Universal Studios Japan

[Lorenzo.Torres@quierotv.com]

I'm very interested in the second part of your e-mail. I do not have
answers, but would release some others: I knew about the japanese power in
Hollywood, above all with the buying of some of their majors studios and
you can get a similar idea from your text, so, do you thing there are somo
influence between the economic crisis in Japan and the growing low quality
films from Hollywood? From this point of view, what influence has this
Japan-Hollywood marriage in japanese cinema itself?
Yesterday I re-watched  Ozu's "Samma no aji". In a given moment, a Chisu
Ryu's excolleague was talking him about the posibility of Japan winning the
2nd. Do you thing this Hollywood buying has some relation with this? Should
we spanish (europeans) be afraid of "japanization" besides of
"americanization"? This is a retoric question, of course, above all if you
think that some of us love japanese culture...
Hope this give you some ideas.
Best regards.

Lorenzo J. Torres
Madrid, Spain.




                                                                                             
                    Aaron Gerow <gerow at ynu.ac.jp>                                            
                    Enviado por:                          Para:   "KineJapan"                
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                                                          Asunto:      Universal Studios     
                    02/04/01 09:35                        Japan                              
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As anyone living in Japan knows, Universal Studios Japan has just opened
in Osaka with an extreme amount of fanfare (you can check out it's site:
http://www.usj.co.jp/).  Like Tokyo Disneyland, this is basically the
Japanese version of a major US themepark, but just as Tokyo Disneyland
has been both culturally influential and subject to cultural analysis, I
was wondering what people think of USJ and its prospects.

Just a comment from me.  I've found the discourse around the park a bit
too ironic--unintentionially, perhaps.  Just the name, "Universal Studios
Japan," can easily prompt the postmodernist to rephrase it as "Universal
Studios = Japan" such that Japan has become just a movie studio--and a
Hollywood one at that. One of their catch phrases used in
advertising--"The Power of Hollywood"--seems to ironically confirm that
suspicion.  Especially when the French and other countries can be very
wary of the power of Hollywood as an industry, USJ seems to unabashedly
celebrate that power.  Previous commentators have pointed out the
implications of Universal's logo itself: the name encompassing (taking
over?) the globe.

What are we to make of this?

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
KineJapan list owner
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