For three weeks leading up to Halloween, students in Dr. Li Zeng’s Asian Film Genre class immersed themselves in Asian horror films by exploring cultural and societal nuances.
Zeng, a School of Theatre, Dance, and Film professor and head of the Film and Digital Media program, said each week of the semester covers a different Asian film genre, with students signing up to present a genre of their choice along with a film selection.
“Horror is a great genre to teach and inform students about Asian culture and society—it puts things in perspective by comparing the American and Asian experience,” she said. “We started the presentation week with J-Horror (Japanese horror) and watched Dark Water, then another week covered K-Horror (Korean horror) and watched Death Bell, and the last week we’ll focus on Thai horror and watch Nang Nak.”
Junior film and digital media major Caydance Sill, along with two groupmates, presented on the Japanese film Kuroneko (Black Cat), a 1968 film that tells the story of two women who return as vengeful spirits, preying on samurai in a supernatural tale of revenge set against the backdrop of feudal Japan.
“I looked at the history of samurai. I knew that movie (Kuroneko) in particular had dealt with samurai when it first came about, so (my presentation) covered where this film is taking place,” Sill said. “I really liked that it took a feminist viewpoint, which is not typical in that time and in that culture. And it was interesting that they chose to shoot it in black and white though they had color film at the time, so that decision is a stylistic choice.”
The presentations consisted of choosing a film theme, looking at the cinematic style, discussing the context of the plot, and presenting a thesis statement to prove their findings with clips from the movie to demonstrate.
“For me, one goal of the class is to get the students out of their comfort zones to watch non-English language films. I chose the films, and I want them to understand the differences and connections between Asian cinema and Hollywood. I find it most fulfilling when students are engaging in discussion. They’re learning how to interpret a film in relation to the social and cultural context within the country,” she said.
Zeng introduced the course to the University in 2016 after co-designing it with Dr. Ramona Curry, an English professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who retired in 2020, through a grant that allowed them to teach the course on both campuses consecutively. Though the course covers genres like martial arts, action, romance, comedy, fantasy, and coming-of-age, Zeng ensured horror took a prominent place in her film lineup, recognizing its cultural significance and popularity across Asia.
“Horror is huge in Asia. When we talk about how the genre started in Asia, the most famous is J-Horror, which started gaining international popularity in the late 1990s. Because there were a number of J-Horror films that became an international hit and Hollywood tried to profit on it with remakes, it helped gain attraction to Asian horror in general,” Zeng said.
Zeng said horror has always been a part of the course, though she hadn’t previously linked it to Halloween. Since she isn’t teaching her usual horror-focused course in the fall semester, she expanded the horror theme to three weeks, adding an extra film to align with Halloween.
Before she moved to the United States to earn her doctorate degree at Northwestern University in 2002, Zeng spent her life in China. There, she developed an interest in horror films, though it was a forbidden genre in China from the 1950s to 1980s, she said.
“In the late 1990s, Japanese horror films were shown in underground theaters in a non-theatrical way because of the violence and superstition—it wasn’t allowed by the government. I went to those theaters and watched Rangu and other films. I was so fascinated because I was never exposed to that,” Zeng said.
Even before taking the course, Sill said she had always been interested in Asian history and culture. After taking Zeng’s class and diving into societal and cultural norms, she wants to further her education in Asian studies.
“I definitely want to take another Asian genre course. I also want to travel to Japan one day. This class has taught me about Japanese culture and that will help me in the long run,” Sill said.
