J films on video w/ E subtitles

[Jasper Sharp]

I think if any Japanese distributors could take a look at the website stats
for Midnight Eye, they'd be stunned by just how many potential sales they
are missing out on. How many people do you think picked up the subtitled
Hong Kong release of The Ring for example, before the UK release by Tartan?
There is an absolutely huge market for these films, and its getting quite
tedious fending off requests to Midnight Eye asking whether the Japanese DVD
of "such a such a release" has got subs or not. Until Japanese distributors
finally wake up to themselves, Hong Kong is the best place to go for these
films, but I'm dismayed that in the meantime such worthy offerings as Not
Forgotten, Firefly Dreams and Tokyo Trash Baby and so many others are
destined to dissappeared into little more than the collective memories of
those who were lucky enough to catch them at festival screenings.
Even if the returns on these films from foreign sales at first are
negligable, it'll pay off in the long term when word of mouth gets around
that Japan actually does have a film industry beyond the three or four
titles that get international distribution every year - and lets face it,
subtitles are already available for these films from the festival
screenings. This head in the sand attitude in Japan is quite infuriating!

Jasper Sharp

ps) Just like to mention what a jolly fun time I had watching Ping Pong
today. Whop knows, if they subtitle it, I might even buy the DVD when it
comes out.

Midnight Eye: The Latest and Best in Japanese Cinema
www.midnighteye.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Boum Productions" <pete at boumproductions.com>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 1:00 AM
Subject: Re: J films on video w/ E subtitles


> There's been a discussion recently about this on another board, with some
> correspondants getting quite ridiculously worked up over the issue.
Remarks
> about Japanese companies "not owing" the rest of the world subtitles and
> "why don't American producers sub their disks in Japanese" etc. Never
> realised this was such an emotive issue.
>
> Anyone involved in selling marginal titles on disk these days knows
they're
> going to sell a fair number overseas. It's what the internet was invented
> for! And if you add subs (and English is one of the widest spoken
languages)
> you WILL increase your sales.
>