Japan and Cult

Jim Harper jimharper666 at yahoo.co.uk
Thu Feb 18 08:49:43 EST 2010


It's interesting to see films that would ordinarily have no chance of seeing a foreign release- the multitudes of micro-budgeted or amateur-made, direct-to-video ghost stories, for example- managing to secure a US or European release in the wake of the Ring or Juon franchises. Sometimes this brings hidden gems to light, but for the most part it just glutted the market with inferior movies and gave rise to a multitude of "Is J-Horror Dead??" blogs.
 
The recent wave of cyberpunk/splatter films (all of which seem to involve people who worked with Ryuhei Kitamura) is the latest incarnation of this, although it is at least an indication that the Japanese genre scene is evolving.
 
Jim.

--- On Thu, 18/2/10, Bernd Standhaft <berndstandhaft at gmx.de> wrote:
Hi,

I think an interesting example of transnational film marketing can be experienced in the way some film producers in Japan tried to hop on the wave of Japanese Cult Cinema in the West and produce films with an international Cult Film Market in mind. I think of Machine Girl, Tokyo Gore Police, Chanbara Beauty, Samurai Princess, Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl... . Maybe the success of these films can explain why a film of the type of Hausu can appeal to certain audiences even more than 30 years after the original release in Japan and become Cult.


Greetings
Bernd




      
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