japanese cinema

[Aaron Gerow]

> I'm working a french library of cinema and some french webzines 
> (objectif cinema, sanchodoesasia), and for a french association 
> (asiexpo), and I will go to Japan in August. I would like to interview 
> some actresses and actors and directors, too.

If the director has a recent film out, you can always contact the 
distributor to arrange for an interview. Festival catalogues or 
websites often have distributor information. As for actors and 
actresses, you can do the same if they have a recent film out, but 
otherwise, you should contact their talent agency.

> I would like to know if the studios are still exist (Ofuna, Kyoto, 
> ...). Or if they were destructed... I have seen Toei eigamura last 
> year, it was like in Disneyland, and not quite interesting ;-).

Shochiku sold Ofuna a couple of years ago to a university and it was 
torn down. In Tokyo, there are still a few studios: Toho in 
Kinuta/Seijo in Setagaya (http://www.tohostudio.jp/), Toei in Oizumi in 
Nerima (http://www.japan-moviefactory.com/tokyo/top_fs01.html), and 
Nikkatsu in Chofu City 
(http://www.nikkatsu.com/company/studio/top.html). All these locations 
technically date back to before the war. Kyoto now only has the Toei 
studios (http://www.toei.co.jp/studio/top.html) (Eigamura is not the 
real studio; those are next door); and the Shochiku Kyoto Eiga 
(http://www.kyoto.zaq.ne.jp/s-kyotoeiga/).

If you can read Japanese, the Ritsumeikan site that Tomita Mika has 
done with her students is a great resource on the history and location 
of the Kyoto studios: 
http://www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp/cinema/aruke/index.html.

Aaron Gerow
Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
53 Wall Street, Room 316
PO Box 208363
New Haven, CT 06520-8363
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6764
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu