Nikolina Dobreva

The Anime Industry: Studios, Genres, Media Mix
What exactly is anime? Why and how did it become so popular around the world? In response to these questions, we will study Japanese anime in the context of its unique media mix industry that involves franchising across manga, movies, television series, and original video animation, as well as toys, merchandise, and video games. We will explore the establishment and development of that industry through the works of key auteurs (e.g., Osamu Tezuka, Mamoru Oshii, Rumiko Takahashi, Masaaki Yuasa), studios (e.g., Toei, Ghibli, Madhouse, Production I.G.), and genres (e.g., mecha, shojo, BL, sports). Our discussions will focus on both the politics and aesthetics of anime, and will be informed by broader historical and theoretical readings.

Contemporary East Asian Cinema
In this course we will study the contemporary cinema cultures of East Asia, focusing predominantly on the production of China, Japan, and South Korea in the 21st century. We will examine production, distribution, and (global) consumption in order to understand how these industries fit into or transcend national, regional, and global cinema paradigms. We will consider issues of superstardom and authorship, especially the ways in which prominent auteurs adapt, develop, and (re)invent genres and aesthetic techniques. We will also examine some of the more complex cinematic representations of tradition and modernity, nationalism, race and ethnicity, and gender and sexuality. The broader goal of the course is to think how the region’s film production can be conceptualized in terms of national/regional/global cinema, so we will use a comparative approach by analyzing similarities and unique differences within the main national industries studied. 3 hrs. lect./disc.; 3 hrs. screening

Global Auteurs: Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho
In this course we will survey the careers of prominent Korean auteurs Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho. We will analyze the films they've directed and/or produced thus far, focusing on each filmmaker's unique artistic style, the cinematic traditions they draw on, and their works' transnational appeal. In addition to delving into specific relevant topics (aesthetics of violence, genre hybridity, postcolonial cinema, stardom, adaptation, etc.), we will pay special attention to changing modes of production and distribution that have impacted the two auteurs' work process and their global reach. Films screened include Joint Security Area, The Vengeance Trilogy, The Handmaiden, Decision to Leave (Park); Memories of Murder, The Host, Snowpiercer, Okja, Parasite (Bong).