The 62 Views of the Shinsekai Kokusai Theatre

by Chris MaGee

Who cares about Hokusai's historic series of woodblock prints, "36 views of Mount Fuji" when you have a guy in Osaka creating the 21st-century equivalent... and one of special interest to Japanese cinema fans. A guy in Osaka who calls himself "francedeforce" has been filming the same movie theatre, the Shinkseki Kokusai, in Naniwa Ward, Osaka near the Tsūtenkaku Tower for almost two years now. In sunlight, clouds, night and day he has filmed the old theatre from every angle and his YouTube channel now has 62 videos of it posted.

"Why?" you may ask. Good question. Accotrding to the theatre's official website they show second run Hollywood and Japanese features, in fact this week you can catch David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises". Of course in the theatre's "underground" you can also catch the latest pinku eiga with titles roughly translated to "The pregnant woman affair! Sporty! Nasty!" and "Promiscuous habit of a black high school teacher", but in that part of Osaka there are a ton of adult movie theatres.

What "francedeforce" says in the comments accompanying the videos is that he repeatedly films the theatre because "It's sign board is interesting." True enough. Apparently this is one of the few movie theatres in Osaka, let alone Japan, that displays hand-painted advertisments for its movies... but 62 videos?

Check out two of "francedeforce's" videos of the Shinsekai Kokusai Theatre shot only a couple days ago below and then if you really want to get acquainted with the theatre click here for all the videos.


February 4th, 2009, Daylight




February 3rd, 2009, Dusk