[KineJapan] Kinema Junpo sales

[BERRY Paul]

Reading Aaron's comments about the shifting patterns of KineJun's selection of films for the their annual Best Ten lists, made me wonder if the "aging" critic base could somehow be related to what I see as a shocking decline in apparent sales of the magazine itself. For decades most bookstores, even small ones, tended to have a tall stack of monthly copies, but over the last few years that stack has dwindled and dwindled to a few copies. Most bookstores that I visit in Japan now do not display the cover of KineJun in the film sections (which are filled with large glossy "movie photo" magazines dealing with actors and promotional puff pieces on new films, etc), instead tucking a few copies edge outwards along with the few issues of Eiga Geijutsu they still sell. At first I thought this was a freakish temporary trend but over the last several years it has gotten worse and worse. If this display pattern really reflects their sales it looks like the magazine could be in deep trou
 ble. Anyone have any insider information about this situation? It seems to reflect various disturbing trends in the Japanese cinema world.
Paul Berry
Kyoto

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gerow Aaron" <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
To: "Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum" <kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2014 8:51:16 AM
Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Kinema Junpo Best Ten 2013

One opinion on the presumption some have had that the KineJun list represents "mainstream" cinema. Actually, looking at the list over time, that has rarely if ever been the case. It is shaped by business and politics, but in the 50s and 60s it supported independent films and in the 70s roman poruno. For much of the 90s and naughts, it represented a somewhat staid, if not conservative perspective that supported art films or socially conscious films, one that often was reflected in the fact the critics themselves were somewhat old. One could often contrast its list to that of Eiga geijutsu, which could be more eclectic and radical. But KineJun rarely supported box office hits and did not always match the very mainstream Japan Academy Prize.

But this year's list struck me as different. First, Pekorosu is very much "indies", distributed by the small company Tongpoo, which usually distributes documentary films. Its seisaku iinkai includes not a single TV station, which is the norm for mainstream films. That's one reason it was so surprising that it won Best One, though I suspect some of the support came from critics giving a cheer to Morisaki, a master director who has been basically shut out of the mainstream industry over the last couple of decades. Some other films on the list, like Matsue-san's, are also far from mainstream.

So when it comes to asking which of these will be released abroad, either in theaters or on DVD, it is not a simple question of mainstream versus indies. 


Aaron Gerow
Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
320 York Street, Room 311
PO Box 208236
New Haven, CT 06520-8236
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6729
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
website: www.aarongerow.com









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