¡Feliz Navidad!

A Merry Christmas to all of my family, friends and film fellows! Looking back in my mind and through the archives of my blog, 2006 has been a good year and I feel quite lucky, quite rich.

Pictured is the Nativity scene on the east façade of Antoni Gaudí's Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain. Why Gaudí'? In Hal Ashby's 8 Million Ways to Die, Andy Garcia's crime kingpin asks Jeff Bridges if he "digs" Gaudí and he responds "I dig him!"

(Image courtesy of Artchive).

Flow: Living in the Stream of Music

In August of last year I lent a hand on a documentary about famed Jazz musician Terence Blanchard called Flow: Living in the Stream of Music (see my Aug. 21 entry). Today I was informed by the director, Jim Gabour, that the film has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the Music Video (Long Form) category. He also mentioned I have a screen credit for helping out during the Tokyo leg of shooting Blanchard's globe-spanning journey. Congratulations to Jim and I'll be watching in February!

Flow: Living in the Stream of Music promo on YouTube.

Film background and Grammy nomination news on website SoundtrackNet.

Order the DVD.

出発！

出発！
Originally uploaded by jasongtokyo.

[Sharp 802SH Moblog]

It's magic hour (aka Malick hour) and I'm about to take off (eh) to Canada. Might blog a little while I'm there, but as I'm on holiday don't expect anything deep or insightful -- not that anything up until now has been.



行ってきま〜す

盛り合わせ - Combination Platter

Only a few days before a well deserved two week vacation to Toronto for Christmas, followed by a week off back in Japan. It's a feeling of loose ends and new threads.

Did a little more translation for Viacom Japan's FLUX service (see my May 22 entry). Originally a mobile-based video clip and ringtone service, they now have a broadband site (still in beta) that includes video upload functions. The YouTube influence...

Helping out with possible export titles for one studio's upcoming samurai-action-fantasy, which might lead to a subtitling job early next year depending on the timing. Explaining why one title is "better" than another is sometimes a challenge.

January 2007 is already looking busy with a screenplay translation, an added responsibility at Screen, and another possible writing job that could prove enjoyable.

Finally, in a follow up to my Japanese box office summary last week, it looks as if Nana 2 will definitely not be one of the films that pushes Japan over the 50% market share line. It came in fourth place and only pulled in $1.46m (Y170m), without a hope of coming near the original Nana's $34.46m (Y4.03b) payday.

No, it was an American film with an all Japanese cast and dialogue that confidently planted a flag on the peak of Mount Box Office. Clint Eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima was the number one film after the dust settled, earning just under Y500m ($4.28m), which is approximately a third of what Flags Of Our Fathers has earned after 7 weeks. Warner Brothers Japan estimates a 50 million yen final tally.

For more analysis, see Hoga Central.

Shibuya Shadow Show

Was walking along Bunkamura-dôri last night, as one does, and came across an open air Xbox 360 installation. I have about a .1% interest in video games, mainly because I'd waste even more time than I do now if I played them. But what caught my eye was the huge shadow show being projected on the cement backside of the adjacent building. The installation, while being 100% corporate, rivals anything an artiste could come up with, like a high tech version of pre-cinema magic lantern shows (utsushi-e, 映し絵) which lets participants interact with computer generated shadows on a 7-story scale. Surely more interesting than the game it actually promotes (something called Blue Dragon). Check out the video here (QuickTime, 36s, 1.14Mb).

*Thanks to a great little site called Media Convert that took my cell phone's .asf file and converted it to QuickTime.

Of Box Office and Blind Men

Note: This is the first in a series of three posts about the topic of Japanese box office in 2006. Please also see the 2nd and 3rd follow-ups.

Recently I've been kept quite busy by Screen, writing about the success of the Japanese film industry this year. While I'm on a roll, a few facts:

Japanese films currently account for around 47% of the market share, which is the highest it's been since 1988. If it's surpasses 50% by the end of the year, which it looks to, it'll be the first time since 1985. Place your bets on Nana 2, released Dec. 9 against Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima and Love and Honor, currently in release. This is coming off year-on-year increases since the all time low of 27.1% in 2002.

Japanese films account for 5 of the top 10 hits this year, but again with Nana 2, it could change in Japan's favour.

6 Japanese films (including Tales From Earthsea, Umizaru 2 and Suite Dreams) have surpassed the 5 billion yen ($43m) mark this year, which breaks any previous record.

In terms of pure volume, there have also been year-on-year increases. The industry is on track to produce 400 movies this year -- a number not reached since 1973. Some decry the trend of quantity over quality, but if more people than ever are seeing local films, who are we to argue?

Japanese films have pulled some impressive stunts at the box office this year, too, most notably when the original Death Note dethroned The Da Vinci Code. Then Kisarazu Cats Eye: Sayonara Game konked Clint Eastwood's Flags Of Our Fathers on the head. Finally, this past weekend, Yamada Yôji's Love and Honor trumped Casino Royale at the ticket wickets. In all three cases, the Hollywood films opened on more screens.

Speaking of Love and Honor, here's Aaron Gerow's review for The Daily Yomiuri. Alongside all the tearjerkers produced in recent years, I found it a lot more low key than he felt. I completely disagree about Kimura Takuya's performance as well. Aside from one moment right near the beginning of the film (the only time his character laughs), I forgot all about the duke of cool I see splashed on magazine covers and TV on a daily basis here. Also have to disagree about Yamada "cheating" -- I thought it was a really dramatic moment when Kimura's dead eyes stare straight through his wife. It's all just opinions in the end, so see it for yourself. Pictured is a Tokyo Metro subway card printed with an image from the film. See my October report on the world premiere, here.

Update:Mark Schilling's review in the Japan Times is "dead solid perfect," as they say in the golf world.

For more links to current Japanese film reviews, check out Ryuganji (back after a 2-week hiatus). Also see Hoga Central, which is as pleased as pie about the yamatodamashii on display this year (update: thanks for the trackback). Looking forward to seeing some of that spirit depicted onscreen in Eastwood's Letters -- loved the first installment.

Update: A trackback on Kaiju Shakedown. Somehow, when it becomes a Grady Hendrix story it feels..."huger".