Japanese CNC?

[Lorenzo Torres]

TOTALMENTE DE ACUERDO!!

Lorenzo.


>From: Kerim Yasar <kerimyasar at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>Subject: Re: Japanese CNC?
>Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 16:26:50 -0700 (PDT)
>
>I would argue that there IS a real need for national cinemas, and as many 
>as possible.
>
>For better or for worse, film and television are currently the dominant 
>media of global artistic discourse.  This is not only true of America.  
>They claim the largest audiences, the largest budgets (even larger than 
>architecture in many cases).  They influence tastes to be sure, but even 
>more importantly they work in ways both subtle and overt to propagate 
>values and ideological assumptions.  The relationship between spectacle and 
>politics has been fairly well understood at least since World War II, and 
>while the exact nature of that relationship can be debated at length, I 
>doubt anybody could argue against the statement that whoever controls the 
>flow of images within a certain culture controls a great deal.  Homogeneity 
>is deadly for all of the arts, but for cinema it carries particular 
>political dangers.
>
>Hollywood is thoroughly invested in the politics and psychology of 
>spectacle.  The organs of power in the United States have learned a great 
>deal from Hollywood and the advertising industry about how to manipulate 
>opinion, not through the ham-fisted propaganda of totalitarian regimes but 
>rather through the seductions of images.  There's a recruiting commercial 
>for the US Marine Corps on television here these days which is a masterwork 
>of CGI, but even this is nothing really new: the film Top Gun was 
>essentially a two hour recruiting film for the Navy.  Hollywood creative 
>types do tend to be "liberal," whatever that means, but the fact remains 
>that for a film to attract the funding it needs both to produced and 
>distributed, it cannot stray too terribly far from the bedrock assumptions 
>of mainstream culture.  In the absence of vital national cinemas, the 
>prevalent assumptions of American culture inexorably (even if slowly) 
>percolate throughout the cultures of the world, even th
>  ose that
>  have strong high-art traditions of their own.
>
>The damage is already done in many places.  Go to any European country and 
>you'll see that practically all of the teenagers have a bizarre love-hate 
>relationship with the United States.  Many of them resent the exercise of 
>American political, economic, and military power, but they also have a 
>raging inferiority complex vis-a-vis American (and to some extent British) 
>popular culture.  At the same time, they are alienated from their own 
>traditions.  I remember when, as an exchange student in Vienna, I had some 
>standing room tickets to the Vienna Philharmonic to sell.  I had gotten in 
>line at 5 am for six hours to buy the season tickets but, as I was only 
>there for one semester, I still had four tickets left as I was about to 
>leave.  I posted a sign trying to sell them in the dorm where I was staying 
>(which was populated mainly by Austrian students).  I couldn't find A 
>SINGLE BUYER.  For hard-to-get tickets to one of the three finest symphony 
>orchestras in the world.  In Vienna!
>    Only
>  when I posted a notice at the music conservatory could I sell the 
>tickets.  But oh how those Viennese girls were drooling over my American 
>classmate with the punk haircut and the black boots!  And what America is 
>exporting to the world for the most part is not the nobility of our 
>founding political philosophies but rather the depravity of our 
>contemporary social, economic, and political institutions, our violence, 
>our lack of civility.  In a word: crassness.
>
>German intellectuals may not lament the absence of a national German film 
>industry, but then again many high-brow intellectuals think film in general 
>is already beyond the pale.   THEY may not miss the German film industry, 
>but I certainly do.  They may barricade themselves in their avant-garde 
>theaters and their art galleries or bury their noses in their books, but 
>meanwhile their larger culture is anemic and demoralized.  Scoring a major 
>success on the international film circuit should be a source of national 
>pride, like winning a gold medal in the Olympics or a high ranking in the 
>World Cup.  It is an indication that one's contemporary culture has 
>something valuable to say to the rest of humanity.  Film is a much more 
>powerful way to reach out across cultural boundaries than are other media.  
>I'm sure many German intellectuals are pleased at the international 
>following of somebody like W.G. Sebald, but what does that mean to the 
>average German?  Nothing, probably.
>
>I can only imagine how impoverished my experiences as a filmgoer would be 
>if the French and the Iranians and the Chinese and so on weren't hard at 
>work today trying to keep their industries alive.  And I can only imagine 
>how impoverished film history would be if Hollywood had enjoyed hegemony 
>from the very beginning and there had never been a Lang, an Antonioni, a 
>Bresson, a Kurosawa, and so on.  I certainly wouldn't be wasting my time 
>studying film had that been the case.
>
>mark schilling <0934611501 at jcom.home.ne.jp> wrote:
>Peter Larson raised an interesting question about the "need for a national
>cinema," citing the Germans as folks who have seemingly done quite well
>without one.
>
>Japanese cinema is objectively far from dead, but subjectively -- it 
>depends
>on who you talk to, doesn't it? Many middle-aged and elderly types in the
>Japanese film business will tell you that the industry today is in fatal
>decline, while harking back to the films of their youth as a vanished 
>ideal.
>"Yakuza movies ended with me," Sugawara Bunta told me in an interview for 
>my
>book -- and how could I contradict him?
>
>This "apres moi le deluge" mindset is common throughout Japanese society,
>but especially so in the movie business. Thus the repeated attempts by
>studio graybeards to "revive Japanese films" by bringing back faded stars,
>directors and even genres (ex., the ninkyo eiga), often with results at the
>box office that reinforce the prophets of doom. "Spy Sorge" is the latest
>exhibit A.
>
>So are Japanese movies dead? Yes, if you think the last "real" ones were
>made back when Kurosawa Akira's hair was still black.
>
>Mark Schilling
>schill at gol.com
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Peter Larson"
>
>To:
>Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 12:18 AM
>Subject: RE: Japanese CNC?
>
>
>Well, you have to ask yourself exactly why having a national cinema is
>important. For example, Germany's film industry is nearly extinct yet 
>German
>people don't really seem that up in arms about it (at least not at the
>seminar I led!). There are plenty of German writers, artists and playrights
>to satisy the artistic cravings of the people. I say that having a thriving
>set of national "arts" is VERY important but that cinema may or may not be
>equally important in light of other arts.
>
>I hear complaints about the dominance of american cinema often, mostly by
>americans. In America the film industry is extremely important and
>representative of our national character, a sort of "national art" in the
>same way as "national sports" or something. Perhaps other countries don't
>generally feel this way.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu]On Behalf Of Mark Nornes
>Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 10:06 AM
>To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>Subject: Re: Japanese CNC?
>
>
>Jasper's post raises a key issue in this fascinating discussion:
>exactly what measure do we use to gauge success or failure,
>"healthiness" or "sickness," or even growth and decline?
>
>To a national cinema's past? (Which one? What "moment"? Historical
>relationship with Hollywood, or America for that matter? "Health" in
>their respective film histories? )
>
>To other national contexts? (On what points of comparison? Numbers of
>films produced (which genres do you include/exclude?) Population?
>Urban/rural percentages? GNP? Ticket prices? Colonial legacies, as
>colonizer or colonized? What do you do about transnational linkages
>(and I'm not talking about simply the current situation)? Nado nado.)
>
>This issue is a constant theme of scholarship and criticism, certainly
>since the dawn of television, but really going back to at least Taisho,
>the Pure Film Movement, etc. Hmmmm. Sounds like a nice essay topic for
>someone!
>
>Markus
>
>
>
>On Sunday, June 29, 2003, at 10:01 PM, J.sharp wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > I think the Japanese film industry is in a pretty enviable shape
> > compared with most other national cinemas, the most obvious point of
> > references being the industries of the individual European companies.
> >
> >
> >
> > Its true, based on anecdotal evidence, one might get the impression
> > that no one in Japan ever watches Japanese films, but you have to
> > remember who you are actually asking. I work in an English school in
> > Ginza, and most of my students wake up at 5am and work a minimum of
> > twelve hours a day. You can imagine that when they do go to the
> > cinema, they?re not going to sit for three hours watching EUREKA. No -
> > they want no-brain entertainment like SPIDERMAN or MATRIX when they?re
> > not shopping or walking around the golf course. I don?t count these
> > people as representative of the Japanese public however. Every time I
> > go into a cinema to watch a Japan film, there?s a pretty good turn out
> > of people, and there?s usually about 10 Japanese films playing in
> > Tokyo at any one time.
> >
> >
> >
> > There?s still been plenty of bigger budgeted more mainstream Japanese
> > films playing the major chains this year ? AZUMI, MOONCHILD, SPY SORGE
> > ? so someone is obviously watching them. Right around the corner from
> > the school where I drone out eikaiwa on a daily basis, a huge screen
> > has been emblazoned with the BATTLE ROYALE 2 logo for the past month
> > or so, with hordes of people swarming around the BR2 gift shop on the
> > street, which is purveying para-military inspired fashion accessories.
> > Its going to be a big release ? probably the largest Japanese one this
> > year.
> >
> >
> >
> > And that?s not including the ever-lucrative low-cost high return
> > animated endeavours of regular favourites such as DORAEMON or ONE
> > PIECE, nor the GODZILLA franchise. And lets not forget that no country
> > in the world has an equivalent to Miyazaki, a national treasure whose
> > films continue to out-gross all foreign competition. Nor the fact that
> > the video chain Tsutaya devotes about a third of its floor space to
> > domestic films ? there?s certainly nothing like that in video shops in
> > the UK.
> >
> >
> >
> > As Aaron points out, Hollywood does have unfair market advantages -
> > the same in any country - and their block-booking tactics, market
> > saturation and the fact distributors and cinema chains are owned by
> > the companies that produce the films, will ensure that in provincial
> > towns outside of Tokyo, it is actually nigh on impossible to even see
> > a Japanese film, whilst the latest MATRIX film is booked into two or
> > three screens of the local multiplex. The film industry is one of the
> > US? biggest industries, whereas it ranks pretty low on the business
> > hierarchy in Japan, UK or even France, and as such, the US has become
> > fiercely protectionist about its own interests ? far more so than any
> > other country. There is the odd local film screened in the bigger
> > cinema chains as a token effort alongside the Hollywood eye-candy, but
> > as long as this is of the quality of TRICK or MOONCHILD, then the same
> > people whose cinematic needs are provided for purely by the multiplex
> > are likely to be giving Japanese films an incredibly wide berth in the
> > future. (just read an interesting anecdote in Sight and Sound from
> > last year which said that in Quebec, ASTERIX & OBELIX 2 actually
> > out-grossed ATTACK OF THE CLONES last year, because independent
> > distributors balked at paying the high box office take demanded by
> > Lucasfilms, so the film actually played on a relatively small number
> > of screens ? a good indication of how behind the scenes business
> > skulduggery has such an enormous influence on box office performance).
> >
> >
> >
> > Remember that most of the films showcased abroad, and hence discussed
> > on boards like this, are small arthouse releases ? not the larger more
> > commercial offerings. As an English teacher, you might get blank looks
> > when you try and discuss Naruse or even Ozu with your housewives
> > afternoon course ? but I doubt any random member of the general public
> > in Britain knows who David Lean is either. At the same time, it is
> > still possible to meet plenty of cinephiles who become notably
> > animated when you mention names such as Kurosawa Kiyoshi Shinya
> > Tsukamoto.
> >
> >
> >
> > Essentially, like any other country I?ve been to, there are two film
> > markets. Mainstream multiplex, and independent cinemas that might once
> > have been labelled ?arthouse?, but subsequent to the Mirax-isation of
> > the multiplex, are now the only place where you can see smaller
> > national releases and non-Hollywood foreign releases. These cinemas
> > have their own loyal followings which will ensure that this second
> > market will never die out, but they are also sparsely scattered enough
> > to mean that no individual title will ever achieve the same level of
> > performance as a mainstream release ? even freak success stories like
> > BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, which has played on one screen in Tokyo, but
> > has been sold out for over six months.
> >
> >
> >
> > OK, so we?re hardly in the Golden Age of the 50s, but then, what
> > country is? The 80s signified the death knell of national cinema, to
> > my mind. It also marked a rapid downturn in the quality of Hollywood
> > films. These films allegedly succeed because they are universal, but
> > this for me is the reason why they are so unsatisfactory. They don?t
> > address any of the issues that are important to me personally, and
> > they rarely attempt to stretch the parameters of cinema as an art form
> > nor enlighten me about other cultures. They are merely safe puerile
> > fantasies where you are supposed to marvel at how much money has been
> > thrown up on screen. No other country can possibly complete. Nor
> > should they want to. The day when national cinema was forced to cater
> > for an international market was the day it became less fresh and
> > interesting. There?s nothing with the meat or power of the finest work
> > from the 50s, 60s or 70s, from any country. As a British person, I can
> > find resonance with the films of Mike Leigh or Lynne Ramsay, but it is
> > films like BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM that are making the money. And its
> > awful films like HOTEL HIBISCUS that are drawing in the housewives for
> > the matinee performances in Tokyo.
> >
> >
> >
> > To the distant observer, it may seem that there?s been nothing
> > significant coming out of Japan at the moment. There?s been precious
> > little here that?s impressed me this year either. But the film
> > industry goes in cycles, not on a teleological path to
> > self-destruction. From my perspective in Tokyo, looking at those
> > UniJapan figures I could infer that the British film industry is in a
> > mess. Last year there was only 9 films from the UK screened in Japan
> > (one of these was KEVIN AND PERRY GO LARGE!) compared with the 30 or
> > so from previous years. However, this year I believe there?s already
> > been more than 9, so this is undoubtedly just an isolated blip. In the
> > same respect, I?m sure that Japan will have another 1997-98, when
> > SHALL WE DANCE swept across America, RING and CURE crawled across
> > cathode ray tubes all over Asia, anime fans went wide-eyed over
> > PRINCESS MONONOKE and PERFECT BLUE, and arthouse audience swooned over
> > UNAGI and HANA-BI.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________________________
> > Message sent using Hunter Point Online WebMail
>
>
>
>
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