Onmyoji/recent japanese cinema

[Peter Larson]

Onmyoji is one of the few films that I have had to keep myself from
turning off in the middle. I am reminded of an incredibly bad Yotsuya
Kaidan movie with Takaoka Saki a few years back. Japanese films, or any
other national cinema, more often than not fails when trying to
approximate Hollywood and is always a bit sad to watch. 

Yes, it's unfortunate that I am "out of the loop" since coming back to
the states several years ago. Much of the information I receive about
contemporary Japanese film consists of that which can be sold to
Anime-heads or endless hype on Takashi Miike.

SO, what are some good films in the past couple of years that I may be
missing?

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Aaron
Gerow
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2004 6:41 PM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Re: Onmyoji/recent japanese cinema

I've written on this here and there, but films like Onmyoji have to be 
put context. First, I do respect the director Takita Yojiro. I 
personally think he is a lot better at comedy than action, and his pink 
films from the 1980s are legendary, but Onmyoji was not really a 
project for him. The problem with Onmyoji is one that represents much 
of contemporary Japanese film: the movies that get the most publicity 
and the biggest releases--and thus "do well" at the box office--are not 
necessarily the best ones. That does not mean that the big budget films 
are always worse, just that there is not a system of open competition 
in the exhibition industry to allow for even great entertainment in 
small films to be known to the public. In an industry that still has 
monopolistic tendencies, many great films get very limited releases and 
mediocre ones get huge ads budgets that bring in at least the curious.

Onmyoji was helped by the popularity of the manga and renewed interest 
in Abe no Seimei--and Nomura Mansai is extremely talented--but the 
script was horrible and the cast filled with stars with little interest 
in the film or young idols with no talent (when will someone realize 
that Ito Hideaki could not act if his life depended on it?). Too much 
effort was spent on mistakenly trying to equal Hollywood special 
effects in a "Japanese" context, and not enough on plot construction. 
Its success in Japan is thus not that surprising--if somewhat sad--but 
what I find curious is why someone picked it up for distribution abroad.

As for good contemporary Japanese films, there are plenty out there, 
too few of which get distributed abroad. It does seem to be getting 
better, but Japanese films sold outside Japan have to pass through 
various gatekeepers (powerful critics and festivals) and play to 
certain audiences (especially, these days, that centered around anime). 
This does bring in some good work, but the view tends to be somewhat 
skewed. Some of my votes for the Eigei best ten, such as Keimusho no 
naka, Itai futari, or Sayonara Kuro, will probably never be released 
abroad. Even Akarui mirai, my best film for 2003, was cut down for an 
"international version" because someone thought it was too hard for 
foreigners to understand.

Aaron Gerow
Film Studies and East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University