tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-847851333098651491.post4467666506482352921..comments2024-03-28T04:52:36.628-07:00Comments on Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow: Sushi Typhoon producer hopes genre label will produce "socially challenging" filmsChris MaGeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129529721240142242noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-847851333098651491.post-61957972783704613802010-09-08T20:00:08.106-07:002010-09-08T20:00:08.106-07:00I had an interesting discussion last night with a ...I had an interesting discussion last night with a Japanese houseguest. After watching "Fish Story" — a film she'd never heard of, despite liking movies — we watched 8 or 9 previews for other Third Window releases. She had never heard of "Love Exposure", "Kakera", "Fine, Totally Fine", "Funuke" or many others. She concluded that these films were made for Western film festival audiences, not Japanese theatergoers. Sound familiar?<br />Of course the success of "Machine Girl" and the subsequent funding that followed really drive the Sushi Typhoon filmmakers, but I believe those guys would be making those types of films anyway. (When Iguchi-san got his TV deal, he made Dogu-chan, a show that is basically unexportable but has all the earmarks of his film work.) Regarding foreign dollars driving creative choices, I wonder if there aren't similar forces at work in non-genre circles. It's reasonable to believe films such as "Kakera" had audiences as large as, or larger than, their Japanese counterparts at overseas festivals. Nowadays Hollywood films have to be conscious of a global market to be profitable. Take "Inception", which despite glowing reviews and a good B.O. run cannot be profitable without major overseas receipts. In North America the movie's haul has exceeded its production/marketing budget, but only just. The studio won't see a penny until foreign grosses come in. If Japanese filmmakers want to compete on a global scale, don't they have to take all their potential audiences into account? For me, there's little doubt that Takeshi's middling "Outrage" is something of a pander, a big "gomen" to his many western fans who got hooked on his Yakuza dramas and then mumbled through his more personal films. Is that any less calculated than "Helldriver" or "Mutant Girls Squad"? <br />I'm terrified of a homogenized global village cinema, an 'art' where every filmmaker has to temper his or her choices in order to make their product as profitable as possible. Sushi Typhoon hasn't done a whole lot yet with their imprint, but it's still young. Sion Sono's film looks to be made of sterner stuff than the schlocky "Alien Vs. Ninja", and hopefully will nudge the rest of those guys into doing those 'socially challenging films'. I like a gore comedy as much as the next guy (maybe more!) but that stuff will get old very fast. I'm optimistic that at least one of these filmmakers will go down a more Cronenbergian path and say something about relationships, society, politics, what have you, within the framework of a horror film. It could happen.keeperdesignhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07577843905356226521noreply@blogger.com