Opinion See You At the Flicks! By SCOTT T. HARDS	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
映画館でお会いしましょう！ 最近、日本の映画界では『もののけ姫』などのヒット作はあったが、全体的な日本映画界の観客動員数はいまだ低迷している。ハリウッドに限らず、香港やインドの映画も活発な動きを見せているというのに、日本映画だけが立ち直れないのは、内容のせいではなく、映画館通いを気楽に楽しめないからではないだろうか、と筆者は見ている…。

I don't know about you, but I'm a movie nut. I frequently go to the theater to catch the latest shows and I also own a collection of a few hundred laser discs of my favorite movies from the past. I love to re-watch my favorite scenes in these films, sometimes dozens of times.

So you can understand that I was shocked and saddened by the news of the deaths of two of Japan's most internationally respected movie personalities late last year: the director Juzo Itami and the actor Toshiro Mifune. I've seen all of Itami's works and most of Mifune's. The loss of such talented men certainly won't help Japan's movie industry get itself out of the doldrums it's been stuck in for the last several years.

1997 was not all bad for Japanese films. Hayao Miyazaki's "The Princess Mononoke" was a smash hit and broke all previous box-office records for a movie in Japan, either Japanese or foreign. But such blockbusters are too few and far between here, and theater attendance has declined. What's the problem? Hollywood's not the only place that can produce crowd-pleasing films. Both Hong Kong and India have vibrant domestic film industries. Certainly Japan can do better.

Many in the Japanese film industry lament a system that stifles creativity and individuality ― keys to a successful film. It's a problem that hits many other areas of Japanese society as well. Others cite the lack of money, but this is a classic chicken and egg problem: Theater attendance is down, so there's little money to make big-scale films. But since there are no big-scale films, few people go out to the theater.

My view of the problems of the Japanese film industry focuses on something that is not usually discussed: the movie-going experience itself. Japan has, per capita, less than one quarter of the number of movie screens in the United States. I live in Tokyo, but I still need to travel for the better part of an hour just to get to a cinema.

For people in rural Japan, the trip is even longer. And when you get there, you pay a ticket price that is double or even triple the cost of seeing a movie in the States. All the most interesting films are subtitled on top of that. Plus, most movie theaters' last show is around 7 p.m. That makes it impossible for anybody who works full-time to see a movie on a weekday, and is also very inconvenient for anybody who wants to have dinner and then see a film. Under such conditions, how can you possibly expect people to show up in crowds for a movie like they do in many other countries?

So what's the answer? I suggest a restructuring of the theater system. Instead of a few large theaters located only near major train stations, how about many smaller ones located all over the place, showing movies up until about midnight for prices about half of what they currently charge? It would be like applying the idea of the convenience store to movie theaters. This would make it much, much easier for the average citizen to get to the movies. After that, it will be up to Japanese filmmakers to provide the software to fill those screens

I promise you, if that happened, I'd be seeing a couple of movies every week, at least. And I bet I wouldn't be the only one!

Shukan ST: Jan. 23, 1998

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