By Mark Schilling
Japanese, both in and out of the film industry, love to lament the decline of Japanese films. In addition to the decades-long dominance of Hollywood, the doomsayers now to point to Korea, whose films fill Tokyo video racks and whose stars, particularly the ubiquitous Bae Yong Jun, are adored by million of Japanese fans. How can the creatively exhausted local industry hope to keep up?
Quite well, thank you, if recent box office numbers are any indication. In the fourth week of November, at the start of the peak holiday season, six of the top seven films in the nine-major-cities chart were Japanese: Howl's Moving Castle, Be With You, The Hidden Blade, Blood and Bones, Umineko and University of Laughs. Only Collateral starring Tom Cruise (who is practically an honorary Japanese after his turn in the local megahit The Last Samurai), staved off a home team sweep.
Meanwhile, Park Chan-wook's hyper-violent Old Boy finished its third week with a screen average of $30,242 -- not bad given its lack of appeal to Bae's legions of female fans -- the main supporters of the Korean boom. But it was the sole Korean film in the top fifteen.
Of course, the doomsayers can counter that Hayao Miyazaki, whose Howl's Moving Castle soars above the rest with a stupendous $149,224 screen average, is in a class by himself. They can say the much the same about Yoji Yamada, the director of The Hidden Blade, who has been churning out hits for more than three decades. Also, both these maestros are in the twilights of their careers. But six solid hits at once are harder to explain away. The Golden Age of Kurosawa and Ozu may never come again -- but industry pessimists may soon have to stop singing the blues. Has anyone got the lyrics to "We're in the Money"?
