Movies are changing

People may choose to go to see the bright lights of Hollywood for a holiday, where they want to learn and see all things about the movies, however maybe Hollywood isn’t the place to go any more…

Hollywood has always been considered to be the number one export place for movies all around the world for a long time. However the Asian community is slowly taking over and becoming part of the phenomenon. Since the 1990s there were more Asians working in Hollywood, most of them coming for directing roles and martial art choreography (Christina 2004 p364) These people have created a new pathway to the film industry. For example, more films in the action, thriller genre are seen to have martial art fight sequences, like Kill Bill (2003), the Avengers  (2012) and majority of any new films that have fighting. Also the Asian actor/ martial artrist Jacki Chan has provided a new forum for Asian actors to be popular in films. Chan has done an Asian film in Hollywood as a cross over with great success. He had many high grossing movies, with Rush Hour (1998) getting multiple sequels.  

Consequently these films have been having success in the Asian film Market. For example, movies like Avatar and Transformers are getting a greater gross from the Asian (Tsui, 2013). I believe this is due to the Asian culture having the ability to relate to the content and context that is being provided in films today.  This is due to international flow. This is the ‘movement of messages of national boundaries that also mark the crossover to two or more cultures (Wasser, Frederick 1995 p425). As a result the Asian message is being filter through films due the higher increase of Asian people working in the film industry. As such the Asian culture have more to relate to, in these films and I believe this is why they are having more success in the Asian countries compared to America. This idea is similar to Stuart Hall who believes in localization. Which leads to the proliferation of difference in two distinct ways. First, through global capitalism’s strategy of working through the local by absorbing, penetrating and negotiating with it without entirely destroying its unique particularities. Secondly, through local cultures’ ability to reinvigorate themselves as refuges from and alternatives to global capitalism’s homogenizing tendencies, in part by appropriating innovations generated by the global that enable them to speak their locality more effectively (Hall, 1997 cited in Klein, Christina 2004 p362) .

I believe that this will just continue to increase over the years. This is because as soon as people find out what sells they will continue to make films using that technique. Everyone in the world is money orientated and they just want to do what will sell. As such at the moment marital arts and Asian directors in films are very popular and they will continue using them until they find something else. As a result this will require more Asian people being involved in films.   

Reference List:

Klein, Christina 2004, ‘Martial arts and globalisation of US and Asian film industries’, Comparative America Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 360-384.

Wasser, Frederick 1995, ‘Is Hollywood America? The Trans-nationalization of the American Film Industry’ Critical Studies in Mass Communication. Vol 12. Pp423-437.

Tsui, C. 2013. Untitled. [online] Available at: http://www.vantageshanghai.com/perspectives/2013/04/china-box-office-10-highest-grossing-movies-of-all-time.html [Accessed: 25 Sep 2013].