Interesting to hear what Aaron says about the titles being sold abroad. I
always used to believe that few quality titles that do dribble out of Japan
every year onto the worldwide market place were due to the selection of
foreign critics, foreign festival programmers or foreign distributors, but I
am now beginning to wonder if the problem doesn't lie closer to home with
international sales agents in Japan. In numerous cases they overcharge for
their films - the manga compendium MEMORIES is a classic case in point. For
many films, the sales agents ask far more than the film could earn back in
foreign sales. Also many films over here just often don't seem to be made
with a foreign audience in mind at all, so I'm wondering if the companies
actually bother to push a lot of these onto the foreign market. Scores
of films come out in Tokyo every year, and I can't be bothered to write
about them for Midnight Eye because I know they will never receive any
subtitled screenings anywhere.<BR><BR>That said, I do agree with Peter to
some extent. The quality of recent releases pales into insignificance even
when compared with stuff that was coming out about 4-5 years
ago.<BR><BR>Jasper Sharp<BR>www.midnighteye.com<BR><BR>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">--------- Original Message --------<BR>From:
KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<BR>To:
"KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu"
<KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu><BR>Subject: Re: Onmyoji/recent
japanese cinema<BR>Date: 07/02/04 18:16<BR><BR><FONT face="Courier New"
size=2><BR>I've written on this here and there, but films like Onmyoji have
to be<BR>put context. First, I do respect the director Takita Yojiro.
I<BR>personally think he is a lot better at comedy than action, and his
pink<BR>films from the 1980s are legendary, but Onmyoji was not really
a<BR>project for him. The problem with Onmyoji is one that represents
much<BR>of contemporary Japanese film: the movies that get the most
publicity<BR>and the biggest releases--and thus "do well" at the box
office--are not<BR>necessarily the best ones. That does not mean that the
big budget films<BR>are always worse, just that there is not a system of
open competition<BR>in the exhibition industry to allow for even great
entertainment in<BR>small films to be known to the public. In an industry
that still has<BR>monopolistic tendencies, many great films get very limited
releases and<BR>mediocre ones get huge ads budgets that bring in at least
the curious.<BR><BR>Onmyoji was helped by the popularity of the manga and
renewed interest<BR>in Abe no Seimei--and Nomura Mansai is extremely
talented--but the<BR>script was horrible and the cast filled with stars with
little interest<BR>in the film or young idols with no talent (when will
someone realize<BR>that Ito Hideaki could not act if his life depended on
it?). Too much<BR>effort was spent on mistakenly trying to equal Hollywood
special<BR>effects in a "Japanese" context, and not enough on plot
construction.<BR>Its success in Japan is thus not that surprising--if
somewhat sad--but<BR>what I find curious is why someone picked it up for
distribution abroad.<BR><BR>As for good contemporary Japanese films, there
are plenty out there,<BR>too few of which get distributed abroad. It does
seem to be getting<BR>better, but Japanese films sold outside Japan have to
pass through<BR>various gatekeepers (powerful critics and festivals) and
play to<BR>certain audiences (especially, these days, that centered around
anime).<BR>This does bring in some good work, but the view tends to be
somewhat<BR>skewed. Some of my votes for the Eigei best ten, such as
Keimusho no<BR>naka, Itai futari, or Sayonara Kuro, will probably never be
released<BR>abroad. Even Akarui mirai, my best film for 2003, was cut down
for an<BR>"international version" because someone thought it was too hard
for<BR>foreigners to understand.<BR><BR>Aaron Gerow<BR>Film Studies and East
Asian Languages and Literatures<BR>Yale
University<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR />
<BR />
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