[KineJapan] Kinema Junpo Best Ten 2013

Thu Jan 9 01:44:09 EST 2014

Some festivals are important for distributors, but the vast majority are not.  I think we need to distinguish here.   Is there a festival in Japan that regularly draws representatives of major distributors of Japanese/Asian film?  Or do those distributors look to other festivals overseas?  Of course, festival-to-festival distribution is itself a vital link, and serves as another channel to audiences and distributors overseas.  My comments are speculative as I am not in the festival industry.

jmh

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From: kinejapan-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu [kinejapan-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] on behalf of Mark Roberts [mroberts37 at mail-central.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2014 10:28 PM
To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum
Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Kinema Junpo Best Ten 2013

I second Quentin's observation about the split between the values of festival programmers and more "mainstream" critics.

After looking at the festival numbers more closely, what really jumped out at me was how much they reflect an almost separate ecosystem. Festivals are markets for distributors, but a surprising number of films don't get sold. Many titles circulate through festivals but never make it to DVD.

VOD is of course the big hope, but I predict that Japan is going to lag here because the money and power are very centralized. My suspicion is that the same inward-facing business practices will likely replicate themselves under new market conditions. Hope I'm wrong.

M.

On Jan 9, 2014, at 3:09 PM, Quentin Turnour wrote:

Apart from the animes and the Kore-ada, THE GREAT PASSAGE, THE DEVIL'S PATH, BACKWATER and TAMAKO IN MORATORIUM are all titles that have been getting some touring festival life and have been seen in both English subbed theatrical copies and screeners. (BACKWATER is on the Festivalscope site for example, for those who can access it)

The frustration often seems to be the odd film that Japanese critics really go for in the poll, but which don't seem to make it even out in international film festival circulation - perhaps because of the split between titles that get championed by festival programmers and those that have mainstream Japanese studio release.

This is re Arron's comments; I suspect the one film I won't get to see on this year's list is PEKOROSU NO HAHA NI AI NI IKU, - whilst an indie film such as ANATOMY OF A PAPERCLIP will probably make it to many a film festival near you, because a number of influential western programmers have got behind it (Just as last year the hard to see film was the #2 THE DRUDGERY TRAIN and the #1 - Yang Yong-hi's brilliant OUR HOMELAND - was only finally seen on the back of a JAL airline seat).

Best wishes

Quentin Turnour, Manager, Arc Canberra Cinema Programs,
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia,
quentin.turnour at nfsa.gov.au<mailto:quentin.turnour at nfsa.gov.au>
Fax: +61 2 6249 8159
Ph +61 2 6248 2054
Mob: + 61 4 428 368908
[Please note that I am often absent Mondays]

All mail and freight shipments to:
att: Cinema Programming (Quentin Turnour),
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ph +61 2 628 2289

From:        Mark Roberts <mroberts37 at mail-central.com<mailto:mroberts37 at mail-central.com>>
To:        Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu<mailto:kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>>,
Date:        09/01/2014 04:50 PM
Subject:        Re: [KineJapan] Kinema Junpo Best Ten 2013
Sent by:        kinejapan-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu<mailto:kinejapan-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>
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Hi Jonathan,

The 5% number is based upon me having checked the 90 new Japanese films screened at TIFF from 2007 to 2012, as well as all of the Japanese films screened at FILMeX since its inception, putting all of these titles into a database, and then checking them on IMDB and Amazon for distribution and availability. I am not trying to count fan-subbed versions of films because I assume they are all illegal.

My report on TIFF has more details about patterns of international distribution:

http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/tablog/entries.en/2013/11/tiff-2013-a-change-of-course.html

For FILMeX, the details are in my report for forthcoming Directory of World Cinema: Japan 3 from Intellect Books.

Of course, IMDB and Amazon are not perfect data sources. If anybody has suggestions about more comprehensive online sources, I'm all ears.

Best,

Mark

On Jan 9, 2014, at 2:14 PM, Jonathan M. Hall wrote:

Mark,
Regrettably, this doesn't surprise me. Is your 5% figure one you're estimating? Or is there some research or official figure you're referring to?
Jonathan

For reference, only about 5% of the new Japanese films screening in festivals here appear to be making it onto DVD, BR, or VOD outside of Japan.

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