Shochiku coup

[Mark Schilling]

If anyone is interested in more background on the Shochiku coup, here are
edited versions of two articles I wrote about the company for Screen
International, the first in January 1994, the second in June of the same
year. As I learned in researching these pieces, the rivalry between Okuyama
Jr. and Otani goes back a long way. When Otani took over as head of
production in June 1993, the media portrayed him as a well-meaning neophyte
out of his depth. I found him to be a mild-mannered, soft-spoken man who
was all for going to back to the basics, but had few concrete ideas for
turning the company around. I did sense, though, that he had more support,
particularly among the old-timers, than Okuyama Jr., who was well hated for
his arrogant, dictatorial ways, as exemplified by the Rampo episode.

Actually Rampo became Okuyama's biggest success of the decade, earning Y1.2
billion in film rentals in 1994 and winning accolades from critics after
its release in the United States by the Samuel Goldwyn Company (though
Shochiku-generated speculation that it might nominated for a Best Film
Oscar proved to be totally groundless). 

I found Okuyama Jr. to be among the most outspoken of the Japanese film
execs I have interviewed; he told the press things that were guaranteed to
make him enemies and get him into trouble. He also meant what he said. He
hated the quality of many of the films the studios were releasing, so he
launched Cinema Japanesque. He thought the block booking system was slowly
ruining the industry, so he undermined it by free booking Cinema Japanesque
films into Shochiku theaters. 
  
He was, however, better at generating ideas than executing them, Cinema
Japanesque, which has failed to generate a single hit, being exhibit A. He
had a promotional flair, but lacked the eye for the box office main chance
of a Haruki Kadokawa, who could even turn tripe like "Rex" into the
second-highest-earning domestic film of 1993 (it might have become the
highest if Shochiku hadn't pulled it from the theaters following Kadokawa's
drug bust). 

My own feeling is that Otani is going need more than yet another Tora-san
retread. Here's hoping that the seeds of creative destruction that Okuyama
Jr. planted eventually find their way to the top.        

Shochiku profile (January 1994) 

By Mark Schilling 

 In June, 1993  Okuyama resigned as head of production in favor of
Nobuyoshi Otani, the former director of Shochiku's TV Division and
president of Kabukiza, a nationally prominent kabuki theatre operated by
Shochiku. Although Shochiku described his departure as amicable, Japan's
tabloid press reported it as a palace coup.            

Otani is the grandson of the company's founder and the son of former
president Ryuzo Otani. The weekly magazines wondered publicly whether his
appointment might have been made to please the elder Otani, who sits on the
board and is the company's largest shareholder. 

 There was also speculation that one cause of Okuyama's resignation was the
(to Shochiku hierarchy) embarassing flap over "Rampo," a big-budget period
drama that Shochiku had planned as its biggest release in 1994. 

 Late in 1992, Okuyamu screened Rentaro's Mayuzumi's film and did not find
it to his liking. Accusing the director of committing an auteurist
mishmash, Okuyama told a reporter for a sports newspaper that he wanted to
reshoot certain scenes. That touched off a bitter, long-running dispute
between Okuyama and Mayuzumi, a TV director on loan to Shochiku from NHK
Enterprises. Finally, in May, 1993 Mayuzumi agreed to a compromise; Okuyama
would direct his own remake and Shochiku would distribute both versions
through its chain of theatres. The audience would then decide which had the
better side of the argument. 

 During the shoot, which wrapped on November 15, Okuyama reshot nearly 70
percent of Mayuzumi's scenes, using the same actors and much of the
original script. But the changes he did make, including the addition of
subliminal images to put the audience in a more receptive mood and the use
of celebrities as extras in a party scene, generated even more publicity
for a film that is the most heavily reported Shochiku release in years. The
verdict on Okuyama's retakes, which added $1.36 million to the film's $3.18
million production costs, will not come until June, when both Okuyama's and
Mayuzumi's versions are scheduled for release.

  But whatever the outcome at the box office, Okuyama already views his
directorial stint -- his first after producing 17 films -- as a success.
"My outlook on life changed as a result of that experience," said Okuyama.
"I gained a much more realistic view of the filmmaking process...Also, I
now have a clearer vision of the types of films I want to make in the
future."

Head of the company's International Division,  Okuyama has some definite
ideas about the direction he believes not only Shochiku, but the Japanese
industry as a whole should take. "Passion is necessary for filmmaking, but
that passion is absent in Japanese movies," says Okuyama. "Too often films
are made just to fill slots in a line up; producers and directors grind
them out, without minding much about their quality.  The block booking
system we have here is partly to blame for that, but producers and
directors have to take more responsibility for their work. They have to
make 100 percent use of the very considerable talent available. What we
have now is the worst of both worlds, in which films are not culture and
not commerce. In reality, they're both."                   	               
                                         



Nobuyoshi Otani steps down as head of production (June 1994)

By Mark Schilling

Nobuyoshi Otani has stepped as head of production and publicity at Shochiku
one of Japan's major studios and distributors.  His replacement is senior
managing director Yozo Sakurai, a former TV producer whose credits include
the long-running "Hissatsu" samurai drama series.  The grandson of the
company's founder and the son of former president and largest shareholder
Ryuzo Otani, Otani took over the job a year ago from Kazuyoshi Okuyama, now
head of Shochiku's International Division. 

During Otani's tenure, the company has been starved for hits. Also,
production of "Chushingura to Yotsuya Kaidan" has been delayed and "Gakumon
Osusume," canceled, leaving  a large gap in the company's summer line-up. 

Ironically, Shochiku has had to fill that gap with "Rampo," a period drama
produced and directed by Okuyama, whose own production troubles -- he
reshot 70% of the film's scenes himself after a long-running and
acrimonious dispute with director Rintaro Maizumi -- were reportedly one
reason for his replacement by Otani.   Former head of the company's TV
Division and president of the Kabukiza kabuki theater, Otani was criticized
in the media at the time of his appointment for his lack of filmmaking
experience and his apparent use of family connections to get the job. He
will now take over as head of the company's Video Division, whose staff was
cut from 75 to 47 in the wake of a restructuring earlier this year.        


-