By Mark Schilling
Hollywood has been lamenting its box office woes in North America all summer, as films that should have been sure-bets continue to tank. In Hollywood's biggest foreign market, Japan, the erosion this summer has not been as dramatic -- or rather commented on.
Two of the season's most highly hyped Hollywood films have done well enough: Star Wars Episode III had earned $81 million, War of the Worlds, $55 million in Japan by the beginning of September, though both George Lucas, with Star Wars Episode I ($116.5 million), and Steven Spielberg, with A.I.: Artificial Intelligence ($89 million), have had bigger hits here this decade. Meanwhile, other Hollywood summer entries, such as Batman Begins and The Island, have disappointed.
Individual blockbusters may keep bringing smiles to the faces of their Hollywood makers, but the Japanese market is undergoing a seismic shift, as audiences continue to move away from US product, especially mid-range films, toward the Japanese and Korean competition.
True, Hollywood's stars, effects and budgets, as well as its formidable marketing machine, are still the envy (and despair) of its Asian rivals. Many Japanese filmmakers could no doubt make a more authentic samurai film than Edward Zwick, but in shooting The Last Samurai, Zwick had certain advantages, including Tom Cruise and a $100 million plus budget, that helped made his film Japan's highest grosser in 2004.
Japanese producers, however, are getting better at appealing to the young mass audience that Hollywood once owned. One indication: more domestic films that target this audience are racking up Hollywood-sized numbers.
The commonly accepted marker for a commercial hit in Japan is Y1 billion ($9.2 million). In 2003 Bayside Shakedown 2, the second feature installment in the Fuji TV cop series set in the trendy Tokyo Bay area, soared past it with a take of $159 million. The following year Isao Yukisada's Crying Out for Love in the Centre of the World grossed $78 million and launched an ongoing boom for so-called "jun-ai" (pure love) dramas.
These films might have once been dismissed as exceptions to the rule -- comets flaring brightly but briefly in the night sky -- but this summer has seen a blazing meteor shower of local hits.
The hottest has been The Suspect, a spin-off from the Bayside Shakedown films featuring the elite police bureaucrat who had been the ally of the hero, a rumpled beat cop. Released on August 27, The Suspect raked in $22 million in its first 17 days and is expected to finish with $38 million. (Another spin-off released in May, The Negotiator, earned nearly the same.)
Meanwhile, Shosuke Murakami's Train Man, a romantic drama whose nerdish hero finds true love with the help of his online pals, grossed $33.5 million following its June release. Based on a true story, spread far and wide on the Internet, Train Man already had a large fan base before it hit the screen.
Another film with built-in audience appeal is Nana, Kentaro Otani's drama about two women -- one a sweetly smiling country girl, the other a sneering punk rocker -- who have the same first names and become unlikely friends. Based on a comic by Ai Yazawa that has sold 27 million copies in thirteen paperback editions, Nana hit the top of the box office chart immediately following its September 3 release. Distributor Toho projects a total gross of $70 million. "The summer was going fairly well for Japanese films, but it's ended with a bang," said a Toho publicist.
Box office explosions are also coming from another direction: Korea. Since the smash success of the Korean TV drama Winter Sonata on Japanese pubcaster NHK in 2003, local distributors have been importing dozens of films from Japan's nearest neighbor, in response to the "hanryu" ("Korean wave") of enthusiasm for all things Korean. Early this year Jae-Young Kwak's Windstruck, a romantic drama that reunited the stars of Kwak's 2001 smash comedy My Sassy Girl, set a new box office record for a Korean film in Japan, with a gross of $18 million.
Now two films are expected to break this record. One is A Moment to Remember, John H. Lee's hit romantic drama about a young couple with big plans -- until the woman is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. Distributor Gaga is predicting a gross of $28 million, following an October 22 release on 300 screens.
Getting an even stronger buzz is Heo Jin-ho's April Snow, a drama starring Son Ye-jin and Bae Yong Jun -- the bespectacled, soft-featured actor who launched the "hanryu" boom with his performance in Winter Sonata. Known simply as "Yong-sama" (Lord Yong) by his millions of Japanese female fans, Bae is a star throughout Asia -- but in Japan he is box office gold. Distributor UIP has already sold 1.5 million advance tickets to April Snow prior to its September 17 opening on 320 screens -- the widest release ever for a Korean film.
What's the lesson? UIP and the other Hollywood majors distributing Japanese and Korean films in Japan have already learned it: If you can't beat 'em...
