Filmsincludes a new awareness of the legacies of empire, colonization, and the Cold War that shape a
haunted “phantom cinema.” This “spectral canon,” as Kim calls it, extends beyond North–South
divisions to encompass the ethnic Koreans in northeast China and further afield, as well as the
new populations of migrants within South Korea.
Gerow also shows how contemporary Japanese cinema has struck out in new directions
in the era of globalization, acknowledging and celebrating zainichi ethnic Korean culture and
filmmaking as well as Okinawan cinema and identity, and also engaging in numerous copro-
ductions. However, he argues that a persistent pattern from the past continues to animate many
of these and other films. The sense of what Gerow refers to as “inescapable Japan” can indicate
not just the reinforcement of a sense of Japaneseness in the encounter with difference, but also
at times a struggle against nationalism’s ability to survive globalism and the inability to imagine
an alternative to capitalism.
Taken together, the chapters composing the section demonstrate that globalized production
and consumption have combined with transnational culture to transform cinema production
and the films being made in the East Asian region. But, at the same time, it also demonstrates
that the transformation itself continues to be shaped by national cultures, nation-states, national
histories, and more.