Mission and Preface

When someone from anywhere around the world thinks of cinema, they think of Hollywood. Of a medium of art and entertainment dominated by an established American system. Undeniably, Hollywood has influenced the world with its movies. They are creators of memories. Escapes to more admirable worlds. And by sitting in a dark room, in front of a bright screen, millions of viewers are touched by these films every day. But it didn't all start in the west. Like all American things, cinema would not be what it is today without influence from the eastern hemispheres. Europe reigned as the renaissance center of cinema for decades before D.W. Griffith and the United Artists birthed the Hollywood spark in 1910. French artists Georges Melies and the Lumiere Bros. were pioneers with their discovery of the first projector and their experimentation with camera techniques, respectively. Through history, works of western European filmmakers, old and new, are often accredited solely to the development and growth of American cinema. However, an artistic influence farther to the east is commonly overlooked.

Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke

Quietly, as they have through the world's history, the artists of Eastern Asia were crafting the first examples of cinema far before the Europeans even painted a portrait. Evidence dating back to as early as 500 BCE shows that Chinese philosopher Mo Di (墨翟) had invented a device in which an "inverted light from the outside world" beamed through a "small hole in the opposite wall in a darkened room". This early version of a modern day zoopraxiscope (an early projection device) predates Muybridge's original by nearly 2500 years. This fact appropriately sums up what Asia has been doing with it's art for thousands of years: beating us to the chase. East Asian cinema has a rich history, its existence originating almost simultaneously with America's, it's legacy continuing to prosper today. Auteurs like Kurosawa and Ozu lead the way as the Asian filmmakers employed filmmaking styles and techniques that Westerners would not discover for years. Much of China, Japan, and Korea remained untouched by Western influence until the mid- 20th century, leaving their culture and their cinematic style immune to the rapidly changing society of the American film scene. Although they eventually fell behind in terms of the latest technology and equipment, their techniques multiplied and their style was established. Effectively, East Asian cinema had branched out from its Western counterparts, serving as a wave of overwhelming inspiration to today's most successful directors and cinematographers. My mission in this forum is to surf that wave.

Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring

Like so many before me, I happened across a random film and was blown away by it. Exactly two years ago today, I was laying on a leather couch in my Grandma's South Carolina condo, only the light from my dirty Macbook screen lighting the room. I was in the middle of a horror movie binge, going through flicks new and old that had a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Unenthusiastically, I popped in a movie about a mutated fish monster that liked to swallow people along some river in South Korea. Little did I know that this movie would change me. I was moved. It was so much more than some half-assed horror movie. It was a film that combined horror, comedy, and melodrama. A film that evoked an array of corresponding emotions. The picture was crystal, the tone was dark, my eyes were wide. It was Bong Joon-ho's The Host (괴물 ), and it was the first film of the Korean New Wave that I'd ever seen. Sure, looking back perhaps The Host isn't the best film ever compiled, but it packed a punch and exposed me to a style of filmmaking I'd never experienced before. I was hooked, and I wanted more. It would be the catalyst of quite the streak...

Bong Joon-ho's The Host

In this blog forum, I'll record my findings, my opinions about the best films, new and old, from the East Asian masters. Their cinema relies on revealing the beauty that simplicity evokes, an element of the Asian life style that spans their existence. This meditative tone, focusing on the beauty of the world and the life within it, has been such an immensely inspiring force to me as a student and as a filmmaker. Silence. Simplicity. Beauty. Viewing works from all the masters in Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and China, I'll go on a mission to grasp this state of mind and to understand it. I'll tell you what I think, what I saw, and what I now see. Join me on this journey of Asian cinema's past and future .