Mark Schilling On Japanese Films And Foreign Audiences

[Mulboyne]

Mark Schilling has a piece in Variety on Japanese films at the Udine Film Festival which he advises:

One observation: The Udine auds, which range from local fans to hardcore Asian film buffs from around the world, are open to more types of pics, including those labeled for "domestic use only," than many in the Japanese biz believe...Some of the most popular Japanese pics have been more mainstream...Yoji Yamada's "The Twilight Samurai" won the Audience Award in 2004, even though it's not "cult" by any stretch of the imagination.

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Trailer for "The Twilight Samurai"

Indeed, the Japanese industry long considered Yamada's work too Japanese for foreigners to understand, and his signature "Tora-san" series -- a B.O. winner in Japan for nearly three decades -- was little seen abroad. "The Twilight Samurai" had more international appeal than most of his pics because of its subject matter, though it focused more on the home life of its low-ranking samurai hero than his swashbuckling skills. Another surprise was "Always -- Sunset on Third Street," a 2006 ensemble drama set in a Tokyo neighborhood in 1958.

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Trailer for "Always - Sunset on Third Street" (no subtitles)

Again, Udine was the first to screen the pic outside Japan. Helmer Takashi Yamazaki, who was a guest at the fest, was worried that "Always," with its nostalgia for a long-lost Tokyo, might not move foreigners who never knew the pic's laboriously re-created cityscapes. But the Udine audience laughed and wept at "Always" -- and gave Yamazaki a standing ovation. Several fans later told me the film reminded them of Giuseppe Tornatore's "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso" -- which was also a huge hit in Japan. "Always" was voted No. 2 that year in the Audience Award competition. Also, a film's box office in Japan has little to do with its reception by the Udine audience. Even though it's first and foremost a festival of popular Asian cinema...the fest also shows smaller titles that are not hits but are considered discoveries. One was Miike's "Shangri-la," a 2002 comedy about homeless folk who come to the aid of a suicidal printer bankrupted by a cheating supermarket magnate. "Shangri-la" had a short run in one theater in Tokyo, and even many ardent Miike fans had never heard of it, but it was voted the second-most-popular pic at the 2003 fest. Miike himself was surprised when he heard the news, since "Shangri-la" was not the sort of cult pic, with ultraviolence and kinky sex, that he is best known for in the West.

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Trailer For "Horrors of Malformed Men"

In 2003 we presented "Horrors of Malformed Men," a 1969 period shocker by Teruo Ishii, based on stories by Edogawa Rampo, that flopped at the box office and was never released on video or DVD because of its disturbing depictions of the physically disabled. It became a legendary cult film, however, and we were the first in the West to screen it, with Ishii in attendance...After the screening, a packed crowd at the Teatro gave Ishii a 10-minute standing ovation -- the loudest and longest I have ever heard at a fest. The pic was later released on DVD in the U.S. by Synapse -- and became the bestselling Japanese DVD on Amazon. It has also been reimported to Japan by Tower Records, HMV and other retailers, since local distrib Toei has yet to release its own version...more...

[Ptyx]

Very good article. It was one of the thing that surprised me a lot when i first came here.
I really thought Miike and Tsukamoto were very well known. Miike is starting to getting some props but it really took him a while. Tsukamoto is still anonymous despite Tetsuo's high cred in the west. It applies also to older filmmakers as well, like Mizoguchi, who's not that well known in Japan where in the west he's part of the holy trinity of japanese cinema. Same thing apply for Suzuki Seijun.
Likewise Kitano's movie career was really considered a failure in Japan until he won his price at the Venice Festival for Hana-bi. On the other side, in the west almost no one knew that he was one the most famous and dumb comedian of japan.
This created the weird situation that independant japanese movies are more likely to find distribution in the west than the japanese blockbusters. It would really surprise me if Always would get a good distribution in the west. It's like japanese major producers aren't even trying to release their crowd pleasers outside japan. It gets even stranger when you realize that there are indeed, indie filmmakers that are popular here but almost unknown outside Japan. I don't think Iwai Shunji even got one movie released outside japan with any form of critical success. While he's put on the same level as, say Wong Kar Wai, here.
It creates the impression that there are two different markets, japanese movies for domestic audience and japanese movies for overseas.
You can see the same thing happening in indie rock, where the popular japanese act in the west are completlely ignored here (Boris, Acid Mothers Temple). While the popular indie acts here (yurayura teikoku, Number Girl) are ignored in the west.
One could think that it is distantly related to the nihonjinron belief. The very common idea amongst japanese that since it's japanese, only japanese people can relate to it.
It played tricks on them during the start of the anime/manga boom. They failed to recognize the appeal of their own product and made western publishers a ton of cash by selling their distribution rights for cheap.
They're still losing money by not understanding the potential of exporting their culture more efficiently.
Japan was never really good at the propaganda game. When you export your culture you export everything around it. An american movie is a commercial for the american "lifestyle", which means, american cars, american food, american music etc... That type of propaganda is so powerful it can potentially win wars.