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<DIV><SPAN class=873170902-30062003><FONT face="ＭＳ Ｐゴシック" color=#0000ff size=2>I
found, and this is purely informal, that people still rent Japanese movies on
video at a rate on par with American movies, but when it comes to paying the
2000yen to go to the movies, people are much more apt to go see an American
made puffball on the weekends than a Japanese movie. At least in my family, I
don't know.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=873170902-30062003><FONT face="ＭＳ Ｐゴシック" color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=873170902-30062003><FONT face="ＭＳ Ｐゴシック" color=#0000ff
size=2>English schools do give a really skewed view of the Japanese public, I
find that Eikaiwa people are no test demographic.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B>
owner-KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu]<B>On Behalf Of
</B>J.sharp<BR><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, June 29, 2003 10:01 PM<BR><B>To:</B>
KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<BR><B>Subject:</B> RE: Japanese
CNC?<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">I think the
Japanese film industry is in a pretty enviable shape compared with most other
national cinemas, the most obvious point of references being the industries of
the individual European companies. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">Its true, based on
anecdotal evidence, one might get the impression that no one in Japan ever
watches Japanese films, but you have to remember who you are actually asking.
I work in an English school in Ginza, and most of my students wake up at 5am
and work a minimum of twelve hours a day. You can imagine that when they do go
to the cinema, they’re not going to sit for three hours watching EUREKA. No -
they want no-brain entertainment like SPIDERMAN or MATRIX when they’re not
shopping or walking around the golf course. I don’t count these people as
representative of the Japanese public however. Every time I go into a cinema
to watch a Japan film, there’s a pretty good turn out of people, and there’s
usually about 10 Japanese films playing in Tokyo at any one
time.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">There’s still been
plenty of bigger budgeted more mainstream Japanese films playing the major
chains this year – AZUMI, MOONCHILD, SPY SORGE – so someone is obviously
watching them. Right around the corner from the school where I drone out
eikaiwa on a daily basis, a huge screen has been emblazoned with the BATTLE
ROYALE 2 logo for the past month or so, with hordes of people swarming around
the BR2 gift shop on the street, which is purveying para-military inspired
fashion accessories. Its going to be a big release – probably the largest
Japanese one this year.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">And that’s not
including the ever-lucrative low-cost high return animated endeavours of
regular favourites such as DORAEMON or ONE PIECE, nor the GODZILLA franchise.
And lets not forget that no country in the world has an equivalent to
Miyazaki, a national treasure whose films continue to out-gross all foreign
competition. Nor the fact that the video chain Tsutaya devotes about a third
of its floor space to domestic films – there’s certainly nothing like that in
video shops in the UK. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">As Aaron points
out, Hollywood does have unfair market advantages - the same in any country -
and their block-booking tactics, market saturation and the fact distributors
and cinema chains are owned by the companies that produce the films, will
ensure that in provincial towns outside of Tokyo, it is actually nigh on
impossible to even see a Japanese film, whilst the latest MATRIX film is
booked into two or three screens of the local multiplex. The film industry is
one of the US’ biggest industries, whereas it ranks pretty low on the business
hierarchy in Japan, UK or even France, and as such, the US has become fiercely
protectionist about its own interests – far more so than any other country.
There is the odd local film screened in the bigger cinema chains as a token
effort alongside the Hollywood eye-candy, but as long as this is of the
quality of TRICK or MOONCHILD, then the same people whose cinematic needs are
provided for purely by the multiplex are likely to be giving Japanese films an
incredibly wide berth in the future. (just read an interesting anecdote in
Sight and Sound from last year which said that in Quebec, ASTERIX & OBELIX
2 actually out-grossed ATTACK OF THE CLONES last year, because independent
distributors balked at paying the high box office take demanded by Lucasfilms,
so the film actually played on a relatively small number of screens – a good
indication of how behind the scenes business skulduggery has such an enormous
influence on box office performance).<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">Remember that most
of the films showcased abroad, and hence discussed on boards like this, are
small arthouse releases – not the larger more commercial offerings. As an
English teacher, you might get blank looks when you try and discuss Naruse or
even Ozu with your housewives afternoon course – but I doubt any random member
of the general public in Britain knows who David Lean is either. At the same
time, it is still possible to meet plenty of cinephiles who become notably
animated when you mention names such as Kurosawa Kiyoshi Shinya
Tsukamoto.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">Essentially, like
any other country I’ve been to, there are two film markets. Mainstream
multiplex, and independent cinemas that might once have been labelled
“arthouse”, but subsequent to the Mirax-isation of the multiplex, are now the
only place where you can see smaller national releases and non-Hollywood
foreign releases. These cinemas have their own loyal followings which will
ensure that this second market will never die out, but they are also sparsely
scattered enough to mean that no individual title will ever achieve the same
level of performance as a mainstream release – even freak success stories like
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, which has played on one screen in Tokyo, but has been
sold out for over six months.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">OK, so we’re
hardly in the Golden Age of the 50s, but then, what country is? The 80s
signified the death knell of national cinema, to my mind. It also marked a
rapid downturn in the quality of Hollywood films. These films allegedly
succeed because they are universal, but this for me is the reason why they are
so unsatisfactory. They don’t address any of the issues that are important to
me personally, and they rarely attempt to stretch the parameters of cinema as
an art form nor enlighten me about other cultures. They are merely safe
puerile fantasies where you are supposed to marvel at how much money has been
thrown up on screen. No other country can possibly complete. Nor should they
want to. The day when national cinema was forced to cater for an international
market was the day it became less fresh and interesting. There’s nothing with
the meat or power of the finest work from the 50s, 60s or 70s, from any
country. As a British person, I can find resonance with the films of Mike
Leigh or Lynne Ramsay, but it is films like BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM that are
making the money. And its awful films like HOTEL HIBISCUS that are drawing in
the housewives for the matinee performances in Tokyo.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">To the distant
observer, it may seem that there’s been nothing significant coming out of
Japan at the moment. There’s been precious little here that’s impressed me
this year either. But the film industry goes in cycles, not on a teleological
path to self-destruction. From my perspective in Tokyo, looking at those
UniJapan figures I could infer that the British film industry is in a mess.
Last year there was only 9 films from the UK screened in Japan (one of these
was KEVIN AND PERRY GO LARGE!) compared with the 30 or so from previous years.
However, this year I believe there’s already been more than 9, so this is
undoubtedly just an isolated blip. In the same respect, I’m sure that Japan
will have another 1997-98, when SHALL WE DANCE swept across America, RING and
CURE crawled across cathode ray tubes all over Asia, anime fans went wide-eyed
over PRINCESS MONONOKE and PERFECT BLUE, and arthouse audience swooned over
UNAGI and HANA-BI. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier
New'"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P><BR><BR>________________________________________________<BR>Message
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