More Than Meets The Eye: East Asian Cinema In The Western World
When Parasite won Foreign Language Film at the 77th Golden Globes, Bong Joon-ho’s speech was under one minute but incredibly powerful: “Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films”.
Written by Esther Smith
The beginning of each calendar year have us film buffs glued to our screens as the award season takes place — where most of these films are made in English-speaking countries, and only a handful of categories are dedicated to foreign language films. However, foreign language films have brought in over 2 billion dollars in the US and Canada alone. It’s only in recent years we’ve seen foreign language films break out of their singular category into The Big Categories, where The Artist won Best Picture at the 84thAcademy Awards. How has this boom happened? Why has it taken so long?
The dive into foreign language film doesn’t exist in a vacuum. I’ve noticed a cultural shift; translated books from the East Asian region along with the Manga section in my local bookshop receiving more attention, friends picking up a new language, shops with imported foods opening nearby. Online, we’ve seen how Korean skincare has dominated the latest trends and the rise of K-Pop throughout the world.
The Dilemma with English Subtitles
Subtitles, of course, come in all languages. As Submissions Co-Ordinator, I see how festivals overcome the language barrier in their own countries: a lot of them ask for English subtitles to translate to their own languages. It brings a unique problem where multiple alphabets, structure, and cultural differences leave room for error as words could get lost in translation. Interestingly enough, when Squid Game was front and centre of everyone's minds, questions about watching the show in subtitled or dubbed occurred.
Google Translate can be used if you’re in a pickle — I fumbled around with this in Barcelona when I tried to speak to medical professionals about a fly stuck in my friend’s ear (she’s all good now!) — but for reliable language translation in film, the accuracy varies greatly.
Adding to this nuanced discussion, it goes without saying that the one-inch-tall barrier Bong Joon Ho mentioned may seem like a mountain if you can’t understand English. I’ve seen festivals take place in non-English speaking countries that ask for all films to display English subtitles. While this can be a learning experience for many, for others, it is yet another barrier stopping them from exploring a new world of films.
The Streaming Boom
If you catch me on a bad day, I could give you a long and painful lecture on why streaming services have had detrimental impact on film and TV — luckily for you, dear reader, today is not that day! As much as I dislike the oversaturated VOD services, we can’t deny the boom of foreign cinema that has been made accessible through these services. While there are (annoyingly) more than a handful of streaming services, for the purpose of this article, I’ll mainly be focusing on what I consider the main three streaming services: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+.
In 2023, Variety reported that non-English language titles had increased by 90% on Netflix UK. In the US, there are 395 Japanese titles, 315 Korean titles, and 112 Mandarin titles on Netflix alone. After season 2 of Alice in Borderland premiered, the Japanese series reported to have had over 80 million viewing hours from both seasons. A Sun is a Taiwanese film that was shortlisted for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards. For horror fans, please may I divert your attention to Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre where you will be dusting off your childhood night-light when you go to bed.
However, in terms of cultural impact, South Korean-made Squid Game became a worldwide success as it accumulated more than 1.65 billion viewing hours on the streaming platform. The characters were used as Halloween costumes in 2021, it was featured in SNL, and even inspired the Reality TV Show also hosted by Netflix, Squid Game: The Challenge. Squid Game alongside Parasite continue to be a focal point for class divide debates.
It's trickier to find statistics and information about Amazon Prime Video, even the UI can be a nightmare to find foreign entertainment unless you use a workaround method, which gives you the option to explore short films. Many anime fans will already be familiar with Crunchyroll; a streaming service dedicated entirely to anime. If you weren’t aware of this service before then I have some good news for you! Amazon Prime have included this channel as an added subscription option which means you get to explore the world of anime at your convenience. In terms of original titles, Prime Video is still very Western-focused with a very small percentage of the original programming originating from East Asia — it’s disappointing when you compare this to Netflix’s statistics.
Disney+ while considerably newer than Netflix and Amazon Prime, have highlighted East Asian content by gathering them into collections: Made in Korea which features an extensive range of titles from different genres. They have also included the Asian and Pacific Islander collection, which includes more titles from the East Asian region. In terms of original content, Disney+ will always prioritise their money-makers: Marvel and Star Wars. However, they have acquired exclusive distribution rights to stream titles, many of which originate from East Asian countries.
Film Festivals
I’d now like to draw attention to just a handful of the film festivals that take place across East Asia. When we think about film festivals, it’s quite easy to stick close to home: it’s cheaper to attend, and we usually don’t have to worry about language barriers. However, the film festivals that exist outside of these boxes we’ve created ourselves are worth thinking about or even attending if you find yourself in the area.
Hong Kong International Film Festival is one of the oldest film festivals in Asia, with over 49 years of history and an Academy Award qualifying festival. The festival’s global reputation “was built on the pioneering work of programming Asian films and its retrospectives when Asian and Hong Kong cinema were not well known to the international community”.
Busan International Film Festival has catapulted the city of Busan, South Korea to UNESCO City of Film status. The festival serves as a “bridgehead to promote Asian films to the world by discovering and supporting various films and talented filmmakers” as they have screened just under 300 films from 63 countries in their 29th edition, using a total of 37 cinemas across the city of Busan.
Taiwan International Documentary Festival is one of Asia’s most recognised documentary film festivals, where they emphasise “freedom, creativity and transboundary in its programme, encouraging reflection and experimentation in the aesthetics of documentary filmmaking”. Founded in 1998, the festival has expanded their 130 film screenings to also include workshops where they local talent to engage in communities.
Seoul International Women’s Film Festival is the largest women’s film festival in the world, their aim is to “expand the value of gender equality throughout the film and TV industry by supporting gender equal films and female filmmakers” and to “contribute to the establishment of a gender equal culture in the society by building and operating a women’s films archive”.
If you’re looking for a truly unique experience, I would like to point you in the direction of the Miyukino Snow Theater International Film Festival — the festival takes place on Mt. Madarao, Japan, where the team build the theatre screen and audience seating from snow. We really are in a creative industry!
It’s not just these countries that focus on East Asian talent as there’s plenty of film festivals in the US that are dedicated to Asian representation: I’ve found a staggering amount of Asian film festivals in the US, from the west coast like Academy Award qualifying Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, to the east coast with New York Asian Film Festival. Just north of the border holds the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. Out of the 40 short films screened at their 28th edition, over a quarter of these films originated from Asian countries.
Some Parting Thoughts…
My experience with East Asian entertainment prior to writing this article was very algorithm-led or relying on recommendations. The idea for this article began with Bong Joon-ho’s eye-opening speech and has taken me on a journey of monumental discovery: from all the new titles added to my watchlists across the three streaming services, to finding out UNESCO had Cities of Film, and Busan was a shining star on their map.
I imagined this article ending with a slide show of photos showing the success of East Asian film in Western cinema since Parasite, the rolling credits including snippets of speeches from winners with orchestral music that brings tears to everyone’s eyes. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The 2025 award season nominations are only just coming in, or have not yet been announced, but predictions are on the way with the categories being stacked with USA and European productions. While this is disappointing given Parasite’s success at the 2020 award season, the rise of East Asian cinema is coming but progress remains slow unless we start overcoming that one-inch-tall barrier.
In the meantime, I encourage you to explore the World Food section in your local supermarket, to pick up a book that’s been translated to your language, to open your streaming service of choice and pick an international title. There is so much beyond our corner of the globe and I encourage you to explore it.
