Namiki-za

[Aaron Gerow]

Ted Fowler wrote,

>Dear Subscribers:  I'm wondering if anyone has an update on the status (or
>non-status) of the venerable revival movie house Namiki-za in the Ginza,
>which closed its doors on Sept. 22 after featuring a Naruse retrospective
>to packed audiences.  I expressed dismay when I first heard the news from
>this very list; and when I was in Tokyo briefly early last month, I spoke
>with the theater's manager, a Mr. Yoshii, who told me, yes, the Namiki-za
>was indeed closing, and that there were no plans for relocation and that
>he personally was finished with the business, being of an advanced age.
>Assuming that the theater will not be reappearing on the Tokyo landscape,
>what other places are/will be offering similar fare?  

The number of rep theaters has really declined in the six years I have 
been here.  The two biggies, the Bungeiza and the Namikiza, are now gone. 
 The ACT Mini Theater, which I went to most when I first came, is no 
longer solely devoted to showing old Japanese films.  The main places 
that are left are the Oi Musashinokan, which focuses more on cult films 
than the classics, and Yokohama's Cinema Jack, which has programming a 
bit closer to that of the Namikiza.  The Kameari Meigaza is a remaining 
pink rep theater.

Of course, you can still see old films at the Film Center, Athene 
Francais and at many of the triple-bill theaters like the Showa-kan and 
the Asakusa Shingekijo (such theater show mostly ninkyo films and 
comedies), but there are just fewer specialist rep theaters.  Other 
theaters, like Kineka Omori, do step in to fill the gap a bit with rep 
programs, and some other brave souls have tried jishu joei rep programs, 
but few people seem to want to start a full-scale rep film house these 
days.

Still, as I said in previous reports, it's not necessarily because no one 
is watching movies these days.  The Namikiza was running a profit and the 
Bungeiza went under mostly because of debt from a failed video 
enterprise.  But with many of the rep theaters operating in old buildings 
on prime real estate, the tendency is to tear them down.

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
KineJapan list owner
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