Undead yakuza: The Japanese zombie movie, cultural resonance and generic conventions

The zombie has long been regarded as a “fundamentally American creation” (Bishop 2010) and a western monster representing the fears and anxieties of Western society. Since the renaissance of the zombie movie in the early 2000s, a subsequent surge in international production has seen the release of movies from Norway, Cuba, Pakistan and Thailand to name a few. Although Japanese zombie movies have been far more visible for Western cult audiences than in mainstream markets, Japanese cinema has emerged as one of the more prolific producers of zombie films outside of Anglophone or Western European countries in recent years. Films such as Helldriver (2010), Zombie TV (2013), Versus (2000), Tokyo Zombie (2005), Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) and anime television series High School of the Dead (2010) have generated varying degrees of popularity and critical attention internationally. At first glance Japanese zombie films, with musical zombie interludes, undead yakuza henchmen and revenge-seeking yūrei zombies, appear fundamentally different to their Western counterparts. Yet, on closer examination, the Japanese zombie movie could be regarded as a hybrid and intertextual generic form drawing on syntactic conventions at the core of a universal zombie sub-genre established by Western filmmaking traditions, while also distilling culturally specific tropes unique to various Japanese horror cinema sub-genres. Most importantly, the Japanese zombie film extracts, emphasises and revises particular conventions and motifs common within Western zombie films that are particularly relevant to Japanese audiences. This chapter investigates the cultural resonance of key generic motifs identifiable in the Japanese zombie film. It establishes a production context and the influence of Japanese horror cinema on style and thematic concerns. It then examines the function of prominent narrative conventions, namely: the source, outbreak and spread of infection; mutation and the representation of the monster; and the inclusion of supernatural and religious motifs.

Workers are doing it for themselves? Local labor solidarity in precarious times

Historically, organized labor has played a fundamental role in guaranteeing basic rights and privileges for screen media workers and defending union and guild members (however unevenly) from egregious abuses of power. Yet, despite the recent turn to labor in media and cultural studies, organized labor today has received only scant attention, even less so in locations outside Hollywood. This presentation thus intervenes in two significant ways: first, it acknowledges the ongoing global ‘undoing’ of organized labor as a consequence of footloose production and conglomeration within the screen industries, and second, it examines a case example of worker solidarity and political praxis taking shape outside formal labor institutions in response to those structural shifts. Accordingly, it links an empirical study of individual agency to broader debates associated with the spatial dynamics of screen media production, including local capacity, regional competition, and precariousness. Drawing from ethnographic interviews with local film and television workers in Glasgow, Scotland, I consider the political alliance among three nascent labor organizations in the city: one for below-the-line crew, one for facility operators, and (oddly enough) one for producers. Collectively, the groups share a desire to transform Glasgow into a global production hub, following the infrastructure developments in nearby cities like Belfast, Prague, and Budapest. They furthermore frame their objectives in political terms: establishing global scale is considered a necessary maneuver to improve local working conditions like workplace safety, income disparity, skills training, and job access. Ultimately, I argue these groups are a product of an inadequate union structure and outdated policy vision for the screen sector , once-supportive institutions currently out of sync with the global realities of media production. Furthermore, the groups’ advocacy efforts reveal the extent to which workers themselves (in additional to capital) can seek “spatial fixes” to suture their prospects to specific political and economic goals. Of course, such activities manifest under conditions outside of the workers’ control but nevertheless point to an important tension within capitalist social relations, namely that the agency to reshape the spatial relationships in their own lives recasts the geography of labor in terms that aren’t inherent or exclusive to the interests of global capital.

Hollywood y Eisenstein filman multitudes : Representaciones cinematográficas de la conciencia social y la experiencia de clase

El artículo analiza las representaciones fílmicas de la conciencia social y la experiencia de clase, en relación a varias series de películas del cine clásico, tanto europeo como hollywoodense, que ponen en escena a sujetos sociales colectivos y conflictos sociales. Se intenta responder a la pregunta sobre la posibilidad y alcances de la representación visual y fílmica de las categorías teóricas de las ciencias sociales En esta dirección se examina la homogeneización de las masas en la epopeya de multitudes anónimas en la época del cine mudo, en el cine épico-histórico de la Italia fascista y en las superproducciones históricas estadounidenses de los años cincuenta, así como la aparición fílmica del sujeto histórico proletariado en el cine de la vanguardia rusa de la década de 1920 y su preocupación por filmar expresamente la conciencia revolucionaria y los conflictos de concientización.

Hollywood y Eisenstein filman multitudes : Representaciones cinematográficas de la conciencia social y la experiencia de clase

El artículo analiza las representaciones fílmicas de la conciencia social y la experiencia de clase, en relación a varias series de películas del cine clásico, tanto europeo como hollywoodense, que ponen en escena a sujetos sociales colectivos y conflictos sociales. Se intenta responder a la pregunta sobre la posibilidad y alcances de la representación visual y fílmica de las categorías teóricas de las ciencias sociales En esta dirección se examina la homogeneización de las masas en la epopeya de multitudes anónimas en la época del cine mudo, en el cine épico-histórico de la Italia fascista y en las superproducciones históricas estadounidenses de los años cincuenta, así como la aparición fílmica del sujeto histórico proletariado en el cine de la vanguardia rusa de la década de 1920 y su preocupación por filmar expresamente la conciencia revolucionaria y los conflictos de concientización.

Hollywood y Eisenstein filman multitudes : Representaciones cinematográficas de la conciencia social y la experiencia de clase

El artículo analiza las representaciones fílmicas de la conciencia social y la experiencia de clase, en relación a varias series de películas del cine clásico, tanto europeo como hollywoodense, que ponen en escena a sujetos sociales colectivos y conflictos sociales. Se intenta responder a la pregunta sobre la posibilidad y alcances de la representación visual y fílmica de las categorías teóricas de las ciencias sociales En esta dirección se examina la homogeneización de las masas en la epopeya de multitudes anónimas en la época del cine mudo, en el cine épico-histórico de la Italia fascista y en las superproducciones históricas estadounidenses de los años cincuenta, así como la aparición fílmica del sujeto histórico proletariado en el cine de la vanguardia rusa de la década de 1920 y su preocupación por filmar expresamente la conciencia revolucionaria y los conflictos de concientización.

O primado da ambivalência corpórea: Eraserhead como dupla alegoria

Considering the film Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977) an ode to the body in both its outward and inward manifestations, this article compares the body as it is represented in the film, through the physical and psychical depiction of characters, with the cinematic medium and its conventions. The article presents Eraserhead as having three levels of meaning, all of them connected to the corporeal: one literal and two figurative. These latter two are clearly allegorical and, ultimately, one of them is literal and the other two are figural. In the most complex of them all, which presents the film in general as an artistic body, Eraserhead can be understood as an allegory of spectatorship.

I3MEDIA, e-journal of cinema, television and media studies. Especial Sport&Media

SIN FINANCIACIÓN

Independent cinema in the Chinese film industry

Chinese independent cinema has developed for more than twenty years. Two sorts of independent cinema exist in China. One is underground cinema, which is produced without official approvals and cannot be circulated in China, and the other are the films which are legally produced by small private film companies and circulated in the domestic film market. This sort of ‘within-system’ independent cinema has played a significant role in the development of Chinese cinema in terms of culture, economics and ideology. In contrast to the amount of comment on underground filmmaking in China, the significance of ‘within-system’ independent cinema has been underestimated by most scholars. This thesis is a study of how political management has determined the development of Chinese independent cinema and how Chinese independent cinema has developed during its various historical trajectories. This study takes media economics as the research approach, and its major methods utilise archive analysis and interviews. The thesis begins with a general review of the definition and business of American independent cinema. Then, after a literature review of Chinese independent cinema, it identifies significant gaps in previous studies and reviews issues of traditional definition and suggests a new definition. After several case studies on the changes in the most famous Chinese directors’ careers, the thesis shows that state studios and private film companies are two essential domestic backers for filmmaking in China. After that, the body of the thesis provides an examination of the development of ‘within-system’ independent cinema. Specifically, three factors: government intervention, the majors’ performance (state studios and, later, the conglomerates) and the market conduct of independent cinema at various points in their trajectories are studied. The key findings of the study are as follows: First, most scholars have overlooked the existence and the significance of within-system Chinese independent cinema. Drawing on an American definition of the independent sector, this thesis proposes a definition of the sector in China: namely, any film that has not been financed, produced, and/or distributed by majors. The thesis also notes important contradictions in applying this definition: i.e. film-making is still dependent on policies that frame industry development. The thesis recognises that major tensions apply to filmmaking in China, which significantly differentiates the Chinese independents from those in the US. Second, the development of Chinese independent cinema is the result the rise of the private sector and the decline of the state studio system. As state studios encountered difficulties the private sector moved forward; consequently the environment improved for independent cinema. Third, before 2003, the film industry in China had little commercialisation. The government controlled independent cinema by means of license and censorship. State studios produced main melody films and Hollywood attracted most of the audiences. Many independent filmmakers focused on commercial films, thus contributing to film commercialisation. Fourth, after 2003, the film industry became increasingly fragmented. The government created distribution and exhibition opportunities for main melody films; conglomerates collaborated with Hong Kong players; Hong Kong co-productions and Hollywood occupied the film market; and small private film companies produced main melody films in order to earn meagre profits. The original contribution of the thesis is to advance the study of Chinese independent cinema. The study suggests a reasonable and practical definition of Chinese independent cinema. It shows how the Chinese government authorities have implemented economic measures to gain ideological control in the film industry. Finally, this the first study on Chinese independent cinema applying a synthesis of economic, political and historical perspectives.