Mark Schilling at Variety Asia Online is reporting that on May 21st Shochiku will be launching a website where users will be able to stream its films for as little as ¥367 or roughly $3.54 per film.Lord knows that Shochiku is sitting on a huge stash of amazing films, but for now the studio has only announced that films by such classic directors as Yasujiro Ozu and Keisuke Kinoshita as well as Shochiku’s legendary Tora-san series will be made available online, but plans are in the works to have 200 films streaming by next spring.
Frankly, I don’t think it will be long before us fans of Japanese cinema will be watching most of our beloved films online, whether they be the old classics or brand new titles. While distributors like Viz Pictures, Kino International, and of course Criterion are doing a great job making Japanese films available in North America, I wonder how long before producing and distributing DVDs for such a niche market will prove too costly and things will go the route of this Shochiku service. Guess that remains to be seen…
Read the full report at Variety Asia Online: http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/6001/1/
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment