This book consists of case studies of Taiwan queer romance films since 2000 as well as the relativity of contemporary Taiwan's film industry and the bio-politics of its audience. Mon observes that there is an imbalanced dynamic within Taiwan's film industry, and furthermore both filmmaker and audience deal with volatility in the film experience. Volatility is not only around/in the power dynamic shift between filmmakers and consumers, but also an impact on the perception and concepts among both. Therefore, the relationship between the film industry and its audience is quite volatile and affective. Mon thinks the power dynamic between the film industry and its audience involves organic bodies, non-organic objects, media technology and physical entities as these involvements grow to affect the film producers and consumers. As a result, cinematic communication in Taiwan becomes diversified as the relationship between the film industry and the bio-politics of its audience turns volatile. In short, the book mainly looks into the sensory aspects of Taiwan's cinematic communications in order to explain the power dynamic between the film industry and its audience. To solve this issue, Mon takes a Deleuzian perspective as well as that of Foucault's discourses on bio-politics to elucidate the bio-politics of Taiwan's film industry and its audience.
Chapter 2 explains the methodology and pragmatic procedures of the methodological operations mainly in three stages. For this research, Mon engaged in many individual interviews and group discussions from 2009 to 2011. At the first stage, she establishes a hypothesis that Taiwan's film industry and its audience are connected affectively. She discovers that Taiwan's film industry has put great effort into its generic cinematographic language to facilitate the sensory percepts between film producers and audiences. At the second stage, Mon's focus is upon the perceptual expression/communication between filmmakers and audiences. The results show that object/body mediation has always been a significant parameter in terms of film consumption, production and marketing. At the final stage, Mon investigates the object/body meditation in the experience of film production and consumption. Mon concludes that film marketing uses related products and tied commodities to intervene in the spectator–film connection, and the internet has become an important object that effectively mediates the films’ sensory/affective communication. In other chapters, Mon reflects upon the film texts, cinematic apparatus, film marketing and internet communication.
In Chapter 3, Mon talks about the example of the film reception of Blue Gate Crossing as well as the audience's ways of re-enacting the film content. Mon learns from many individual interviews and group discussions that the affects/effects of the film might have been weakened by the diverse entities like computer screens and digital screen shots on iPods. Further, this proves that the bodily citation of the film audience cannot be submitted to the cinematographic expression or the bio-political control of the film industry. To maintain the bodily fantasies of the films, the film industry has to involve itself in the bodily governing of the film audience. However, the efforts of the film industry have been proven futile as they manifest the volatile nature of the industry–audience relativity.
Chapter 4 conceptualizes the film industry–audience relationship by interviewing filmmakers since 2000 in order to comprehend the mechanism of film production. Mon explains that film production, in essence, is an enterprise of homage, so the film producers inevitably express themselves by copying/repeating the existing cinematographic formulae. Such a practice of film production is an embodied cinematic experience. In other words, filmmakers make films from the audience's viewing experiences while replicating the existing cinematographic expression. As mentioned, the bodily citation of the film audience is affected by the interference of physical entities. So is the film production. Consequently, the film production would not turn out to be a full replication for the attempted changes made by the spectator-turned-filmmakers, who intend to renovate the genre with alternative potentialities. This is because filmmakers are primarily film consumers, who are later inspired to get involved in film production. This is another instance of film prosumption.
The main focus of Chapter 5 is on the internet marketing that turns film production into film industry–audience collaboration. In the example of the 2008 film Miao Miao, the industry–audience sensorimotor communication was made by strategic marketing and campaigning through film blogs as they effectively inspired the celebrity–audience intimacy and enticed participation from the potential audience through the design of communicative activities. Sensations were aroused when the film industry and audience were keen to join in internet communication as these sensations were turned into communicative action. Blogging was a huge contribution to the film Miao Miao while increasing the value of the film. Simply put, internet marketing invokes industry–audience affective participation since both the industry and audience engage in the film value production. From this point, internet marketing can be compared to film production. This is another example, which is true to its name, of film prosumption.
Chapter 6 examines whether the audience would be made easier to manipulate by the film industry through participatory communication in internet marketing. Mon states, judging from the Taiwan film market since 2000, the late capitalist power has been damaged by the bodies participating within/without film industries, due to the unpredicted and volatile nature of the bodies participating. Moreover, there is no clear evidence that the bodies participating help capital reproduction. This is because in the structure of the late capitalist economy, even late capitalism and labour have become indeterminate factors.
In the Conclusion, Mon makes three conclusive points from the case studies of Taiwan queer romance films and the industry–audience relativity. First, in order to acquire the capital reproduction and financial sustenance, the film industry has made attempts to control the bio-politics of its audience. In order to appeal to the senses of the audience and govern their bodily capacities, the film industry has acquired the cinematic language that guarantees commercial success while building links between the film merchandise and its consumer on cross-media platforms. Second, such bio-political control has been assisted by the film prosumption, which includes film production and marketing. Whatever method has been adopted, the film industry expects to capitalize the bodily capacities of the film audience to induce profits and increase the value of the film. In the end the film industry's bio-political control of the audience is proven to be unpredictable. As a matter of fact, media technology cannot contain the (re)configuration of the audience's bodily capacities. The body is proven to be a result of connections/changes with other bodies and everyday objects. Because the body maintains its volatility, the film industry cannot avoid the body's precariousness despite its efforts.
When it comes to the research done on contemporary Taiwan's film industry–audience relativity, the researchers often adopt a quantitative method to examine issues like the film's box-office receipts, marketing and consumer motivations. However, the author of this book has applied a great many film theories in order to look more deeply into the affective and power dynamics between the film industry and the audience. Her method has established a new landmark for contemporary Taiwan film research. Further, Mon has made appropriate use of individual in-depth interviews and group discussions to avoid the excessive nature of academic interpretation. This is another merit of the book. However, this book has been limited by the theories and methodology it uses by placing its main focus upon the formulae of commercialism, media technology and audience affects while neglecting the discussion of cultural context. In addition, the author concentrates on audience reception of the films through images while overlooking the impacts of dialogues, language and audial music. Come what may, we cannot deny the fact that this is a good examination that has offered systematic guidance to contemporary Taiwan film production and consumption.