A Duke University expert on Asian film says that global flow in the film industry has meant an increase in the ‘Asianization’ of Hollywood films to match the long-standing influence of Holywood films on Asia.

Professor Leo Ching, chair of the Asian and African Languages and Literature Department, says that remakes of Asian films that are big hits in the United States often reflect the influence of Hollywood on Asian directors.

“Hollywood is not being taken over by Asian cinema. In fact, it’s the reverse. It only works because of the Hollywoodization of Asian cinema,” he says.

After all, says Ching, Asian audiences have been viewing U.S. films for 20 to 30 years and have acquired a taste for them. Seventy-eight percent of the Thailand box office is Hollywood films. It’s an astonishing 65 percent of the box office in Japan.

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