By Mark Schilling
Japanese studios used to grind out action movies by the dozen until the early seventies.
Then Hollywood upped the violence and effects ante -- and the Japanese, hobbled by
regulatory and budgetary restraints, were unable to call, let alone raise. If a Japanese
producer tried to stage the car chase from The French Connection in Tokyo he'd never get
the first bureaucratic stamp on his permission form. Action
In 1998 a small production company called Robot, together with the Fuji TV network,
presented a new twist on genre conventions in Bayside Shakedown -- a cop thriller based
on a popular Fuji TV show that focused on the bloodless-but-realistic conflict between
the police elite and cops on the beat. The result was the year's biggest domestic hit. In
2003 the sequel, Bayside Shakedown 2, raked in Y17.3 billion ($160 million) -- an
all-time record for a non-animated Japanese film.
Now the folks at Robot are back with Umizaru (literal translation: Sea Monkeys), an
action movie with a fresh premise, based on a popular comic series. This time, the heroes
are Japan Coast Guardsmen training to be divers -- an elite group that constitutes only one
percent of the JCG force. Think An Officer and a Gentleman in wet suits.
This premise is a first for a Japanese film -- but one that has attracted crowds of fans
since Toho released Umizaru on June 12 on 257 screens. Made for Y250 million ($2.3
million), the film is expected to pass the Y1.5 billion ($13.9 million) mark. "It's
appealing to not only young males, but women as well," says Toho publicist Akito
Takahashi. "Also, a lot of people in their thirties and forties are coming to see it."
Meanwhile, a sequel is in the works and rights to four Asian territories have been sold,
with more deals in the pipeline.
The moral: Japanese producers can compete with Hollywood on a tiny fraction of a
Hollywood budget. But it helps if you have the JCG, with its photogenic copters and
patrol boats, on your side.
