A fukubukuro for film fans

[Aaron Gerow]

Those of you who have spent New Year's in Japan may be familiar with 
"fukubukuro," a kind of "treasure bag" that department stores sell at 
the beginning of the year, usually offering a variety of things in a 
package at a reduced price. Most only cost a few thousand yen, but some 
stores come up with some extravagant fukubukuro to generate publicity.

Well, the Nihonbashi Branch of the Mitsukoshi department store is 
offering a 35mm film in a special fukubukuro. No, not a print, but an 
order made film from the Shochiku studios. For only 100,000,000 million 
yen, Shochiku will produce a 60 minute film in 35 mm, using a 
professional director with theatrical film experience and professional 
actors, and present it at a special "premiere" at a Shochiku theater. 
The fukubukuro basically offers the option of either doing a bio-pic of 
your own life, or a romance or thriller starring yourself. Shochiku 
will retain the rights, however.

The spokesman for Shochiku said they would be open to requests for 
Yamada Yoji, the main Shochiku director, to helm the piece, but it 
would probably be for an extra fee and would depend on Yamada's 
willingness.

Anyone out there interested?

Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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