Do Asian films appeal to Western Audiences on purpose?

From MediaMagazine, Issue 21, September 2007. English and Media Centre.

"In 2006, according to the Motion Picture Association of America, there were 7.81 billion admissions to the world's cinemas, and over half of these were in Asia."

Page 23, The Work of Zhang Yimou:
"Whilst the striking and evocative cinematography seems to have won over audiences regardless of cultural barriers, many indigenous Chinese critics think that he is perpetrating a negative representation of China."

From Asian Cinemas; A Reader & Guide:

"Edward Said's 'Orientialism'"
"According to cultural critic Edward Said, the dominant representation of the 'orient', as constructed by the hegemony set by the West, is the mirror image of what is inferior and 'other' to the West:

the Orient has helped to define Europe (or the West) as it's contrasting image, idea, personality, and experience.

Whilst the West is civilised, the East is barbarous, and backward, filled with mysterious superstitons and exotic customs. However, our case here is 'Orientalism by orientals', where Zhang has been accused of producing an image of 'Chineseness' that is constructed to meet Western tastes and expectations."

Also, what follows from this, is the power of visually stunning aesthetic façade of Asian cinema. Directors like Zhang Yimou concentrate on art direction, cinematography, and attention to detail, sometimes (unintentionally?) 'covering up' serious cultural or political representations.

There are two arguments to this; one is that he is choosing not to expose the deep roots and social angst of the country in order to be more appealing to Western audiences. A film hit in amongst Western audiences is sure to bring success; financial and occupational. The other argument is that the representation is merely the directors 'artistic expression', or 'artistic vision', and he does not intentionally try to 'dress up' films in order to make them suitable for the 'Western gaze'.

From MediaMagazine, talking about the movie Hero:

"The inclusion of the Chinese calligraphy, zither playing and chess, in addition to the film's visual palette, where various sequences seem drenched in primary colours and special effects, add to the splendour of the film and the pleasure involved in 'gazing' at historic, 'Oriental' China."

In essence, the idea that traditional 'oriental' themes are sensationalised and 'dressed up'. For instance, it has been suggested that womens cleveage was no where near as low in Feudal China. This could be interpreted in 2 different ways according to the information above...

"The martial arts genre, traditionally in China and Hong Kong, has been a very mainstream genre, and has rarely introduced any such 'high-culture' concepts. Zhang's inclusion of 'mind-fighting' was generally criticised as somewhat pretentious. thrown in to appeal to the West's preconception of ancient, spiritual China, rather than truly discussing and exploring Zen and other related philosophies."

"Has Zhang commodified such high-culture subjects simply to boost the film's marketability, to further the stereotypical 'Oriental' image of China as mystical, mysterious, spiritual?"

It seems as though these genuinly ancient and mysterious high-culture 'characteristics' of Chinese history and culture are being exploited and sensationalised to appeal to a mass Western audience. As if that weren't all bad enough, (supposing it's true, and Zhang IS trying to appeal to Western audiences) a remake was made of Hero, after "intervention by Disney executives and Quentin Tarantino, who helped secure an uncut English-subtitled release." (cover pictured left).

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_(2002_film)#Miramax_release)