Dating Films

Stephen Cremin asianfilmlibrary
Wed Jun 9 06:04:27 EDT 1999


In my reference works, I use the Japanese release date.  The reason is that 
I want a record of a precise year, month and day (of the month) so that I 
can in some way give a [pretty] consistent chronological order to cast and 
staff filmographies.  Where two films are released on the same day, I try to 
order them using a-i-u-e-o, ie "alphabetically".

But I do think that the copyrighted date should be listed as a piece of 
extra information with the film credits.  But as Max suggested, this can be 
painstaking to determine ... especially when based in London.  Where a film 
has been previously released on video or shown on television - as with 
Harada's "KAMIKAZE TAXI" or Iwai's "FRIED DRAGON FISH" - then I tend to list 
the theatrical release date in filmographies, while giving the earlier date 
with the films credits.

My key problem comes with films which just don't get a Japanese release at 
all.  What year to put on Kobayashi Masaki's "Bootleg Film", etc...

(If there are inconsistencies in my reference books, I am very happy to 
receive corrections by email.)

Stephen Cremin
Asian Film Library/LPAFF


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