Film noir is often known as a Hollywood genre. But the downbeat sensibility of classic American noir also finds expression in later films from Japan, South Korea and greater China (including Hong Kong) that both participate in and are excluded from circuits of global noir traffic, past and present. This book explores these films and the firmmakers who make them. Looking at a range of examples from the 1950s to the present, it conceptualizes and articulates an internationally situated 'East Asian film noir'. In doing so, it offers fascinating insights into the terms on which national, regional and transnational cinemas conceive artistic expression.