Introduction

The introduction chapter explains why genre study provides a compelling theoretical and methodological framework for studying East Asian and transnational cinemas. It presents an overview of the development of genre study and identifies three interrelated pathways to expand our understanding of genre’s roles in (a) articulating transnational and cross-cultural communication, (b) shaping film history and film culture, and (c) mapping out sociopolitical space of East Asian cinemas. All three strands collectively question film genre’s encounter with power negotiation in film production, distribution, and consumption. This book is divided into three sections, each focusing on one of the three pathways