The State of Japanese Cinema

[Takuma]

I wrote this a little while ago for my blog, but thought some might be interested in reading it here, too.

For quite a few years already it’s been popular pastime among Japanese film commentators to complain about the state modern Japanese cinema. In fact, some devoted souls seem to do little else. Yet, I would dare to somewhat disagree with them.

Certainly, Japanese cinema today isn’t what it was back in the 70’s, 60’s, or whichever is your favourite decade. It isn’t even what it was a bit over 10 years ago, when Asian cinema in general was enjoying a boom.

Yet, with the amount of interesting new films that have played in theatres / festivals during the past year or so in Japan – much less so anywhere else – I wouldn’t call the situation a catastrophe, not even close.

Not when there are films like The Tale of Iya (2013) – a breathtaking 169 min epic gorgeously filmed on 35mm and echoing masters like Shohei Imamura and Kaneto Shindo, but adding its own magic – in theatres. Not when the most stylish Japanese film in years, Daisuke Miura’s 18-rated psychological drama Love’s Whirlpool (2014) (Ai no uzu) just opened a month ago. These are but two examples of excellent films that are in Japanese cinemas right now.

The year 2013 was panned by many Japan-critics, yet it saw the release of some tremendously original films, such as GFP Bunny (2012), which takes the true story of a schoolgirl who poisoned her mother, and turns it into a punk study on body modification, plastic surgery, bullying, biotechnology, surveillance technology, and more.

Even more memorable was the gekimation animation The Burning Buddha Man (2013), in which a Buddhist monk saves an orphan girl and then introduced her to a bizarre hidden world of mutants, monsters, terrorists and Buddhist alternative reality in which time runs at different speed. Another debut film worth attention is Junk Head 1 (2013): a slightly flawed but tremendously impressive 30 min cyberpunk stop motion animation set in the distant future where humans send an adroid to spy on clones living in an underground coplex. The film is even spoken in multiple fictional languages.

Japanese animation produced some other noteworthy pictures as well. While international attention went to Miayzaki’s final film, it was Isao Takahata’s The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013) that was praised as the true masterpiece. Unfortunately I failed to catch the film in theatres, and I’m still waiting for it to hit the home video. Makoto Shinkai’s breathtakingly beautiful Garden of Words (2013), which further cements his position as Japan’s best animation director still in business, has already reached foreign shores.

Quite surprisingly, indie favourite Hiroshi Ishikawa’s (Tokyo . Sora, Su-ki-da) meditative return to big screen went almost unnoticed by many. Petal Dance (2013) shows Ishikawa in top form with mesmerizing visuals and one of the best acted and most natural scenes (a five minute single shot scene in a car) I have ever seen.

Japanese slacker cinema, which was made popular by directors such as Nobuhiro Yamashita and Yuya Ishii, is still producing some great films. The wonderfully titled Fuck Me to the Moon (2013) adds a fresh twist to the genre by integrating music and cinema. The film follows two miserable yet lovable amateur musicians trying to charm a sexy woman who moves in with them by composing music. Nobuhiro Yamashita also had a highly enjoyable new film, Tamako in Moratorium (2013), released last year.

Japanese genre and exploitation films have admittedly suffered greatly from the shift to bargain basement digital cinematography and ever shrinking budgets, resulting in some visually unappealing works. However, if one manages to look beyond the rough looks, there have been some highly enjoyable films on offer. The latest one is Kurando Mitsutake’s ultra-violent and superbly stylized B-action film Gun Woman (2014), which is a major step up from his earlier movie Samurai Avenger. Takanori Tsujimoto’s Bushido Man (2013), while no visual feast, takes a Heroes of the East -esque premise and unloads a long series of brilliantly choreographed action as Mitsuki Koga duels with the masters of kung fu, samurai sword, knife, and several other martial arts.

If we stretch the inspection period a little bit further to films that actually premiered in 2012 but still played in Japanese theatres in 2013 we should certainly mention The Kirishima Thing (2012) – a poignant and very stylish high school film released to mainstream audiences but directed with the finesse of a fine indie film. The film was no success in multiplexes, but later had a second theatrical run in arthouses. Japan’s most interesting documentary filmmaker Tetsuaki Matsue’s Flashback Memories 3D (2013) is also worth seeing, although I prefer his Live Tape (2009) and the terrific Tokyo Drifter (2011), both of which follow musician Kenta Maeno singing and wondering around Tokyo.

Finally, Audio Erotica has to be mentioned. This highly Tsukamoto-esque 40 minute film of a woman who becomes addicted to her boyfriend’s voice – much less so the man himself – immediately made its director, a young female named Kimi Yawata, a name to remember. Another interesting young female director is Nagisa Isogai, whose flawed but interesting schoolgirls-hunting-molesters film The Lust of Angels (2014) is almost like a modern feminist upgrade of the girl gang films of the 70’s.

Of course, there were also many promising films that I missed, like Let’s Make the Teacher Have a Miscarriage (2011) director Eisuke Naito’s Puzzle (2014), Hisayasu Sato’s Hana-Dama (2014), Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s The End of Summer (2013), Shinji Aoyama’s Backwater (2013), Hirokazu Koreeda’s Like Father, Like Son (2013), Kazuya Shiraishi’s The Devil’s Path (2013), Kenji Murakami’s Sound Hunting (2013), and Junichi Inoue’s A Woman and War (2013).

The future seems decently interesting as well. Kumakiri’s new film My Man (2014) stars Tadanobu Asano and the extremely talented Fumi Nikaido. Splatter director Yoshihiro Nishimura recently wrapped the filming of his new ninja movie Ninja Torakage (2014) on location in Iga. Takashi Miike is working on Yakuza Apocalypse, which is advertised as his return to his roots. Yukihiro Toda, whose 2013 Yubari winner Extend Hands from Darkness (2013) is also worth seeing, is working on a new sex crime film Anata mo mata mushi de aru (2014). Nobuhiko Obayashi’s latest, Seven Weeks (2014), already played in Yubari to a great acclaim. Sion Sono, who hasn’t done a good film since 2010, is also of potential interest with his Tokyo Tribes (2014) being released in August.

With movies like this I certainly don’t feel there’s a huge lack of interesting stuff to see. The problem, then, probably has more to do with how well these films (do not) travel abroad and domestically. Even in Japan indie productions can be difficult to see outside major cities and/or festivals.

It is absolutely true that Japanese mainstream cinema is getting less and less interesting while the good films often come from interesting newcomers. Unfortunately the attention is not shifting: film festivals abroad are still focusing on whatever (more or less) tired stuff Miike, Kitano, Sono etc. put out instead of looking for new talents. Criticism on the state of the industry in this sense is fully justified; however, to say good films are not being made in Japan anymore doesn’t seem like a very strong argument to me. It’s more like the good films are no longer being discovered and discussed about.

Some Trailers:

The Tale of Iya

QOUN8ppT5NY

Love's Whirlpool

OKU4FMJtC4c

The Kirishima Thing

KjjG0WTQ6C4

Junk Head 1

pYiw-jqywc8

The Burning Buddha Man

-0RhCAJA66A

Bushido Man

YCBBIbtLW7o

Fuck Me to the Moon

jiFWLf5c4l4

GFP Bunny

o-976C5NGZQ

Petal Dance

yOpT0pe-h7c

Garden of Words

KoA4vYlfoc4

Gun Woman

F5S3gT5SRrw

My Man

wLiXC2xrrAc

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

Nice article, definitely will seek all of them out. On Sono, I liked Himizu and been meaning to catch up on his newer stuff like Guilty of Romance, still need to watch that one.

[Secret Executioner]

Very interesting read.

From what I see by my movie-going experience, Japanese films quite make it to theaters over here. Beside the obvious big stuff (like the Studio Ghilbi animated features such as the Miayzaki movies), some more obscure material can also be seen on the big screen (usually in more artsy theaters) - either new material like the theatrical version of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's TV series Penance (a great film, the suspense and the twists are really well put, although I found the second part way superior to the first one - I still have a promotional flyer for its theatrical run BTW), Hirokazu Koreeda's I Wish (a film about 2 brothers whose parents had divorce and who want to get back together as each is with one of the parents - on a sidenote, the two kids are played by real-life brothers) or (since OKFC brought it up) Sion Sono's Guilty Of Romance (haven't seen either of these two) or some older previously unreleased films such as Nobuhiro Suwa's 2/Duo (a 1997 movie that came out in France - with a theatrical run - only a couple of years ago).

[One Armed Boxer]

Criticism on the state of the industry in this sense is fully justified; however, to say good films are not being made in Japan anymore doesn’t seem like a very strong argument to me. It’s more like the good films are no longer being discovered and discussed about.

Excellently written article, and I think this final point hits the nail on the head. Movies coming out of China, Hong Kong, & Korea, even if they don't immediately have western releases, almost always have an English subtitle option on their native release. The movies are accessible and retail for a reasonable price.

A lot of the best cinema out of Japan remains not even close to being on peoples radar if it wasn't for the likes of Takuma, and this is true to a degree even if you're living in the country itself. In some cases the movies doesn't even make it to DVD, and even if they do, English subtitles are rarely included and the retail price is always extortionate.

The end result is most of the interesting Japanese cinema out there in inaccessible without a lot of effort and some understanding of the language, with ony the titles which easily fall under the 'cult' genre having any chance of a western release ('Bushido Man', 'Gun Woman'). Considering it was Japanese cinema which got me into Asian movies, way back in 1998 with the release of 'Ring', I'd love to see wider releases of most of the movies that Takuma has mentioned.

[Casshern]

I don't know the state of Japanese cinema but what I know for sure is that Hollywood loves to steal from them all the time XD. The pioneers of this seudo intelectual movie making movement in Hollywood (Aronofski and Nolan) pretty much stole some of Satoshi Kon's work.

Japanese Cinema in general doesn't look in the best shape but this small country makes unique shit from time to time.

[waywardsage]

Theres been some outstanding Japanese films in the last decade that haven't seen the time of day in the USA. I'm still waiting for the Japanese remake of Unforgiven to be released...wtf?!!!

[kaleyboy]

Very well written piece. I find myself skimming ovrt articles these days, but I read this in its entirety. Will definitely try to catch the films mentioned, however just this week I watched Bushido Man, and was greatly impressed by it.

[Takuma]

Hah, Kitano's award speech wasn't exactly what Tokyo Int. Film Fest expected

Takeshi Kitano Tired of Gangsters and Commercial Constraints

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/takeshi-kitano-tired-of-gangsters-and-commercial-constraints-1201339085/

+ earlier article that I thought I had posted but I guess not

Self-Control is Killing Japanese Movie Prospects

- http://variety.com/2014/film/news/1201320087-1201320087/

[One Armed Boxer]

Hah, Kitano's award speech wasn't exactly what Tokyo Int. Film Fest expected

Takeshi Kitano Tired of Gangsters and Commercial Constraints

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/takeshi-kitano-tired-of-gangsters-and-commercial-constraints-1201339085/

+ earlier article that I thought I had posted but I guess not

Self-Control is Killing Japanese Movie Prospects

- http://variety.com/2014/film/news/1201320087-1201320087/

Fantasitc couple of articles, gotta love Takeshi for being so outspoken, here's hoping he gets together for the rumored collaboration with the director of 'Chaser' & 'The Yellow Sea' Na Hong-jin. A move to Korea could be what he needs, and with the suggestion of his character collaborating with the Korean yakuza in 'Outrage: Beyond' as well, that also leaves the option open for a potential Korea-set follow up.

As for the article about the way Japanese mainstream movies are made, that's a real eye opener to explan exactly why the mainstream fare of Japan's output has become such a mundane lifeless mess. I've always wondered why the movies contain so much dialogue heavy energy draining exposition, and this article addresses that exact point. I remember reading a similar article a couple of years ago that also mentioned that the majority of Japanese cinema goers now are mostly made up of the housewife crowd, which explains the mundane topics (lunch boxes) that many of these movies seem to address.