Rotterdam and Sento

[@allnet.ne.jp]

Marcus made a good point about schmoozing. The Japanese movie business has
its share of good international schmoozers, among the best being Hara Masato
and Yoshida Kayo of Asmik Ace and Kaz Kuzui of Kuzui Enterprises, but they
tend to be concentrated among the buyers, sellers and producers.

Among the dozens of Japanese directors and other creatives I've interviewed
over the years the only one to switch to English was Harada Masato (though
we did our first Q&A in Japanese). But why should they in their own country,
if the interviewer indicates that he can stumble through in their language?
Eigo helps if they are trying to bond with a festival programmer they meet
at a party in Rotterdam or Pusan, but it makes a difference between a yes or
no only in borderline cases, I think. A Kitano Takeshi is welcomed
everywhere, even though his eigo is, as far as I know, non-existent.

Why do Sento's films do so well in the awards sweepstakes? He doesn't impose
a "Sento touch" on his directors -- a Samuel Goldwyn he is not -- but he is
very hands-on and, after dozens of films, well aware of what works with
festival directors and judges, especially of the second-tier fests that are
friendly to Asian films.

But as one of his Japanese rivals reminded me recently, he has yet to have a
true box office hit of his own (Ring doesn't count), so financially he is
still skating on thin ice, especially after the failure of Gojoe. He has
also yet to win a Palme d'Or or another of the truly big prizes, which would
lift him into the Kitano master class, at least in the eyes of the local
media. I think he might do better if, at least as an experiment, he were to
use David O. Selznick as his role model, instead of Roger Corman. He might
not make a Gone With the Wind, but he might please more than the folks who
keep giving him those FIPRESCI prizes, which are nice -- but not exactly the
capstones he is expecting in his brilliant career.

Mark Schilling


----- Original Message -----
From: "A.M. Nornes" <amnornes at umich.edu>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2001 9:40 AM
Subject: Re: Rotterdam and Sento


> At 7:31 AM +0000 2/5/01, Stephen Cremin wrote:
> >  Just what are the factors contributing to this
> > >festival success?  Any speculations?
>
> Just out of curiosity, how is Sento's English? One dimension of the film
> festival circuit is schmoozing, and the Japanese crowd is generally
> debilitated when it comes to that. Just look around at the parties, and
> you'll notice the Tokyo-ites huddled in a corner while everyone else works
> the floor.
>
> Markus
>