Shiota Tokitoshi lecture in Munich

[Mark Nornes]

On Monday, April 29, 2002, at 12:42  AM, M Arnold wrote:
> some of the recent film reviews by Mark Schilling that I've read have 
> been interesting because they deal with more run-of-the-mill material

Yes, Mark's criticism is special for pointing to many works that do not 
get always festival attention.

>> What's happening on the ground is far more complex
>
> What is happening on the ground?  I like to think of myself as pounding 
> that pavement as much as possible in my free time, trying to keep 
> myself aware of what's happening now in "Japanese film," but when it 
> comes down to it I can't really say, and sometimes I'm left in the wake 
> because all the trendy new movies get released at foreign film 
> festivals but don't even make it here to Tokyo.  I wonder about that 
> often--what is happening in Japanese film now?

Here are a few stats to put the Japanese situation into perspective (vis 
a vis films not making it to theaters, people not going to films, etc. 
etc. ):

According to the MPAA,

---the average age of "frequent" movie visitors (12 films+ per year) is 
12 to 24.

---the average number of films Americans see per year is only 5.3.

---the number of films made and rated by the MPAA in 2001 was 739; only 
482 achieved a release. HOW MANY OF THESE 482 FILMS MADE IT TO YOUR 
LOCAL MULTIPLEX?

Anyone attuned to the discourses on Japanese cinema's decline should 
find these statistics eerily familiar!


Markus