Figure 4.16. Patriotism (Yukoku, 1966)—the couple makes love one last time before suicide beneath a massive scroll painting with the word for “sincerity” and “devotion.” Modernist aesthetics call for centering in Japan.

Figure 4.17. These compositions all deploy symmetry, but not to the ends of monumentality (clockwise from upper left, ending in the middle): Black Sun (Hei tai yang nan jing da ceng sha, 1995), Goodbye Dragon Inn (Busan, 2003), Fong Sai Yuk I (Fong Sai Yuk, 1993), Fight Back to School (Tao Xue Wei Lung, 1991), The Sword (Ming jian, 1980), Blue Kite (Lan fengzheng, 1993), Dragon Inn (Long men xia zhang, 1992), Swordsman (Xiao ao jiang hu, 1990), Chinese Ghost Story I (Qing nu You hun, 1987), One-Armed Swordsman (Duk bei dou, 1967), Storm Riders (Fung wan: Hung ba tin ha, 1998), and South Shaolin Master (Nan quan wang, 1984).

Figure 4.18. In A Summer at Grandpa’s (Dong dong de jianqi, 1984), Hou Hsiao-hsien replaces the calligraphic double happiness over a Christian altar with a neon version bracketed by traditional calligraphic couplets.

Figure 4.19. The soldier from Yellow Earth (Huang tudi, 1984), framed by couplets with circles instead of characters because the owner is an illiterate farmer.

Figure 4.20. Even in a modernist work like Tsai Ming-liang’s Wayward Cloud (Tianbian yi duo yun, 2005), calligraphy calls for symmetry.

Figure 4.21. The stunning Shadow (Lan fengzheng, 1994) by Zhang Yimou snaps into symmetry whenever calligraphic props appear.

Figure 5.1. Hou Hsiao-hsien constructed the title for Good Men, Good Women (Haonan haonu, 1995) by cutting and pasting from an art book on ancient calligraphy.

Figure 5.2. The complex temporality of the calligraph is made palpably clear in the sequence most prominently featuring calligraphy from City of Sadness (Beiqing chengshi, 1989). The sequence starts from upper-left, moving clockwise to the center image.

Figure 5.3. Characters mill through the narrative space in an Altmanesque cacophony of action, surrounded by calligraphy.

Figure 5.4. Calligraphic ornaments help the viewer navigate Hou’s narrative space. This pan from left to right finally stitches together the till-then disconnected spaces of the lobby.

Figure 5.5. Characters endure one loss after another; behind them a bright red scroll painting with the character for “longevity” haunts the background in shadow.

Figure 5.6. A message from prison: “Father is innocent. You have to live with dignity”—scrawled on cloth instead of paper, inscribed with the husband’s finger instead of a brush, and not in ink but rather his own blood.

Figure 5.7. The subtitles for voice and calligraphy feel radically different, but the latter usually goes untranslated. The calligraphic intertitle on the right translates the scroll painting being gifted in figure 5.2.

Figure 6.1. The inaugural issue of Northwest Cinema was decorated by calligraphic signatures from powerful people in Japan and China. Courtesy of Shanghai Library.

Figure 6.2. These luminaries of the Japanese film world signed this board to commemorate the establishment of the Directors Guild of Japan; from left to right, Suzuki Shigeyoshi, Shimizu Hiroshi, Shimazu Yasujiro, Mizoguchi Kenji, Kinugasa Teinosuke, Gosho Heinosuke, Abe Yutaka, Yamanaka Sadao, Yamamoto Kajiro, Uchida Tomu, Ushihara Kiyohiko, Murata Minoru, Naruse Mikio, Tasaka Tomotaka, Ozu Yasujiro, Inoue Kintaro, Ikeda Yoshinobu, and Itami Mansaku. Courtesy of the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum of Waseda University.

Figure 6.3. The death mask of Mizoguchi Kenji was cast by his long-time art director Mizutani Hiroshi, who signed the display book by brush with assistant directors Uchikawa Seiichiro and Sakai Tatsuo. Courtesy of the National Film Archive of Japan.

Figure 6.4. The title for Makioka Sisters (Sasameyuki, 1983) was written by the widow of novelist Tanizaki Jun’ichiro.

Figure 6.5. A fake Mao Zedong scroll in the props department of Shanghai Film Studio. The second line contains his signature. Mao’s calligraphy is instantly recognizable across Asia.