<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>The whole issue of the JF as "competition" recalled some remarks by Donald Richie on the distribution policies of the majors, specifically concerning domestic screenings and subtitled prints. These were during a talk that he gave, following a screening of Mizoguchi's "Osaka Elegy" at the Japan Foundation's old office in Akasaka, in 2004. While trying to locate details on this screening, I actually found a complete transcript of Richie's lecture on the FILMeX web site. Here is the relevant extract:</div><div><br></div><div><i>"In the case of Japanese film's titled prints, these are not only sold through commercial distribution channels, but they are also circulated for museums and university showings by the Japan Foundation, by the Kawakita Foundation and others. They have usually acquired, that is, they bought a print from original company, a titled print, and have agreed to show it only abroad.</i></div><p align=""><i>The reason for this, the only showing abroad the titled print, is that the original producing company (Toho, for example) fears that if a print is shown in Japan outside customary distribution venues it will attract Japanese viewers who will not be paying admission directly into the company. Even if the film showing is free it is still thought that potential customers are lost. Though this logic is shaky, this ban has been permanent for quite numbers of years now.</i></p><p align=""><i>Perhaps, the question I am asked most often by both foreigners and Japanese is why subtitled Japanese films cannot be shown in this country. There have been several exceptions, for example, the Japan Foundation office in Kyoto had a very successful series of Japanese films for numbers of years, but the stipulation was that only foreigners could come and see them, and no Japanese could, so they were forced to limit these showings.</i></p><p align=""><i>In my own organizing of the film showings of titled films, here in Japan, I have sometimes been denied the use of a titled print even for educational or membership audiences. The reason was always the same: the producing company objected. If I could get their permission then I might use the print, but of course getting this permission was never very easy.</i></p><p align=""><i>On the other hand, these titled prints, permission granted, could be readily shown overseas since the foreign audience was not considered large enough to represent any appreciable financial loss. It is for this reason that titled prints of Japanese films are often to be encountered abroad and almost never here.</i></p><p align=""><i>Now, however, for the very first time, permission has been granted to show titled prints to a mixed foreign-Japanese audience today. Anyone is free now to buy a ticket and to attend.</i></p><p align=""><i>This is a great step forward in the dissemination of titled Japanese prints in Japan. It means that such films may now be screened in the director's own country, to be appreciated by both local audiences, the Japanese and the foreign."</i></p><p align=""><a href="http://filmex.net/mt/office-info/2004/07/masters_of_the_japanese_cinema.html">http://filmex.net/mt/office-info/2004/07/masters_of_the_japanese_cinema.html</a></p><br></body></html>