Abstract: Contextualizing the growth of East Asian cinema in relation to film distribution networks, this chapter draws attention to paratexts generated through the course of the promotion and circulation of East Asian films in transnational markets. Focusing on sites associated with South Korean cinema from US diasporic video distributors, the UK's multiplatform distribution, and informal circulation channels reaching out to different cultural geographies, the chapter highlights expanded notions of authorship through clusters of agents who add their own imprints as part of this paratextual circulation. The chapter discusses these aspects through a case study of South Korean film distribution and, specifically, the personal and sociocultural contexts that have worked to retain and revoke the authorial position of the late Kim Ki-duk.

Keywords: film distribution, diasporic video market, distributor-driven festival, media authorship, South Korean cinema

Prior to the early 1990s, film authorship was a subject largely theorized in and through the realm of officially sanctioned cinematic arts (i.e. “film art” versus “cult film”). The context of film festivals and critical discourses discussed in the previous chapter addressed this legacy. Such a demarcation shifted in the DVD period as discourses associated with film authorship were employed to promote controversial films from East Asia, which also began to gain attention at film festivals, at a time when festivals were expanding their programming and public engagement. The growth of DVD left a lasting impact on the idea of East Asian cinema in relation to film authorship in the distribution context. One particular instance that has been the subject of interest for critics and academics is the way in which the notion of authorship associated with a sense of authority and aesthetic consistency was employed to promote directors associated with action, horror, and controversial genre films (see, for example, Egan, 2017; Wroot, 2015). Paratexts generated in the process of film distribution facilitated by the DVD format became the focus of many studies in order to negotiate and expand the idea of transnational film authorship and contemporary East Asian cinema (see, for example, Shin, 2008; Dew, 2007; Martin, 2015).

Revisiting the distribution of East Asian cinema via the DVD format, this chapter seeks to expand the landscape of film authorship to address changes in film distribution sites in the pre- and post-DVD era and revival film markets.