Identity and Sovereignty in Asian Art Cinema: Digital Diaspora Films of South Korea and Malaysia

Abstract

The visual construction of time and space, and narrative storytelling within that time-space—the major characteristics of film as a representational form—have been in rigorous use and reuse in cinematic discourses of popular and art films in many parts of Asia. However, neither of the filmic modes in relation to sovereignty and marginality of the populations has been adequately analyzed in the Asian context. The effort of contextualizing two national/transnational art practices from and within the Asian cinemas and their portrayal of their Asian “Other” is an attempt in this direction. This paper seeks to connect independent digital film cultures of South Korea and Malaysia within larger frames of nationhood, state, and citizenship, by comparing Korean diaspora cinema with that of Malaysia. The central concern here is to find the relationship between the idea of sovereignty and cinematic expressions as imagined by/among the South Korean and Malaysian art cinema filmmakers. How can the digital diaspora films imagine and construct partial sovereignty for the marginalized groups such as Asian migrants in South Korea and Malaysia? I tackle this question by situating national and transnational formations in today’s global world.