will prick up their ears’.58 Indeed, the release of Oldboy marked the moment when a Korean film finally struck a chord with a wider mainstream audience.

Yet misperceptions still existed, and Peter Bradshaw offered in his review a characterisation of all South Korean cinema as excessively violent, suggesting

154 extreme asia
that ‘when it comes to gut wrenchingly violent cinema, the Koreans are going further than anyone’.59

Indeed, such sweeping generalisations about Korean cinema, based on exposure to little more than a handful of Asia Extreme titles, remained a point of anxiety for some better-informed critics and Asian film experts. Tony Rayns, his notorious hatred of Kim Ki-duk discussed in the previous chapter, has perhaps even more scorn for Park Chan-wook and Oldboy. Rayns was critical of Oldboy’s success from its debut at Cannes, suggesting that the film was only entered into the competition as a ‘desperate attempt’ by the programmers to appear modern and relevant.60 In fact, Rayns has argued that the film was viewed much less favourably by the French critical community: If your jury gives the first prize to Michael Moore and the second prize to Oldboy, you become a laughing-stock in certain French critical circles.

I’m not a huge fan of the French critical film press, but they’re not completely stupid, and if they see a piece of shit like Oldboy touted as one of the great films of the year, they ridicule it.61

With regards to the British context for South Korean cinema, Rayns suggested in 2004 that ‘the UK releases of Korean movies in the last couple of years have provided a rather lopsided picture of East Asia’s liveliest film culture’.62

Attempting to explain the supposed misreadings of Korean films in the British press, Rayns argued that critics and audiences have been exposed to a diverse range of films ‘without knowing anything much about their production contexts or the histories of their directors. Inevitably this has led to some mistaken presumptions.’63

These apparent ‘mistaken presumptions’ came into play most significantly, according to Rayns, with the critical reception of Save the Green Planet! , a film released as part of the Asia Extreme roadshow in 2004. Almost impossible to define or categorise, Save the Green Planet! is a black comedy that takes in science fiction, fantasy, horror, torture, romance, slapstick, detective drama and social commentary. The film is at least as violent as Oldboy, and includes scenes of increasingly bizarre torture, including electrocution, crucifixion and the administration of a red-hot anal probe. Yet while Oldboy was adored by the British critical press, Save the Green Planet! was ignored, or derided.

According to Rayns, this was due to an inability on the part of British viewers to understand the film’s nuanced themes and political subtext.64

However, an intelligent reading of the film was effectively discouraged by Tartan’s marketing campaign. As it was part of the touring film festival, Tartan’s promotion of the film pitched it to a decidedly niche audience, hedging their bets by courting a very specific cinema-goer, rather than aiming for the record-breakingly wide audience that Oldboy had achieved. The film’s

FrOm tHe marGiNs tO tHe maiNstream 155
strangeness was emphasised, with promotional copy describing the film as

‘mad’ and, utilising a typically Orientalist discourse to sell the film, declaring that ‘the fact that this particular piece of cult craziness hails from Korea only adds to its delicious and exotic flavour’.65 Tartan’s marketing campaign thus emphasised precisely the elements that would guarantee the film’s marginal, cult status. In the British marketing materials, the film’s box-office failure in its home country was proudly touted as a badge of honour, guaranteeing cult credibility. Tartan’s press notes and advertising features tried to present the film as bizarre and incomprehensible, thus discouraging a reading strategy that would make sense of the film’s violence and confer seriousness and real meaning on the text. Save the Green Planet! is an interesting case study not just because of the way it was understood by its fans and critics, but as an example of a calculated, pre-conceived cult reception. The film’s marketing also serves as a counterpoint to Oldboy to demonstrate the very different selling strategies Tartan had for its various releases in 2004.

aNticiPatiON aND aNticLimax: tHe reLease (Or

LacK tHereOF) OF BattLe rOYaLe ii

Another 2004 Asia Extreme title destined for a limited, cult audience was Battle Royale II: Requiem (Fukasaku Kinji and Fukasaku Kenta, 2003). The film began receiving press attention more than a year before its scheduled summer 2004 theatrical release date, yet despite the success of the first film and a great deal of interest, the cinematic release of Battle Royale II was cancelled at short notice, and the film eventually went straight to DVD. Tracing critical interest in the film from pre-release reports and marketing to its eventual anti-climatic low-key release reveals a great deal about Tartan’s priorities for its Asia Extreme brand in 2004.

The first Battle Royale film had proved to be an enduring success for Tartan. Following the (intentionally) controversial theatrical release of the film back in September 2001, Tartan released two different versions of the film on DVD: the theatrical cut in January 2002, and the extended Battle Royale: Special Version in September that same year. In one of its press releases from 2003, Tartan declared that the first Battle Royale film ‘still enjoys brisk international DVD sales’.66

The sequel was being hyped in the British press even before its Japanese theatrical release. One of the first articles to drum up interest in the film was a brief (but well-placed and nicely illustrated) ‘Pipe line’ report in Empire magazine, appearing in June 2003, one month ahead of the film’s Japanese premier in July.67 Estimating a British release date sometime later that year, the Empire article referred to the extreme violence of the first film in detail

156 extreme asia

(‘the decapitated-head-with-grenade-in-mouth bit . . . the sight of psycho teacher Takeshi Kitano splitting the skull of a schoolgirl’)68 and implied that the sequel would be even more extreme, even more violent and provocative.

Also in June 2003, an article in The Guardian contained a very brief mention of Battle Royale II as a film ‘to watch out for’, following suit by describing the film as an ‘extreme Asian horror pic with teen appeal’ and noting that it ‘promises to be the goriest one yet’.69

In addition to the violence of the film, the Empire article suggested politically provocative content as well, noting that the main character of the film has

‘gone political’ by becoming a terrorist.70 Indeed, when the film had its British premiere at the London Film Festival in 2003, Tartan produced press notes that emphasised the political/terrorism aspect of the film, presumably in an attempt to stir up interest and objections (thus ensuring an audience) prior to the film’s general release – now scheduled for May 2004, according to the press materials. Included in the press pack is a statement from surviving director Fukasaku Kenta,71 in which he outlined the film’s political relevance and potential controversy (with limited coherence). He stated that some might insist that Battle Royale II, which depicts literal war between adults and children, created as the world shudders at the menace of terrorism and war, is more dangerous and radical than its predecessor

. . . In this film, I portray children, screaming NO as they stake their lives against the adults’ evil law . . . A powerful nation, in the name of justice, launches missiles at a nation it has unilaterally designated as evil.

The adults of the world unite to eliminate a single human being, drag-ging innocent children into the conflict. This nightmare is sliding into reality.72

That this statement was widely circulated would ensure that the film’s aspirations of political relevance became an obvious discussion point and, frankly, an easy target for criticism.

In Spring 2004, after the success of Infernal Affairs and as that year’s Asia Extreme roadshow was about to begin, Battle Royale II was still being anticipated by critics, and was expected to go on general theatrical release shortly.

Screening again at the Raindance East London Film Festival in April 2004, The Guardian’s Phelim O’Neill recommended Battle Royale II as one of the highlights – although crucially, he had not seen it yet – suggesting that

‘a preview of the much anticipated Battle Royale II: Requiem gives you the opportunity to tell your friends just how great/disappointing it is’.73 O’Neill is here acknowledging the prized status of the first film as a cult classic, and expects that excitement over and anticipation of the sequel will be widespread.

He also implies the potential for cultural capital among peers by seeing the

FrOm tHe marGiNs tO tHe maiNstream 157
film first – essentially, fans impressing their friends by seeing a significant film early. This positioning of the film is obviously ideal for Tartan, and reflects the most successful aspects of the Asia Extreme brand.

In June 2004, Sight & Sound magazine published a review of Battle Royale II among its other cinema reviews, and it was shortly after this point that the film’s planned theatrical exhibition was cancelled by Tartan. In his lengthy review of the film, Kim Newman refers to the violence as ‘gruesome’, but only briefly considered this aspect of the film.74 Newman was scornful of the film’s engagement with world politics, and described it variously as ‘clumsy’ and

‘inept’.75 Summarising the film’s political message, Newman noted that this has a defiantly anti-authoritarian stance appreciable in the George W. Bush era in that it does ultimately assume terrorists are the good guys and grown-up society is irredeemably corrupt; but it’s also laughably, dangerously naive in seeing global injustice purely in terms of adults mistreating privileged kids.76

In spite of Newman’s criticism, his review gave the film a great deal of attention, and thus generated exactly the kind of exposure that Tartan typically courts for its Asia Extreme films. For Tartan to cancel the commercial release of a film because it met with the disapproval of mainstream critics is hardly consistent.

Rushed on to DVD shortly after its cinema release was abandoned, Battle Royale II was reviewed by the Daily Telegraph’s Tim Robey, and given an unusual amount of attention for a straight-to-DVD release. Equally critical of the film, Robey characterised the action as ‘numbing carnage’ and accused younger director Fukasaku Kenta of a ‘bewildering lack of discipline’.77

Criticising the film on the basis that it contains ‘the most hysterically juvenile anti-American agenda you’ve ever seen’, Robey noted that ‘it’s almost funny’.78

Finally, commenting on Battle Royale II’s release and its potential to attract audiences, Robey observed that ‘wisely, Tartan have opted to release it straight to DVD, where it may enjoy considerable shelf-life as a camp classic’.79 The designation of the film as ‘camp’ is not to Tartan’s advantage, and the basis on which these critics reject the film is difficult to ‘spin’ to Tartan’s favour.

It is worth noting that both Newman and Robey are admirers of the first Battle Royale, and their criticism of the sequel was not based on a knee-jerk rejection of violent Japanese cinema. In just the same way that the reception of Infernal Affairs revealed how the canon of Asian cinema had ‘fractured’ to reveal distinctions between good and bad Hong Kong cinema, this dismissal of Battle Royale II demonstrates that Asia Extreme titles are now prevalent enough for critics to make clear distinctions between the good and bad. The sense of strangeness and newness that accompanied the first Battle Royale has

158 extreme asia
disappeared, and the sequel is confidently judged to be unworthy of any kind of attention. Previous dismissals of Asia Extreme titles had implied that the only appreciative audiences these films could find would be obsessive J-horror

‘nerds’, but now critics have become equally passionate connoisseurs, and they suggested that no-one can enjoy Battle Royale II at face value, without irony.

When I asked Paul Smith, Tartan’s press director, why Battle Royale II had gone straight to DVD with very little notice, he diplomatically suggested that the film could find a bigger and more appreciative audience quicker by bypass-ing cinema release.80 While credible, I suspect that an additional reason can be found in Tartan’s aspirations for its Asia Extreme brand in 2004, which were more strongly focused on ‘quality’ releases that would expand their market, rather than a universally derided sequel which would have no appeal beyond Battle Royale fans and Fukasaku Kinji completists.

cONcLusiON

Two thousand and four was clearly the year that Tartan devoted its greatest effort to the Asia Extreme brand. In addition to the range of high-profile releases and marketing strategies discussed above, the company made an effort to present consumers with a historical sense of the Asia Extreme brand.

Following new, special DVD re-releases of Ring and Audition, Tartan distributed a free book(let), a relatively dense text for a marketing circular. Dubbed The Tartan Guide to Asia Extreme, the book begins with a ‘personal forward’

from Tartan Films owner Hamish McAlpine, which is worth quoting here in full:

If you work in the entertainment industry you spend your whole life looking for ‘the next big thing.’ If you identify it ahead of your competitors and become the early dominant provider, whether in reality television, rap music or postmodern slasher movies, you’ve suddenly found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Unfortunately, I can’t take any credit for having discovered Asia Extreme, because I didn’t. It found me. I merely gave it a name.

At the end of 1999 I watched viewing tapes of both Audition and Ring and was blown away. Here were two of the scariest films I had ever seen, but at the same time approached the horror genre in a way that hadn’t been done since the days of Jacques Tourneur.

These films didn’t deal with the obvious – it was a cinema about the horror of shadows, not of the bloodied knife. What you can’t see is always more frightening than what you can see. To be sure, Audition ends in

FrOm tHe marGiNs tO tHe maiNstream 159
an explosion of Grand Guignol, but that was exciting too: it pushed the boundaries in a new and exciting way.

Just a few months after that I saw Bangkok Dangerous and Nowhere to Hide, and it became evident that it wasn’t just Japan. Thailand and Korea were also partners in this New Cinema.

There are now so many auteurs working in Asian cinema – among them the Pang brothers, Miike Takashi, Park Chan-wook, Nakata Hideo, Kim Ki-duk and Tsukamoto Shinya – that Asia Extreme is no longer ‘the next big thing’. It’s here to stay.81

The sense of historical narrative that McAlpine creates is tied closely to Tartan’s original release schedule, where Ring and Audition were the first films that audiences saw, and within just over a year the brand had been created and non-Japanese films had been added. McAlpine wants audiences to emotionally (and financially) invest in the Asia Extreme brand, and understand just how pioneering it is.

The way that McAlpine describes Ring exactly mirrors the way the film was understood by British critics in 2000, and it is worth remembering that McAlpine and Tartan’s publicity department pay close attention to the critical reception of their films. Yet as has been shown, Ring was just the first step in building the brand, and subsequent releases attracted more controversy and criticism over their explicit content; in the way it was discussed and understood by critics, Ring cannot really be said to be a typical Asia Extreme film.

McAlpine’s emphasis on Ring’s restraint – and his reference to Ring’s similarity to 1940s horror and the films of Jacques Tourneur82 – tries to give the film a sense of prestige and artistic sophistication which the Asia Extreme brand was, at this point, increasingly reaching for.

Yet for all these attempts to confer artistry and cultural value on the Asia Extreme brand, McAlpine cannot resist reminding readers what a shrewd businessman he is, and presents a specifically financially-minded view of the J-horror/Asia Extreme boom as simply the latest fad, suggesting that his discovery of this ‘next big thing’ was his ‘pot of gold’. Proud of his ‘outsider’ identity and Tartan’s status as an independent distribution company, McAlpine wants to remind everyone that it is Tartan, rather than a major distribution company, that is dominating the Asian cinema market. There is a sense of triumph in his tone that is in keeping with Tartan’s significant visibility for its brand in 2004. By the end of the year, the Asia Extreme brand could finally be claimed to be an unmitigated success.

160 extreme asia

NOtes

1. Hamish McAlpine, ‘A personal foreword’, in Mark Pilkington, The Tartan Guide to Asia Extreme, ed. and compiled by Jule Hartung (London: Startlux Open Library, 2004), p. iv.

2. An expression coined by Jonathan Ross for his 2006 BBC4 documentary series, in which he looked at the film industries of Japan, Hong Kong and Korea.

3. All of these films were released in UK cinemas in 2004, with the exception of Kill Bill, Vol. 1, which appeared in the UK in late 2003, but was still very much in the minds of British audiences as its concluding chapter was released in April 2004.

4. Gina Marchetti, Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs – The Trilogy (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2007).

5. Nigel Kendall, ‘ Gozu’, The Times, 31 July 2004, Features, p. 14.

6. Ibid. p. 14.

7. Peter Whittle, ‘ Gozu’, The Sunday Times, 1 August 2004, Features, p. 14.

8. Linda Ruth Williams, ‘ A Tale of Two Sisters’, Sight & Sound, September 2004, p. 85.

9. Kim Newman, ‘ Phone’, Sight & Sound, September 2004, p. 77.

10. Daniel Martin, ‘Between the local and the global: “Asian horror” in Ahn Byung-ki’s Phone and Bunshinsaba’, in Korean Horror Cinema, eds Alison Pierce and Daniel Martin (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013), pp. 145–57.

11. Wendy Ide, ‘ Infernal Affairs’, The Times, 28 February 2004, section 2, p. 10.

12. Kim Newman, ‘ Infernal Affairs’, Sight & Sound, March 2004, p. 47.

13. James Mottram, ‘ Infernal Affairs’, Film Review: Yearbook 2005, December 2004, p. 100.

14. Steve Rose, ‘It never gets any easier’, The Guardian, 23 February 2004, Features, p. 11.

15. This anecdote has been quoted and reported in any number of places, but for one example, listen to Bey Logan’s commentary track on the Hong Kong Legends UK DVD
release of Woo’s The Killer.

16. Peter Bradshaw ‘Film of the week: Infernal Affairs’, The Guardian, Review, 27 February 2004, pp. 14–15.

17. Ed Potton, ‘ Infernal Affairs’, The Times, 26 June 2004, Features, p. 10.

18. Tony Leung’s Chinese name is Leung Chiu-wai, and his full name is usually written as Tony Leung Chiu-wai. To distinguish him from Tony Leung Ka-fai, another Hong Kong actor who also uses the screen name Tony Leung, Tony Leung Chiu-wai is sometimes referred to as ‘Little Tony’ and Tony Leung Ka-fai, ‘Big Tony’. The only Tony Leung under discussion in this chapter is the actor from Infernal Affairs, Tony Leung Chiu-wai.

19. Bullet in the Head (John Woo, 1990) was in fact determined to be the critically highest-rated Hong Kong film of all time, in a poll of critics and experts conducted by Fredric Dannen and Barry Long for their book Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider’s Guide to the Hollywood of the East (London and Boston: Faber and Faber, 1997), pp. 326–34.

20. Daniel Martin, ‘Body of action, face of authenticity: Symbolic stars in the transnational marketing and reception of East Asian cinema’, in East Asian Film Stars, eds Leung Wing-Fai and Andy Willis (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), pp. 19–34.

21. Miles Fielder, ‘ Infernal Affairs’, Empire, March 2004, http://www.empireonline.com/
reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=10085, accessed 24 January 2008.

22. Infernal Affairs II UK press notes, Tartan Films, 2004.

23. Ben Walters, ‘ Infernal Affairs II’, Sight & Sound, September 2004, p. 68.

24. The Godfather (1972), The Godfather: Part II (1974), The Godfather: Part III (1990).

25. Daniel Rosenthal, ‘Godfather’s footsteps’, The Times, 5 August 2004, section 2, p. 7.

26. Rob Mackie, ‘ Infernal Affairs II’, The Guardian, 31 December 2004, Features, p. 13.

FrOm tHe marGiNs tO tHe maiNstream 161

27. S. F. Said, ‘I want the audience to feel the pain’, Daily Telegraph, 1 October 2004, Features, p. 20.

28. Philip French, ‘Cold hands, vengeful heart’, The Observer, 17 October 2004, Review, p. 12.

29. Chris Sullivan, ‘A cold dish’, The Times, 16 October 2004, Arts section, p. 14.

30. French, ‘Cold hands’, p. 12.

31. Wendy Ide, ‘ Oldboy’, The Times, 14 October 2004, section 2, p. 12.

32. Tim Robey, ‘Masterpiece of Grand Guignol’, Daily Telegraph, 15 October 2004, Arts section, p. 20.

33. Edward Porter, ‘ Oldboy’, The Sunday Times, 17 October 2004, Features, p. 14.

34. Catherine Shoard, ‘ Oldboy’, Sunday Telegraph, 17 October 2004, Review, p. 6.

35. Chris Sullivan, ‘ Oldboy’, The Times, 16 October 2004, Arts section, p. 9.

36. Kim Newman, ‘ Oldboy’, Sight & Sound, November 2004, p. 62.

37. Sullivan, ‘A cold dish’, p. 14.

38. Said, ‘I want the audience’, p. 20.

39. Anwar Brett, ‘ Oldboy’, Film Review: Yearbook 2005, December 2004, p. 132.

40. Peter Bradshaw, ‘To the extreme’, The Guardian, 15 October 2004, Review, p. 15.

41. Shoard, ‘ Oldboy’, p. 6.

42. Edward Porter and Tim Robey.

43. Nikki J. Y. Lee, ‘Salute to Mr Vengeance!: The making of a transnational auteur Park Chan-wook’, in East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film, eds Leon Hunt and Leung Wing-Fai (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2008), p. 211.

44. Shoard, ‘ Oldboy’, p. 6.

45. Liese Spencer, ‘Revenger’s tragedy’, Sight & Sound, October 2004, p. 18.

46. Newman, ‘ Oldboy’, p. 62.

47. French, ‘Cold hands’, p. 12.

48. Newman, ‘ Oldboy’, p. 62.

49. Derek Malcolm, ‘Revenge Korean-style’, Evening Standard, 14 October 2004, p. 32.

50. Sullivan, ‘A cold dish’, p. 14.

51. Spencer, ‘Revenger’s tragedy’, p. 19.

52. Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (1957) is considered by many critics to be one of the best adaptations of Hamlet ever made.

53. Said, ‘I want the audience’, p. 20.

54. Spencer, ‘Revenger’s tragedy’, p. 19.

55. Robey, ‘Masterpiece of Grand Guignol’, p. 20.

56. Ide, ‘ Oldboy’, p. 12.

57. Jonathan Romney, ‘ Oldboy’, The Independent on Sunday, 17 October 2008, ABC, p. 18.

58. Robey, ‘Masterpiece of Grand Guignol’, p. 20.

59. Bradshaw, ‘To the extreme’, p. 15.

60. Kieron Corless and Chris Darke, Cannes: Inside the World’s Premier Film Festival (London: Faber and Faber, 2007), p. 208.

61. Ibid. pp. 208–9.

62. Tony Rayns, ‘Suspicious minds’, Sight & Sound, September 2004, p. 18.

63. Ibid. pp. 19–20.

64. Daniel Martin, ‘Categorising Korean cult: The reputation and reception of Save the Green Planet! ’, Asian Cinema, 22: 1, Spring/Summer 2011, pp. 138–49.

65. Jayne Dersley’s ‘Film Notes’ accompanying the Save the Green Planet! UK DVD.

66. Battle Royale II: Requiem press notes, produced by Tartan Films for the London Film Festival, 2003. The reference to ‘international’ DVD sales is worth noting: Tartan had

162 extreme asia
shrewdly taken advantage of the American market by releasing their UK Battle Royale DVD without any region coding, so it could be played on any American DVD player without the need for special codes or equipment. Battle Royale had been unable to find US
distribution due to its controversial content, yet a fanbase existed there and sales of the UK DVD to America followed.

67. Andrew Osmond, ‘Pipe line: Battle Royale II’, Empire, June 2003, p. 36.

68. Ibid. p. 36.

69. Geoffrey Macnab, ‘Whatever happened to the rest of the planet?’, The Guardian, 4 June 2003, Features, p. 13.

70. Osmond, ‘Pipe line: Battle Royale II’, p. 36.

71. Battle Royale II began production with Fukasaku Kinji directing, but he passed away after filming only a single scene, at which point his son Kenta took over directorial duties. Both Fukasakus are credited as co-directors of the finished film.

72. Kenta Fukasaku, ‘Director’s Statement’, Battle Royale II: Requiem press materials, 2003.

73. Phelim O’Neill, ‘Preview: Raindance East London’, The Guardian, 17 April 2004, The Guide, p. 21.

74. Kim Newman, ‘ Battle Royale 2 Requiem’, Sight & Sound, June 2004, p. 48.

75. Ibid. p. 48.

76. Ibid. p. 48.

77. Tim Robey, ‘ Battle Royale II: Requiem’, Daily Telegraph, 21 August 2004, Arts section, p. 13.

78. Ibid. p. 13.

79. Ibid. p. 13.

80. Personal interview with Paul Smith, 3 May 2008, London.

81. McAlpine, ‘A personal foreword’, p. iv.

82. Jacques Tourneur’s collaborations with producer Val Lewton – Cat People (1942), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), The Leopard Man (1943) – are among the most critically admired horror films of the period, and are canonised as classics of the genre.

Conclusion:

The Legacy of Asia Extreme

During a panel discussion entitled ‘So, what’s Japanese cinema got to do with it?’ at the BFI Southbank cinema in London, on 5 December 2007, panelist Tony Rayns was asked if there is a dominant image or understanding of Japanese cinema in Britain. Rayns answered, describing the climax of Ring,

‘undoubtedly, it’s a spectral woman with long hair over her face coming out of a well’. In reference to the worldwide proliferation of Ring-esque Japanese horror films, Rayns said, ‘Japan is sick of them. The world is sick of them.’

Rayns’ frustration at the enduring popularity of the same few Asian films should not come as any surprise. It is remarkable, though, that seven years after the theatrical release of Ring, its influence was still so strongly felt. The credit can only lie with Asia Extreme. This book has examined the changing meanings of cult Asian cinema in the UK, as both the basis on which the films were promoted, and the frames of reference with which critics consumed them, changed drastically. Orientalism is alive and well as a practice within both the marketing and reception of contemporary Asian cinema. While representations of the Far East as Other do not have to define the reception of these films by British audiences and critics, they inevitably will when an aggressive and targeted marketing campaign suggests such an interpretation. Likewise,

‘cult’ films can attain their status through these aggressive marketing campaigns; the term ‘cult’ should therefore no longer be applied only to those films which generate a spontaneous fan reaction.

What Tartan achieved with Asia Extreme remains unique and unprecedented, in spite of the company’s many imitators. Tartan’s broader efforts in releasing a much wider range of contemporary cinema were also successful: the company’s highest-earning theatrical release was the American documentary Super Size Me (Morgan Spurlock, 2004), and in 2008, the company released Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, a shot-for-shot remake of the same director’s 1997 Austrian film. What was significant about Funny Games is that

164 extreme asia

Tartan also co-produced and co-financed the film, an experimental move into film production.

Tartan’s boldest expansion of its activities, and its Asia Extreme brand in particular, came with the launch of ‘Tartan USA’ in 2004. Hamish McAlpine deviated little from his tried-and-tested self-promotion tactics, presenting the company as risk taking and taboo breaking. In an interview he gave with the Village Voice, McAlpine justified the decision to open a USA branch by arguing that:

America has been culturally challenged, and that’s where we come in

. . . We’re sort of an agent provocateur. We don’t have to answer to any American stockholders or banks; we have no one saying we are too outrageous; we have no one holding us back. In other words, we are operating in the true spirit of independence.1

The clear focus of Tartan USA was the Asia Extreme brand, and the company quickly released a slew of titles on DVD and in select cinemas nationwide.

However, this move was demonstrably less successful than the original UK
brand, and by May 2008, Tartan USA closed, its assets sold off. The reason for the failure of the USA version of Asia Extreme is, I speculate, due to several factors. Given that it started some time after the J-horror boom had hit America, Tartan found that most of its flagship titles in the UK had already been released in the USA by other companies. Tartan was unable to license Audition or the Ring films, as DVDs were already on the market; the same applied to Kim Ki-duk’s The Isle and Bad Guy. Tartan did manage to license and release Kim’s Samaritan Girl, The Coast Guard, Address Unknown and The Bow, but these films are arguably of a much lower profile than the two Kim films Tartan released first in the UK. Tartan’s marketing team, therefore, had a slightly different catalogue of releases, and found that the promotional tactics that had worked so well in the UK did not necessarily and automatically translate to the American market.2

Tartan USA was not without significant success, though, and it was able to release Oldboy in America. Oldboy’s USA theatrical release was Tartan’s most profitable in 2005,3 and the DVD was advertised via a tie-in with the American publication of the Oldboy manga (comic book) series. However, in spite of these successes, Tartan USA failed to return its investment. The closure of Tartan USA and the failure of the stateside Asia Extreme brand were disastrous for Tartan, and when the remake of Funny Games failed to generate a profit, the consequences for the company were dire.

In July 2008, Tartan Films suddenly and unexpectedly ceased trading and sold its assets. Without its parent company, the Asia Extreme brand was apparently dead. The collapse of Tartan was big news in the UK, and several news-
cONcLusiON 165
papers published ‘post-mortem’ articles examining the company’s successes and failures, and its ultimate legacy. In looking back on the company’s most significant releases, at least two sources4 singled out the films of Park Chan-wook ( Oldboy in particular) and Miike Takashi (especially Audition) as among Tartan’s most important releases in its more than 25 years of distribution.

According to an article by Geoffrey Macnab, in which he attempted to account for the company’s demise, the power of Tartan’s shrewd advertising campaigns was no longer effective, and there were no guarantees that there was profit in Asian cinema. Macnab suggested that ‘the UK market for Asian horror films, for so long Tartan’s staple, had bottomed out’.5 Macnab also argued that ‘Tartan has been among the most adventurous independent companies in the UK for more than 20 years – and one of the few with a recognisable brand name’,6 yet, as he went on to observe,

These are paradoxical times for UK distribution. On the one hand, there are dozens of companies handling what might loosely be referred to as arthouse fare. On the other, there is the sense of a contracting market.

Distributors feel they are caught in a transitional period between old-style theatrical releasing and a brave new world of digital distribution and video on demand that doesn’t seem to have arrived. Hundreds of films are released every year, and the competition is ferocious . . . Whereas in the past, a small arthouse gem might be given a chance to build up word of mouth and find an audience, now every film is judged instantly. If the opening weekend figures are disappointing, the film will be yanked out of cinemas. Meanwhile, when a small distributor does go all out to give a film a big push, the risks can be daunting. If the film flops, the distributor is lumbered with huge bills that it will struggle to pay. Some suggest there is a growing conservatism: the exhibitors are no longer ready to take a chance on the kind of films Tartan prided itself in releasing. There are signs that the industry is moving more and more toward the mainstream. DVD profits are falling. TV no longer buys arthouse films in the way it once did.7

Whatever the economic factors, it seems clear that Asia Extreme was no longer selling as well as it had been. The reason for this, I believe, is that the basis of the initial appeal of these films – their newness and strangeness – had disappeared once the market was well and truly saturated. The single unifying response among all reviewers for the first few years of Asia Extreme releases was that these films were new. Without that, the brand lost its unique selling point. Asia Extreme was, in a real sense, an inevitable victim of its own success.

Andrew Stimpson suggested that Asia Extreme’s fans simply lost interest in the brand and its films. He argued that ‘even the most diehard eastern horror

166 extreme asia
nuts are today suffering genre fatigue thanks to the (until now) seemingly infinite parade of “J-Horror” fluff and extreme crime drama chub relentlessly unleashed upon the West by the Tartan Asia [sic] label’.8 Whether ‘genre fatigue’ was indeed a factor is difficult to determine, and there is also the possibility that Asia Extreme’s most obsessive consumers ‘outgrow’ the label quickly, by importing new films on inexpensive English-subtitled DVD from Hong Kong and South Korea. These new films may be from genres and directors first introduced to these fans by Tartan, and these same films may then later be licensed and distributed by Tartan, but by which time they may well be ‘old news’ to these fans.9

Tartan’s Asia Extreme label might have been the most visible casualty of the changing market for Asian cinema in the UK, but it was not the only one: the Contender Entertainment distribution company, and its ‘Premier Asia’ brand (under which Miike’s Ichi the Killer was released in cinemas and on DVD) was also out of business completely by 2008.

Throughout the six chapters of this book, I have utilised a detailed analysis of marketing materials to illuminate the tactics used by Tartan to promote Asian cinema. In contrast to more conventional strategies, Tartan initially sought only attention rather than approval, developing its reputation before courting a wider audience. Tartan’s focus was always on the UK market – and later, its USA division – but the company’s efforts in expanding the market for Asian cinema have had consequences back in the Far East. New canons are being established, and there is a growing awareness of the transnational potential of any Asian film production. Indeed, transcultural distribution results in stereotypes and genre-specific markets emerging between different countries all over the world. While Park Chan-wook may represent Korean cinema to audiences and critics in the UK, that is hardly the case, say, in Japan, where audiences expect and demand that the Korean cinema they see is romantic and melodramatic. In fact, just as Kim Ki-duk can find funding for his films from production companies in Europe (which itself demonstrates that Asia Extreme exists – conceptually, not literally – elsewhere in Europe), other Korean filmmakers (unheard of in the West) are engaged in transnational productions with an eye on the lucrative Asian market only.10

Indeed, the transcultural distribution of these films under the Asia Extreme label ultimately reveals, as I have demonstrated, much more about British culture than it does any Asian cultures. To recall Oscar Wilde’s quote, it is arguable that the ‘Asia’ represented by Tartan’s brand does not exist, and is a creation – not of artists, but of promoters. There were arguably no new ideas about the Orient put forward by Tartan though, and the company merely played on existing Orientalist perceptions. Indeed, in thinking about what Asia Extreme really represents, it was the genre of these films, not their regional
cONcLusiON 167
origin, which Tartan had to invent (as broadly ‘extreme’ rather than specifically ‘horror’).

The audience that Tartan created at the peak of its Asia Extreme efforts might have shrunk, but there is a firmly established fanbase for directors who are only known in the UK because of Tartan. Park Chan-wook’s I’m a Cyborg (2007)11 may well have only done ‘patchy business’12 for Tartan, but the director was back in the UK twice in 2009 – making it five visits in four years – to promote his latest film, Thirst (2009), a vampire-priest sex-and-gore film which screened (in art-house cinemas) nationwide in October and November 2009.

Indeed, though Tartan might be gone, its name and brand value lives on.

The distribution company Palisades bought Tartan’s entire catalogue and, recognising the value of the Tartan brand name, named the new venture

‘Palisades Tartan’. New titles (such as the previously mentioned Thirst) have been released on DVD carrying the Palisades Tartan brand, and the company has also repackaged and re-released several of Tartan’s best known Asia Extreme (and non-Asia Extreme) titles as a kind of ‘best-of’ collection: these include a Park Chan-wook double-bill and a ‘Euro Killers’ collection of violent European films (such as Tartan’s notorious Man Bites Dog release).

Though the phrase ‘Asia Extreme’ is absent, the brand clearly continues in these releases.

The Asia Extreme name also, however, lives on though shameless imitators.

The recent release of Iguchi Noboru’s ‘J-sploitation’ film Machine Girl (2008) obviously trades on exactly the same basis as Tartan’s Asia Extreme titles, and the banner at the top of the DVD case even reads ‘Cine-Asia-Extreme’. The market for these films may have diminished, but it has clearly not disappeared.

In spite of the increased market for Asian cinema, and the generally wider circulation of foreign-language films in the UK, distribution focuses most often on cult and horror, ‘extreme’ films of various types. Tartan’s Asia Extreme brand demonstrated that what the consumer of cinema desires is difference, and its impact on the Western market for East Asian cinema left an enduring legacy.

NOtes

1. Matthew Ross, ‘Risky business’, Village Voice, 19 July 2005, http://www.villagevoice.

com/2005-07-19/film/risky-business/, accessed 1 December 2009.

2. For example, Tartan USA acquired the rights to two Hong Kong crime films, Election (Johnnie To, 2005) and Election 2 (Johnnie To, 2006) and released them on DVD as Asia Extreme titles. In the UK, these films were not distributed by Tartan, but by Optimum Releasing; both films were significant festival hits, and critically admired for their restraint and (especially in the case of the second film) political subtext. Under Tartan USA’s promotional campaign, the essential appeal of the two films seemed to have been ignored

168 extreme asia
completely in favour of marketing both titles as typical ‘bullet ballet’ heroic bloodshed films – Tartan went as far as to digitally insert guns into images for use on the DVD
covers (the films are noteworthy – and specifically admired – for the total absence of guns). In this case, therefore, Tartan’s simplistic brand identity would seem to be out of touch with the broader (and broadening) market for East Asian cinema – it might have been better to have treated these films with the prestige and subtlety that was given to Tartan’s British campaign for Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring. For a more detailed discussion of the international release(s) of Johnnie To’s Election films, see my article ‘Another week, another Johnnie To film: The marketing and distribution of postcolonial Hong Kong action cinema’ in Film International, 7: 4, 2009.

3. Oldboy sold more than 110,000 tickets in the USA in 2005. Source: The Numbers http://
www.the-numbers.com/market/2005/TartanFilms.php, accessed 1 December 2009.

4. Geoffrey Macnab, ‘Death of a salesman’, The Guardian, 4 July 2008, p. 6; Andrew Stimpson, ‘Demise of Tartan Films: What went wrong?’, The Quietus, 24 July 2008, http://thequietus.com/articles/00209-on-the-demise-of-tartan-films, accessed 1

December 2009.

5. Macnab, ‘Death of a salesman’, p. 6.

6. Ibid. p. 6.

7. Ibid. p. 6.

8. Stimpson, ‘Demise of Tartan Films’.

9. For example, take a hypothetical British fan of Oldboy. They are eagerly anticipating Park’s next film in his ‘Vengeance Trilogy’, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The film is released on DVD in South Korea in December 2005, with excellent quality English subtitles. This Korean DVD is available for purchase from a number of online retailers such as YesAsia.com. This hypothetical fan might be inclined to purchase this DVD on its release, rather than waiting for Tartan’s official UK DVD release, which came five months later, in May 2006. Thus, by the time Tartan’s DVD is released, a core segment of its market has already purchased a copy of the DVD independent of Tartan’s channels of distribution, and will be highly unlikely to re-purchase the disc in the UK.

10. A good example of a recent transnational, trans-Asian co-production of this type is Daisy (Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, 2006). With an all-Korean cast, a Korean screenplay, a Hong Kong director, and shot entirely on location in Amsterdam, the film actually seemed to be aimed primarily at the Japanese and Taiwanese film markets.

11. Full English title: I’m a Cyborg, but that’s Okay. Tartan abbreviated the title for the film’s UK release, perhaps to make it seem less quirky.

12. Macnab, ‘Death of a salesman’, p. 6.

Appendix: Asia Extreme

UK Theatrical Release Timeline

Film title

UK theatrical release

Domestic theatrical release

Ring

August 2000

Japan: January 1998

Ring 2

January 2001

Japan: July 1999

Audition

March 2001

Japan: March 1999

Nowhere to Hide

June 2001

South Korea: July 1999

Battle Royale

September 2001

Japan: December 2000

Bangkok Dangerous

February 2002

Thailand: November 1999

The Eye

September 2002

Hong Kong: May 2002

Dark Water

June 2003

Japan: January 2002

Shiri

May 2003

South Korea: February 1999

The Happiness of the Katakuris

May 2003

Japan: February 2002

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

May 2003

South Korea: March 2002

A Snake of June

June 2003

Japan: May 2003

Fulltime Killer

June 2003

Hong Kong: August 2001

Bad Guy

July 2003

South Korea: January 2002

Public Enemy

July 2003

South Korea: January 2002

Infernal Affairs

February 2004

Hong Kong: December 2002

Infernal Affairs II

August 2004

Hong Kong: October 2003

Gozu

July 2004

Japan: July 2003

A Tale of Two Sisters

August 2004

South Korea: June 2003

Phone

August 2004

South Korea: July 2002

The Isle

September 2004

South Korea: April 2000

Save the Green Planet!

September 2004

South Korea: April 2003

Into the Mirror

October 2004

South Korea: August 2003

Chaos

October 2004

Japan: October 2000

Oldboy

October 2004

South Korea: November 2003

R-Point

September 2005

South Korea: August 2004

Ab-Normal Beauty

September 2005

Hong Kong: November 2004

Tell Me Something

September 2005

South Korea: November 1999

Another Public Enemy

September 2005

South Korea: January 2005

One Night in Mongkok

September 2005

Hong Kong: May 2004

Vital

September 2005

Japan: December 2004

A Bittersweet Life

January 2006

South Korea: April 2005

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

February 2006

South Korea: July 2005

Bibliography
iNtrODuctiON

An, Jinsoo, ‘ The Killer: Cult film and transcultural (mis)reading’, in At Full Speed: Hong Kong Cinema in a Borderless World, ed. Esther C. M. Yau (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001).

Balmain, Colette, Introduction to Japanese Horror Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008).

Bock, Audie, Japanese Film Directors (Tokyo and New York: Kodansa, 1978).

Bordwell, David, Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2000).

Bourdieu, Pierre, ‘The aristocracy of culture’, in Media, Culture and Society: A Critical Reader, eds Richard Collins, James Curran, Nicholas Garnham, Paddy Scannell, Philip Schlesinger and Colin Sparks (London: Sage, 1986).

Bourdieu, Pierre, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans. Richard Nice (New York and London: Routledge, 2010).

Choi, Jinhee, The South Korean Film Renaissance: Local Hitmakers, Global Provocateurs (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2010).

Chung, Hye Seung, Kim Ki-duk (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2012).

Desser, David, Eros plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave Cinema (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988).

Desser, David, ‘The Kung Fu craze: Hong Kong cinema’s first American reception’, in The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity, eds Poshek Fu and David Desser (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Fang, Karen, John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, The New Hong Kong Cinema Series (Aberdeen, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004).

Hollows, Joanne, ‘The masculinity of cult’, in Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Taste, eds Mark Jancovich, Antonio Lázaro Reboll, Julian Stringer and Andy Willis (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003).

James, David E., and Kyung Hyun Kim (eds), Im Kwon-Taek: The Making of a Korean National Cinema (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2002).

Jancovich, Mark, ‘Cult fictions: Cult movies, subcultural capital and the production of cultural distinctions’, Cultural Studies, 16: 2 (2002).

BiBLiOGraPHY 171

Jancovich, Mark, ‘Genre and the audience: Genre classifications and cultural distinctions in the mediation of The Silence of the Lambs’, in Horror: The Film Reader, ed. Mark Jancovich (London and New York: Routledge, 2002).

Kelts, Roland, Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).

Kim, Kyung Hyun, The Remasculinization of Korean Cinema (Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2004).

Kim, Kyung Hyun, Virtual Hallyu: Korean Cinema of the Global Era (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011).

Klinger, Barbara, Melodrama and Meaning: History, Culture and the Films of Douglas Sirk (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994).

Locke, Brian, Racial Stigma on the Hollywood Screen from World War II to the Present: The Orientalist Buddy Film (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Macnab, Geoffrey, ‘Death of a salesman’, The Guardian, 4 July 2008.

Mathijs, Ernest and Xavier Mendik (eds), The Cult Film Reader (Maidenhead and New York: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill, 2008).

McAlpine, Hamish, ‘A personal foreword’, in Mark Pilkington, The Tartan Guide to Asia Extreme, ed. and compiled by Jule Hartung (London: Startlux Open Library, 2004).

McHugh, Kathleen, and Nancy Abelmann (eds), South Korean Golden Age Melodrama: Gender, Genre, and National Cinema (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005).

McRoy, Jay (ed.), Japanese Horror Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005).

McRoy, Jay, Nightmare Japan: Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008).

Mellen, Joan, Voices from the Japanese Cinema (New York: Liveright, 1975).

Mes, Tom, Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike (Godalming: FAB Press, 2003).

Mes, Tom, Iron Man: The Cinema of Shinya Tsukamoto (Godalming: FAB Press, 2005).

Mes, Tom, Re-Agitator: A Decade of Writing on Takashi Miike (Godalming: FAB Press, 2013).

Minear, Richard H., ‘Orientalism and the study of Japan’, in Edward Said, ed. Patrick Williams, vol. 1 (London: Sage, 2000).

Needham, Gary, ‘Japanese cinema and Orientalism’, in Asian Cinemas: A Reader and Guide, eds Dimitris Eleftheriotis and Gary Needham (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006).

Newman, Kim, Nightmare Movies: A Critical History of the Horror Film, 1968–88 (London: Bloomsbury, 1988).

Peirse, Alison, and Daniel Martin (eds), Korean Horror Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013).

Richie, Donald, and Joseph L. Anderson, The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (Rutland, VT
and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1959).

Richie, Donald, A Hundred Years of Japanese Film, rev. edn (Tokyo, New York and London: Kodansha International, 2005).

Roscoe, Bruce, Windows on Japan: A Walk Through Place and Perception (New York: Algora, 2007).

Ross, Matthew, ‘Risky business’, Village Voice, 19 July 2005, http://www.villagevoice.

com/2005-07-19/film/risky-business/, accessed 1 December 2009.

Said, Edward W., Orientalism (London: Penguin Books, [1978] 2003).

Sardar, Ziauddin, Orientalism (Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1999).

Stimpson, Andrew, ‘Demise of Tartan Films: What went wrong?’, The Quietus, 24 July 2008, http://thequietus.com/articles/00209-on-the-demise-of-tartan-films, accessed 1 December 2009.

172 extreme asia

Stringer, Julian, ‘Putting Korean cinema in its place: Genre classifications and the contexts of reception’, in New Korean Cinema, eds Julian Stringer and Chi-Yun Shin (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005).

Studlar, Gaylyn, ‘Out-Salomeing Salome: Dance, the new woman, and fan magazine Orientalism’, in Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film, eds Matthew Bernstein and Gaylyn Studlar (London: I. B. Tauris, 1997).

Walker, Alexander, Hollywood England: British Film Industry in the Sixties (London: Orion, 2005).

Walker, Alexander, Icons in the Fire: The Decline and Fall of Almost Everybody in the British Film Industry (London: Orion, 2005).

Walker, Alexander, National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties (London: Orion, 2005).

Walker, Tim, ‘Hamish McAlpine in fight with bank over alleged £281,000 overdraft’, Daily Telegraph, 12 August 2009, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/
mandrake/6017393/Hamish-McAlpine-in-fight-with-bank-over-alleged-281000-overdraft.

html, accessed 1 December 2009.

cHaPter 1

Andrews, Nigel, ‘ Ring’, Financial Times, 17 August 2000.

Atkins, Ian, ‘Videofile: Ring’, Starburst, May 2001.

Billson, Anne, ‘ Ring’, Sunday Telegraph, Review: Arts section, 20 August 2000.

Bond, Matthew, ‘ Ring’, Daily Telegraph, Arts section, 18 August 2000.

Bourdieu, Pierre, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans. Richard Nice (New York and London: Routledge, 1986).

Bourdieu, Pierre, ‘The aristocracy of culture’, in Media, Culture and Society: A Critical Reader, eds Richard Collins, James Curran, Nicholas Garnham, Paddy Scannell, Philip Schlesinger and Colin Sparks (London: Sage, 1986).

Braundu, Simon, ‘The Lord of the Ring’, Empire, May 2005.

Butler, Ivan, Horror in the Cinema, 3rd edn (South Brunswick and New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1979).

Douglas, Ann, The Feminization of American Culture (New York: Knopf, 1977).

Eshon, Ekon, ‘ Ring’, The Independent on Sunday, 20 August 2000.

Floyd, Nigel, ‘ Ring’, Time Out, 16–23 August 2000.

French, Philip, ‘ Ring’, The Observer, 20 August 2000.

Gledhill, Christine (ed.), Home is Where the Heart is: Studies in Melodrama and the Woman’s Film (London: British Film Institute, 1987).

Goldberg, Ruth, ‘Demons in the family: Tracking the Japanese “Uncanny Mother Film” from A Page of Madness to Ringu’, in Planks of Reason: Essays on the Horror Film, rev. edn, eds Barry Keith Grant and Christopher Sharrett (Lanham, Toronto and Oxford: Scarecrow Press, 2004).

Grissom, Daniel, with Yuko Mihara Weisser, ‘ Ring: A detailed look at Japan’s #1 Horror Series’, Asian Cult Cinema, 2nd Quarter 2000.

Hills, Matt, ‘Ringing the changes: Cult distinctions and cultural differences in US fans’

reading of Japanese horror cinema’, in Japanese Horror Cinema, ed. Jay McRoy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005).

Hills, Matt, The Pleasures of Horror (London and New York: Continuum, 2005).

Jackson, Kevin, ‘New take on the video nasty’, The Independent, Review section, 18 August 2000.

BiBLiOGraPHY 173

James, M. R., Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories: The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R.

James, Volume I, ed. S. T. Joshi (New York: Penguin Books, 2005).

Jones, Alan, ‘ Ring’, Film Review, September 2000.

Kermode, Mark, ‘ Ring’, Sight & Sound, September 2000.

King, Stephen, Danse Macabre (New York: Time Warner Paperbacks, 1993).

Macdonald, Dwight, ‘A theory of mass culture’, in Mass Culture: The Popular Arts in America, eds Bernard Rosenberg and David Manning White (New York: Free Press, 1957).

McRoy, Jay, Nightmare Japan: Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008).

Meikle, Denis, The Ring Companion (London: Titan Books, 2005).

Mes, Tom, and Jasper Sharp, The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film (Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2005).

Modleski, Tania, Feminism Without Women: Culture and Criticism in a Postfeminist Age (New York and London: Routledge, 1991).

Neale, Steven, ‘Melo talk: On the meaning and use of the term “melodrama” in the American Trade Press’, The Velvet Light Trap, 32, 1993.

Newman, Kim, ‘In the mood for Edinburgh: Festival highlights’, Sight & Sound, August 2000.

Norman, Nigel, ‘The ultimate video nasty,’ Evening Standard, 17 August 2000.

O’Sullivan, Charlotte, ‘Remote control,’ The Independent, 15 May 2002.

Phillips, Alastair, and Julian Stringer, ‘Introduction’, in Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts, eds A.Philips and J. Stringer (London and New York: Routledge, 2007).

Prawer, S. S., Caligari’s Children: The Film as Tale of Terror (Oxford, New York, Toronto and Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1980).

Pulver, Andrew, ‘ Ring,’ The Guardian, section 2, 18 August 2000.

Rigby, Jonathan, ‘Ring cycle’, Shivers, August 2000.

Ross, Andrew, No Respect: Intellectuals and Popular Culture (New York and London: Routledge, 1989).

Segal, Victoria, ‘The fear hunter’, The Times, Metro, 12–18 August 2000.

Shohat, Ella, and Robert Stam, ‘Introduction’, in Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality, and Transnational Media, eds E. Shohat and R. Stam (New Brunswick, NJ, and London: Rutgers University Press, 2003).

Smith, Adam, ‘ Ring’, Empire, September 2000.

Stafford, Roy, ‘Who’s that girl? Japanese horror moves into the mainstream’, In The Picture, December 2002.

Suzuki, Kôji, Ring, trans. Robert B. Rohmer and Glynne Walley (London: HarperCollins, 2004).

Tombs, Pete, ‘Oh, Noh . . . Japan has the horrors again’, The Guardian, Review section, 18

August 2000.

Waller, Gregory A., ‘Made-for-television horror films’, in American Horrors: Essays on the Modern American Horror Film, ed. Gregory A. Waller (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987).

Wheatley, Helen, Gothic Television (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2006).

cHaPter 2

Andrew, Geoff, ‘ Audition’, Time Out, 14–21 March 2001.

Andrews, Nigel, ‘ Audition’, Financial Times, 15 March 2001.

174 extreme asia

Austin, Thomas, Hollywood, Hype and Audiences: Selling and Watching Popular Films in the 1990s (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2002).

Billson, Anne, The Thing, BFI Modern Classics (London: BFI Publishing, 1997).

Billson, Anne, ‘ Audition’, Sunday Telegraph, Review section, 18 March 2001.

Bowyer, Justin, ‘Is this the world’s most dangerous filmmaker?’, Empire, July 2003.

Bradshaw, Peter, ‘Beauty and the beasts’, The Guardian, section 2, 16 March 2001.

Chang, Chris, ‘Japanese enfant terrible Takeshi Miike serves up a truly visceral experience’, Film Comment, May 2002.

Christopher, James, ‘ Audition’, The Times, section 2, 15 March 2001.

Clarke, Roger, ‘New films: Audition’, The Independent, 20 March 2001.

Clover, Carol J., Men, Women and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992).

Conrich, Ian, ‘An aesthetic sense: Cronenberg and neo-horror film culture’, in The Modern Fantastic: The Films of David Cronenberg, ed. Michael Grant (Westport: Praeger, 2000).

Daniel, Rob, and Dave Wood, ‘Pain threshold: the cinema of Takashi Miike’, in Fear Without Frontiers: Horror Cinema Across the Globe, ed. Steven Jay Schneider (Godalming: FAB

Press, 2003).

Desjardins, Chris, Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2005).

Dew, Oliver, ‘“Asia Extreme”: Japanese cinema and British hype’, New Cinemas, 5: 1, 2007.

Egan, Kate, Trash or Treasure? Censorship and the Changing Meanings of the Video Nasties (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2007).

Fainaru, Edna, ‘ Audition’, Screen International, 23 February 2000.

Falcon, Richard, ‘ Audition’, Sight & Sound, March 2001.

Fisher, Nick, ‘ Audition (18)’, The Sun, 17 March 2001.

Fonfrède, Julien, ‘When cynicism becomes art: a short interview with Takashi Miike’, in Fear Without Frontiers: Horror Cinema Across the Globe, ed. Steven Jay Schneider (Godalming: FAB Press, 2003).

Francke, Lizzie, ‘ Audition: Director’s focus’, Edinburgh International Film Festival 2000: Festival Programme, 2000.

French, Philip, ‘ Audition’, The Observer, Review section, 18 March 2001.

Gerow, Aaron, ‘The sadness of the impossible dream: Lack and excess in the transnational cinema of Miike Takashi’, in Courmayer Noir in Festival 1999: Official Catalogue, ed.

Marina Fabri (Rome: Edizione Fahrenheit 451, 1999).

Goldman, William, Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade (London: Bloomsbury, 2000).

Grant, Michael, ‘Fulci’s waste land: Cinema, horror, and the dreams of modernism’, in Unruly Pleasures: The Cult Film and its Critics, eds Xavier Mendik and Graeme Harper (Guildford: FAB Press, 2000).

Grant, Michael, ‘Introduction’, in The Modern Fantastic: The Films of David Cronenberg, ed.

Michael Grant (Westport: Praeger, 2000).

Hahn, Jason, ‘World cinema as “cultural hand grenade” ’, OhmyNews International, 22

September 2005, http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.

asp?menu=c10400&no=249337&rel_no=1, accessed 10 January 2006.

Hantke, Steffen, ‘Japanese horror under Western eyes: social class and global culture in Miike Takashi’s Audition’, in Japanese Horror Cinema, ed. Jay McRoy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005).

Hollows, Joanne, ‘The masculinity of cult’, in Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of

BiBLiOGraPHY 175

Oppositional Taste, eds Mark Jancovich, Antonio Lázaro Reboll, Julian Stringer and Andy Willis (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003).

Ide, Wendy, ‘Hard-Gore: A new wave of brutally bloody films has swept across Japan’, Sunday Herald, 11 March 2001.

James, Nick, ‘You have 15 minutes to crawl from the cinema’, Sight & Sound, March 2000.

Jancovich, Mark, ‘“A real shocker”: Authenticity, genre and the struggle for distinction’, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 14: 1, 2000.

Jancovich, Mark, ‘Naked ambitions: Pornography, taste and the problem of the middlebrow’, Scope: An Online Journal of Film Studies, June 2001.

Jenks, Chris, Transgression (London and New York: Routledge, 2003).

Jones, Alan, ‘ Audition’, Film Review, February 2001.

Jones, Alan, ‘ Audition’, Film Review, April 2001.

Kermode, Mark, ‘I was a teenage horror fan: or, “How I learned to stop worrying and love Linda Blair” ’, in Ill Effects: The Media/Violence Debate, eds Martin Barker and Julian Petley (London and New York: Routledge, 1997).

King, Stephen, Misery (New York: New American Library, 1988).

Krzywinska, Tanya, ‘The dynamics of squirting: Female ejaculation and lactation in hardcore film’, in Unruly Pleasures: The Cult Film and its Critics, eds Xavier Mendik and Graeme Harper (Guildford: FAB Press, 2000).

Macnab, Geoffrey, ‘A bloodthirsty bunch of fans’, The Independent, 4 November 2005.

Mathijs, Ernest, ‘The making of a cult reputation: Topicality and controversy in the critical reception of Shivers’, in Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Taste, eds Mark Jancovich, Antonio Lázaro Reboll, Julian Stringer and Andy Willis (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003).

Mes, Tom, Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike (Godalming: FAB Press, 2003).

Mes, Tom ‘ Ôdishon/Audition’, in The Cinema of Japan and Korea, ed. Justin Bowyer (London: Wallflower Press, 2004).

Mes, Tom, and Jasper Sharp, The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film (Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2005).

Mitchell, Robert, ‘ Audition attracts attention, but Enemy rules’, Screen International, 21 March 2001.

Morrow, Fiona, ‘Life, pared down to the bone’, The Independent, Review section, 16 March 2001.

Murakami, Ryu, Audition (London: Bloomsbury, 2009).

Newman, Kim, ‘ Audition’, Empire, April 2001.

Petley, Julian, ‘“A crude sort of entertainment for a crude sort of audience”: the British critics and horror cinema’, in British Horror Cinema, eds Steve Chibnall and Julian Petley (New York and London: Routledge, 2002).

Pizey, Nigel, ‘Pick of the night: Audition’, Evening Standard, 16 March 2005.

Quinn, Anthony, ‘ Audition’, The Independent, Review section, 16 March 2001.

Rayns, Tony, ‘This gun for hire’, Sight & Sound, May 2000.

Rayns, Tony, ‘From Tokyo, without love’, The Independent, Review section, 18 March 2001.

Rees, Gavin, ‘Getting busy with the Miike’, The Guardian, The Guide, 17–23 March 2001.

Robey, Tim, ‘ Audition’, Daily Telegraph, 16 March 2001.

Schilling, Mark, The Yakuza Movie Book: A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films (Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2003).

Standish, Isolde, A New History of Japanese Cinema (New York and London: Continuum, 2006).

176 extreme asia

Thomson, Michael, ‘Film reviews: Audition’, BBC Films Online, 13 March 2001, http://www.

bbc.co.uk/films/2001/03/13/audition_2001_review.shtml, accessed 10 January 2006.

Toynbee, Polly, ‘The voyeurs have won’, The Guardian, 13 March 2001.

Walker, Alexander, ‘The cutting edge of censorship’, Evening Standard, 15 March 2001.

Williams, Linda Ruth, ‘The inside-out of masculinity: David Cronenberg’s visceral pleasures’, in The Body’s Perilous Pleasures: Dangerous Desires and Contemporary Culture, ed. Michele Aaron (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999).

Williams, Linda Ruth, ‘An eye for an eye’, in Science Fiction/Horror: A Sight and Sound Reader, ed. Kim Newman (London: BFI Publishing, 2002).

Williams, Linda Ruth, The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005).

Williams, Tony, ‘Takashi Miike’s cinema of outrage’, CineAction, March 2004.

Wood, David, ‘Takashi Miike interviewed’, BBC Films Online, 13 March 2001, http://www.

bbc.co.uk/films/2001/03/13/miike_takashi_interview.shtml, accessed 10 January 2006.

Worley, Alec, ‘ Audition’, Shivers, May 2001.

cHaPter 3

Andrew, Geoff, ‘ Battle Royale’, Time Out, 12–19 September 2001.

Andrews, Nigel, ‘An audiovisual adrenalin hit’, Financial Times, section 2, 13 September 2001.

Anthony, Andrew, ‘Teenage kicks, plasma and body parts’, The Observer, Review section, 16

September 2001.

Arai, Andrea G., ‘Killing kids: Recession and survival in twenty-first-century Japan’, Postcolonial Studies, 6: 3, November 2003.

Barker, Martin, Jane Arthurs and Ramaswami Harindranath, The Crash Controversy: Censorship Campaigns and Film Reception (London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2001).

Bourdieu, Pierre, ‘The aristocracy of culture’, in Media, Culture and Society: A Critical Reader, eds Richard Collins, James Curran, Nicholas Garnham, Paddy Scannell, Philip Schlesinger and Colin Sparks (London: Sage, 1986).

Bradshaw, Peter, ‘ Battle Royale’, The Guardian, section 2, 18 August 2001.

Bradshaw, Peter, ‘A time to kill’, The Guardian, section 2, 14 September 2001.

Christopher, James, ‘A finishing school with no rules’, The Times, section 2, 13 September 2001.

Egan, Kate, Trash or Treasure? Censorship and the Changing Meanings of the Video Nasties (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2007).

Golding, William, Lord of the Flies (London: Faber and Faber, 1954).

Graham, Jamie, ‘ Battle Royale’, Total Film, October 2001.

Hahn, Jason, ‘World cinema as “cultural hand grenade” ’, OhmyNews International, 22

September 2005, http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.

asp?menu=c10400&no=249337&rel_no=1, accessed 10 January 2006.

Hoad, Phil, ‘ Battle Royale special edition’, Total Film, December 2002.

Ide, Wendy, ‘Hard-gore: A new wave of brutally bloody films has swept across Japan’, Sunday Herald, 11 March 2001.

Ide, Wendy, ‘Bloody students’, Sunday Herald, 9 September 2001.

Jancovich, Mark, ‘Genre and the audience: Genre classifications and cultural distinctions in the mediation of The Silence of the Lambs’, in Horror, The Film Reader, ed. Mark Jancovich (London and New York: Routledge, 2002).

Joyce, Colin, ‘Film inflames Japan’s youth crime fears’, Daily Telegraph, 26 December 2000.

BiBLiOGraPHY 177

Kermode, Mark, ‘The British censors and horror cinema’, in British Horror Cinema, eds Steve Chibnall and Julian Petley (London and New York: Routledge, 2002).

Kirkup, James, ‘Obituary: Kinji Fukasaku’, The Independent, 22 January 2003.

Lowe, Andy, ‘ Battle Royale: Special Edition’, Total Film, May 2004.

McCartney, Jenny, ‘Children, it’s only a game’, Sunday Telegraph, Review section, 16

September 2001.

Mes, Tom, and Jasper Sharp, The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film (Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2005).

Needham, Gary, ‘Japanese cinema and Orientalism’, in Asian Cinemas: A Reader and Guide, eds Dimitris Eleftheriotis and Gary Needham (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006).

Newman, Kim, ‘ Battle Royale’, Sight & Sound, September 2001.

Newman, Kim, ‘ Battle Royale’, Empire, October 2001.

Parry, Richard Lloyd, ‘Attacks and film violence alarm Tokyo’, The Independent, 19 December 2000.

Quinn, Anthony, ‘Teacher, leave them kids alone’, The Independent, Review section, 14

September 2001.

Rayns, Tony, ‘Killer class’, Sight & Sound, February 2001.

Robey, Tim, ‘ Battle Royale’, Daily Telegraph, Arts section, 14 September 2001.

Romney, Jonathan, ‘OK, kids – shoot!’, The Guardian, 3 February 2001.

Romney, Jonathan, ‘No stars, no characters, no plot – just punks in Japanese cars’, The Independent on Sunday, Review section, 16 September 2001.

Rose, Steve, ‘The kid killers’, The Guardian, 7 September 2001.

Rubin, Gareth, and Matt Wells, ‘Grisly Japanese film comes to UK despite crime fears’, The Guardian, 24 February 2001.

Sardar, Ziauddin, Orientalism (Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1999).

Sparks, Glenn G., and Cheri W. Sparks, ‘Effects of media violence’, in Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, eds Jennings Bryant and Dolf Zillmann (Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002).

Takami, Koushun, Battle Royale (London: Gollancz, 2007).

Tookey, Christopher, ‘Like Lord of the Flies, with axe murders’, Daily Mail, 14 September 2001.

Walker, Alexander, ‘Teacher, leave those kids alone’, Evening Standard, 13 September 2001.

Williams, Tony, ‘Case study: Battle Royale’s apocalyptic millennial warning’, in Japanese Horror Cinema, ed. Jay McRoy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005).

Worley, Alec, ‘ Battle Royale’, Shivers, October 2001.

cHaPter 4

An, Jinsoo, ‘ The Killer: Cult film and transcultural (mis)reading’, in At Full Speed: Hong Kong Cinema in a Borderless World, ed. Esther C. M. Yau (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2001).

Andrew, Geoff, ‘ Tetsuo: The Iron Man’, Time Out, 4 September 1991.

Andrews, Nigel, ‘The rare sight of emotion for its own sake’, Financial Times, section 2, 11

June 2003.

Barber, Nicholas, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, The Independent on Sunday, 24 February 2002.

Barber, Nicholas, ‘Horror! And not just the chick flick’, The Independent on Sunday, 29

September 2002.

178 extreme asia

Barber, Nicholas, ‘ A Snake of June’, The Independent on Sunday, Review section, 15 June 2003.

Barber, Nicholas, ‘Dotheboys Hall at top speed’, The Independent on Sunday, Review section, 29 June 2003.

Billson, Anne, ‘ Tetsuo II: Body Hammer’, Sunday Telegraph, 20 November 1992.

Bowyer, Justin, ‘ Fulltime Killer’, Empire, July 2003, Bradshaw, Peter, ‘ The Eye’, The Guardian, section 2, 27 September 2002.

Bradshaw, Peter, ‘ A Snake of June’, The Guardian, section 2, 13 June 2003.

Bradshaw, Peter, ‘ Fulltime Killer’, The Guardian, section 2, 27 June 2003.

Brown, Geoff, ‘ Tetsuo: The Iron Man’, The Times, 5 September 1991.

Charity, Tom, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, Time Out, 20–7 February 2002.

Charity, Tom, ‘ A Snake of June’, Time Out, 11–18 June 2003.

Christopher, James, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, The Times, section 2, 21 February 2002.

Clarke, Jeremy, ‘Man of parts’, What’s On in London, 4 September 1991.

Conrich, Ian, ‘Metal-morphosis: Post-industrial crisis and the tormented body in the Tetsuo films’, in Japanese Horror Cinema, ed. Jay McRoy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005).

Dannen, Fredric, and Barry Long, Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider’s Guide to the Hollywood of the East (London: Faber & Faber, 1997).

Dawson, Nick, ‘ The Happiness of the Katakuris’, Empire, June 2003.

Etherington, Daniel, ‘ Public Enemy’, Sight & Sound, August 2003.

Fang, Karen, John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, The New Hong Kong Cinema Series (Aberdeen, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004).

French, Philip, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, The Observer, 24 February 2002.

Gibson, William, Neuromancer (New York: Ace Books, 1984).

Gibson, William, Count Zero (New York: Ace Books, 1986).

Gibson, William, Mona Lisa Overdrive (New York: Ace Books, 1988).

Gilbey, Ryan, ‘ Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’, Sight & Sound, July 2003.

Gomery, Douglas, Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in America (London: British Film Institute, 1992).

Grossman, Andrew, ‘ Tetsuo/The Iron Man and Tetsuo 2/Tetsuo 2: Body Hammer’, in 24

Frames: The Cinema of Japan and Korea, ed. Justin Bowyer (London: Wallflower Press, 2004).

Hahn, Jason, ‘World cinema as “cultural hand grenade” ’, OhmyNews International, 22

September 2005, http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.

asp?menu=c10400&no=249337&rel_no=1, accessed 10 January 2006.

Hoberman, J., ‘Cyborg chic, marquis madness’, Premiere, July 1991.

Hollows, Joanne, ‘The masculinity of cult’, in Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Taste, eds Mark Jancovich, Antonio Lázaro Reboll, Julian Stringer and Andy Willis (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003).

Hunt, Nathan, ‘The importance of trivia: ownership, exclusion and authority in science fiction fandom’, in Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Taste, eds Mark Jancovich, Antonio Lázaro Reboll, Julian Stringer and Andy Willis (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003).

James, Nick, ‘ Tetsuo II: Body Hammer’, City Limits, 19 November 1992.

Jancovich, Mark, and Lucy Faire with Sarah Stubbings, The Place of the Audience: Cultural Geographies of Film Consumption (London: British Film Institute, 2003).

Kermode, Mark, ‘ A Snake of June’, The Observer, Review section, 15 June 2003.

Kermode, Mark, ‘ Fulltime Killer’, The Observer, Review section, 29 June 2003.

Kermode, Mark, ‘ A Snake of June’, Sight & Sound, July 2003.

BiBLiOGraPHY 179

Mes, Tom, Iron Man: The Cinema of Shinya Tsukamoto (Godalming: FAB Press, 2005).

Morrison, Alan, ‘ Bad Guy’, Empire, August 2003.

Nathan, Ian, ‘ The Eye’, The Times, section 2, 26 September 2002.

Newman, Kim, ‘ The Happiness of the Katakuris’, Sight & Sound, June 2003.

Newman, Kim, ‘ A Snake of June’, Empire, July 2003.

Newman, Kim, ‘ Fulltime Killer’, Sight & Sound, July 2003.

Newman, Kim, ‘ Bad Guy’, Sight & Sound, August 2003.

Osmond, Andrew, ‘ Shiri’, Sight & Sound, June 2003.

Pulleine, Tim, ‘ Tetsuo: The Iron Man’, The Guardian, section 2, 5 September 1991.

Quinn, Anthony, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, The Independent, Review section, 22 February 2002.

Quinn, Anthony, ‘ A Snake of June’, The Independent, Review section, 13 June 2003.

Quinn, Anthony, ‘ Fulltime Killer’, The Independent, Review section, 27 June 2003.

Rayns, Tony, Young Japanese Cinema (London: Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1990).

Rayns, Tony, ‘Tokyo stories’, Sight & Sound, December 1991.

Rayns, Tony, ‘Sodom and tomorrow’, Time Out, 18–25 November 1992.

Robey, Tim, ‘ The Eye’, Daily Telegraph, 27 September 2002.

Robey, Tim, ‘ A Snake of June’, Daily Telegraph, Arts section, 13 June 2003.

Romney, Jonathan, ‘Nothing to declare’, New Statesman and Society, 20 November 1992.

Russell, Jamie, ‘ A Snake of June ( Rokugatsu No Hebi)’, BBC Films Online, 2 June 2003, http://
bbc.co.uk/films/2003/06/02/a_snake_of_june_2003_review.shtml.

Russell, Jamie, ‘ A Snake of June’, Total Film, July 2003.

Russell, Jamie, ‘ Bad Guy’, Total Film, August 2003.

Scott, Danny, ‘ Fulltime Killer’, Total Film, July 2003.

Shoard, Catherine, ‘ Bangkok Dangerous’, Sunday Telegraph, Review, 24 February 2002.

Shoard, Catherine, ‘ The Eye’, Sunday Telegraph, Review, 29 September 2002.

Tookey, Christopher, ‘ Tetsuo: The Iron Man’, Sunday Telegraph, 18 September 1991.

Udo, Tommy, ‘ Tetsuo: The Iron Man’, City Limits, 5 September 1991.

Walker, Alexander, ‘Let your trigger do the talking’, Evening Standard, 21 February 2002.

Walker, Alexander, ‘Spooky sights for sore eyes’, Evening Standard, 26 September 2002.

Walker, Alexander, ‘ A Snake of June’, Evening Standard, 12 June 2003.

Warne, Peter, ‘ Public Enemy’, Total Film, August 2003.

cHaPter 5

Barber, Nicholas, ‘ The Isle’, The Independent on Sunday, 12 September 2004, http://arts.

independent.co.uk/film/reviews/article32061.ece, accessed 2 August 2007.

Baughan, Nikki, ‘A taste of the Orient’, Film Review, September 2004.

Bradshaw, Peter, ‘ Bad Guy’, The Guardian, 11 July 2003.

Bradshaw, Peter, ‘It shouldn’t happen to a monk’, The Guardian, 14 May 2004.

Christopher, James, ‘Maori girl power’, The Times, 10 July 2003.

Clarke, Roger, ‘The life and Seoul of the party’, The Independent, 27 April 2001, http://arts.

independent.co.uk/film/features/article241342.ece, accessed 30 August 2007.

Clarke, Roger, ‘ The Isle’, The Independent, 11 September 2004, http://findarticles.com/p/
articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040911/ai_n12798374, accessed 2 August 2007.

Demir, Anaïd, ‘Kim Ki-duk, serial painter’, in Kim Ki-Duk, eds Adrien Gombeaud, Anaïd Demir, Cédric Lagandré, Catherine Capdeville-Zeng and Daniele Rivière (Paris: Dis Voir, 2006).

Ebert, Roger, ‘Gruesome yet compelling ‘ Isle’ not for the meek’, Chicago-Sun Times, 31

180 extreme asia

January 2003, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20030131/ai_n9615359, accessed 2 August 2007.

Falcon, Richard, ‘ The Isle’, Sight & Sound, August 2001, http://www.bfi.org.uk/
sightandsound/review/2023/, accessed 2 August 2007.

Felperin, Leslie, ‘The temple on the lake within’, Sight & Sound, June 2004.

French, Philip, ‘ The Isle’, The Observer, 12 September 2004, http://film.guardian.co.uk/

News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_review/0,,1302427,00.html, accessed 29 August 2007.

French, Philip, ‘ Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring’, The Observer, 16 May 2004, http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_review/0,,1217667,00.

html, accessed 29 August 2007.

Hendrix, Grady, ‘Vengeance is theirs’, Sight & Sound, February 2006.

Hoyle, Martin, ‘Crossing the gaps between generations’, Financial Times, 10 July 2003.

James, Anita, ‘ Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter . . . and Spring’, The Times, 15 May 2004.

Jamier, Samuel, ‘The strange case of director Kim Ki-Duk: The past, the persistent problems and the near future’, Tracking the Blue Dragon Dumplings: A Korean Film Journal, The Korea Society/New York Korean Film Festival, 28 January 2007, http://www.

koreasociety.org/film_blog/portraits/the_strange_case_of_director_kim_ki-duk_the_past_
the_persistent_problems_and_the_near_future.html, accessed 5 January 2008.

Jays, David, ‘ Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring’, Sight & Sound, June 2004.

Jones, Alan, ‘ The Isle’, Film Review, September 2004.

Jones, Alan, ‘ The Isle’, Film Review: Yearbook 2005, December 2004.

Kermode, Mark, ‘Troubled waters’, New Statesman, 18 October 2004, http://www.

newstatesman.com/200410180038, accessed 30 August 2007.

Kermode, Mark, ‘My other half’s a ghost’, The Observer, 17 July 2005.

Kermode, Mark, ‘It is an ex-pigeon’, Channel 4: Film Features, http://www.channel4.com/
film/reviews/feature.jsp?id=143314, accessed 30 August 2007.

Landesman, Cosmo, ‘ Bad Guy’, The Sunday Times, 13 July 2003.

Lee, Hae-jin, KIM Ki-Duk, from Crocodile to Address Unknown (Hongjin: LJ Film, 2001).

Leong, Anthony C. Y., Korean Cinema: The New Hong Kong: A Guidebook for the Latest Korean New Wave (Victoria: Trafford Publishing, 2002).

MacNab, Geoffrey, ‘Fit to beat the banned’, The Times, 27 June 2002.

Maher, Kevin, ‘What’s behind the gore?’, The Observer, 12 January 2003.

Malcolm, Derek, ‘An affair to remember’, Evening Standard, 5 August 2004.

McKeague, Andy, ‘An interview with Kim Ki-Duk and Suh Jung on The Isle’, Monsters and Critics.com, 11 May 2005, http://dvd.monstersandcritics.com/news/printer_7779.php, accessed 5 January 2008.

Paquet, Darcy, ‘ The Isle’, Koreanfilm.org, http://www.koreanfilm.org/kfilm00.html#isle, accessed 30 August 2007.

Peters, Patrick, ‘ The Isle’, Empire Online, http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/
reviewcomplete.asp?FID=10317, accessed 29 August 2007.

Potter, Jeff, ‘ Samaritan Girl’, The Sunday Times, 3 September 2006.

Quinn, Anthony, ‘ Bad Guy’, The Independent, 11 July 2003.

Rayns, Tony, Seoul Stirring: 5 Korean Directors (London: ICA, 1995).

Rayns, Tony, ‘Sexual terrorism: The strange case of Kim Ki-duk’, Film Comment, November–

December 2004.

Rayns, Tony, ‘ The Isle’, Time Out Film Guide, http://www.timeout.com/film/
reviews/76221/the-isle.html, accessed 29 August 2007.

Rayns, Tony, ‘ Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring’, Time Out Film Guide, http://

BiBLiOGraPHY 181
www.timeout.com/film/reviews/75194/spring-summer-autumn-winter-and-spring.html, accessed 29 August 2007.

Robey, Tim, ‘ Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring’, Daily Telegraph, 14 May 2004.

Rose, Steve, ‘I’ve done a lot of cruelty to animals’, The Guardian, 2 August 2004.

Rose, Steve, ‘ The Isle’, The Guardian, 10 September 2004.

Russell, Jamie, ‘ The Isle review’, Channel 4: Cinema, http://www.channel4.com/film/
reviews/film.jsp?id=136329, accessed 30 August 2007.

Stephens, Chuck, ‘ 3-Iron’, Cinema Scope, 22: 7: 1, Spring 2005, http://www.cinema-scope.

com/cs22/cur_stephens_iron.htm, accessed 29 August 2007.

Thornton, Sarah, Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital (Cambridge: Polity, 1995).

Totaro, Donato, ‘ Seom/The Isle’, in The Cinema of Japan and Korea, ed. Justin Bowyer (London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2004).

Whittle, Peter, ‘ Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring’, The Sunday Times, 16 May 2004.

Willoughby, David, ‘ Bad Guy’, The Times, 12 July 2003.

Yecies, Brian (ed.), ‘Korean Post New Wave film director series: KIM Ki-Duk’, Screening the Past, 21 November 2002, http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/firstrelease/
fr0902/byfr14a.html, accessed 31 August 2007.

cHaPter 6

Barber, Nicholas, ‘You can not be serious! (It’s 40-love, actually)’, The Independent on Sunday, Features, 26 September 2004.

Bradshaw, Peter, ‘Film of the week: Infernal Affairs’, The Guardian, Review, 27 February 2004.

Bradshaw, Peter, ‘Once upon a time in Hong Kong: Infernal Affairs II’, The Guardian, Review, 6 August 2004.

Bradshaw, Peter, ‘To the extreme’, The Guardian, Review, 15 October 2004.

Brett, Anwar, ‘ Oldboy’, Film Review: Yearbook 2005, December 2004.

Busch, Simon, ‘Film cops have it tough. When they’re not repressing their violent ids, they’re discovering their feminine sides’, The Guardian, Friday Review, 15 October 2004.

Christopher, James, ‘ Infernal Affairs II’, The Times, section 2, 5 August 2004.

Corless, Kieron, and Chris Darke, Cannes: Inside the World’s Premier Film Festival (London: Faber and Faber, 2007).

Dalton, Stephen, ‘Japan on film’, The Times, Features, 24 April 2004.

Dannen, Fredric, and Barry Long, Hong Kong Babylon: An Insider’s Guide to the Hollywood of the East (London and Boston: Faber and Faber, 1997).

Felperin, Leslie, ‘Tarantino on Scorsese’s Infernal Affairs remake’, The Times, Features, 8

April 2004.

Fielder, Miles, ‘ Infernal Affairs’, Empire, http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/
reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=10085 2008-07-13, accessed 24 January 2008.

French, Philip, ‘Cold hands, vengeful heart’, The Observer, Review, 17 October 2004.

Gilbey, Ryan, ‘The Leung view’, The Sunday Times, Features, 29 February 2004.

Ide, Wendy, ‘ Infernal Affairs’, The Times, section 2, 28 February 2004.

Ide, Wendy, ‘ Oldboy’, The Times, section 2, 14 October 2004.

Jones, Alan, ‘ Into the Mirror’, Film Review: Yearbook 2005, December 2004.

Kendall, Nigel, ‘ Gozu’, The Times, Features, 31 July 2004.

182 extreme asia

Kim, Young-jin, Park Chan-wook (Seoul: Korean Film Council/Seoul Selection, 2007).

Landesman, Cosmo, ‘ Infernal Affairs II’, The Sunday Times, Features, 8 August 2004.

Lee, Nikki J. Y., ‘Salute to Mr. Vengeance!: The making of a transnational auteur Park Chan-wook’, in East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film, eds Leon Hunt and Leung Wing-Fai (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2008).

Mackie, Rob, ‘ Infernal Affairs II’, The Guardian, Features, 31 December 2004.

Macnab, Geoffrey, ‘Whatever happened to the rest of the planet?’, The Guardian, Features, 4 June 2003.

Malcolm, Derek, ‘An affair to remember’, Evening Standard, 5 August 2004.

Malcolm, Derek, ‘Revenge Korean-style’, Evening Standard, 14 October 2004.

Marchetti, Gina, Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs – The Trilogy (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2007).

Martin, Daniel, ‘Categorising Korean cult: The reputation and reception of Save the Green Planet! ’, Asian Cinema, 22: 1, Spring/Summer 2011.

Martin, Daniel, ‘Between the local and the global: “Asian horror” in Ahn Byung-ki’s Phone and Bunshinsaba’, in Korean Horror Cinema, eds Alison Peirse and Daniel Martin (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013).

Martin, Daniel, ‘Body of action, face of authenticity: Symbolic stars in the transnational marketing and reception of East Asian cinema’, in East Asian Film Stars, eds Leung Wing-Fai and Andrew Willis (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

McAlpine, Hamish, ‘A personal foreword’, in Mark Pilkington, The Tartan Guide to Asia Extreme, ed. and compiled by Jule Hartung (London: Startlux Open Library, 2004).

Mottram, James, ‘ Infernal Affairs’, Film Review: Yearbook 2005, December 2004.

Mottram, James, ‘ Infernal Affairs 2’, Film Review: Yearbook 2005, December 2004.

Newman, Kim, ‘ Infernal Affairs’, Sight & Sound, March 2004.

Newman, Kim, ‘ Battle Royale 2 Requiem’, Sight & Sound, June 2004.

Newman, Kim, ‘ Phone’, Sight & Sound, September 2004.

Newman, Kim, ‘ Oldboy’, Sight & Sound, November 2004.

O’Neill, Phelim, ‘Preview: Raindance East London’, The Guardian, The Guide, 17 April 2004.

Osmond, Andrew, ‘Pipe line: Battle Royale II’, Empire, June 2003.

Osmond, Andrew, ‘ Chaos’, Sight & Sound, January 2005.

Peters, Patrick, ‘ Infernal Affairs II’, Empire, http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/
reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=10373, accessed 24 January 2008.

Porter, Edward, ‘ Oldboy’, The Sunday Times, Features, 17 October 2004.

Potton, Ed, ‘ Infernal Affairs’, The Times, Features, 26 June 2004.

Quinn, Anthony, ‘ Infernal Affairs’, The Independent, Features, 27 February 2004.

Quinn, Anthony, ‘ Infernal Affairs II’, The Independent, Features, 6 August 2004.

Quirke, Antonia, ‘Don’t blink or you will lose the plot’, Evening Standard, 26 February 2004.

Rayns, Tony, ‘Suspicious minds’, Sight & Sound, September 2004.

Rayns, Tony, ‘ Gozu’, Sight & Sound, September 2004.

Rayns, Tony, ‘Sexual terrorism: The strange case of Kim Ki-duk’, Film Comment, November–

December 2004.

Rayns, Tony, ‘Shock tactics’, Sight & Sound, May 2005.

Robey, Tim, ‘ Battle Royale II: Requiem’, Daily Telegraph, Arts section, 21 August 2004.

Robey, Tim, ‘Masterpiece of Grand Guignol’, Daily Telegraph, Arts section, 15 October 2004.

Romney, Jonathan, ‘I am he as you are he as you are me’, The Independent on Sunday, Features, 29 February 2004.

Romney, Jonathan, ‘Violent? Just be pleased you’re not an octopus’, The Independent on Sunday, ABC, 17 October 2004.

BiBLiOGraPHY 183

Romney, Jonathan, ‘ Oldboy’, The Independent on Sunday, ABC, 17 October 2008.

Rose, Steve, ‘It never gets any easier’, The Guardian, Features, 23 February 2004.

Rosenthal, Daniel, ‘Godfather’s footsteps’, The Times, section 2, 5 August 2004.

Russell, Jamie, ‘ Into the Mirror’, Sight & Sound, December 2004.

Said, S. F., ‘I want the audience to feel the pain’, Daily Telegraph, Film on Friday, 1 October 2004.

Self, Will, ‘Meet the crazy bunch’, Evening Standard, 12 August 2004.

Shakespeare, William, Titus Andronicus, ed. Eugene M. Waith (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

Shoard, Catherine, ‘ Infernal Affairs’, Sunday Telegraph, Review, 7 March 2004.

Shoard, Catherine, ‘ Oldboy’, Sunday Telegraph, Review, 17 October 2004.

Solomons, Jason, ‘Whatever happened to all the heroes?’, Mail on Sunday, 26 September 2004.

Spencer, Liese, ‘Revenger’s tragedy’, Sight & Sound, October 2004.

Sullivan, Chris, ‘ Oldboy’, The Times, Arts section, 16 October 2004.

Sullivan, Chris, ‘A cold dish’, The Times, Arts section, 16 October 2004.

Walters, Ben, ‘ Infernal Affairs II’, Sight & Sound, September 2004.

Whittle, Peter, ‘ Gozu’, The Sunday Times, Features, 1 August 2004.

Williams, Linda Ruth, ‘ A Tale of Two Sisters’, Sight & Sound, September 2004.

cONcLusiON

Macnab, Geoffrey, ‘Death of a salesman’, The Guardian, 4 July 2008.

Martin, Daniel, ‘Another week, another Johnnie To film: The marketing and distribution of postcolonial Hong Kong action cinema’, Film International, 7: 4, =

Ross, Matthew, ‘Risky business’, Village Voice, 19 July 2005, http://www.villagevoice.

com/2005-07-19/film/risky-business/, accessed 1 December 2009.

Stimpson, Andrew, ‘Demise of Tartan Films: What went wrong?’, The Quietus, 24 July 2008, http://thequietus.com/articles/00209-on-the-demise-of-tartan-films, accessed 1 December 2009.

Filmography
iNtrODuctiON

Audition [ Ôdishon] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1999) Battle Royale [ Batoru Rowaiaru] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 2000) Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse, USA/Hong Kong, 1973) Five Fingers of Death (aka King Boxer) [ Tian xia di yi quan] (Chung Chang-wha, Hong Kong, 1972)

Hard Boiled [ Lashou shentan] (John Woo, Hong Kong, 1992) The Idiots [ Idioterne] (Lars von Trier, Denmark, 1998) In the Realm of the Senses [ Ai no Corrida] (Oshima Nagisa, Japan/France, 1976) The Killer [ Dip hyut shueng hung] (John Woo, Hong Kong, 1989) Kwaidan (Kobayashi Masaki, Japan, 1964)

Kuroneko (Shindô Kaneto, Japan, 1968)

Man Bites Dog [ C’est arrivé près de chez vous] (Rémy Belvaux, Belguim, 1992) Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream (Stuart Samuels, USA, 2005) Oldboy [ Oldboy] (Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2003) Onibaba (Shindô Kaneto, Japan, 1964)

Pandora’s Box [ Die Büchse der Pandora] (G. W. Pabst, Germany, 1929) Pumpkinhead (Stan Winston, USA, 1988)

Rashomon (Kurosawa Akira, Japan, 1951)

Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon, USA, 1985)

Ring [ Ringu] (Nakata Hideo, Japan, 1998) Seven Samurai [ Shichinin no samurai] (Kurosawa Akira, Japan, 1954) Tetsuo: The Iron Man [ Tetsuo] (Tsukamoto Shinya, Japan, 1988) Throne of Blood [ Kumonosu-jô] (Kurosawa Akira, Japan, 1957) cHaPter 1

The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, USA, 1999) Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1992) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, USA, 1982)

FiLmOGraPHY 185

The Exorcist (William Friedkin, USA, 1973)

Faces of Death (John Alan Schwartz, USA, 978) Final Destination (James Wong, USA, 2000)

Halloween (John Carpenter, USA, 1978)

The Haunting (Robert Wise, UK, 1963)

I Know What You Did Last Summer (Jim Gillespie, USA, 1997) The Innocents (Jack Clayton, UK, 1961)

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh, UK/USA, 1994) A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, USA, 1984) Ring [ Ringu] (Nakata Hideo, Japan, 1998) Ring 2 [ Ringu 2] (Nakata Hideo, Japan, 1999) Ring 0: Birthday [ Ringu 0: Bâsudei] (Tsuruta Norio, Japan, 2000) The Ring (Gore Verbinski, USA, 2002)

Sadako 3D (Hanabusa Tsutomu, Japan, 2012)

Sadako 3D 2 (Hanabusa Tsutomu, Japan, 2013)

Scary Movie (Keenen Ivory Wayans, USA, 2000) Scream (Wes Craven, USA, 1996)

Scream 2 (Wes Craven, USA, 1997)

Scream 3 (Wes Craven, USA, 2000)

The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, USA, 1980)

The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, USA, 1999) Videodrome (David Cronenberg, USA, 1983)

A Warning to the Curious (Lawrence Gordon Clark, UK, 1972) Whistle and I’ll Come to You (Jonathan Miller, UK, 1968) cHaPter 2

Another Lonely Hitman [ Shin kanashiki hittoman] (Mochizuki Rokuro, Japan, 1995) Audition [ Ôdishon] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1999) The Ballad of Narayama [ Narayama-bushi kô] (Imamura Shohei, Japan, 1983) Black Rain [ Kuroi ame] (Imamura Shohei, Japan, 1989) Bodyguard Kiba [ Bodigaado Kiba] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1993) Bodyguard Kiba: Apocalypse of Carnage [ Bodigaado Kiba: Shura no mokushiroku] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1994)

Branded to Kill [ Koroshi no rakuin] (Suzuki Seijun, Japan, 1967) The Brood (David Cronenberg, Canada, 1979)

Cabin Fever (Eli Roth, USA, 2002)

The Eel [ Unagi] (Imamura Shohei, Japan, 1997) The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, USA, 1981)

Fatal Attraction (Adrian Lyne, USA, 1987)

Fudoh: The New Generation [ Gokudô Sengokushi: Fudô] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1996) Full Metal Yakuza [ Full Metal Gokudô] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1997) Gangster No. 1 (Paul McGuigan, UK/Germany/Ireland, 2000) Gate of Flesh [ Nikutai no mon] (Suzuki Seijun, Japan, 1964) Hostel (Eli Roth, USA, 2005)

Hostel: Part II (Eli Roth, USA, 2007)

Ichi the Killer [ Koroshiya 1] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 2001) In the Realm of the Senses [ Ai no Corrida] (Oshima Nagisa, Japan/France, 1976)

186 extreme asia

Insect Woman [ Nippon konchuki] (Imamura Shohei, Japan, 1963) Kid’s Return [ Kizzu ritân] (Kitano Takeshi, Japan, 1996) Ley Lines [ Nihon kuroshakai] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1999) Misery (Rob Reiner, USA, 1990)

Odd Obsession [ Kagi] (Ichikawa Kon, Japan, 1959) The Pornographers [ Erogotoshi-tachi yori: Jinruigaku nyûmon] (Imamura Shohei, Japan, 1966) Rabid (David Cronenberg, Canada, 1977)

Rainy Dog [ Gokudô Kuroshakai] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1997) Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, USA, 2000) Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, USA, 1992) Ring [ Ringu] (Nakata Hideo, Japan, 1998) Scanners (David Cronenberg, Canada, 1981)

Shinjuku Triad Society [ Shinjuku Kuroshakai: Chaina Mafia Sensô] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1995)

Shivers (David Cronenberg, Canada, 1975)

Silver [ Shirubaa] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1999) Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, USA, 1991) The Thing (John Carpenter, USA, 1982)

Tokyo Drifter [ Tôkyô nagaremono] (Suzuki Seijun, Japan, 1966) Vengeance is Mine [ Fukushû suru wa ware ni ari] (Imamura Shohei, Japan, 1979) Warm Water Under a Red Bridge [ Akai hashi no shita no nurui mizu] (Imamura Shohei, Japan, 2001)

Woman of the Dunes [ Suna no onna] (Teshigahara Hiroshi, Japan, 1964) Young Thugs: Innocent Blood [ Kishiwada shônen gurentai: Chikemuri junjô-hen] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1997)

Young Thugs: Nostalgia [ Kishiwada shônen gurentai: Bôkyô] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1998) cHaPter 3

Audition [ Ôdishon] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1999) Battle Royale [ Batoru Rowaiaru] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 2000) Battle Royale: Special Version [ Batoru Rowaiaru: Tokubetsu hen] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 2001) Battle Royale II: Requiem [ Batoru Rowaiaru II: Chinkonka] (Fukasaku Kinji and Fukasaku Kenta, Japan, 2003)

Battles Without Honor and Humanity [ Jingi naki tatakai] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 1973) Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Final Episode [ Jingi naki tatakai: Kanketsu-hen]

(Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 1974)

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Hiroshima Deathmatch [ Jingi naki tatakai: Hiroshima shito hen] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 1973)

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Police Tactics [ Jingi naki tatakai: Chojo sakusen]

(Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 1974)

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War [ Jingi naki tatakai: Dairi senso] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 1973)

Brother (Kitano Takeshi, USA/UK/Japan, 2000) Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, Italy, 1980) A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, USA, 1971) Cops vs. Thugs [ Kenkei tai soshiki boryoku] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 1975) Crash (David Cronenberg, Canada/USA, 1996)

FiLmOGraPHY 187

Dolls (Kitano Takeshi, Japan, 2002)

The Driller Killer (Abel Ferrara, USA, 1979) Eureka [ Yûreka] (Aoyama Shinji, Japan, 2000) The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, USA, 1981)

Graveyard of Honour [ Jingi no hakaba] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 1975) Graveyard of Honour [ Shin jinki no hakaba] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 2002) The Green Slime [ Ganmā daisan gō: uchū daisakusen] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan/USA, 1968) Hana-Bi (Kitano Takeshi, Japan, 1998)

I Spit On Your Grave [a.k.a. Day of the Woman] (Meir Zarchi, USA, 1978) Japan Organised Crime Boss [ Nihon boryoku-dan: Kumicho] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 1969) Kid’s Return [ Kizzu ritân] (Kitano Takeshi, Japan, 1996) Kikujiro [ Kikujirô no natsu] (Kitano Takeshi, Japan, 1999) Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance [ Kozure Ôkami: Kowokashi udekashi tsukamatsuru]

(Misumi Kenji, Japan, 1972)

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx [ Kozure Ôkami: Sanzu no kawa no ubaguruma]

(Misumi Kenji, Japan, 1972)

Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone, USA, 1994) Nowhere to Hide [ Injeong sajeong bolgeot eobtda] (Lee Myung-se, South Korea, 1999) Plan 9 from Outer Space (Edward D. Wood, USA, 1959) Ring [ Ringu] (Nakata Hideo, Japan, 1998) Ring 2 [ Ringu 2] (Nakata Hideo, Japan, 1999) Ring 0: Birthday [ Ringu 0: Bâsudei] (Tsuruta Norio, Japan, 2000) Shogun Assassin [ Kozure Ōkami] (Robert Houston, Japan/USA, 1980) The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, USA, 1991) Sonatine (Kitano Takeshi, Japan, 1993)

SS Experiment Camp [ Lager SSadis Kastrat Kommandantur] (Sergio Garrone, Italy, 1976) Street Mobster [ Gendai yakuza: hito-kiri yota] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 1972) Tora! Tora! Tora! (Richard Fleischer and Fukasaku Kinji, USA/Japan, 1970) The Triple Cross [ Itsuka giragirasuruhi] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 1992) Violent Cop [ Sono otoko, kyôbô ni tsuki] (Kitano Takeshi, Japan, 1989) Zatoichi [ Zatôichi] (Kitano Takeshi, Japan, 2003) Zombi 2 [a.k.a. Zombie Flesh Eaters] (Lucio Fulci, Italy, 1979) cHaPter 4

Audition [ Ôdishon] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1999) Bad Guy [ Nabbeun Namja] (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea, 2002) Bananas (Woody Allen, USA, 1971)

Bangkok Dangerous [ Bangkok Pha-chaeht-khaat an-dtraay] (Oxide Pang and Danny Pang, Thailand, 1999)

Battle Royale [ Batoru Rowaiaru] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 2000) Battle Royale: Special Version [ Batoru Rowaiaru: Tokubetsu hen] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 2001)

A Better Tomorrow [ Yingxiong bense] (John Woo, Hong Kong, 1986) A Better Tomorrow II [ Yingxiong bense II] (John Woo, Hong Kong, 1987) Broken Arrow (John Woo, USA, 1996)

Bullet Ballet (Tsukamoto Shinya, Japan, 1998) Chihwaseon: Drunk on Women and Poetry [ Chihwaseon] (Im Kwon-taek, South Korea, 2002)

188 extreme asia

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie [ Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no tobira] (Watanabe Shinichirô, Japan, 2001)

Dark Water [ Honogurai Mizu no Soko Kara] (Nakata Hideo, Japan, 2002) Dead or Alive 2: Birds [ Dead or Alive 2: Tôbôsha] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 2000) Eating Raoul (Paul Bartel, USA, 1982)

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (Woody Allen, USA, 1972)

The Eye [ Gin gwai] (Oxide Pang and Danny Pang, Hong Kong/Thailand, 2002) Face/Off (John Woo, USA, 1997)

Fulltime Killer [ Chuen jik sat sau] (Johnny To and Wai Ka-fai, Hong Kong, 2001) Gorky Park (Michael Apted, USA, 1983)

The Happiness of the Katakuris [ Katakuri-ke no Kôfuku] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 2002) Hard-Boiled [ Laat sau sen taan] (John Woo, Hong Kong, 1992) Ichi the Killer [ Koroshiya 1] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 2001) Infernal Affairs [ Mou gaan dou] (Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, Hong Kong, 2002) In the Realm of the Senses [ Ai no Corrida] (Oshima Nagisa, Japan/France, 1976) The Iron Ladies [ Satree lek] (Youngyooth Thongkonthun, Thailand, 2000) The Isle [ Seom] (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea, 2000) The Killer [ Dip hyut shueng hung] (John Woo, Hong Kong, 1989) Lies [ Gojitmal] (Jang Sun-woo, South Korea, 1999) Love and Death (Woody Allen, USA, 1975)

Mission: Impossible 2 (John Woo, USA, 2000)

Monrak Transistor [ Mon Rak Transistor] (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, Thailand, 2001) Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, Australia/USA, 2001) Nikita [ La Femme Nikita] (Luc Besson, France, 1990) Nowhere to Hide [ Injeong Sajeong bol Geot Eobtda] (Lee Myung-se, South Korea, 1999) Oldboy [ Oldboy] (Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2003) On Deadly Ground (Steven Seagal, USA, 1994)

The Presidio (Peter Hyams, USA, 1988)

Public Enemy [ Gonggongui Jeok] (Kang Woo-suk, South Korea, 2002) The Return of the Living Dead (Dan O’Bannon, USA, 1985) Ring [ Ringu] (Nakata Hideo, Japan, 1998) Ring 2 [ Ringu 2] (Nakata Hideo, Japan, 1999) Ring 0: Birthday [ Ringu 0: Bâsudei] (Tsuruta Norio, Japan, 2000) The Ring (Gore Verbinski, USA, 2002)

Shiri [ Swiri] (Kang Je-gyu, South Korea, 1999) Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, USA, 2002)

The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, USA, 1999) Sleeper (Woody Allen, USA, 1973)

A Snake of June [ Rokugatsu no Hebi] (Tsukamoto Shinya, Japan, 2003) The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, USA, 1965)

Springtime in a Small Town [ Xiao cheng zhi chun] (Zhuangzhuang Tian, China, 2002) Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance [ Boksuneun Naui Geot] (Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2002) Take Care of My Cat [ Goyangileul butaghae] (Jeong Jae-eun, South Korea, 2001) Tears of the Black Tiger [ Fa thalai chon] (Wisit Sasanatieng, Thailand, 2000) Tetsuo: The Iron Man [ Tetsuo] (Tsukamoto Shinya, Japan, 1988) Tetsuo II: Body Hammer [ Tetsuo II: Body Hammer] (Tsukamoto Shinya, Japan, 1992) Titanic (James Cameron, USA, 1997)

Tokyo Fist [ Toukyou Fisuto] (Tsukamoto Shinya, Japan, 1995)

FiLmOGraPHY 189

Under Siege (Andrew Davis, USA, 1992)

Unknown Pleasures [ Ren xiao yao] (Zhang Ke Jia, China, 2002) Windtalkers (John Woo, USA, 2002)

xXx (Rob Cohen, USA, 2002)

cHaPter 5

3-Iron [ Bin Jip] (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea, 2004) Address Unknown [ Suchwiin Bulmyeong] (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea, 2001) Attack the Gas Station! [ Juyuso Seubgyuksageun] (Kim Sang-jin, South Korea, 1999) Audition [ Ôdishon] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1999) Bad Guy [ Nabbeun Namja] (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea, 2002) Battle Royale [ Batoru Rowaiaru] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 2000) The Bow [ Hwal] (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea, 2005) Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, Italy, 1980) Chihwaseon: Drunk on Women and Poetry [ Chihwaseon] (Im Kwon-taek, South Korea, 2002)

The Coast Guard [ Hae anseon] (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea, 2002) Crocodile [ Ag-o] (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea, 1996) Green Fish [ Chorok mulkogi] (Lee Chang-dong, South Korea, 1997) The Host [ Gwoemul] (Bong Joon-ho, South Korea, 2006) Infernal Affairs [ Mou gaan dou] (Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, Hong Kong, 2002) Infernal Affairs II [ Mou gaan dou II] (Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, Hong Kong, 2003) In the Realm of the Senses [ Ai no Corrida] (Oshima Nagisa, Japan/France, 1976) Irreversible [ Irréversible] (Gaspar Noé, France, 2002) The Isle [ Seom] (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea, 2000) Lies [ Gojitmal] (Jang Sun-woo, South Korea, 1999) Mandala [ Mandala] (Im Kwon-taek, South Korea, 1981) Memories of Murder [ Salinui chueok] (Bong Joon-ho, South Korea, 2003) Nowhere to Hide [ Injeong Sajeong bol Geot Eobtda] (Lee Myung-se, South Korea, 1999) Oldboy [ Oldboy] (Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2003) Peppermint Candy [ Bakha Satang] (Lee Chang-dong, South Korea, 2000) Ring [ Ringu] (Nakata Hideo, Japan, 1998) Samaritan Girl [ Samaria] (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea, 2004) Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring [ Bom Yeoreum Gaeul Gyeoul geurigo Bom]

(Kim Ki-duk, South Korea, 2003)

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance [ Boksuneun Naui Geot] (Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2002) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, USA, 1974) Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis, France, 2001) The Twilight Samurai [ Tasogare Seibei] (Yamada Yôji, Japan, 2002) Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? [ Dharmaga tongjoguro kan kkadalgun] (Bae Yong-kyun, South Korea, 1989)

cHaPter 6

2046 (Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong, 2004)

Audition [ Ôdishon] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 1999)

190 extreme asia

Bangkok Dangerous [ Bangkok Pha-chaeht-khaat an-dtraay] (Oxide Pang and Danny Pang, Thailand, 1999)

Battle Royale [ Batoru Rowaiaru] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 2000) Battle Royale: Special Version [ Batoru Rowaiaru: Tokubetsu hen] (Fukasaku Kinji, Japan, 2001) Battle Royale II: Requiem [ Batoru Rowaiaru II: Chinkonka] (Fukasaku Kinji and Fukasaku Kenta, Japan, 2003)

Bullet in the Head [ Die xue jie tou] (John Woo, Hong Kong, 1990) Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, USA, 1942)

Chaos [ Kaosu] (Nakata Hideo, Japan, 2000) Chungking Express [ Chung Hing sam lam] (Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong, 1994) City of God [ Cidade de Deus] (Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, Brazil, 2002) Days of Being Wild [ A Fei zheng chuan] (Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong, 1991) Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell, USA, 1997)

The Eye [ Gin gwai] (Oxide Pang and Danny Pang, Hong Kong/Thailand, 2002) The French Connection (William Friedkin, USA, 1971) The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1972) The Godfather: Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1974) The Godfather: Part III (Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1990) Gozu [ Gokudô Kyôfu Dai-Gekijô: Gozu] (Miike Takashi, Japan, 2003) Happy Together [ Chun gwong cha sit] (Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong, 1997) Hard Boiled [ Lashou shentan] (John Woo, Hong Kong, 1992) Heat (Michael Mann, USA, 1995)

Hero [ Ying xiong] (Zhang Yimou, China/Hong Kong, 2002) Infernal Affairs [ Mou gaan dou] (Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, Hong Kong, 2002) Infernal Affairs II [ Mou gaan dou II] (Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, Hong Kong, 2003) Infernal Affairs III [ Mou gaan dou III: Jung gik mou gaan] (Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, Hong Kong, 2003)

In the Mood for Love [ Fa yeung nin wa] (Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong, 2000) Into the Mirror [ Geoul Sokeuro] (Kim Sung-ho, South Korea, 2003) I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, USA, 1943) Ju-on: The Grudge [ Ju-on] (Shimizu Takashi, Japan, 2003) Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino, USA, 2003) Kill Bill, Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino, USA, 2004) The Killer [ Dip hyut shueng hung] (John Woo, Hong Kong, 1989) Last Life in the Universe [ Ruang rak noi nid mahasan] (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, Thailand/Japan, 2003)

The Last Samurai (Edward Zwick, USA, 2003)

The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur, USA, 1943) Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, USA, 2003) Nowhere to Hide [ Injeong sajeong bol geot eobtda] (Lee Myung-se, South Korea, 1999) Oldboy [ Oldboy] (Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2003) Phone [ Pon] (Ahn Byung-ki, South Korea, 2002) Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, USA, 1994)

Ran [ Ran] (Kurosawa Akira, Japan, 1985) Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, USA, 1992) Ring [ Ringu] (Nakata Hideo, Japan, 1998) Ring 2 [ Ringu 2] (Nakata Hideo, Japan, 1999) Ring 0: Birthday [ Ringu 0: Bâsudei] (Tsuruta Norio, Japan, 2000) Save the Green Planet! [ Jigureul Jikyeora! ] (Jang Jun-hwan, South Korea, 2003)

FiLmOGraPHY 191

Serpico (Sidney Lumet, USA, 1973)

A Tale of Two Sisters [ Janghwa, Hongryeon] (Kim Ji-woon, South Korea, 2003) Throne of Blood [ Kumonosu jô] (Kurosawa Akira, Japan, 1957) Zatoichi [ Zatôichi] (Kitano Takeshi, Japan, 2003) cONcLusiON

Daisy (Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, South Korea/Hong Kong, 2006) Election [ Hak se wui] (Johnnie To, Hong Kong, 2005) Election 2 [ Hak se wui yi wo wai kwai] (Johnnie To, Hong Kong, 2006) Funny Games (Michael Haneke, Austria, 1997)

Funny Games (Michael Haneke, USA/UK, 2008)

I’m a Cyborg, but that’s Okay [ Saibogujiman kwenchana] (Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2007) Machine Girl [ Kataude mashin gâru] (Iguchi Noboru, Japan, 2008) Super Size Me (Morgan Spurlock, USA, 2004)

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2005) Thirst [ Bakjwi] (Park Chan-wook, South Korea, 2009)

Index

3-Iron (2004), 122, 137

Branded to Kill (1967), 69n

British Board of Film Classification (BBFC),

Address Unknown (2001), 141n, 164

53, 59, 63, 69n, 70n, 77, 87, 91n, 123–5,

Allen, Woody, 100, 118n

128–9, 132–3

Another Lonely Hitman (1995), 60

Broken Arrow (1996), 102

Attack the Gas Station (1999), 136

Brood, The (1979), 48

Audition (1999), 3–4, 16, 36, 41–5, 47, 49–66, Brother (2000), 89n

69n, 71–3, 79, 81–2, 84, 88, 93, 102,

Bullet Ballet, 109, 120n

104, 109, 126–8, 137, 143, 145, 151,

Bullet in the Head (1990), 147, 160n

158–9, 164–5

Cabin Fever (2002), 63

Bad Guy (2002), 93, 97, 103, 115, 122, 127,

Cannes Film Festival, 4, 59, 143, 145,

130–2, 164

149–50, 152–4

Ballad of Narayama, The (1983), 69n

Cannibal Holocaust (1980), 88n, 129

Bangkok Dangerous (1999), 92, 94–7, 119n,

Chan, Jackie, 7, 106, 118n

159

Chaos (2000), 143

Battle Royale (2000), 4, 16, 36, 43, 65–6,

Chihwaseon (2002), 103, 119n, 133, 140n

71–88, 91n, 93–4, 123–4, 137, 150, 155,

Chow, Yun-Fat, 105, 113

157–8, 162n

City of God (2002), 153

Battle Royale II: Requiem (2003), 145, 149,

Clockwork Orange, A (1971), 76

155–8, 162n

Coast Guard, The (2002), 141n, 164

Battles Without Honor and Humanity (film

Corman, Roger, 75
series), 90n

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001), 119n

Bergman, Ingmar, 2–3

Crash (1996), 76, 87

Berlin International Film Festival, 122

Cronenberg, David, 27, 32, 48, 50–1, 57, 76,

Besson, Luc, 95

87

Better Tomorrow, A (1986), 7, 101, 118n,

Cruise, Tom, 100, 142

119n
cyberpunk, 93, 106, 108–9, 120n

Black Rain (1989), 69n

Blair Witch Project, The (1999), 16, 23, 26–31

Daisy (2006), 168n

Bong, Joon-ho, 135, 140n

Dark Water (2002), 102

Bourdieu, Pierre, 11, 20n, 26, 28, 80, 139,

Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000), 112

149

Dolls (2002), 89n

Bow, The (2005), 141n, 164

Boyle, Danny, 95

Edinburgh Film Festival, 29, 50, 76, 80–1

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), 30

Eel, The (1997), 69n
iNDex 193

Election (2005) & Election 2 (2006), 167n, Imamura, Shohei, 60, 69n

168n

Im, Kwon-taek, 8, 103, 133, 135, 140n, 141n

Enter the Dragon (1973), 7

Infernal Affairs (2002), 100–1, 122, 129, 138, Eureka (2000), 81

142–3, 145–9, 151, 156–7

Evil Dead, The (1981), 46, 88n

Infernal Affairs II (2003), 122, 143, 148–9

Eye, The (2002), 92, 96–7, 100–1,

Innocents, The (1961), 39n

144

International Film Festival Rotterdam, 44,

51, 58, 74

Face/Off (1997), 102

In the Realm of the Senses (1976), 6, 43, 56, Fassbinder, Rainer Werner, 135–6

59–60, 119n, 131

Fatal Attraction (1987), 57

Into the Mirror (2003), 143

Final Destination (2000), 29

Iron Ladies, The (2000), 95

Five Fingers of Death (1972), 7

Ishibashi, Ryo, 44, 60

Fukasaku, Kenta, 156–7, 162n

Isle, The (2000), 17, 115, 122–34, 136–9, 143, Fukasaku, Kinji, 77–8, 81, 83, 90n, 91n, 158,

150, 164

162n

Fulci, Lucio, 47, 88n

James, M. R., 32–3, 35, 39n

Fulltime Killer (2001), 93, 97–8, 101, 103–5, Jang, Sun-woo, 135, 140n

118n

Ju-on: The Grudge (2003), 142

Funny Games (1997) & Funny Games (2008), 163–4

Kermode, Mark, 15, 28, 30–2, 34, 46–7, 53,

87, 109–10, 119n, 129

Gangster No. 1 (2000), 57

Kid’s Return (1996), 60, 69n, 89n

Gate of Flesh (1964), 69n

Kikujiro (1999), 89n

Gibson, William, 108, 120n

Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003) & Kill Bill, Vol. 2

Godfather, The (film series), 145, 148

(2004), 142, 152–3, 160n

Gorky Park (1983), 100

Killer, The (1989), 7, 97, 101, 105, 119n, 146, Gozu (2003), 143–4

148, 160n

Graveyard of Honour (1975), 90n

Kim, Ki-duk, 8, 17, 93, 115, 122–39, 141n,

Green Fish (1997), 140n

151–2, 154, 159, 164, 166

Green Slime, The (1968), 77, 89n

King, Stephen, 24, 26, 33, 39n, 55–6, 87

Kitano, Takeshi (aka ‘Beat’ Takeshi), 77,

Halloween (film series), 25, 27, 37n

89n, 95, 142, 156

Hana-Bi (1998), 77

Korean Film Council (KOFIC), 135

Happiness of the Katakuris, The (2002), 93,

Kuroneko (1968), 2

100, 104, 114

Kurosawa, Akira, 5, 152, 161n

Hard Boiled (1992), 2–3, 7, 97, 101, 145–8

Kwaidan (1964), 2

Haunting, The (1963), 39n

Heat (1995), 147

Lam, Ringo, 105

Hero (2002), 153

Lang, Fritz, 24
heroic bloodshed subgenre, 6, 93, 97–8, 101,

Last Life in the Universe (2003), 142

105, 118n, 148, 168n

Last Samurai, The (2003), 142

Hong, Sang-soo, 135, 140n

Lee, Bruce, 7, 105, 118n

Host, The (2006), 140n

Lee, Chang-dong, 135–6, 140n

Hostel (2005), 63

Leung, Tony, 147, 160n

Hung, Sammo, 7, 106

Lewton, Val, 24, 162n

Lies (1999), 121n, 140n

Ichi the Killer (2001), 63, 69n, 102, 112, 118n, London Film Festival, 156, 161n 166

Lost in Translation (2003), 142

Idiots, The (1998), 3

Lynch, David, 32, 107

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997),

28–9

Machine Girl (2008), 167

I’m a Cyborg, but that’s Okay (2007), 167,

Mad Detective (2007), 21n

168n

Man Bites Dog (1992), 2–3, 167

194 extreme asia

Mandala (1981), 141n

Ring 0: Birthday (2000), 39n, 149

Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (1994), 30

Ring 2 (1999), 39n, 65

McAlpine, Hamish, 2–3, 17, 65, 88, 124–5,

Ring, The (2002), 35, 100

142, 158–9, 164

Roth, Eli, 63

Memories of Murder (2003), 140n

Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the

Sadako 3D (2012), 39n

Mainstream (2005), 13

Samaritan Girl (2004), 122, 141n, 164

Miike, Takashi, 4, 6, 41, 44–5, 50–1, 54–5,

Save the Green Planet! (2003), 143, 154–5

60–4, 66, 69n, 70n, 90n, 93, 102, 104,

Scanners (1981), 48

112, 143, 152, 159, 165–6

Scary Movie (2000), 23

Misery (1990), 55–6

Scorsese, Martin, 145

Mission: Impossible II (2000), 102

Scream (1996), 16, 23, 27–30, 34, 38n

Monrak Transistor (2001), 119n

Scream 3 (2000), 23

Seagal, Steven, 104, 119n

Nakata, Hideo, 31, 39n, 102, 143, 159

Seven Samurai (1954), 5

Natural Born Killers (1994), 87

Shakespeare, William, 5, 151–2

Nightmare on Elm Street, A (film series), 27, Shimizu, Takashi, 39n, 142

34, 37n

Shining, The (1980), 31–2

Nikita (1990), 99–100

Shiri (1999), 93, 98–100, 104, 115, 117n

Nowhere to Hide (1999), 117n, 127, 136, 159

Shivers (1975), 48, 58

Shogun Assassin (1980), 88n

Odd Obsession (1959), 65–6, 70n

Signs (2002), 96

Oldboy (2003), 1, 4, 93, 122, 129, 138, 142–3, Sitges Film Festival, 124

145, 149–55, 164–5, 168n

Sixth Sense, The (1999), 16, 23, 26, 28–31,

Old Dark House, The (1932), 38n

96

Onibaba (1964), 2

Smith, Paul, 42, 44–5, 51, 64–5, 71, 73, 86–7,

Oshima, Nagisa, 6, 43

116–17, 124, 126, 139, 158

Snake of June, A (2003), 93, 102, 106,

Pandora’s Box (1929), 3

108–12, 114

Pang Brothers, 92, 94–6, 159

Sonatine (1993), 89n

Park, Chan-wook, 8, 93, 139, 145, 149–54,

Sound of Music, The (1965), 100

159, 165–7

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and

Peppermint Candy (2000), 136

Spring (2003), 122–3, 129–35, 137–8,

Phone (2002), 143–4

168n

Pokemon franchise, 58

Springtime in a Small Town (2002), 119n

Pornographers, The (1966), 69n

Super Size Me (2004), 163

Presidio, The (1988), 95

Suzuki, Koji, 33, 39n

Public Enemy (2002), 93

Suzuki, Seijun, 14, 21n, 60, 69n

Pulp Fiction (1994), 152

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), 93, 115,

Pumpkinhead (1988), 3

119n, 127, 133

Rabid (1977), 48

Take Care of My Cat (2001), 121n

Ran (1985), 152

Tale of Two Sisters, A (2003), 143

Rashomon (1950), 5–6

Tarantino, Quentin, 142–3, 146–7, 149–50,

Rayns, Tony, 14–15, 17, 21n, 44, 51, 59–61,

152–3

65–6, 69n, 74, 106, 123, 134–9, 140n,

Tears of the Black Tiger (2000), 95

141n, 154, 163

Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) & Tetsuo II: Re-Animator (1985), 3

Body Hammer (1992), 6, 93–4, 106–9,

Requiem for a Dream (2000), 57

112

Reservoir Dogs (1992), 56–7, 147, 152

Thelma & Louise (1991), 57

Ring (1998), 1, 3–4, 6, 15–16, 22–3, 25–36,

Thing, The (1982), 27, 52

39n, 40n, 41–3, 50, 53, 57, 65–6, 71–2,

Thirst (2009), 167

80–2, 88, 90n, 93, 96, 100–3, 128,

Throne of Blood (1957), 5, 161n

143–5, 149, 158–9, 163–4

To, Johnnie, 21n, 105, 167n, 168n
iNDex 195

Tokyo Drifter (1966), 69n

Walker, Alexander, 15, 21n, 53–4, 57–8, 65,

Tokyo Fist (1995), 94, 107, 109

80, 83, 95–7, 109

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), 77–8

Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001), 69n

Tourner, Jacques, 24, 158–9, 162n

Warning to the Curious, A (1972), 33, 39n

Tsukamoto, Shinya, 6, 17, 93–4, 106–12,

Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?

114, 120n, 159

(1989), 141n

Twilight Samurai, The (2002), 133

Windtalkers (2002), 102

Woman of the Dunes (1964), 65–6, 70n

UGC cinemas, 89n, 92, 99, 116,

Wong, Anthony, 148

143

Wong, Kar-Wai, 7, 147

Unknown Pleasures (2002), 119n

Woo, John, 6–7, 12, 93, 96–8, 101–2, 104–5,

118n, 119n, 145–8, 160n

Vengeance is Mine (1979), 69n

Venice Film Festival, 5, 122–5, 136
xXx (2002), 99

Videodrome (1983), 32

Video Nasties, 46, 53–4, 73, 75–6, 87, 88n

Zatoichi (2003), 89n, 142

Violent Cop (1989), 89n

Zhang, Yimou, 138

Document Outline

- Extreme Asia
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction

- 1 Chilling Beginnings: Japanese Horror and the British Critical Reception of Nakata Hideo’s Ring

- 2 Cinema of Cruelty: The Birth of Asia Extreme and Miike Takashi’s Audition

- 3 Courting Controversy: Hype, Scandal and Fukasaku Kinji’s Battle Royale

- 4 Brand Wagon: The Courtship of Multiplex Audiences and the 2003 Asia Extreme Roadshow

- 5 Savagery and Serenity: Extreme Cinema and the Films of Kim Ki-duk

- 6 From the Margins to the Mainstream: Asia Extreme in 2004

- Conclusion: The Legacy of Asia Extreme

- Appendix: Asia Extreme UK Theatrical Releases, 2000-2006

- Bibliography
- Filmography
- Index

Table of Contents

- Extreme Asia
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction

- 1 Chilling Beginnings: Japanese Horror and the British Critical Reception of Nakata Hideo’s Ring

- 2 Cinema of Cruelty: The Birth of Asia Extreme and Miike Takashi’s Audition

- 3 Courting Controversy: Hype, Scandal and Fukasaku Kinji’s Battle Royale

- 4 Brand Wagon: The Courtship of Multiplex Audiences and the 2003 Asia Extreme Roadshow

- 5 Savagery and Serenity: Extreme Cinema and the Films of Kim Ki-duk

- 6 From the Margins to the Mainstream: Asia Extreme in 2004

- Conclusion: The Legacy of Asia Extreme

- Appendix: Asia Extreme UK Theatrical Releases, 2000-2006

- Bibliography
- Filmography
- Index