Sino-Enchantment
The Fantastic in Contemporary Chinese Cinemas
Edited by Kenneth Chan, Andrew Stuckey
- Offers the framework of ‘Sino-enchantment’ as a new theoretical lens through which readers can engage elements of the fantastic in Chinese cinema
- Addresses the increasing prominence of fantastic narratives, imagery and styles in Chinese films
- Interested not simply in CGI effects, but as much in the ideological, aesthetic and ethical ramifications of the fantastic in contemporary film culture
Although Chinese film audiences have always maintained a foundational cultural interest in the fantastic, this trend has dramatically increased over the last decade. Sino-Enchantment is the first work in English to approach this recent explosion of fantastic film in Chinese cinemas, where each re-envisioning of the form is determined by cultural, economic, political and technological factors to produce fresh inventions and creative reinventions of familiar narratives, characters and tropes. With case studies of films such as The Assassin (2015), Monster Hunt (2015) and The Great Wall (2016), this novel approach uses the framework of ‘Sino-enchantment’ as a new theoretical lens through which readers can engage with elements of the fantastic in Chinese cinema.
Introduction: The Fantastic as Sino-Enchantment in Contemporary Chinese Cinemas, Kenneth Chan and Andrew Stuckey
Visuality/Virtuality
1. Heroic Human Pixels: Mass Ornaments and Digital Multitudes in Zhang Yimou’s Spectacles, Jason McGrath
2. The Spectacle of Co-Production in The Great Wall, Dan North
3. The Blockbuster Breakthrough: The Fantastic in Hero, Li Yang
Genres of Sino-Enchantment
4. The Restrained Fantastic in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin, Andrew Stuckey
5. An Auteurist Journey through the Fantastic Mode: A Case Study of Ho Meng-hua, Shi-Yan Chao
6. Tracing the Science Fiction Genre in Hong Kong Cinema, Tom Cunliffe
7. Chick Flick Fantasy and Postfeminism in Chinese Cinema: 20 Once Again as a Transnational Remake, Elaine Chung
8. The Sacred Spectacle: Subverting Skepticism in Tsui Hark’s Detective Dee Films, Ian Pettigrew
Ethics
9. Almost Wild, But Not Quite: The Indexical and the Fantastic Animal Other in China-Coproduced (Eco)Cinema, Yiman Wang
10. Domesticity, Sentimentality and Otherness: The Boundary of the Human in Monster Hunt, Mei Yang
11. Transforming Tripitaka: Toward a (Buddhist) Planetary Ethics in Stephen Chow’s Adaptation of Journey to the West, Kenneth Chan
Coda: Sino-Enchantment in a Time of Crisis, Kenneth Chan and Andrew Stuckey
Selected Filmography Bibliography
China’s haunted screens boast a rich legacy of uncanny, bizarre, grotesque, horrific, mystical and paranormal tales dating back to the silent era. Emerging from a period in which the supernatural ran afoul of censors in the Peoples’ Republic of China, the resurgence of films rooted in "superstition" merits serious critical attention. This anthology provides penetrating insight into this re-enchantment seen in films by auteurs such as Zhang Yimou (PRC), Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan), and Tsui Hark (Hong Kong) as well as in reimagined classics such as Journey to the West in its multiple manifestations on screen.
