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This book explains and analyses the unprecedented rise in visibility of ‘cult’ Asian cinema in the UK, especially between the years 2000 and 2005. Considering multiple factors behind the cultural, critical and economic success of Asia cinema in the West, this book focuses specifically on the hugely influential and pioneering (if deeply problematic) Tartan Films (formerly Metro-Tartan) Asia Extreme brand. This book is structured as a series of case studies, examining different films, filmmakers and distribution events in order to sketch an historical overview of this developing film cycle, paying attention primarily to the marketing and critical reception of these films. The Asia Extreme brand incorporated multiple genres – primarily horror, action, and erotic thrillers – and also elided the differences between various national cinemas. The role of Orientalism in both the marketing and reception of films from Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea is also examined in detail.

Extreme Cinema surveys post-millennial trends in transnational cinema—particularly in its highly stylized treatment of explicit sex and violence. In many cases these cinematic embellishments skirt narrative motivation or even impede narrative progression, favoring instead the possibility to elicit an affective response in the spectator: physical sensation separate from cognition and emotion. As a result, in many instances extreme cinema is not governed according to narrative conventions (narrative arcs driven by character motivation), and instead emphasizes spectacles. If not episodic in structure, then, extreme cinema might host abrupt ruptures in the diegetic narrative—experiments in form and/or composition (editing, extreme close-ups, visual disorientation, sounds that straddle the boundary between non-diegetic and diegetic registers), the exhibition of intense violence and pain, acute intimacy with bodies in the throes of sex. In more episodic films, like the musical, or pornography, extreme cinema frequently showcases set cinematic numbers that flood sensory channels with auditory and/or visual stimulus. Extreme cinema wields the potential to manipulate the viewing body (as demonstrated by “reaction” videos posted on hosting sites such as YouTube). Crucially, the affects and emotions prompted by these films can vary wildly: abjection, disgust, arousal, laughter. Films considered include those of the American torture porn genre, as well as films that other scholars and marketers have classified as “New French Extremity” and “Asia Extreme.” While content is assuredly a concern, what Extreme Cinema explores, above all, is the importance of cinematic form.