New York Times and Sen to Chihiro
Roddey Reid
rreid at ucsd.edu
Tue Jan 8 22:55:50 EST 2002
Readers of this list may be interested in a Japanese/English
publication that appeared in September 1998 titled Warawareru
nihonjin/ Japan: Made in USA. It contained articles by Japanese and
American journalists and scholars dissecting the NYT long-standing
reportorial pratices with respect to Japan. There is even reply by
the notorious Nicolas De Kristof. Published by Zipangu
(IBN4-8123-0615-9), it was released at a special colloquium organized
by the International House in Tokyo.
Roddey Reid
>To me, the whole situation is one more installment in a long line
>demonstrating the New York Times resolutely provincial relation to Japan on
>every imaginable level, but particularly with regard to editorial policy on
>what passes for cultural commentary. Last year's NY Times magazine had a
>"what I did on my subsidized vacation" story trying to pass itself off as
>insight into contemporary Japanese culture. Conversations with acquaintances
>at a bar were presented as native informants shedding light on globalized
>Asian mystery. This kind of thing couldn't go on for five minutes without
>deep editorial complicity and ignorance and would be unimaginable regarding
>most other countries. Does anyone have the time or energy to take the
>editorial staff of the Times to task for its repeatedly demonstrated
>unprofessionalism and clear negligence of basic journalistic responsibility
>regarding Japan? That's what I'd like to see. This issue goes way beyond the
>uninformed, amateurish pretense of being qualified to review an animated
>film. It may also be a question of personal and professional failure, but
>it's more fundamentally a question of the Times' pervasive, militantly
>provincial editorial culture as it relates to Japan.
>
>Mark Anderson
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "mark schilling" <0934611501 at jcom.home.ne.jp>
>To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
>Sent: Monday, January 07, 2002 8:44 PM
>Subject: Re: New York Times and Sen to Chihiro
>
>
>> Bill Thompson describes James Brooke's NYT article on "Spirited Away" as
>> "positive and upbeat," which I suppose it is if you focus on the quotes
>from
>> fans, but from the rest of the piece it is clear that Brookes (1) didn't
>do
>> the legwork for his story and (2) is woefully ignorant of the country and
>> culture.
>>
>> He says that Miyazaki "talks vaguely about one day opening the film in the
>> United States," but if he had read the trade press or listened carefully
>> during Katzenburg's Tokyo press conference, he would have known that (1)
>> Disney, though an investor in the film, has decided not to distribute it
>and
>> (2) Dreamworks is in talks with Studio Ghibli to release the film in the
>US.
>> Nothing vague about that.
>>
>> He opines that the popularity of comics here is "a reflection of low
>> literacy rates due to the difficulty of learning Japanese characters," the
>> sort of ethnocentric howler he probably picked up at the Press Club bar.
>>
>> He whines that a Studio Ghibli publicist would not "provide background
>> material on 'Chihiro,' subtitled versions of earlier films, or even a
>ticket
>> to Mr. Miyazaki's new studio museum." The necessary 'background material'
>is
>> freely available from Toho -- or indeed any theater selling the program.
>If
> > he needs English-language info, he could have easily found it on the
> > Nausicaa Net and other fan sites. As for subtitled versions of earlier
> > films, why should he expect Studio Ghibli to supply them? The logical
>place
>> to ask is the sales company, in this case, Disney. And why should Studio
>> Ghibli give him a free ticket to the museum, despite its reservations-only
>> policy? If they made an exception for him, they would have accommodate the
>> entire Japanese and foreign media. (Actually, they did, with a press tour
>> last fall that Mr. Brookes obviously didn't attend.) His whole plaint
>reeks
>> of entitlement -- but then what else should we expect from a recently
>> parachuted reporter for America's Newspaper of Record?
> >
>> Finally, he mentions that Sen "fends off dragons and sorceresses while
>> trying to lift a curse on her parents." What "dragon" is he talking about?
>> Haku, who is Sen's ally? Are the parents "cursed"? A better word here, I
>> think, is "spell." Did this guy really see the movie? Comments anyone?
>>
>> Mark Schilling
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Bill Thompson" <siswt at CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU>
>> To: "KineJapan" <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 9:08 AM
>> Subject: New York Times and Sen to Chihiro
>>
>>
>> >
>> > Kinejapan ---
>> >
>> > The New York Times had an article on Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi/
>> > Spirited Away, written by James Brooke, last Thursday. It can be
>> > found at:
>> >
>> > http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/03/movies/03JAPA.html
>> >
>> > and access to the article is free for seven days from publication
>> > (registration to the Times site is required, but that is also free).
>> >
>> >
>> > Overall, this is a positive and upbeat article about the success
>> > of the film in Japan and its response, containing very little
>> > that has not appeared in Kinejapan.
>> >
>> > For me, however, the interesting part appears near the end:
>> >
>> > "With the film opening this winter in Asia and in France, Mr.
>> > Miyazaki has talked vaguely about opening one day in the United
>> > States. "Princess Mononoke," his only film to open commercially
>> > in the United States, bombed, drawing barely 2 percent of the $150
>> > million in box office revenue it had earned in Japan.
>> >
>> > "Not surprisingly, Studio Ghibli was in no rush to raise its
>> > American profile. For this article, a publicist declined to arrange
>> > interviews with anyone from the studio He would not provide
>> > any background material on 'Chihiro,' subtitled video versions
>> > of earlier films, or even a ticket to Mr. Miyazaki's new
>> > studio museum.
>> >
>> > "The publicist said, 'Other than my mother living in New York,
>> > I am not interested in this article being written.'"
>> >
>> >
>> > I realize that the American box office for Princess M may have been
>> > over-discussed in Kinejapan, but let me add a few observations
>> > (and these are simply my observations, with no facts
>> > to back them up) about its New York run.
>> >
>> > Princess Mononoke initially played as a special event as part
>> > of the 1999 New York Film Festival in October 1999, then
>> > opened a good month or so later, spaced to play well away
>> > from the big Disney animation of the season. Its distributor
>> > also helped to coordinate a Miyazaki retrospective at the
>> > Museum of Modern Art in late September that was well
>> > attended and played in several other American and Canadian cities.
>> >
>> > Many papers run features on forthcoming seasons (i.e., the films
>> > that will play during the fall), and a couple included articles
>> > on Miyazaki's films and/or Princess M in September. In fact
>> > they appeared to generate more interest then
>> > than when the film actually opened.
>> >
>> > The Times review during the NY Film Festival was favorable but
>> > lukewarm, certainly nothing to appeal to an art house crowd.
>> > I had trouble determining the desired audience from the ads
>> > which appeared at that time: the film was positioned not as
>> > a young children's movie to keep the young Disney crowd
>> > from being disappointed; it also did not seek an art house crowd.
>> > Instead, the ads implied that it was a kind of pure and basic
>> > entertainment animation film for adults (??? a G-rated film for
>> > adults?) that had something to do with ecology. Perhaps this,
>> > plus the Miyazaki name, is enough to sell a film in Japan,
>> > but the US is not Japan. A fair amount
>> > of money spent on these ads in NY when the film opened, probably
>> > more than the entire annual budgets for companies like Milestone
>> > or Kino (companies that have successfully distributed Japanese
>> > films in the US, albeit on small budgets).
>> >
>> > Even though Princess Mononoke did not do well commercially,
>> > its distributor did keep it in New York for a couple of extra
> > > months, and it helped to close the Greenwich Theater in the
>> > West Village (which I believe is now a construction site
>> > for a new apartment complex). Although it played in several
>> > large cities around the US, when the distributor became
>> > disillusioned with the box office results, it did not try
>> > to open it more widely like a Milestone would have done.
>> > The Disney/Miramax people never realized what they had nor
>> > how to advertise it, and when throwing a bit of money at
>> > it didn't seem to work, they just stopped.
>> > Presumably because of this disappointment, other Miyazaki
>> > films have been released on video, but not theatrically,
>> > although titles like Kiki's Delivery Service have had
>> > special screenings as children's matinees in places like
>> > Lincoln Center.
>> >
>> > I'm not going to provide any moral here.
>> > I simply hope that I get to see Sen to Chihiro in New York
>> > some day.
>> >
>> >
>> > Bill Thompson
>>
>>
>>
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