Onmyoji/recent japanese cinema

[Stephen Cremin]

I think sales agents are certainly a major factor.  One reason that 
South Korean cinema is so successful internationally in recent years is 
the effort they put into overseas sales.  It's common for Korean sales 
agents (usually the sales arm of a production company and/or domestic 
distributor) to make several English-subtitled prints for the sole 
purpose of touring foreign film festivals.  In contrast, one's 
fortunate if there is a single English-subtitled print of a Japanese 
film.  Other factors include the availability of practically all new 
Korean films on DVD with English subtitles, the willingness of sales 
agents to send out sample tapes to festivals and potential buyers, and 
the success of the Pusan International Film Festival in bringing the 
international film business to Korean soil once a year.

I recently met with the second largest distributor in a territory that 
is still making a lot of money from Korean cinema.  And they can't get 
replies to their faxes or emails, let alone sample tapes or reasonable 
deals.  They've been targeting the studios.  Organisations like 
Unijapan (and New Cinema from Japan) are a major help, taking a 
selection of Japanese films to markets, but there's only so much they 
can do.  To be fair, there are many film companies in Japan, and many 
are good to work with.  And clearing rights can be complex in Japan, 
with several companies having a say before a deal can be struck.  But 
ultimately, there are many obstacles for foreign buyers and foreign 
programmers to do their research on Japan, not least the scale of 
Japanese production which must amount to the output of the rest of East 
Asia combined.

Stephen


On Feb 9, 2004, at 9:05 AM, J.sharp wrote:

> Interesting to hear what Aaron says about the titles being sold 
> abroad. I always used to believe that few quality titles that do 
> dribble out of Japan every year onto the worldwide market place were 
> due to the selection of foreign critics, foreign festival programmers 
> or foreign distributors, but I am now beginning to wonder if the 
> problem doesn't lie closer to home with international sales agents in 
> Japan. In numerous cases they overcharge for their films - the manga 
> compendium MEMORIES is a classic case in point. For many films, the 
> sales agents ask far more than the film could earn back in foreign 
> sales. Also many films over here just often don't seem to be made with 
> a foreign audience in mind at all, so I'm wondering if the companies 
> actually bother to push a lot of these onto the foreign market. Scores 
> of films come out in Tokyo every year, and I can't be bothered to 
> write about them for Midnight Eye because I know they will never 
> receive any subtitled screenings anywhere.
>
> That said, I do agree with Peter to some extent. The quality of recent 
> releases pales into insignificance even when compared with stuff that 
> was coming out about 4-5 years ago.
>
> Jasper Sharp
> www.midnighteye.com
>
>
> --------- Original Message --------
> From: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> To: "KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu" 
> <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
> Subject: Re: Onmyoji/recent japanese cinema
> Date: 07/02/04 18:16
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  ________________________________________________
>  Message sent using Hunter Point Online WebMail
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 9076 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20040209/22276b71/attachment.bin