Week 9: Chollywood!

According to Klein the cultural flow between the Asian and American movie industry is a two-way trade. While Hollywood is using themes from Asian cultures more and more, the Asian film Industries are in turn becoming Hollywoodized (Klein, 2004, p. 361)

We have seen countless of examples on how Asian movies are adapted to the Western market or how the Asian cultures are portrayed more and more in big Hollywood movies. Recent examples are movies such as ‘Pacific Rim’ or, a personal favourite of mine, ‘Only God Forgives’ by the Danish producer Nicolas Winding Refn with Ryan Gosling in the lead role.

Only God Forgives

In ‘Only God Forgives’ the setting of the movie is Bangkok and most of the supporting characters are local actors. 

The direct portrayal of the Asian culture and use of Asian actors are not the only ways in which Hollywood is trying to attract the Asian audience. 

Big blockbusters are adjusting their movies to fit the Asian market. This has been seen a lot recently. An example of this is with the latest James Bond movie, 'Skyfall', where the movie was edited for the Asian version with the cut out of scenes portraying prostitution in the Macau and the shooting of a security-guard in Shanghai. (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21115987)

Skyfall is not the only example on how major parts of movies are edited to concur with the Asian audience. This was also seen in World War Z where the origin of a virus outbreak was changed from China to South Korea and in Red Dawn, where the original storyline was changed from the Chinese invading and instead portrays North Korea as the perpetrators.

The Asian movie market is indeed big and Hollywood sees this potential. In the first half of 2013, the box office sales in China reached 1.79 billion USD. This was mostly from domestic films and imported films actually saw a decline in over 20% compared to the last year. (Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-up-36-583085)

On the top10 of highest grossing movies in that period in China, Hollywood is represented 6 times. The highest on the list, on a 2nd place being Iron Man 3, which also changed parts of the movies and added extra Asian actors to fit the market.

Chollywood: a term for the 'Asian Hollywood' as read in this article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10331411/Welcome-to-Chollywood-Chinas-richest-man-woos-Hollywoods-A-listers.html

References:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21115987

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2012/12/skyfall.jpg

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-up-36-583085

http://moviereviewworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/only-god-forgives-1.jpg  

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1602613/

http://imdb.com/title/tt1300854/

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaI8L-NJbiJiHkVsMT4VjjkHFI2e242h-EUagq3BGQLBzVm2yPJck6fPrEy4CHZ8OKBSd38dnMFp0M5gs9iOjZ8twGY759xH7CQvffH4c7GpEtbn3rAoieQqgWsGojoLfhbzjOtoKgnIMY/s1600/Iron+man.+23.+Avengers+series+

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10331411/Welcome-to-Chollywood-Chinas-richest-man-woos-Hollywoods-A-listers.html

Klein, C 2004, 'Martial arts and the globalization of US and Asian film industries', Comparative American Studies; An International Journal, vol. 2