Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Nihon eiga 24 jikan vol. 1
No time to write full entries, but here are some images from the past 24 hours in Japanese cinema. Might do this once in a while, hence "vol. 1".
Director Kitano Takeshi returns home in a good spirits after his lifetime achievement award and retrospective at the Moscow International Film Festival (see June 13th entry). Did you know that Dolls was a long-running hit in Russia? "It'd be great if I had that kind of popularity in Japan," he said at Narita airport.
Director Kore-eda Hirokazu and the cast of Still Walking (Aruitemo Aruitemo, 『歩いても 歩いても』) gathered for the film's premiere at Shibuya's C.C. Lemon Hall yesterday evening. The film opens this Saturday. Export title might end up going back to Even If You Walk and Walk....
Stars Terajima Sususmu (nice style), Satô Kôichi and director Mitani Kôki deliver a special thank you to weekend audiences after The Magic Hour crossed the 2 billion yen mark. Mitani has been bashed in the media for his tireless (and endless) promotion of the movie.
10 comments:
promoting a movie is bash-worthy now? at least he's funny when he goes on variety shows and stuff. most of the time people just want to get the appearance over with asap in exchange for a clip. he seems to actually enjoy the process.
Movie PR is a well-oiled machine that follows a very strict pattern here but lately it's getting a bit much. I think Mitani's tour of duty (over 150 media outlets plus a 24 hour "thank you" tour of 8 cinemas on the weekend -- hence the big digital clock) took it beyond what anyone's done before, so he started getting bashed...「出すぎ」 etc.
On the other hand, if you blow it off like Erika Sawajiri did your career can stall (though it gave her time to learn English). 99% follow the middle ground, without issue.
I prefer movies that generate their own PR by virtue of their content, but by all accounts TMH is pretty entertaining. I doubt it'll reach Suite Dreams' take -- it had almost double the per screen average in its 3rd week.
Box office zzzzzzz
i follow the press coverage given in japanese to the countries film output, but i struggle to pick up on whats appearing there out of standardised publicity junkets and press conferences (TMH, i suppose) versus what's appearing because it's causing word of mouth / controversy (erm... yasukuni!) and so on... the movies that shift things around according to simply their content seems to be minimal, perhaps - is it?
the movies that shift things around according to simply their content seems to be minimal, perhaps - is it?
It's definitely minimal. Arguably moreso in Japan, considering the number of films produced.
Yasukuni was more about the subject matter and the surrounding hoopla than the content. Once everyone had a chance to see the film, it ceased to be much of a talking point.
I think with a pure indie film like United Red Army, the hard sell was important as far as educating modern audiences and giving them context. It worked very well, too.
With Dai Nipponjin it was just a title and a single image. The content was a mystery -- it was a cool approach.
But with most movies it's just hot air. When you trudge through over 100 Japanese news stories a day, this becomes painfully evident...
...makes it harder to make choices from the films, i think.
there's dozens upon dozens of films every year, and the more i improve my ability to track them, the more i see films with what comes across as similar content (in terms of approaches - it can be over-simplified, sure) that may or may not be worthwhile, because of the way in which all are portrayed or publicized in such a generalized way as to make it harder to differentiate between where their individuality hopefully lies.
for example : trailers are very often cut with theme songs - that's a really hard barrier to get around, as it feels commercial even when the film may be more unusual, and you'll even see more blatantly commercial films not having theme songs in the trailer which is likely even to come across as reverse psychology... perhaps everyone (or at least a great many) risk trying to tailor even the most modest and sincere productions towards at least trying to be the one which stands out from the crowd (i.e seeking to be the latest "hit film") of similarly-portrayed films by giving it a certain appearance or working towards standardised ways of publicising and promotion which belies what the film's actually like by giving it a general commercial or popular tone?
even those films that are likely predetermined to have more of a chance of success by reputation of director or cast fall into a certain way of going about things which brings everyone down to a similar level in a way which perhaps makes everything a little too uninspiring or just doesn't spark the imagination quite so easily. it certainly often feels as though it's all noot tailored to a tactic or approach that relates to something more conceptual or appropriate to the film as selected by the director, for example, which is a shame.
trailers are very often cut with theme songs - that's a really hard barrier to get around, as it feels commercial even when the film may be more unusual
Shudaika news stories clog my veins.
it certainly often feels as though it's all noot tailored to a tactic or approach that relates to something more conceptual or appropriate to the film as selected by the director
Trailers are generally cut by the distributor's trailer dept., not the director. Some directors are more hands-on about pr materials (Sabu, for instance). In the old days the assistant director would cut promos as part of his internship. I remember actor/dir Watanabe Kazushi telling me Miike called him him up and said "You're cutting the trailer for Visitor Q" and that was that.
Back to work.
Still promoting a film by running around theaters over a course of 24 hours is definitely a little much for a film in its third week. I believe Mitani even said himself at one of these PR events that his mother even said to him "isn't it a little much already?" or something to that degree. So I think the promotional blitz (which included an appearance on Downtown's show for the brutal punishment game) is probably more to be blamed on Fuji and Kameyama more than Mitani himself.
Even if The Magic Hour doesn't reach the heights of Suite Dreams, its staying power in the face of Indiana Jones and other summer power hitters is impressive. Suite Dreams' biggest competitor at the time was Flightplan, for crying out loud.
...is probably more to be blamed on Fuji and Kameyama more than Mitani himself.
Actually it doesn't quite work that way with someone of Mitani's stature.
Suite Dreams' biggest competitor at the time was Flightplan, for crying out loud.
Although it opened earlier, long runner Yamato was Suite Dreams' main competition for a similar demographic, not Flightplan.
As for TMH battling Indy, there's not a huge amount of audience crossover between them, which is why only the slight drop in attendance (impressive in and of itself). TMH's crowd is a majority of women and people in their 20s, while Indy crowds are predominantly middle aged (people who saw the originals as they came out) with many bringing their pets--I mean kids.
So Mitani actually signed up for the continuous promotional duty? Actually, considering the pressure he's under to follow the most successful Japanese comedy of all time, I don't really blame him.
I'm surprised TMH would actually appeal to a younger crowd, especially when its style seems to play on classic Hollywood cinema. Plus, the screening I went to had plenty of the older crowd, although it was a weekday morning show in the suburbs. Is it because of the cast?
Tsumabuki is pretty damn popular with younger women. They bring their boyfriends along (under the pretext of "gangster movie") and there's your 20s/early 30s demographic.
Kind of makes the mega success of Suite Dreams (I use the US title because Wow-Choten sounds so dumb) all the more surprising -- it didn't have a heartthrob in a big role. I had to think for a minute which supporting role Odagiri Joe played.
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