The Film Industry Transitions
In my previous blog post, I reflected on digital Asia and the film industry, specifically India. I mentioned that due to the rise of technology in recent years Asia is now expanding their media for audiences to access across the globe. The film industry has since experienced a transition due to online streaming services. Streaming movies online is an extremely popular and convenient way for audiences to engage with the film industry. Platforms such as Netflix have forever changed the way audiences stream movies and TV shows. It has also meant that Western audiences now have an opportunity to engage with films produced in other countries like Asia.
The age of transactions reveals how media content from Asia has expanded to new audiences. Anthique (2019) mentions that “the expanding flow of media content had a transformative effect upon…
View original post 436 more words
Digital Asia 
I definitely agree that the “age of transactions” forever changed the world of international films. While buying a movie ticket to a foreign film may mean that customers would have to go at obscure times in the day at a selected cinema, digital transactions has made it completely accessible. Asia in the digital age points out that citizens should be able to “gain digital access, exercise digital rights and influence digital agenda”, this can be applied to film streaming. By using streaming sites individuals can “gain digital access”, they can select foreign films thereby “exercising digital rights”, which in turn indicates to streaming sites that foreign content is in demand which “influences digital agenda”. I think you make a great example of this when referring to the Korean Wave and how it was impacted by the flow of content across regions. Really loved this post!
LikeLike
Reading your post, I couldn’t help but reflect on the effect these expanding media flows have had on the global film scape. There is something I’ve noticed diminishing in recent years. Big budget Hollywood Adaptions of Foreign Films. Think of the classic adaptions of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) into The Magnificent Seven (1960, 2016). Or more modern instances with Lau’s Internal Affairs(2003) into Scorsese’s’ The Departed(2006) Park Chan-wooks Oldboy (2003) to Spike Lee’s 2016 version of the same name. Ringu (1998) becomes The Ring (2002) and so on.
With the advent of streaming platforms, we’ve continued to see the gate-keeping power of traditional studios wane (Netflix scored the most nominations of any studio last Oscars). And since, we’ve seen directors granted the opportunity to produce movies in their native markets with a global platform and massive success (e.g., Cuaron with Roma (2018)) or directors like Bong Joon-ho who’ve never had to transition to fully American produced movies for success in the ‘west’. With his Best Picture winner Parasite (2020) being entirely a South Korean Production.
LikeLike