Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Volume 17 (2015): 151-161
Yamada: Ninja
NINJA IN THE DRAGON’S DEN: REGIONAL IMAGINARIES IN
EAST ASIAN ACTION DRAMA
Marc Yamada
Brigham Young University
Abstract:
This article engages recent debates concerning the relationship between nationalism and
regionalization in Asia by focusing on the 1982 martial arts film Ninja in the Dragon’s Den as an
early example of the transnational vision of Asian action cinema. I discuss the way the film
cultivates a regional imaginary by downplaying historical tensions while giving narrative form to
a common experience with tradition and modernity. Reflecting a model of development
propagated in Japanese, Chinese and other Asian views of modernization, the film utilizes
techniques of translation and the melodramatic resources of martial arts cinema to stage a theatrical
rendition of the impulse to move both towards and away from modernity in the culture of a
regionalizing Asia. Through an analysis of Ninja in the Dragon’s Den as Asian action cinema,
then, this article will shed light on the techniques utilized by media sources to formulate Asian
imaginaries in recent transnational pop trends like the Korean Wave.
Ninja in the Dragon’s Den: Regional Imaginaries in East Asian Action Cinema
The 1982 Hong Kong action film Ninja in the Dragon’s Den pits two legendary Asian
warriors in battle. Showcasing an array of dazzling techniques, a Japanese ninja and a Chinese
kung fu fighter engage in a violent mono e mono at the conclusion of the film. Implied in this
conflict are the geopolitical tensions between the national traditions that these two fighters
represent. According to critics, works of East Asian martial arts cinema like Ninja in the Dragon’s
Den reflect the continuing importance of nation building in Asia. Marilyn Mintz describes Asian
action as a ‘metaphor for what is occurring . . . [in] the collective, the province, the country’ (Mintz
1983: 171), while Meaghan Morris suggests that martial arts cinema ‘is blatantly concerned with
geopolitical conflict and nation building’ in Asia (Morris 2005: 9).
At the same time, Ninja in the Dragon’s Den is also a commercial product that was
successfully marketed to Chinese and Japanese viewers alike as a work of East Asian cinema. The
regional popularity of the film speaks to recent debates concerning the relationship between
nationalism and the regionalization process in Asia. This article will engage these debates by
focusing on Ninja in the Dragon’s Den as a representative example of the early transnational vision
of Asian action cinema. It will discuss the way the film cultivates an Asian imaginary by
downplaying nationalistic tensions while giving narrative form to a common experience with
tradition and modernity. Reflecting a model of development commonly propagated in Japanese,
Chinese and other Asian views of modernization, the film utilizes techniques of translation and
the melodramatic resources of martial arts cinema to stage a theatrical rendition of the impulse to
move both towards and away from modernity in the culture of a regionalizing Asia. Through an
analysis of Asian action cinema, then, this article will shed light on the development of East Asian
imaginaries in recent transnational pop trends like the Korean Wave of the 2000s.
151
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Volume 17 (2015): 151-161
Yamada: Ninja
Regional and National Imaginaries in East Asian Popular Culture
Regionalization is an issue that has accompanied discussions on the impact of globalization
in East Asia. It implies the growth of interdependence between a limited number of states linked
by geographical proximity (Iwabuchi 2004: 1). Japan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and
South Korea are often identified as some of the major actors in the region of East Asia. As part of
the regionalization process, critics identify the growth of common cultural imaginaries developing
among East Asian communities in the last few decades. In recent years, the growth of these cultural
imaginaries has been fueled by the spread of Japanese pop culture in the 1980s and 1990s and
Korean pop culture in the 2000s. The cultural output of these transnational movements highlights
the common experiences and identities of Asian consumers, who feverishly exchange animation,
music, film and television programming. Among the most consumed media forms are television
dramas, such as the 2004 Japanese series ‘Boys Over Flowers’ (Hana yori dango), which tells of
a middle-class teenager who struggles to conform at an elite high school for privileged youth.
Based on a Japanese manga (comic book) series, which ran from 1992 to 2003, the drama has been
adapted and remade a number of times throughout the region, beginning with the Taiwanese drama
‘Meteor Garden’ in 2001, followed by the Japanese series in 2005, a Korean series in 2009, and
finally a Chinese version in the same year. Despite its origins in Japanese manga, then, the series
is not bound to a Japanese cultural experience; the melodramatic depiction of family relationships
and a cliquish school culture resonates with audiences throughout Asia, revealing the shared
imaginary of a young transnational demographic.
However, if pop culture opens up borders, it can also stoke the flames of nationalism,
setting limits on the development of these shared imaginaries. Nationalism refers to the sense of
attachment and pride that members of a nation-state have towards a common culture and history.
One view of the relationship between nationalism and regionalization suggests that these two
forces are incompatible, that nationalism resists transnational forces which surpass the authority
and jurisdiction of the state (Kacowitz 1999: 535). The incompatibility of national and regional
imaginaries, moreover, is based on the self/other forms of identification that result from a common
history of conflict with and oppression by other nations. This is particularly the case in Asia, which
is still burdened by the fracturing forces of war history. The memory of Japanese colonialism in
China, Korea, Taiwan and other locations during the 1930s and 1940s remains a source of
historical trauma and political tension. In particular, historical conflicts between China and Japan
serve as a catalyst in both countries, Fujiwara Hidehito notes, for the development of national pride
(Fujiwara 2012). Furthermore, the construction of a shared sense of East Asianess has also been
problematized by the recent growth of cultural nationalism (Foot 1995: 231). Political institutions
in China, South Korea, and Japan, in particular, continue to appeal to native traditions in order to
bolster national pride. For instance, Korean politicians and government agencies, critic Keehung
Lee argues, interpret the recent growth in the popularity of Korean film, TV, and music as evidence
of the superiority of Korean traditions vis-à-vis other East Asian nations (Lee 2008: 179). In this
way, cultural nationalism can reinforce a self/other form of identification that limits the
development of regional imaginaries.
The sensationalism of pop culture itself can be a useful tool for intensifying this self/other
form of identification. Pop culture, Rumi Sakamoto reminds us, can effectively transmit
152
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Volume 17 (2015): 151-161
Yamada: Ninja
propaganda due to its ‘affinity with simplistic messages of good versus evil’ and its ability to
arouse ‘excitement’ (Sakamoto). For instance, recent works of Japanese manga take aim at Korean
culture, using a popular medium to stimulate pride in relation to an Asian rival. One example is
the surprisingly popular Japanese manga series ‘Hating the Korean Wave’ (Kenkanryû), which
was published in 2005. The manga challenges Korean claims of cultural superiority by
representing Korean nationals as opportunistic, hostile, and inferior to Japanese. The animated
expressions of Japanese characters strike a distinct contrast to the aggressive and obstinate air of
Korean nationals in the manga. In this way, works like ‘Hating the Korean Wave’ speak to the
power of popular mediums to stimulate nationalistic fervor, creating challenges to the development
of an Asian imaginary.
While acknowledging the potential for pop culture to cultivate feelings of nationalism, this
article will discuss the way popular forms are also used for the opposite effect: to neutralize ‘us vs.
them’ forms of identification in the formation of transnational imaginaries. Works of Asian action
cinema like Ninja in the Dragon’s Den cultivate regional bonds by translating difference, focusing
on generic cultural similarities shared by different traditions. Ironically, a genre that is preoccupied
with conflict and rivalry, martial arts cinema, I suggest, provides one of the most effective forms
of building these imaginaries. The melodramatic excesses of action cinema highlight a common
Asian experience with family relationships, showcasing a theatrical showdown between traditional
and modern values.
Hong Kong Action and an Asian Imaginary
One center for the construction of regional imaginaries in Asia is Hong Kong cinema.
Meghan Morris describes Hong Kong film as ‘a local cinema with transnational appeal’ (Morris
2005: 10). Often labeled the ‘Hollywood’ of the East, the Hong Kong film industry has emerged
as the main producer of action cinema in East Asia (Shuk-ting 2010: 95). Though traditionally
catering to Sino-centric markets, studios like Golden Harvest began making more concerted
attempts to aggressively market action films in East Asia in the 1970s and beyond (Teo 2005: 195).
In recent years, a number of studies have dealt with the global growth of the Hong Kong film
industry. These include Hong Kong Film, Hollywood and the New Global Cinema (2007) and
Hong Kong Connections: Transnational Imagination in Action Cinema (2006). In particular,
Japanese and Hong Kong Film Industries: Understanding the Origins of East / West Film
Networks (2010) by Kinnia Yau Shuk-ting addresses the production of martial arts cinema in Asia.
This article adds to the work put forth in these studies by addressing the specific techniques
used in constructing an East Asian regional imaginary. It will focus on Ninja in the Dragon’s Den
(hereafter, NDD) as a representation of the transnational vision of Asian action. Produced by the
Hong Kong studio Seasonal Films with the aid of Japanese studios and actors, NDD was marketed
throughout Asia in the 1980s. The film creates regional appeal, I suggest, by utilizing the
techniques of translation and the resources of melodrama to treat an issue at the heart of an Asian
experience in the twentieth century: the importance of retaining traditional values in the process
of modernization. The tension between the traditional and the modern is a ubiquitous theme in
Asian action cinema and in pop culture in general. Indeed, Siu Leung Li suggests that kung fu
cinema expresses the impulse to both ‘become and unbecome modern’ (Li 2005: 51). Even though
153
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Volume 17 (2015): 151-161
Yamada: Ninja
members of the ‘Asian generation’ like China and Japan may have undergone the process of
modernization at different times in their national histories, moreover, anxieties about updating
traditional values in the face of Western modernity, I suggest, is nevertheless a common experience
in the region. Jenny Kwak Wah Lau argues that common feelings of both ‘pride and anxiety’ attend
the various experiences with modernization in the twentieth century (Lau 2002: 1). In reflecting
these anxieties, I suggest, NDD contests a central assumption of Western progress: that modern
values must supplant traditional ones in order for development to occur. Instead, the film
demonstrates the impulse to preserve common Asian values in the process of modernization,
suggesting that these values are the basis for an East Asian identity. As a representative example
of Hong Kong cinema of this time, then, NDD demonstrates the transnational vision of Asian
action cinema in the 1980s and provides a model for the growth of subsequent forms of East Asian
popular culture.
Translating Difference: Confucian Loyalty and Asian Action
In its construction of a regional imaginary, NDD depicts the impulse to move both towards
and away from modernity in the culture of a regionalizing Asia. It does this by highlighting shared
values through the techniques of translation and the resources of melodrama. The film stages a
theatrical alternative to the teleological trajectory of modernization, utilizing a historically
anachronistic backdrop. Opening in a nonspecific medieval landscape, the main setting for
Japanese action cinema, the film segues to a generic milieu of traditional Chinese cinema.
Architecture and other cultural forms in these settings suggest a mixture of the old and the new in
a manner that renders any distinction between past and present irrelevant. This is not a particular
era in Japan or China’s historical progress toward modernity. Nor is it contemporary Asia. Instead,
the film sketches a non-historical space existing simultaneously both in the present and the past.1
Within this anachronistic space, NDD appeals to shared value systems, translating common
ethical ideals and using transnational figures to portray in dramatic fashion their importance to a
modern Asian identity. In particular, the film highlights the ideals of Confucian loyalty through
the depiction of a family drama. Confucianism is a Chinese philosophical system that spread to
Japan and other parts of Asia over a thousand years ago. In its original form, Confucianism taught,
among other things, the importance of loyalty between lords and subjects, fathers and sons,
brothers, and friends and other relationships. The film’s veneration of Confucian loyalty suggests
its lasting cultural relevance in the region. Indeed, Confucian relationships, which create order
through vertical hierarchies between superiors and subordinates, are described as a cultural form
that has not only survived modernization but one that has also facilitated its growth in Asia. As
Robert Compton suggests ‘the entire modernization process itself [in Asia], in all its accompanying
forms—political, social, and economic—became embodied in a traditional and Confucian core’
(Compton 2000: 6). Likewise, Weiming Tu suggests that the ‘family’s supreme role in capital
formation . . . is comparable in all East Asian nations’ (Tu 1996: 8). The change in postwar
Japanese views concerning modernity and traditional culture, for instance, illustrates the influence
of Confucian principles in the development process. Whereas early twentieth-century Japan
recognized modernity as other to traditional forms like Confucian hierarchies, for instance,
postwar discourse on modern development, critic Tetsuo Najita argues, identifies Confucian
structures as the very basis of Japan’s global economic superiority (Najita 8-19). In fact, the
154
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Volume 17 (2015): 151-161
Yamada: Ninja
vertical structure of the modern Japanese corporate model is recognized by Japanese scholars as a
foundational reason for its high growth economy of the 1970s and 1980s.
At the same time, critics have also been quick to suggest that the different interpretations
of Confucianism in the various national traditions in East Asia can stand in the way of the
development of a shared Asian identity based on this ethical system. Rosemary Foot suggests that,
in their present form, Confucian values do not provide opportunities for ‘real bonding’ in Asia
because they have been assimilated in so many different ways in political and economic discourse
in the region (Foot 1995: 234). However, what makes pop culture effective in constructing
transnational imaginaries, I suggest, is its ability to decode these differences. The superficial nature
of popular forms works to its advantage in the creation of regional bonding, allowing it to translate
the nuances of the various interpretations of Confucianism and depict nonspecific yet nevertheless
recognizable values within an engaging melodramatic narrative vision. Melodramatic action is an
effective means of translating Confucian values, moreover, due to its use of excessively loyal
characters, whose devotion to familial bonds is dramatically highlighted through physical combat.
Indeed, Asian melodrama, argues Wimal Dissanayake, highlights ideologies that are often
“naturalized” in more realistic forms of media (Dissanayake 1993: 2).
Exaggerated action and emotional intensity in NDD underscores the importance of
Confucian bonds. To depict the connection between martial arts and Confucian loyalty,
filmmakers make use of the resources of two preexisting action genres that are linked by
interregional networks of exchange: Japanese chambara (sword fighting films) and Chinese wuxia
(ancient adventure stories). The development of these two genres is a product of transnational
associations that date back many decades. In the 1960s, chambara were among the most influential
action movies in East Asia with films like Kurosawa Akira’s blockbuster Sanjurô (1962) playing
in numerous theatres in Hong Kong during the early part of the decade.2 Weary of calcified plots
and the tedium of traditional Chinese action choreography, Cantonese audiences were drawn to
the novelty of chambara, and Hong Kong directors incorporated chambara cinematography in an
effort to remake the main action genre of Chinese cinema of the time: wuxia—traditional action
stories involving martial arts experts with supernatural powers (Shuk-ting 95). Crouching Tiger
Hidden Dragon from 2000 is probably the most recognizable wuxia film in the US.3
In their original form, however, the varying representations of Confucian loyalty in
chambara and wuxia reflect the different cultural proclivities from which these forms emerged.
In chambara, Confucian bonds are expressed through the vertical relationship between lord and
subject and through the horizontal bonds between fellow warriors. Chambara are set in Japan’s
feudal period, a period characterized by a rigid caste system that was designed to maintain order
in society. Born into the samurai class, the chambara hero was bound to his lord and expected to
serve him to death. The protagonists of many postwar chambara, however, are often ronin—
samurai of high rank who lose their status due to the dissolution of their clan and are fated to
wander the land, offering their services for “one night’s room and board,” as the popular saying
goes. As he wanders, the ronin displays a sense of duty by aiding fellow warriors. In Kurosawa’s
Sanjurô, for instance, the main character helps a group of young samurai in their battle against
corrupt officials. Like their chambara counterparts, protagonists of traditional Chinese action
cinema adhere to similar Confucian ideals (Magnan-Park 39). However, these values are not
presented in quite the same way in Chinese action cinema. Unlike chambara heroes, wuxia
155
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Volume 17 (2015): 151-161
Yamada: Ninja
protagonists rarely come from the aristocratic class and thus are not bound to a lord. Often loyalty
in wuxia is expressed in the relationship between master and disciple.
Positioned as it is in the early 1980s, NDD is the product of filmmakers’ attempts to glean
common generic Confucian sensibilities from these two formative genres. To highlight the
correspondence between the view of Confucian values in Japanese and Chinese film, filmmakers
sacrifice cultural nuance in favor of a depiction of a transnational hero who adheres to general
principles of loyalty.4 Although the faithfulness of Japanese and Chinese action heroes would be
vaguely familiar to regional audiences, NDD further translates them for viewers. Critic Shu-mei
Shi argues that Hong Kong filmmakers utilize a strategy of “flexibility and translatability” to allow
foreign audiences to decode films (Shi 195). Likewise, Stephen Teo suggests that filmmakers
“transcribe what is culturally specific in order to downplay certain indigenous qualities (while
highlighting others) to make them more presentable to a world-wide audience” (Teo 198). The
film downplays the nuanced views of Confucian loyalty in Japanese and Chinese action cinema
by depicting the bonds between lord and subject and fellow warriors in chambara and the bonds
between master and disciple in wuxia through the universality of family ties—the most
fundamental manifestation of Confucian relationships recognizable to a transnational audience.
Indeed, family is at the center of the film. The two protagonists provide archetypal
Confucian figures whose code of honor is dramatically highlighted through their loyalty to family.
NDD accentuates the importance of the filial bonds that unite fathers, sons, and brothers, in
particular, through emotionally heightened themes of revenge. The loyalty of both the ninja and
the kung fu fighter is expressed through the warriors’ attempts to avenge their fathers. The young
ninja played by Japanese action star Sanada Hiroyuki seeks to retaliate against those he blames for
his father’s death. The film plays off of the well-known Japanese story “The 47 Masterless
Samurai,” which tells of a loyal band of warriors who seek to avenge their fallen Lord. (The tale
was remade as a 1962 Japanese action film, which would be familiar to regional audiences.) NDD,
however, downplays the relationship between lord and subject characteristic of chambara by
making the object of the ninja’s loyalty his father, thus translating the ninja’s code of honor for a
Chinese audience. The ninja travels to China to track down the last man he holds responsible, a
former ninja named Fukuda, who fled the country many years ago. Uncle Foo, as he is known in
China, has started his life anew, taking on a protégée, a young kung fu fighter played by action
star Conan Lee, whom he adopts and tutors like a son. Consumed with hatred for those he blames
for his father’s death, the ninja misjudges Uncle Foo: it turns out that Foo did not betray the ninja’s
father but was actually his loyal friend. Towards the climax of the film, the two reconcile as Foo
delivers a memento to the ninja from his father. Yet, despite this reconciliation, Foo chooses to
restore his honor by killing himself, leading to the climatic battle between the ninja and the kung
fu fighter, who mistakenly blames the ninja for Foo’s death and seeks to avenge his spiritual father.
In this way the film uses a melodramatic family scenario to both translate Confucian loyalty and
to accentuate its importance in an Asian value system.
Yet if the unwavering loyalty that both combatants feel towards their father figures
highlights the importance of the shared value of filial piety, the bond that develops between the
two at the conclusion of the film uses a brother / brother relationship to accentuate the centrality
of masculine ties in East Asian action cinema. Stephen Chan argues that the values of piety and
loyalty are often expressed through “masculine bondings,” particularly the bonds of brotherhood,
156
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Volume 17 (2015): 151-161
Yamada: Ninja
in Hong Kong films (Chan 72). As the climatic duel ends in a draw, the ninja and the kung fu
fighter, at first enemies, form a friendship, as the former rivals team up to battle a common enemy.
This friendship is cemented as a brotherhood when the ninja and the kung fu fighter discover that
Foo has given each one of them one side of a Buddhist memento, signifying their bond as brothers
and his role as their surrogate father. That this brotherhood involves a transnational relationship
between a ninja and kung fu fighter suggests an attempt to appeal to Chinese and Japanese
sentiments with the common experience of Confucian loyalty. In this way, NDD embeds both the
Japanese and Chinese action hero in a set of generic family relationships recognizable to a wider
audience, accentuating the centrality of Confucian bonds to an Asian identity through the
emotionally heightened themes of revenge and brotherhood.
In seeking to construct a shared imaginary among East Asian consumers, however, NDD
does not aim to completely translate cultural difference. Even as it highlights similarities in
Confucian value systems, the film accentuates some of the characteristics of Japanese and Chinese
culture that would be considered exotic by audiences, demonstrating how transnational exchange
is also stimulated by the allure of difference. The film exploits the exotic aspects of ninjustu (the
art of the ninja) that would compel Chinese consumers to see the film and the exhilarating kung fu
choreography that would attract Japanese fans of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. “Transnational
audiences,” argues U Hannerz, are attracted to “divergent cultural experiences” provided by a
nevertheless “familiar” experience of otherness (Hannerz 105). The film attracts Chinese and
Japanese audiences alike with the promise of striking and mysterious protagonists—the ninja and
the kung fu fighter—yet ones with whom they share more physical and cultural similarities than
heroes in Western action. When the ninja appears masked in the film he is an exotic Japanese other.
Yet when he removes his mask during scenes of heightened emotion, his features define him as a
fellow Asian brother. Critic Lisa Leung argues that this attraction to “similar but not quite same”
aspects of other Asian cultures characterizes transnational exchange in East Asia. For instance,
Asian consumers, Leung suggests, identify with the general “Asian” appearance of actors even as
an experience of “not quite sameness” stimulates curiosity (Leung 102). By building audience
curiosity through exotic characters who nevertheless adhere to recognizable value systems, then,
filmmakers seek to accentuate common ground among different traditions in Asia while creating
interest in films.
“Becoming and Unbecoming Modern” in Asian Popular Culture
If NDD seeks to formulate an East Asian imaginary based on common traditional values,
it also highlights the importance of modern development by abandoning backward perspectives
that stand in the way of progress. Stephen Chan suggests that Hong Kong cinema thematizes the
search for a long-term place for Asia “in relation to a changing global order” (Chan 67). Part of
this process involves Asia moving beyond its primitive roots. Along with emphasizing the
continuity of traditional values, then, NDD also rejects antiquated traditions in an effort to adhere
to patterns of first-world development. The process of updating the old is represented through
rivalry between a “spiritual boxer,” whose fighting skills are based on ancient forms of mysticism,
and the two Asian brothers, who exemplify values like filial piety along with a resistance to the
archaic traditions that can hold Asia back. This rivalry begins early in the film when the kung fu
fighter vanquishes the haughty boxer during the boxer’s ostentatious performance at a local
teahouse and concludes when the boxer and his father attack the kung fu fighter and the ninja with
157
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Volume 17 (2015): 151-161
Yamada: Ninja
mystical powers and a cadre of minions possessed by ancient demons. As the ninja and the kung
fu fighter join forces in the battle, the limitations of the boxer’s archaic style are quickly exposed:
he succumbs to the advanced weaponry and progressive thinking of the ninja and kung fu fighter,
while the two brothers thumb their nose at the boxer’s pompous mysticism. In this way, the film
thematizes the discarding of backward cultural relics—mystical rituals, esoteric superstitions, and
rigid lines of authority—in favor of values like Confucian loyalty that demonstrate continuity with
the past but that also translate well in the process of development.
By demonstrating the impulse to “both become and unbecome modern,” the film serves as
a template for the negotiation of traditional values in recent works of Asian pop culture. In
particular, it sheds light on the techniques utilized by contemporary media forms like television
dramas to appeal to a wider regional base. Indeed, translating Confucian loyalty through
melodramatic family relationships has become a common practice for the spread of television
dramas in Asia. Critic Ma Ning suggests that familial relationships are often the “focus of interest”
in Asian melodramas (Ning 5). Certainly, the melodramatic depiction of family relationships is a
major reason for the popularity of Japanese and Korean TV dramas in the 1990s and 2000s.
According to Keehung Lee, Korean dramas attract regional audiences by depicting examples of
filial piety (Lee 181). NDD, and works of Asian action cinema in general, then, provide an early
example of the way regional imaginaries are constructed in recent trends like the Korean Wave in
the 2000s.
Conclusion: The Globalization of East Asian Action
As a representative example of the transnational vision of Asian action, Ninja in the
Dragon’s Den establishes a formula for promoting popular culture in Asia, one that has been
replicated by Asian cultural industries over the last few decades. It shows how popular forms
accentuate shared values through the excitement of melodrama, thereby downplaying the
perception of difference that leads to the development of cultural nationalism while preserving the
exotic appeal that can stimulate regional exchange. Yet, if Hong Kong serves as a center for the
production of a transnational imaginary in East Asia, it has also served as a gateway through which
martial arts cinema spreads throughout the globe. As Asian action continues to move into other
markets, however, does the regional flavor of these films prevent them from connecting with
audiences outside of the region? In other words, does the cultural regionalization process interfere
with larger trends towards globalization?
Indeed, the relationship between regionalization and globalization is an issue that critics
have debated in recent years, with many, including Arie Kacowitz, suggesting that the two may be
parallel processes (Kacowitz 534). This is true, I argue, of the development of regional and global
imaginaries as well. Action films like NDD represent the co-existence of regional and global
impulses by depicting a translatable view of Asia that can be easily consumed outside of the region
as well. Hong Kong films make good global action cinema, Stephen Teo suggests, due in part to
the portrayal of an Asia that corresponds with conventional views of the region held by audiences
around the world (Teo 195). In this way, audiences outside of Asia can recognize the presentation
of general values, like Confucian loyalty, that unite Asian traditions. At the same time, they are
also able to personalize films due to the malleability of these works. Indeed, consumers, like those
in urban America, critics have shown, have interpreted martial arts cinema in light of their own
158
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Volume 17 (2015): 151-161
Yamada: Ninja
experience. According to Amy Ongiri, 1970s urban African Americans, the first non-Asian
community to embrace martial arts cinema in the US, were drawn to exciting action scenarios in
films like Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury (1971), involving a non-white hero with whom they could
better relate than with the ubiquitous Caucasian hero (Yang). Like Fist of Fury, NDD also hints at
the development of transnational connections formed between black culture and Asian action,
using a Blaxploitation soundtrack and other resources of the genre, demonstrating its global
ambitions. That both regional and transregional audiences can recognize a general sense of
Asianess in the film, but also translate it to fit their own cultural context, suggests the compatibility
of regional and global forms of cultural identification.
As this article suggests, then, Asian action cinema serves as an important model for the
negotiation of national, regional, and even global forms of cultural identification amidst the
transnationalism of the last few decades in Asia. Popular forms like Hong Kong cinema depict the
hybridity of Asian consumers, suggesting that they can simultaneously experience a variety of
different imaginaries through their consumption of pop culture. Adapting to the growth of regional
connections, as well as the demand for media, Asian action cinema and other forms of pop culture
will surely continue to influence the way the region understands itself in the era of globalization.
References
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of
Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991.
Ching-Kiu, Stephen Chang. “The Fighting Condition in Hong Kong Cinema.” Hong Kong
Connections: Transnational imagination in Action Cinema. Eds. Meaghan Morris.
Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.
Compton, Robert W. East Asian Democratization. London: Praeger, 2000.
Dissanayake, Wimal. “Introduction,” Melodrama and Asian Cinema. Eds. Wimal Dissanayake.
London: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Foot, Rosemary. “Pacific Asia: The Development of a Regional Dialogue” in Regionalism
in World Politics. Eds. Louise Fawcett and Andrew Hurrell. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1995.
Fujiwara, Hideo. “Nationalism and the China-Japan Conflict.” Japan Focus January 12, 2012.
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Shimbun-Asahi/2031.
Iwabuchi, Koichi. “Introduction: Cultural Globalization and Asian Media Connections.”
Feeling Asian Modernities: Transnational Consumption of Japanese TV Dramas. Eds.
Koichi Iwabuchi. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004.
Kacowitz, Arie M. “Regionalization, Globalization, and Nationalism: Convergent,
Divergent, or Overlapping?” Alternatives, 24 (1999): 527-556.
159
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Volume 17 (2015): 151-161
Yamada: Ninja
Hannerz, U. Transnational Connections. London: Routledge, 1996.
Lau, Jenny Kwak Wah. Multiple Modernities: Cinemas and Popular Media in
Transcultural East Asia. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002.
Lee, Keehung. “Mapping Out the Cultural Politics of ‘the Korean Wave’ in Contemporary
South Korea.” East Asian Pop Culture: Analyzing the Korean Wave. Eds. Chua Beng Huat
and Koichi Iwabuchi. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2008.
Leung, Lisa Yuk-ming. “Ganbaru and its Transcultural Audience: Imaginary and Reality
of Japanese TV Dramas in Hong Kong.” Feeling Asian Modernities: Transnational
Consumption of Japanese TV Dramas. Eds. Koichi Iwabuchi. Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press, 2004.
Li, Siu Leung. “The Myth Continues.” Hong Kong Connections: Transnational
Imagination in Action Cinema. Eds. Meghan Morris, Siu Leung Li, and Stephen Chan.
Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.
Magnan-Park, Aaron Han Joon. “The Heroic Flux in John Woo's Trans-Pacific Passage:
From Confucian Brotherhood to American Selfhood.” Hong Kong Film, Hollywood and
New Global Cinema: No Film is An Island. Eds. Gina Marchetti and Tan See Kam.
London: Routledge, 2007.
Marchetti, Gina and Tan See Kam. “Introduction: Hong Kong Cinema and Global Change.”
Hong Kong Film, Hollywood and the New Global Cinema. Eds. Gina Marchetti and Tan
See Kam. New York, Routledge, 2007.
Meaghan Morris. “Introduction: Hong Kong Connections.” Hong Kong Connections:
Transnational Imagination in Action Cinema. Eds. Meaghan Morris, Siu Leung Li, and
Stephen Chan Ching-kiu. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.
Mintz, Marilyn. The Martial Arts Film. Vermont and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1983.
Sakamoto, Rumi and Matthew Allen. “Hating ‘The Korean Wave.’” The Asia-Pacific
Journal, October 4, 2007. http://www.japanfocus.org/-Rumi-SAKAMOTO/2535.
Shuk-ting, Kinnia Yau. Japanese and Hong Kong Film Industries: Understanding the
Origins of East / West Film Networks. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Teo, Stephen. “Wuxia Redux: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as a model of Late
Transnational Production.” Hong Kong Connections: Transnational imagination in
Action Cinema. Eds. Meghan Morris, Siu Leung Li, and Stephen Chan. Durham: Duke
University Press, 2005.
160
Virginia Review of Asian Studies
Volume 17 (2015): 151-161
Yamada: Ninja
Weiming Tu. Confucian Traditions in East Asian Modernity. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1996.
Yang, Jeff. “Blackbelt Jonesing: American Martial Arts Culture’s Roots in the Black
Community.” SF Gate, October 28, 2009.
Ninja in the Dragon’s Den. Dir. Corey Yuen. Seasonal Films, 1982.
NOTES:
1
The abstraction of place also showcases an abstract East Asia with which regional and diasporic
audiences can relate. Hong Kong filmmakers, argues Kinnia Shuk-Ting, often avoid specific
depictions of “Japaneseness” in martial arts cinema in an effort to downplay the perception of
Japanese cultural hegemony. See Shuk-ting, p. 82.
2
The vast majority of chambara were produced in the years and decades following World War II,
particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, often referred to as the golden age of the genre.
3
There are many different types of wuxia but Ninja in the Dragon’s Den seems to replicate one
particular style involving a powerful martial arts expert who meets an equally powerful expert,
resulting in a fierce confrontation.
4
The sacrificing of cultural nuance raises the question of orientalism, or the exploitation of cultural
stereotypes. Stephen Teo argues that Hong Kong filmmakers are conscious of the inherently
“orientalist” aspects of the film and choose to exploit stereotypes to make the film more
recognizable.
161