AW: release year of non-Japanese films in Japan

[Roland Domenig]

I wonder whether the film Frako was asking about is listed in the dictionary (which indeed is prohibitively expensive), because it had no official cinema release in Japan. The first chance for Japanese to watch Richard Lester's  "How I won the war" was when it was aired in the 1980s in a night-program on TV under the title "Jon renon no boku no senso" (John Lennon's My War). In the late 1980s Warner Home Video released it on Video, in the 1990s Pioneer put it out on Laser Disc, and in 2003 SPO released it on DVD.
Does the dictionary include the video-releases of films without proper theatrical release?

Roland 


________________________________________
Von: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu [owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] im Auftrag von Mark Nornes [amnornes at umich.edu]
Gesendet: Freitag, 05. Juni 2009 18:57
An: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Betreff: Re: release year of non-Japanese films in Japan

Frako,

You are very much in luck. There is one-stop shopping for this kind of info. It's drawn from a number of sources, so it's something like a clearing house of release information. There are separate volumes for Japanese and foreign films, as well as great filmographies for actors, staff members and directors. Here's the one you need.

舶来キネマ作品辞典. 戦後篇. I : 日本で戦後(19145-1988)に上映された外国映画一覧(I) = Complete dictionary of [imported movies] from August 1945 to December 1988 /
Hakurai kinema sakuhin jiten. Sengo hen. I : Nihon de sengo (1945-1988) ni jōei sareta gaikoku eiga ichiran (I) = Complete dictionary of [imported movies] from August 1945 to December 1988
Author: 世界映画史硏究会編. ; ; Sekai Eigashi Kenkyūkai.<http://berkeley.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3ASekai+Eigashi+Kenkyu%CC%84kai.&qt=hot_author>
Publisher:      科学書院 : 発売元霞ヶ関出版, Tōkyō : Kagaku Shoin : Hatsubaimoto Kasumigaseki Shuppan, 2004.
Series: <http://berkeley.worldcat.org/oclc/54979203&referer=brief_results#> Sekai, Nihon eiga sakuhin jiten shirīzu<http://berkeley.worldcat.org/search?qt=hotseries&q=se%3A%22Sekai%2C+Nihon+eiga+sakuhin+jiten+shiri%CC%84zu%22>, dai 4-shū
Edition/Format: Book : Japanese : Shohan

Unfortunately, not many libraries can afford this very important reference work....or even recognize how important it is; Berkeley seems to be one of these, but I see that UCLA has it.

Markus

PS:  This is precisely the kind of research question we wrote our Research Guide to Japanese Cinema for. To give you a sense for why you need to buy this book (I know, so shameless), here is our entry for this dictionary:


Nihon eiga sakuhin jiten/Complete Dictionary of Japanese Movies from
1896 to 1945 August, edited by Nihon Eigashi Kenkyûkai.
Tokyo: Kagaku Shoin, 1996.
日本映画史研究会編
『日本映画作品辞典  戦前篇 = Complete dictionary of
Japanese movies from 1896 to 1945 August』 科学書院: 発売元 霞ケ関出版
株式会社, 1996.
Nihon eiga sakuhin jiten/Complete Dictionary of Japanese Movies from
1945 August to 1988 December, edited by Nihon Eigashi Kenkyûkai.
Tokyo: Kagaku Shoin, 1998.
日本映画史研究会編
『日本映画作品辞典　戦後篇 = Complete dictionary of
Japanese movies from 1945 August to 1988 December』 科学書院: 発売元 霞
ケ関出版株式会社, 1998.
This massive dictionary of films and filmmakers takes up an entire book-
shelf and is an indispensable tool for Japanese cinema studies. A project
run by the Nihon Eigashi Kenkyûkai, it is an attempt to list every film and
filmmaker in Japan (other related Kagaku Shoin projects cover staff and ac-
tors as well foreign films shown in Japan [see pp. 99 and 104-105]). Much
of the information is culled from only three sources—Kinema junpô, Kura-
shikku eiga nyûsu, and government censorship records—but this is by far
the most reliable resource for identifying release dates and filmographies
on this scale. It is composed of two six-volume sections on prewar and
postwar Japanese films (the other publications on prewar and postwar for-
eign films, Japanese actors and staff, and foreign actors are cross-referenced
when possible). For some sense of the coverage, shikku eiga nyûsu, and
government censorship records—but this is by far
the most reliable resource for identifying release dates and filmographies
on this scale. It is composed of two six-volume sections on prewar and
postwar Japanese films (the other publications on prewar and postwar for-
eign films, Japanese actors and staff, and foreign actors are cross-referenced
when possible). For some sense of the coverage, the Japanese section on
staff members lists 16,441 people, eight times that of the Kinema junpô refer-
ence dictionary. (For our entry on the biographical dictionary volumes, see
pp. 104-105.) This series also represents an important first step for entering
the archive. Because Japanese film periodicals are so poorly indexed, one
must often browse through volumes page-by-page. Entries here give exact
release dates, which makes trolling for articles much more expeditious, as
you can begin by pulling journals around that date. Prewar listings also in-
dicate first-run theaters, which allows one to navigate collections of theater
programs. Finally, all titles and personal names are thankfully rendered in
hiragana, although one should always cross-check readings when possible.
Do note, however, that given the size of the project, each filmographic entry
is rather short, only listing some personnel and a limited number of cast
members without character names. Given the selectiveness of the filmogra-
phy, one cannot assume that the filmographies given for actors and other
individuals are complete. These works are thus most helpful for core infor-
mation, not for full filmographies.
























On Jun 5, 2009, at 12:41 PM, Frako Loden wrote:


Is there a handy online source in either Japanese or English giving the year of release in Japan of non-Japanese films?

I'm especially interested in the month and year Richard Lester's 1967 film How I Won the War was released in Japan.

Thanks,

Frako Loden
Berkeley, CA