Wind from the East

This book is a collection of interviews with, and essays about, not the four filmmakers who introduced the cinema of their respective countries to the West--Akira Kurosawa (Japan) and Satyajit Ray (India), in the 1950s; Abbas Kiarostami (Iran) and Zhang Yimou (China), in the 1980s--but those who followed in their wake. From among them, the editor has chosen 15 representative figures from Iran, China, Japan, Turkey, South Korea, Taiwan,Kurdistan, and Afghanistan: namely, Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi, Majid Majidi, Bahman Ghobadi, Siddiq Barmak, Samira and Makhmalbaf, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Hong Sang-soo, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Jun Ichikawa, Kim Ki-duk, Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, and Tsai Ming-liang. As a whole, "Wind from the East: New World Cinema, Asian Style" documents an alternative to Western brands of cinema even as these foreign directors in some instances integrate Western forms, styles, and genres into their own native traditions. As such, these artists could be said to represent a global filmmaking perspective that now, more than ever, this world--and in particular the American nation--can use. "Wind from the East" concludes with a bibliography and individual filmographies.