這篇論文試圖為長鏡頭（Long take）和遠景鏡頭（Long shot）在東亞電影的呈現尋找另一種註解。日本大師小津安二郎（Ozu Yasujiro）與台灣導演侯孝賢（Hou Hsiao-Hsien）以遠距離的攝影機架設，疏離觀察的拍攝風格，以及省略性的敘述方式（elliptical narrative），影響了一些亞洲年輕世代的電影工作者。這些新世代的導演將小津與侯孝賢的鏡頭風格做了一些微妙的變化，用以呈現他們對於現代亞洲社會文化的觀察。竄升於90年代的新銳，如日本的是枝裕和（Kore-eda Hirokazu），擅長以長鏡拍攝電影，自承或多或少受到侯孝賢與小津的影響。這篇論文以小津與侯孝賢的電影風格作為前提，連結是枝裕和的作品，重新思考長鏡頭和遠景鏡頭於東亞電影的意涵。
侯孝賢建立了長鏡與遠景鏡頭的表現內涵，使其帶有濃厚的亞洲色彩，David Bordwell 稱之為「亞洲極簡主義」（Asian Minimalism）。對於亞洲電影工作者而言，長鏡的使用創造一種現實時空完整性的效果，反映人們日常生活的自然表現。因此，當代亞洲導演偏好長鏡與遠景鏡頭的使用，並不全然只是鏡頭美學的考量，似乎更是一種「生活經驗」的呈現。有鑑於西方學者在解讀亞洲電影時偏重於電影語言、形式技巧的著墨，甚少將歷史文化因素涵蓋於鏡頭拍攝的分析中，這篇論文提出，小津、侯孝賢與是枝裕和三位亞洲導演擅長的極簡風格，可能塑形於相似的歷史因素與相互的文化影響。換言之，長鏡與遠景鏡頭在這三位導演的電影中所呈現的不只是電影美學，而是一份文化內涵。這篇論文試圖論述三位導演對於長鏡與遠景鏡頭的使用，除了是一種拍攝風格的發展，保存了現實的時間與空間的完整性，長鏡和遠景鏡頭在他們電影的呈現，其實蘊含了東亞歷史文化經驗的記憶，豐富了影像的人文深度。

This paper attempts to flesh out suggestions about the use of the long take and long shot in East Asian Cinema. Such stylistic features attest the quick mobility of popular cultural influence in contemporary East Asia, and imitation among directors. The shooting style that Ozu Yasujiro and Hou Hsiao-Hsien have employed through their distanced and fixed camera positioning, and their preference for the long take, has resurfaced in the work of a few younger filmmakers in Asia. In particular, Hou has established the distant long shot and static long take as expressive and denotative devices in themselves, laying the basis of a regional style that David Bordwell has called an “Asian Minimalism.”
Considered to be influenced by Ozu's and Hou's style, the films of Kore-eda Hirokazu are linked by stylistic concerns. Indeed, Kore-eda's films help in any reconsideration of the use of the long take/long shot in contemporary Asian cinema. The three Asian filmmakers' favoured use of the long take/long shot seems to be a product of shared cultural/historical experience and not exclusively attributable to authorship. Starting by questioning an aesthetic tendency that seems so prevalent in recent East Asian films, this paper probes cultural meanings conveyed by use of the long take and long shot beyond the assumption of western film theory, in hopes of explaining “Asian Minimalism” better and tracing its significance.