Japanese film in the UK

graham lincoln graham
Thu Sep 2 03:00:06 EDT 1999


>
> 1.  The UK is very poor at distributing Japanese movies on video - you can
> only buy a few Kurosawa (but not Red Beard), and some Ozu and some Kitano.
> Can anyone point me in the right direction?

your best bet would be to get a multi-standard vcr and order tapes through
places like amazon, although of course thats a pretty expensive option.

Film four has shown Red beard a couple of times recently (they're also going
to be showing Imamura's 'Vengeance is Mine' in a few weeks).

Someone could correct me if i'm wrong but I believe the Kurasawa vcd's are
without subtitles - the one I tried to order (The Most Beautiful) was
anyway.

Also, have any of the other UK based members noticed how in general BBC2 and
Channel4's coverage of world cinema has dried up dramatically in recent
years? Whereas channel four especially used to make an effort to screen
really exciting and interesting stuff from Japan, Korea and Vietnam on
Sundays that's now been replaced by things like Babylon 5 repeats. Even
Film4 doesn't offer an awful lot to get excited by (the Imamura
notwithstanding), seeming to spend most of its time screening old Bob
Hoskins movies.

Admittedly the video market has improved dramatically in recent years, with
labels like 'screen edge' and 'pagan films' releasing obscure and
interesting work like Hisayasu Sato's 'The Bedroom' and Sone Chusei's
'Hellish Love', although it would be nice if the BFI's video label got it
out of their heads that Japanese film begins and ends with Kurasawa, and
released a few titles by other directors as well. They have released a
couple of Mizoguchi movies recently, but I think that demonstrates just how
conservative their approach is on the whole

regards

graham





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