[/floatr]Variety: Classy ads lure quirky Japan audiences
Despite Sofia Coppola's popularity in Japan after "The Virgin Suicides," Kanae Rai, executive vice president of independent theater Cinema Rise, knew that success for the director's Tokyo-set sophomore feature "Lost in Translation" hinged on providing a special inducement to the theater's typical customers: young girls out shopping. "The girls in Shibuya are the ones making the scene in Japan," Rai says of the ultra-fashionable district of Tokyo in which her theater is located. "But they have a very peculiar sensibility. Rather than thinking in words, they react to music and art." Instead of using the standard promotional shot of a glum Bill Murray seated at the edge of his hotel bed, the theater splashed an alluring image of Scarlett Johansson's backside, clad in pink panties, across fliers and billboards. The approach worked...more...
