<div><div dir="auto">There was talk about the fate of Filmex at last week’s Cinéma du Réel. Over breakfast, the topic of Office Kitano came up. One programmer had just dined with Ichiyama in Hong Kong. Ichiyama was confident that Filmex would go on, although possibly in a slightly different form. This more or less confirms what I’d been hearing back in Japan. I guess this is good news, depending the form it takes.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Markus</div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div>On Wed, Apr 4, 2018 at 2:05 AM Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan <<a href="mailto:kinejapan@lists.osu.edu">kinejapan@lists.osu.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word">As some of you may have heard, Kitano Takeshi has left the company, Office Kitano, that he created and that bears his name. The Office is not only in charge of managing his activities, it also manages the careers of the Takeshi Army and actors such as Terajima Susumu. In addition, it is the production office for his films, and invests in the production of other films. Finally, it manages the Tokyo FilmEx film festival. <div><br></div><div>While his departure was announced about a month ago, the last few days have seen lots of reports on the wide shows and tabloids about what is going on behind the surface. The main source of information was a report uploaded on Suidobashi Hakase’s blog (he’s one of the members of Asakusa Kid, and a member of the Takeshi Army). It was apparently a statement that other Army members have signed off on. It basically asserts that the problem has been money. It says that Takeshi became upset when he learned that Mori Masayuki, the CEO of Office Kitano, has secretly become the top stock holder of the company, that company officers and staff are receiving extraordinary salaries while the talent are receiving very little, etc. The wideshow on Asahi this morning reports that Mori is receiving over $1,000,000 a year, that officers over $2-300,000, that staff working for over 10 years get $100,000, while Ide Rakkyo for instance, a long-standing Army member for 30 years, only gets $10,000 a year. All this came to a head when Office Kitano fell into the red in 2017 for the first time on income of about $24 million.</div><div><br></div><div>Takashi leaving his own company is a huge blow because 80% of the company’s earnings derive from him. What is curious is that most of the Army members have said they will stay at Office Kitano, despite their statement. Yet without Kitano, there are questions over whether the Office can continue to produce films or manage the Tokyo FilmEx film festival or even exist.</div><br><div>
<div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;word-wrap:break-word"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;word-wrap:break-word"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;word-wrap:break-word"><span class="m_877764300181396528Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span class="m_877764300181396528Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span class="m_877764300181396528Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span class="m_877764300181396528Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span class="m_877764300181396528Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span class="m_877764300181396528Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span class="m_877764300181396528Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span class="m_877764300181396528Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div>Aaron Gerow<br>Professor<br>Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures</div><div><span style="text-align:-webkit-auto">Yale University</span></div><div>320 York Street, Room 311<br>PO Box 208324<br>New Haven, CT 06520-<span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px">8324</span><br>USA<br>Phone: 1-203-432-7082<br>Fax: 1-203-432-6729<br>e-mail: <a href="mailto:aaron.gerow@yale.edu" target="_blank">aaron.gerow@yale.edu</a></div><div>website: <a href="http://www.aarongerow.com" target="_blank">www.aarongerow.com</a></div><div><br></div></div></span><br class="m_877764300181396528Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="m_877764300181396528Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="m_877764300181396528Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="m_877764300181396528Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="m_877764300181396528Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="m_877764300181396528Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="m_877764300181396528Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="m_877764300181396528Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="m_877764300181396528Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="m_877764300181396528Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="m_877764300181396528Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="m_877764300181396528Apple-interchange-newline">
</div>
<br></div>_______________________________________________<br>
KineJapan mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:KineJapan@lists.osu.edu" target="_blank">KineJapan@lists.osu.edu</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan</a><br>
</blockquote></div></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136)">--- </span></div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:small"><font face="courier new, monospace" color="#274e13"><b><img src="https://drive.google.com/a/umich.edu/uc?id=1i0izwlsrcSvQgU4nMCzTLiOhmdDMm-xZ&export=download" width="56" height="96"><br></b></font></div><div style="font-size:small"><font face="courier new, monospace" color="#274e13"><b>Markus Nornes</b></font></div><div style="font-size:small"><span style="font-family:'courier new',monospace"><font color="#38761d"><b>Professor of Asian Cinema</b></font></span></div><div><font size="1" color="#38761d"><font face="courier new, monospace">Department of Screen Arts and Cultures</font><span style="font-family:'courier new',monospace">, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Penny Stamps </span><span style="font-family:'courier new',monospace">School of Art & Design</span></font></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-size:small"><font face="courier new, monospace" color="#6aa84f"><br></font></div><div><font face="courier new, monospace" size="1" color="#93c47d"><b>Department of Screen Arts and Cultures</b></font></div><div><font face="courier new, monospace" size="1" color="#93c47d"><b>6348 North Quad</b></font></div><div><font face="courier new, monospace" size="1" color="#93c47d"><b>105 S. State Street</b></font></div><div><font face="courier new, monospace" size="1" color="#93c47d"><b>Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285</b></font></div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>