Magazines on Japanese Film (E+J)

[Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow]

Hey folks!

Back from a conference in the States, I finally get to send my first post 
in quite a while.

Now that the Japanese press is finally beginning to recognize the value 
of their own cinema, a total of three magazines are putting out special 
issues in October on Japanese film.  Two--Eureka and Brutus--have already 
come out, so I will briefly report on those.  The third--Studio 
Voice--will go on sale on Monday October 6th (the November issue), so 
I'll tell you about that later.

EUREKA 
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October 1997
Special Issue: Japanese Cinema Since Kitano Takeshi

Features:
- Long conversation between director Aoyama Shinji and poet Inagawa Masato
- Overviews of contemporary Japanese film by Yomota Inuhiko, Otaka Hiroo, 
and Takahashi Hiroshi
- Writings on actors and stars by Abe Kasho, Todoroki Yukio (on Yakusho 
Koji), and Koshikawa Michio (on the observing camera in _Dyuo_ and Ogawa)
- Various reports from people in different sectors of the industry (Sadai 
Yuji of Bitters End, Horikoshi Kenzo of Eurospace, etc.)
- Text/Auteur analyses by Tsutsui Takefumi (on Kurosawa Kiyoshi's much 
talked about _Cure_), Tatsumi Takayuki (on Ishii Sogo), Higuchi Yasuhito 
(on death in _Cure_ and Aoyama's _An Obsession_), and KineJapan's very 
own Anne McKnight (on Zeze Takahisa).
- Short pieces by such directors as Izuchi, Enokido, Oki, Oshii, Kawase, 
Koreeda, Shinozaki, Suwa, Takamine, Nakata, Hara Masato, etc. on the next 
film they want to shoot
- Writings on genre cinema/TV by Kimura Tatsuya, Tanioka Masaki (on 
V-cinema), and Niiya Naoyuki (on anime in 1997)
- A special subsection on Kumashiro Tatsumi
- The best 30 films from 1989-1997 by yours truly (see separate post)
- A bio dictionary of 70 important new people in the film industry today

I heard that that a separate special issue of _Eureka_ will soon feature 
Takeshi.  It will come out in January in time for the release of 
_Hana-Bi_ later that month.

BRUTUS
10/15/97 issue
Appropriately titled:
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"The only people not watching Japanese movies are Japanese!"

Features:
- A summary of foreign press reactions to such films as _Shall We Dance_, 
_Suzaku_, _Swallowtail_, and _Helpless_.
- Favorite Japanese films listed up by foreign directors like Luc Besson 
and Wang Kar Wai
- Features on directors like Aoyama, Suwa, Kawase, Yasuda, Zeze, Sabu, 
and Higuchi
- Favorite Japanese films of Japanese cultural figures
- Long interview with Takeshi

One oddity:
- Conversation between Kawase and C.W. Nicol on whiskey.  Not listed in 
the table of contents, so I think it's just a disguised ad for Nikka 
Whiskey.  Has Naomi-chan sold out?

Aaron Gerow
YNU