Onmyoji/recent japanese cinema

[Peter Larson]

 I work in the music industry and have found that sales agents are the
biggest obstacle to purchasing good for overseas sale and/or licensing
deals. It's almost like the agents do everything in their power to
discourage the sale, asking ridiculous prices, not informing buyers of
things they could potentially sell, suggesting releases that clearly
aren't saleable overseas. While not all are bad to deal with, the
general climate, at least in my experience, is to simply ignore the
international market. 
 
I am not going to say it's a cultural/isolationist issue but I do think
that the overseas sale presents more work than agents are willing to put
in. Perhaps they have too many channels to jump through and simply view
to process as too time intensive.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Stephen
Cremin
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 11:23 PM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Re: Onmyoji/recent japanese cinema
 
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







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