Renoir's "Rules" Japan Release?

[Mark D. Roberts]

On Aug 29, 2008, at 6:31 AM, Michael Raine wrote:

> I do have a question about the importation of foreign films: I'm  
> sure it's
> true that as the film audience declined there was pressure to make  
> more
> commercial choices but it's my impression that the currency  
> liberalization
> of 1962 actually led to an increase in the number of art film  
> imports. I
> thought ATG didn't show many French new wave films, for example,  
> because the
> rights were bought by other importers. Some critics even suggested  
> that this
> was the way forward for cinema: the mass audience could be ceded to
> television and cinemas would become space to see films like The Red  
> Balloon.
> Is it just my fantasy that Tokyo was a paradise for cinephiles? On  
> the other
> hand, there's a "banzuke" in Kinema junpo from 1965 showing the most  
> popular
> films in Japan: the foreign film list is dominated by spectaculars  
> and only
> two of the top 50 films were non-american -- and one of those was  
> Mondo
> Cane!

According to the statistics from UniJapan, between 1955 and the early  
80s, the number of imported films released in Japan varied between  
roughly 180-280 a year. From a peak at 1958, the number of domestic  
productions steadily declines, though there was a slight increase in  
the late 60s as more independent features were produced (peaking  
around 250 in the late 60s). This helped to boost the overall numbers  
for domestic productions when the majors entered a death spiral.

The number of imported films doesn't change much between the late 50s  
and the early 80s, but around 1986 there was big spike, with the  
number of imported films jumping from 300 to over 500 a year by the  
late 80s. At that moment, the number of imported films exceeded the  
number of domestic films released in Japan and the for the next decade  
everything shifted towards foreign releases. However, by 1995 the  
number of foreign releases dropped off again to around 300, probably  
in sync with the downturn of the national economy. I've not looked at  
the numbers for the past four years, but it appears that since the  
early 90s, the number of foreign and domestic releases are tracking  
each other, with about 60-70 more imported films being released each  
year.

As for whether Tokyo was a paradise for cinephiles in the 60s, one  
would have to study the number of screens and types of films  
available. I wonder if film journals would really give a clear view of  
this, given their own cinephilic agenda. When compared with the US or  
Europe, given the extremely low level of interest among young Japanese  
today, and the lack of meaningful government support for film culture,  
I would find it hard to believe.

M