Kameari and the end of meigaza

[Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow]

This just in: Yet another meigaza rep theater closes.

The papers reported that the Kameari Meigaza, known for its imaginative 
programming of the masterpieces of pink cinema (and early films by such 
current mainstream directors as Suo Masayuki, Negishi Kichitaro, Zeze 
Takahisa, etc.), will be closing its doors at the end of this month.  It 
will close with a bang, with a flurry of showings of 43 of its favorite 
films, but with the Bungeiza, Namikiza, Oi Musashinokan, and now the 
Kameari, there are now very few places to see old Japanese films in Tokyo.

In fact, the closings have occured so rapidly, I am beginning to have 
doubts about the future of studying Japanese film in Japan.  Since the 
Film Center has a limited budget and staff, they cannot fill the hole; 
neither can some of the remaining rep houses which tend to be specialized 
(in yakuza or comedy).  Where can scholars or even students of Japanese 
film see works on film and on a large screen?  Visiting meigaza several 
times a week was an invaluable experience for me when I first came here, 
but now I fear those coming after me will not be able to share that.  It 
is getting harder to obtain a broad viewing background in Japanese film 
history that is important as a basis for working on even more specialized 
areas.

I doubt video is the solution.  First, very few rental stores rent 
anything pre-1970.  Many of the more well-known older works are available 
on video, but only for purchase (and with Kinema Club, which has mony of 
the Toho, Shin Toho, and older Nikkatsu holdings, for high prices).  
Purchase is something which is out of the range of many.  Finally, there 
is the fact that thousands of titles have yet to come out on video.  (I 
for one have seen dozens of great Nikkatsu action films at meigaza which 
are not out on video.)  But clearly video is the future: Meiji Gakuin, 
for instance, runs all its film classes on video (so 16mm is not much of 
an option).  But what kind of education in film will that be?  Remember 
that many film academics like Hasumi, who cannot easily show films in 
class, still run their film classes by sending their students off to a 
theater to see the assigned film each week.  That's going to become 
harder to do.

Any comments on the situation?  Any proposals?

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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