Alexa Alice Joubin (George Washington University, Michael Saenger (Southwestern University)

Part of the East Asia by the Book! CEAS Author Talks series. How did Kurosawa influence George Lucas' Star Wars? Why do critics repeatedly use the adjective Shakespearean to describe Gong Joon-ho's film Parasite (2019)? How do East Asian cinema and theater portray vocal disability and transgender figures? Shakespeare and East Asia identifies four themes that distinguish post-1950s East Asian cinemas and theaters from works in other parts of the world: Japanese formalistic innovations in sound and spectacle; reparative adaptations from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong; the politics of gender and reception of films and productions in South Korea and the UK; and multilingual, diaspora works in Singapore and the UK. These adaptations are reshaping debates about the relationship between East Asia and Europe, and this book reveals deep connections among Asian and Anglophone performances. The book is part of Oxford Shakespeare Topics, a series of 50 volumes on the playwright.