Humanities 210 MIC/WIC- Cora Agatucci
Cultures & Literatures of Asia

This page features a list of titles found in the COCC's Asian film collection and links on these films.

Asian Films and Videos Feature Films (Narrative Fiction) Documentary Films

Asian Films & Videos

Descriptions of Asian videos [Feature films & Documentaries]
in COCC's Library Media & Humanities Dept. collections

Asian Film Connections (Asia Pacific Media Center, Univ. of So. Calif - Center for Scholarly Technology - Annenberg Center for Communication, 1999) "seeks to create a deeper awareness and understanding of Asian cinema by providing immediate and comprehensive information about films from Asia, especially the cinemas of China, India, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan." Great resource!!
http://www.asianfilms.org/netpac/
NETPAC: Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (Asia Pacific Media Center):
Cinemaya is its official journal: http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/asianfilm/about/netpac.html

Links to Films from Asia:

Movie Links Features links to films from Asia, Africa, and Latin America (Cora Agatucci, Writing 316 - Advanced Prose Writing, Eastern Oregon Univ.-University Center at Central Oregon Community College, Bend, OR)

Univ. of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies:
http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/
....Japan on Film: Guide to Japanese Film Prints
http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/films/index.html
....Japanese Literature on Film (Japanese movie adaptations of Japanese literary works released in the United States): http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/films/reviews/litonfilm.html
....Japan Resources/Links: "The information here is accessible to everyone, and may be especially useful for teachers who are looking to integrate films into their teachings on Japan, or things Japanese. The commentary, plot information, notes, and references are provided as a starting point for an exploration of these films and Japan. Film print availability is listed because of the difficulty in locating distributors of Japanese prints."
http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/resources/overview.html

Doing a research paper?
COCC Links: Online Resources for Student Writers & Researchers

Feature Films (Narrative Fiction)

TO LIVE  
Samuel Goldwyn Co.-Era International (HK) Ltd- Shanghai Film Studios. Hallmark Home Entertainment, 1995. (Runtime: 132 min.) In Mandarin Chinese language, with English subtitles. Originally produced as motion picture in 1994. Performers: Ge You, Gong Li. Director of photography, Lu Yue ; music, Zhao Jiping ; editor, Du Yuan ; screenplay, Yu Hua, Lu Wei ; executive producers, Christophe Tseng, Kow Fuhong ; producer, Chiu Fusheng ; director, Zhang Yimou. Based on the novel by Yu Hua. 
Summary:  In a smoky gambling den in 1940's China, a drunken young man runs through his family's fortune, losing their ancestral home and all their possessions. This staggering loss proves to be their salvation, and the first step in an odyssey of survival that will take them through war and revolution love and loss, tragedy ... and triumph.
COCC Library Media:  PN 1997 .T5937 1995

RASHOMON
Embassy Home Entertainment ; directed by Akira Kurosawa.  Embassy Home Entertainment, [c1980].83 min.
Original screen play filmed in 1950. Japanese, subtitled in English. Performers: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura.
Summary: A man is murdered; his wife is raped by a bandit. Kurosawa uses a stunning flashback technique to tell four different versions of what occurred. Sensuous imagery and dramatic action combine in this profound exploration of the quicksilver nature of truth.
COCC Library:  Video 426

YELLOW EARTH (Huang tu ti)
The Guangxi Film Studio ; scenario, Zhang Ziliang ; directed by Chen Kaige ; International Film Circuit Inc.
Fox Lorber Home Video [distributor], [1993]
PN1995.9.C47 H8 1993
In Mandarin with English subtitles.
"Based on Ke Lan's Echo in the deep valley."
Originally produced in 1984 as a foreign motion picture; released in 1985.
Performers: Xue Bai, Wang Xueqi, Tan Tuo, Liu Qiang.
Photography, Zhang Yimou; editors, Wan Liu, Pei Xiaonan; music, Zhao Jiping; production designer, He Qun.
Summary: The year is 1939. The life of a young peasant girl in Northern Shaanxi province is changed forever
by a Communist soldier sent out to collect folk songs for the use of revolutionary armies.

THE APU TRILOGY
Bengali dialogue, English subtitles.
Originally produced as motion pictures in 1952-1959.written and directed by Satyajit Ray. Columbia Tristar Home Video, c1996. Photography, Subrata Mitra ; editor, Dulai Dutta ; music, Ravi Shankar.
Summary: presents the moving saga of Apu and his family in India.
Pather panchali (Song of the little road) -- Aparajito (The unvanquished) -- The world of Apu (Apur sansar)
COCC Library Media:  
PK1718.R3119 A68 1996 v.1
PK1718.R3119 A68 1996 v.2
PK1718.R3119 A68 1996 v.3

THE MAHABHARATA
Les Productions du 3ème Etage, Channel 4 Television, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, & Le Centre national de la cinématographie. Parabola Video Library, 1989. [Short version] Run time: 166 min. In English.
based on the RST/CICT stage production adapted byJean-Claude Carrière ; screenplay by Peter Brook, Jean-Claude Carrière, Marie-Hélène Estienne ; produced by Michel Propper ; directed by Peter Brook.
Starring Georges Corraface, Mamadou Dioumé, Urs Bihler, Ryssard Cieslak, Miriam Goldschmidt, Jeffrey Kissoon, Sotigui Kougate, Tuncel Kurtiz, Bruce Myers, Yoshi Oida, Robert Langdon Lloyd, Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Helène Patarot, Mallika Sarabhai, Andrezej Seweryn, Tapa Sudana.
Internet Movie Database: The Mahabharata ["mini" version]. 

Summary: An intimate journey to the very heart of Indian mythology, religion, history and thought, this film brings to life the conflict between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, the feuding families at the center of the saga. The world of the Mahabharata is of profound storytelling power and spiritual import; within it a civilization rises, falls and is reborn.
(COCC Library AV BL1138.25 .C37 1989 v. 1 & v. 2)

Mahabharata - HUM 210 Epic Genre, by Cora Agatucci:  
  http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum210/epic.htm 

Mahabharata - HUM 210 Film Notes, by Cora Agatucci: 

Mahabharata [Audio CD]  by C. Rajagopalachari. Bloomington, MN : Ethnic Enterprises, Inc., p1996. 12 CD DISC in 3 Sets; 4 CD per each set. Narrated by Akshay Rao.Mahabharata -- Paraphrases, English by Rajagopalachari, C. (Chakravarti), 1878-1972.

COCC Library AV BL1138.4 .E5 1996 Sets I, II, & III)
I.M.S. Audiovisuals
BL1138.4.E5 R3 1996 Set I [CDs #1-4]
BL1138.4.E5 R3 1996 Set II [CDs #5-8]
BL1138.4.E5 R3 1996 Set III [CDs #9-12]

SPICES (Mirch Masala)
Plot Summary:  In 1940s India, still a British colony, tax collectors (called sudebars) and their soldiers spread terror in the countryside by demanding more than taxes alone. Determined to resist the sudebar's advances, the impoverished young beauty Sonbai takes refuge in the pepper factory but finds few villagers courageous enough to aid her--least of all village men traditionally blind to injustices against women. In her last of more than 70 film roles before dying in childbirth at 31, India's great actor Smita Patil joins director Ketan Mehta in dramatizing a populist challenge to tyranny and the subservience which has sustained it. India, 1986; Mystic Fire Video-Cinema Four, 1990. Run time: 98 min. In Hindi with English subtitles. (COCC Library AV Video 2027, PN 1997 .S648 1990)

RED SORGHUM (Hong gao liang)
Based on the novel of the same name by Mo Yan (who co-wrote the screenplay with Chen Jianyu), and directed by Zhang Yimou, one of China's foremost "Fifth Generation" filmmakers, Red Sorghum moves from lusty romantic comedy in an early 20th century village, to an heroic, harrowing drama of partisan resistance during the Japanese occupation of China. Yimou's directorial debut is breathtakingly filmed (cinematography by Gu Changwei)--a lyrical epic building to an explosive climax. Starring Gong Li, Jiang Wen, and Ji Cun Hua. Xi'an Film Studio, People's Republic of China, 1987; New Yorker Video, 1991. Run time: 91 min. In Mandarin with English subtitles.
Internet Movie Database: Red Sorghum [Hong gao liang]. 

Asian Film Connections:
China: http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/asianfilm/china/
Zhang Yimou: China - Highlighted Director
http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/asianfilm/china/zhang.html
Cinemayo Highlighted Articles on Chinese Cinema - Zhang Yimou
http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/asianfilm/china/index-cin.html

Red Sorghum (the novel) HUM 210 Study Guide, by Cora Agatucci: 
 http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum210/redsorghum.htm 

RHAPSODY IN AUGUST  Hachigatsu no kyoshikyoku, 
Japan-Orion, 1991, dir. Akira Kurosawa with Ishiro Honda for some uncredited scenes). Shochiku - Feature Film Enterprise No. 2: Originally released in 1991 as a motion picture. Orion Home Video, 1994.
Written and directed by Akira Kurosawa ; produced by Kurosawa production ; producer, Hisao Kurosawa. Run time: 98 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.  Starring: Sachiko Murase, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Richard Gere.
COCC Library I.M.S. Audiovisuals PL856.U735 N32 1994

Based on the novel: Nabe no naka / by Kiyoko Murata.
Plot Summary: A visit from her grandchildren and the discovery of a half-American relative cause an elderly woman to relive her memories of the atomic bomb that fell on Nagasaki.
Internet Movie Database:  Rhapsody in August [Hachigatsu no kyoshikyoku].

FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE Ba wang bie ji
Beijing Film Studio-China Film Co-Production Corp.-Tomson Films, 1993; Video: Miramax.
Dir. Kaige Chen.  R Rated; Mandarin - subtitled in English; runtime: 157 min.
COCC Library I.M.S. Audiovisuals VIDEO 1123

Based on the novel by  Li, Pi-hua. (Lilian Lee ); translated from the Chinese by Andrea Lingenfelter.
Pa-wang pieh Chi. (trans. in English as Farewell My Concubine: A Novel).  New York, NY:  HarperPerennial, 1994.  COCC Library call no.: PL2877.P48 P2713 1994

RAN
Screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, & Masato Ide ;
Executive Producer, Katsumi Furukawa; produced by Serge Silberman and Masato Hara; directed by Akira CBS/Fox Video, 1985. Run time: (160 min.) In Japanese with English subtitles.
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu, Mieko Harada, Yoshiko Miyazaki.
Kurosawa's brillant rendition of Japanese history, Shakespeare's plot of "King Lear", and his own
personal feelings about loyalty. Set in 16th century Japan, an aging ruler, Lord Hidetora, attempts to
peacefully divide his kingdom among his three sons. Instead, they turn against each other and betray
their father. Ruthless ambition, plots woven by scheming advisors and Hidetora's own past savagery
combine in a whirlwind of chaos, ultimately driving the old man insane, shattering his kingdom, and
destroying his family.  COCC LIBRARY AUDIOVISUALS VIDEO 1138

YELLOW EARTH (HUANG TU TI)
Huang tu ti [videorecording] = Yellow Earth / The Guangxi Film Studio ; scenario, Zhang Ziliang ; directed by Chen Kaige ; International Film Circuit Inc. Fox Lorber Home Video [distributor], [1993]
Run time 89 min. In Mandarin with English subtitles.  Starring: Xue Bai, Wang Xueqi, Tan Tuo, Liu Qiang.
Photography, Zhang Yimou; editors, Wan Liu, Pei Xiaonan; music, Zhao Jiping; production designer, He Qun.  Originally produced in 1984 as a foreign motion picture; released in 1985.  COCC Library I.M.S. Audiovisuals  PN1995.9.C47 H8 1993

Based on Ke Lan's "Echo in the deep valley."
Summary:  The year is 1939. The life of a young peasant girl in Northern Shaanxi province is changed forever by a Communist soldier sent out to collect folk songs for the use of revolutionary armies.

THE BALLAD OF NARAYAMA (Narayamabushi ko, 1983)
Janus Films ; Toei Company, Ltd. ; written and directed by Shohei Imamura ; screenplay by Shohei Imamura. [United States] : Home Vision : [Distributed by Public Media Incorporated, 199-?]
Run time: 129 min. In Japanese with English subtitles.
Based on the story by Shichiro Fukazawa. Originally produced as motion picture, 1983.
Starring: Ken Ogata, Sumiko Sakamoto, Tonpei Hidari, Takejo Aki.
Photographer, Masao Tochizawa.
Summary:  A century ago in a remote Japanese mountain village, the elderly upon reaching the age of seventy
were customarily abandoned on a mountain top to meet the gods of Narayama. Orin, a matriarch
whose time approaches, must make plans to assure the survival of her family as stolen crops and
newborn additions threaten their very existence.
COCC Library I.M.S. Audiovisuals PN1997 .B2459 1988

IKIRU (Japan: Toho, 1952 - black & white; runtime: 143 min.) Trans. Doomed (1952); Living (1952), and To Live (1952). U.S.A. distr. Brandon Films - in Japanese with English subtitles; runtime: 140 min. ) Dir. Akira Kurosawa; wr. Shinobu Hashimoto, Akira Kurosawa, & Hideo Oguni. Prod. Sojiro Motoki. Original music: Fumio Hayasaka. Cinematography: Asakazu Nakai. Starring: Takashi Shimura (as Kanji Watanabe).
Plot Summary: "Kanji Watanabe is a longtime bureaucrat in a city office who, along with the rest of the office, spends his entire working life doing nothing. He learns he is dying of cancer and wants to find some meaning in his life. He finds himself unable to talk with his family, and spends a night on the town with a novelist, but that leaves him unfulfilled. He next spends time with a young woman from his office, but finally decides he can make a difference through his job... After Watanabe's death, co-workers at his funeral discuss his behavior over the last several months and debate why he suddenly became assertive in his job to promote a city park, and resolve to be more like Watanabe" (Summary written by Mike Rosenlof, for Internet Movie DataBase: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0044741

* Some of these feature films/videos may also be available at local video rental stores in Central Oregon,
for the convenience of at-home viewing.

Documentary Films

THE POWER OF PLACE: WORLD REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY (Annenberg/CPB Collection; Executive Prod. Cambridge Studios, 1996; Narr. H. J. de Blij) links human societies and their natural environments.

JAPANESE PARADOX: SMALL FARMS & MEGA-CITIES (Program #12) (COCC Library AV Video 1328, Program 11/12; G 128 .P69 1996)

INDIA: URBAN AND RURAL CONTRASTS (Program #21) (COCC Library AV Video 1328, Program 21/22; G 128 .P69 1996)

CHINA & ITS SPHERE: LIFE IN CHINA'S FRONTIER CITIES (Program #22) (COCC Library AV Video 1328, Program 21/22; G 128 .P69 1996)

SOUTHEAST ASIA: MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA (Program #25) (COCC Library AV Video 1328, Program 25/26; G 128 .P69 1996)

SOUTHEAST ASIA: MARITIME SOUTHEAST ASIA (Program #26) (COCC Library AV Video 1328, Program 25/26; G 128 .P69 1996)

CHINESE NEW YEAR (Kwang Hwa Mass Communications, in English; runtime: about 30 min.)
The legendary origins, presented through shadow puppets, and the regional variations of Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations are explained. Learn more about the rich customs, some thousands of years old, commemorating the most important event in the Chinese calendar and reflecting key elements of Chinese thought and lifeways. (COCC Library AV Video 286)

CHINESE PAPER-CUTS (Kwang Hwa Mass Communications, in English; runtime: about 30 min.)  This film introduces rich and gorgeous variations of traditional and modern Chinese folk art of papercutting, covering its developmental history, its different branches, beautifully illustrated with pictoral explanations and practical demonstrations. (COCC Library AV Video 287)

CHINA

Chen Kaige, dir.  Farewell My Concubine.  (China, 1993; Miramax-Maverick Picture Co.-Tomson (HK) Films; Run time: 157 min.).  Prod.Hsu Feng.  Starring Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi, Gong Li. [Based on the novel and screenplay by Lillian Lee.] AV VIDEO 1123.

Salisbury’s Report on China: From Liberalization to Crackdown.  [with Harrison Salisbury, New York Times correspondent.]  Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities, 1989.  AV Video 932, v. 3.

The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith: Confucianism.  (rpt. 1996, Public Affairs Television-Films for the Humanities, Princeton, NJ.]  Dir. & Prod. Pamela Mason Wagner.  [Run Time:  58 min.]  A Bill Moyers Special  AV Video 1136.

INDIA

APU TRILOGY: Satyajit Ray, Director, Producer, & Writer.

Aparjito [trans. The Unvanquished; 1956, black & white, Run Time: 113 min., in Bengali with English subtitles.]  Merchant & Ivory Foundation-Sony Pictures Classics.  [Based on the novel Aparajita by Bibhutibhusan Banerjee; Music: Ravi Shankar.]  AV VIDEO 1128, v. 2.  PK 1718 .R3119 A68 1996.

Pather Pachali [trans.Song of the Little Road, 1952, black & white, Run Time: 113 min., in Bengali with English subtitles.]  Merchant & Ivory Foundation-Sony Pictures Classics.  [Based on the novel Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhusan Banerjee; Music: Ravi Shankar.]  AV Video 1128 v. 1; PK 1718 .R3119 A68 1996.

The World of Apu [1959, black & white, Run Time: 106 min., in Bengali with English subtitles.]  Merchant & Ivory Foundation-Sony Pictures Classics.  [Based on the novel Aparajita by Bibhutibhusan Banerjee; Music: Ravi Shankar.]  AV Video 1128 v. 3; PK 1718 .R3119 A68 1996.

Buddhism: The Middle Way of Compassion.  Delphi Productions, Brown-ROA—Harcourt Brace & Co.  AV VIDEO 44.

Great Tales in Asian Art:  Korean Masked Dance-Drama; The Gita Govinda; The Tale of the Genji.  ALSS resource program; prod.  Independent Production Fund.  [Run Time:  90 min. + with supplemental lesson plan: “Asian Art: Mythology as Art,” by Margaret G. Rademaker and Lauri Dabbieri, 1996.] AV Video 1157; N 7260 .G74 1996.

India After Independence. [Run time:  21 min.]  Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities, 1993.  AV Video  742

India: From Moghuls to Independence.  [Run time:  42 min.]  Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities, 1992.  AV Video  359.

Indian Classical Music.  [with Alik Akbar Khan, Alla Rakha, Amjad Khan, Hariprasad Chaurasia, and Ravi Shankar.  Run Time:  85 min.]  Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities, 1994.  AV Video 1135

The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith: Hinduism and Buddhism.  (rpt. 1996, Public Affairs Television-Films for the Humanities, Princeton, NJ.]  Dir. & Prod. Pamela Mason Wagner.  [Run Time:  58 min.]  A Bill Moyers Special  AV Video 1137

JAPAN

Great Tales in Asian Art:  Korean Masked Dance-Drama; The Gita Govinda; The Tale of the Genji.  ALSS resource program; prod.  Independent Production Fund.  [Run Time:  90 min. + with supplemental lesson plan: “Asian Art: Mythology as Art,” by Margaret G. Rademaker and Lauri Dabbieri, 1996.] AV Video 1157; N 7260 .G74 1996.

Japan Past and Present: Buddha in the Land of the Kami (7^th – 12^th Centuries).  Films for the Humanities.  AV VIDEO 1026.

Japanese History and Literature Vol. 1: Classical Japan and the Tale of the Genji (552-1185).  [Run Time:  45 min.]  Prod. Columbia Univ. Project on Asia in the Core Curriculum of Schools and Colleges.  Burlington VT: Annenberg/CPB, 1996.  AV Video 1126, v. 1. 

Japanese History and Literature Vol. 2: Medieval Japan and Buddhism in Literature (1185-1600).  [Run Time:  45 min.]  Prod. Columbia Univ. Project on Asia in the Core Curriculum of Schools and Colleges.  Burlington VT: Annenberg/CPB, 1996.  AV Video 1126, v. 2. 

Japanese History and Literature Vol. 3: Tokugawa Japan and Puppet Theater, Novels, and the Haiku of Basho (1600-1868).  [Run Time:  70 min.]  Prod. Columbia Univ. Project on Asia in the Core Curriculum of Schools and Colleges.  Burlington VT: Annenberg/CPB, 1996.  AV Video 1126, v. 2. 

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URL of this webpage:  http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum210/asiafilm.htm

Online HUM 210 Course Resources:
HUM 210 Syllabus Course Plan Assignments Student Writing 
Asian Film Asian Links: India China Japan
Asian Timelines: India China Japan
Epic Genre & Mahabharata  Red Sorghum Study Guide

Cora's Home Page | Site Map | Current  Schedule | Cora's Classes
more Student Writing | COCC Links  
If you're interested in other world literatures and cultures, visit these course websites:
Hum 211 - Culture and Literature of Africa 
Eng 109 - Western World Literatures (late 18th-late 20th centuries)