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The most significant film industries that are categorized as East Asian cinema are the industries of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The term is sometimes confused with Southeast Asian cinema, as the cinematic traditions between the two Asian sub-regions have their own uniquely distinct markers that are often conflated and incorrectly referred to as such, which include the likes of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines.
East Asia is highlighted in green on this map, which also includes Southeast Asia (blue) and South Asia (orange).
The scope of East Asian cinema is huge and covers a vast array of different film styles and genres, as the region's rich cinematic traditions are particularly well-known internationally for its production of the following types of genres such as:
Unlike the film industries in the Western world, East Asian film industries in its early days were not dominated by American distributors, and developed in relative isolation from Hollywood cinema; while Hollywood films were screened in East Asian countries, they were less popular than home-grown fare with local audiences. Thus, several distinctive genres and styles developed.
By the end of the decade, several critics associated with French journal Cahiers du cinéma published some of the first Western studies on Japanese film; many of those critics went on to become founding members of the French nouvelle vague, which began simultaneously with the Japanese New Wave.
1960s and 1970s
By the late 60s and early 70s, Japanese cinema had begun to become seriously affected by the collapse of the studio system. As Japanese cinema slipped into a period of relative low visibility, the cinema of Hong Kong entered a dramatic renaissance of its own, largely a side effect of the development of the wuxia blending of action, history, and spiritual concerns. Several major figures emerged in Hong Kong at this time, including King Hu, whose 1966 Come Drink With Me was a key influence upon many subsequent Hong Kong cinematic developments. Shortly thereafter, the American-born Bruce Lee became a global icon.
As the popularity of East Asian films has endured, it is unsurprising that members of the Western film industry would cite their influences (notably George Lucas, Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese citing Akira Kurosawa; and Jim Jarmusch and Paul Schrader's similar mentions of Yasujirō Ozu), and—on occasion—work to introduce less well-known filmmakers to Western audiences (such as the growing number of Eastern films released with the endorsement "Quentin Tarantino Presents").
Some of the most accomplished directors of East Asian cinema include:
China
Cai Chusheng (1906–1968) — Influential Chinese director of the 1930s and 1940s. Best known for his film Spring River Flows East, which is frequently regarded as one of the masterpieces of Chinese cinema.
Jia Zhangke (born 1970) — One of the most prominent Sixth-Generation Chinese film directors. His most renowned works includes the highly acclaimed Platform, Unknown Pleasures, and The World.
Fei Mu (1906–1951) — Pioneering Chinese director in the 1940s. Best known for the film Spring in a Small Town, which is considered by many to be the best Chinese film ever made.
Tsui Hark (born 1950) — Major commercial Hong Kong director; Hark attended film school in the U.S. Best known for Zu, the Once Upon A Time In China series, and Green Snake, among many other films.
Ann Hui (born 1947) — Hui emerged from the late 1970s Hong Kong new wave, gaining attention for Spooky Bunch and Boat People.
Stanley Kwan (born 1957) — Director of Rouge, Center Stage and Lan Yu. Kwan is notable as one of a small number of directors who have successfully blurred the boundaries between "art" and "popular" cinema.
Susumu Hani (born 1928) — Prominent independent filmmaker during the 1960s Japanese new wave, known for She and He and Nanami, First Love. After a retreat from feature filmmaking in the 1970s, Hani subsequently gained renown as a nature documentarian.
Tadashi Imai (1912–1991) — Imai emerged during the postwar years as a pioneering independent filmmaker, usually working outside the studio system and preferring an approach and viewpoint greatly influenced by Italian neo-realism. Night Drum (1958) and Muddy Waters are two of his best known films.
Hiroshi Inagaki (1905–1980) — Historical melodramatist and former child star best known for the Samurai Trilogy (1956–58), Rickshaw Man (1959) and Chushingura (1962).
Ryuhei Kitamura (born 1969) — A former director of pop music videos and television commercials, his films have a distinctly modern style and include Versus, Azumi and the most recent incarnation of the giant Kaiju reptile, Godzilla: Final Wars.
Takeshi Kitano (born 1947) — A gifted, multi-faceted artist and performer, Kitano's best-regarded directorial efforts include Sonatine and Hana-bi. Kitano is also known for his acting, in such films as Battle Royale and Taboo.
Mikio Naruse (1905–1969) — Influential director of Flowing (1956) and When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960). His 1935 Wife, Be Like A Rose was among the first Japanese films to gain an American theatrical release.
Kihachi Okamoto (1923–2005) — Prolific director. Best known in the West for his nihilistic samurai film "The Sword of Doom" (1966)
Shirō Toyoda (1906–1977) — Satirist and dramatist best known for a 1959 adaptation of Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country.
Sadao Yamanaka (1909–1938) — Humanity and Paper Balloons, one of very few surviving works directed by Yamanaka, who was acknowledged as an influence by both Yasujirō Ozu and Akira Kurosawa.
Kang Je-gyu (born 1962). Director of the hit Korean film, Shiri and the war film Taegukgi (a.k.a. Brotherhood), one of the highest-grossing films in Korea.
Park Kwang-su (born 1955). Director of Geu Seom e Kagoshipta (To the Starry Island) (1993) and Areumdaun Chongnyun Jeon Tae-il (A Single Spark) (1995).
Ang Lee (born 1954). The most successful director of Taiwan in Hollywood. Lee has been nominated for nine Academy Awards, of which he has won three: Best Foreign Language Film for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) and Best Director for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Life of Pi (2012), becoming the first non-white director to win the latter. Other notable works include Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Hulk (2003), and Lust, Caution (2007).