In recent decades, numerous films from Japan and Korea have been produced using characteristics associated with film noir. Much of the scholarly discussion of this body of East Asian noir has tended to merely focus on the extent to which, through their use of aesthetic, they fit the genre. However, such an approach is problematic given the definition of the term film noir is itself highly contested. This is largely because of the uncertainty surrounding what exactly constitutes film noir as a genre, with various critics citing narrative structure, tone and mood, setting, and filmic technique as its defining characteristics. Aside from generic categorisation, film noir has also been read as a contextually informed mode of filmic production, with its various characteristics interpreted as a signifier of the dislocated social and cultural relations of modernity (Fay and Nieland, 2010, p. xiii). Through a comparative analysis of noir films from each of these locations, this presentation will reflect on how filmmakers from Japan and Korea have utilised the genre as a medium to make sense of the shifting social and economic realities brought about by conditions of modernity.
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