Finally the first essay on my longterm researches on women directors in Asia has come out. During 2002 – 2004, I had lived in South Korea , Indonesia , Malaysia and Philippines to do this survey and talked with 40 women in those countries. I came back to do the same thing with my own country in the last two years.

However, this first essay is only one of the several findings that will come out in the near future, and includes only a part of my objective research countries. My intention is to make the conclusion from women in East Asia and Southeast Asia , as the results are so diverse and geographically interconnected.

This essay examines the opportunities for the participation of women in film-making in South Korea and Southeast Asia, referring here to Indonesia, Malaysia Philippines, and Thailand . My basic concept is to tackle these women directors as active agents formed by their ways of lives. Though the countries are geographically close to each other, their film-making possibilities are significantly influenced by the diversities of their cultural backgrounds, social thoughts and Asian values, and the characteristics inherent in their countries’ respective film industries. In general, four major factors are in place to support women’s entries into the film communities: the nature of film industries, the availability of social patronage, the privileges accorded by social class, and education. These four factors play different roles in supporting women to be a part of their directing circles. To sum up, social change and education are the key elements in drawing Korean women from the shadow into the light of opportunities, while social patronage and class are placed in priorities for Southeast Asian women. In all cases, education is a key factor to promote them in integrating into the film industries. These four factors are either interconnected or single-handed in influencing women in their respective film industries

The essay will be published in Asian Cinema, Spring 2007 issue. Contact John Lent, 669 Ferne Blvd, Drexel Hill, PA 19026, USA. Tel: 1-610-622-3938, email jlent at temple.edu.

Thanks Asian Scholar Foundation - through Asian Scholarship Fellow Program) to support my research in South Korea and Nippon Foundation for my stay in those Southeast Asian countries - under Asian Public Intellectuals Program).

The essay "Home, Nostalgia and Memory: The Identity Crisis of New Thai Cinema" by Anchalee Chaiworaporn has finally been published in June 2006 issue of Asian Cinema Journal, and edited by John Lent.

The essay examines how the new-generation directors of New Thai cinema, who started to emerge a few months before the Asian economic crisis in 1997, tend to stick to the Asian values in the representations of their works. On the surface, this generation proved to be a new wave and a breakup of the Thai film culture, boosting the fame of Thai cinema not only in the local but also global markets, more than any of the previous generations could do. On the other hands, they always call for the seeking of perfect family, home and the longing for the good old days. It is clearly seen in the themes of the insecurity of family and the absence of father in the works of the country’s most internationally respected names Nonzee Nimibutr, ‘home’ as a solution of the problems faced by the protagonists in Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s, and the longing for the good old days in Wisit Sasanatieng’s Tears of the Black Tiger. These representations were more or less chosen by the new generation filmmakers as the remedy to their changing identities, firstly influenced by the use of the first National Economic and Social Development Plan in 1961, and later corresponding with the phenomenal construction of national identity, which have been promoted by the governments and again, by the King’s motto, “Sufficiency Economy” after the country was hit by the economic downturn in 1997.

For a copy of the journal, please contact John A. Lent, 669 Ferne Blvd, Drexel Hill, PA 19026, USA. Tel: 1-610-622-3938, email jlent at temple.edu.