01 Jan / Countervisions: Asian American Film Criticism edited by Darrell Y. Hamamoto and Sandra Liu [in Push > for NAATA]
Reading the essays collected in Countervisions: Asian American Film Criticism, edited by Darrell Y. Hamamoto and Sandra Liu, you might think that Rea Tajiri’s History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige is the only Asian American film out there – almost half of the 17 pieces cite it, refer to it, use it. But that’s a minor point, I know.
The bulk of the problem is that of those 17, I liked two of them very, very much. Or, maybe I should say that I really understood only two of them.
“Perhaps my formal education was too limited to comprehend it all – the ponderous cerebralism of the conferences, books, journals, and panels that clogged the arteries of cultural theory as it made its way through the 1980s and ‘90s,” writes Renee Tajima-Peña in her essay, “No Mo Po Mo and Other Tales of the Road,” one of the collection’s two best entries [the other being “Lindsey Jang’s hysterical “Through the Mirror, Sideways” – more on that below]. She took the words right out of my mouth. I’d add the ‘00s thus far, as well.
There is a point to this: my goal is truly NOT to bash this book, because it’s part of a genre that is obviously very important – and timely – to the Asian American community and the film community at large. Asian Americans make films. Asian American make important, great films. Asian Americans win Oscars: Look at Steven Okazaki’s Days of Waiting (1990), Frieda Lee Mock’s Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (1994), Jessica Yu’s Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien (1997), Chris Tashima’s Visas and Virtues (1998), and Keiko Ibi’s The Personals: Improvisations on Romance in the Golden Years (1999). Most recently, Asian Americans hit the commercial big time with, most notably, Ang Lee’s phenomenal success Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
In its own way, in spite of its faults, Countervisions is groundbreaking as well. When we were researching the availability of other Asian American film books – this piece was supposed to include multiple titles – Countervisions is what was available. As an aside, next year, the story will be different, thank goodness. According to the contributors’ notes, we readers can anticipate a plethora of Asian American film titles: Elena Tajima Creef is working on a book about Asian American visual culture, Peter Feng is completing a book-length study on Asian American cinema, Gwendolyn Audrey Foster has Captive Bodies: Postcolonial Subjectivity in Cinema coming out, Sandra Liu’s dissertation (which no doubt will get published) is on how capitalism, politics, and spectacle affect Asian American film audiences and the production of Asian American feature films, Gina Marchetti’s current research is on transnationalism and screen culture in Hollywood and Asia, Eve Oishi is working on The Memory Village: Fakeness and Authenticity in Asian American Fiction, Film and Video, Celine Salazar Parreñas’ dissertation is on “Specters of ‘Asian Woman,’” and Julian Stringer is working on a study of the cultural politics of international film festivals.
The publishing future is certainly bright. For this piece, however, there’s Countervisions. With an October 2000 pub date, the contents are already somewhat dated – the contents were probably finalized in mid-1999, which means it went to press long before the stupendously commercial effect of Ang Lee’s blockbuster on the surprised film industry. …[click here for more]
Review: Push >, NAATA: National Asian American Telecommunications Center (now the Center for Asian American Media), 2001; click here to check out CAAM
Readers: Adult
Published: 2000