Shiota Tokitoshi lecture in Munich

Mark Nornes amnornes
Mon Apr 29 16:21:44 EDT 2002


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





More information about the KineJapan mailing list