Nick Deocampo - Early Cinema in Asia

EARLY CINEMA IN ASIA

EARLY CINEMA IN ASIA

Edited by Nick Deocampo

Indiana University Press

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ISBN 978-0-253-02536-4 (cloth)

ISBN 978-0-253-02554-8 (paperback)

ISBN 978-0-253-02728-3 (ebook)

1 2 3 4 522 21 20 19 18 17

For Aruna Vasudevfor her vision and dedication in promoting Asian cinema and making me and a generation of film critics, scholars, filmmakers, and festival programmers appreciate Asian film culture

Contents

Acknowledgments

I T HAS BEEN a long journey to get this book published. For making its publication possible, there are a lot of people and institutions I want to thank. I first express gratitude to the Nippon Foundation, particularly its executive director, Tatsuya Tanami, because of the Asian Public Intellectuals Fellowships grant it awarded me. Through the grant, I was able to organize the Origins of Cinema in Asia Conference in Quezon City, Metro Manila, in 2005. The conference gathered film scholars, critics, festival programmers, and cineastes from Spain, Sweden, the United States, Belgium, Thailand, Australia/Malaysia, and the Philippines. The initial contributions to this book came from among papers presented at the conference. The plenary speaker was Dr. Charles Musser from Yale University, whose paper is included in this book. He became the guiding voice in our discussions on early cinema. As organizer of the event, I thought of the conference as something that would be similar to the annual Pordenone silent film festival in Italy, where early cinema is studied and celebrated. But without a patron, it was hard to continue holding an annual conference or to publish the essays.

A follow-up conference was held in New Delhi, India, two years later. In the Cinefan International Film Festival, organized by Aruna Vasudev, a larger conference was organized, and more countries participated. The papers read at that conference were added to the growing number of essays considered for publication. Again, Dr. Musser lent his support by serving as moderator for the conference panel, which included participants from Asian countries such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Iran, South Korea, Japan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. They were joined by participants from Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The idea of holding a conference on early cinema in the region proved appealing, and a third conference, the Conference on Asian Cinema Heritage and Culture, was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2008. The event had decidedly Asian participation. This was the last of the conferences on early Asian cinema I would organize.

While a sizable number of essays were gathered from the conferences, the book was still far from publication. Dr. Musser made the crucial step of recommending the collection of essays to Indiana University Press. The publication was green-lighted in late 2008. To those who made the cut and who have been patient in writing and rewriting their essays after more than a decade of waiting, I give my heartfelt thanks.

Despite the initial approval, the task of actually getting the book published would still take years and three Indiana University Press editors guiding its arduous journey. For shepherding the project, I thank Raina Polivka, Jenna Lynn Whitaker, and the current editor, who finally got the book printed, Janice Frisch. To them I owe my sincere thanks for their patience and perseverance.

In addition, I offer my sincerest gratitude to all those who helped me in my research work: the library staffs at the Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.), the National Archives (College Park, Maryland), and the National Film Center (Tokyo) and the archivists, librarians, collectors, museum guides, scholars, critics, researchers, cineastes, and private film collectors who diligently took care of the film holdings and records and who personally assisted me at the libraries, film archives, and film museums in Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, London, New York, Hollywood, Tokyo, Madrid, Barcelona, Belgium, Jakarta, Bangkok, Canberra, Shanghai, Hanoi, Amsterdam, Tampere, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Manila, Cebu, and Iloilo.

Finally, to Charles Musser, for the invaluable help and unwavering support he has given to this projectfrom recommending the book to Indiana University Press for publication to proofreading individual contributionsmy gratitude is boundless.

EARLY CINEMA IN ASIA

Introduction

The Beginnings of Cinema in Asia

Nick Deocampo

Arrival of Film

The history of early cinema in Asia remains largely unwritten, perhaps because the region tends to place a strong emphasis on national cinemasone that affirms the present-day popularity of motion pictures while forgetting their historical beginnings. When people speak of Asian cinema, they often talk about Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Korean, Thai, Filipino, Malaysian, Indonesian, Hong Kong, Vietnamese, Iranian, Sri Lankan, Taiwanese, and other national cinemas. After more than a century of motion pictures, cinema in Asia has become as diverse as the regions multistate configuration. But what identity did cinema have when it first arrived? Was cinema always identified as national?

By examining cinemas historical roots, the authors in this book help establish its diverse identities at the moment of its arrival. (Were the identities colonial, local, or transnational?) Lessons can be learned from studying how cinema first began in Asia. One lesson is that of changing identity: the identity of Asia at the time of films arrival (during the age of colonization) was far different from the identity the region assumed when film reached its maturity (during the period of nationalism) and will yet assume once globalization has done its share of transforming the region (will this period finally foster a truly Asian cinema?).

When film first appeared, Asia was virtually a continent of colonies ( The moving picture device arrived in Asia through Western colonial agents, who left it behind as one of their enduring legacies. The film apparatus was introduced by the French, British, Spaniards, Americans, Dutch, Italians, and Germans, among a few others. Its appearance toward the end of Asias colonial period makes for an interesting argument that long before countries became independent nation-states and the notion of national cinemas prevailed, there already was cinema. Its identity, however, was far from what we know of the national film industries that exist today.

Films arrival was tied to the regions modern maritime history. Motion pictures appeared and first flourished in coastal areas along the routes taken by ocean liners. Rightly so, because the end of the nineteenth century was a time when transcontinental navigation created closer relations between West and East: steamships reduced travel time by more than half that of the slow-moving galleons of bygone years. The Wests increasingly industrialized economy brought with it new inventions delivered in steel ships, among them the motion picture device. Moving picture shows flourished in seaport cities like Bombay, Manila, Shanghai, Yokohama, Batavia (Jakarta), Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapura (Singapore), Malacca, Sugbu (Cebu), and Pusan. While it did not take long for motion pictures to move inland, film initially found its home in these seaside cities.