Small screen
In one recent week, a number of friends and acquaintances mentioned the new cinema mini-theatres popping up in Tokyo. These tiny venues, they said, were attracting sophisticated movie fans to see quirky, interesting, independently made films.
'I am tired of conventional, violent and sexy Hollywood-type films, whether they are adventures or romantic stories,' said one Tokyo financial analyst in her mid-20s, a mini-theatre enthusiast. 'Independently produced films by young, less-well-known people are more fun.'
She and her friends are part of a trend to seek out and patronise these new Tokyo cinemas, some of which have only a few dozen seats. They watch Japanese and overseas movies, which are of a higher quality, with stronger messages - despite their lower budgets - than mainstream fare.
In the past few months, for example, six new mini-theatres opened in Tokyo's Shibuya district, bringing the total there to 15. Three small theatres recently opened in the same building. They are the Shibuya Q-ax Cinema with two screens for foreign and local films; the Cinemavera, specialising in old Japanese films; and the long-established Eurospace theatre, which found a new home there.
The 102-seat Theatre N Shibuya, run by a book-marketing company, shows such films as Hotel Rwanda, a 2004 prize-sweeper screened in Japan initially at the prompting of a small group of young Japanese movie fans. Cinema Angelica, another in the same area, is currently showing films by Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski.
The mini-theatre boom is partly a reflection of the growing popularity of Japanese movies. In addition to successful mass-market films, a new group of independent filmmakers has emerged: some can only get their work seen through inexpensive grass-roots showings or video sales. These include some of the best new Japanese films, such as No One Knows: it remained obscure until its teenage amateur star, Yuya Yagira, won the best actor award at the 2004 Cannes International Film Festival.
Now the mini-theatres are showing similar work. Saga no Gabai Baachan ( Outrageous Grandma of Saga), for example, depicts the experiences of a boy sent to the countryside in the southern prefecture of Saga to live with a stubborn but disciplined grandmother in her shabby house. Marine Go Home is a documentary about people in Okinawa, Korea and Hokkaido living near US military bases. Others tell the stories of students and teenagers.
Still, attendance at individual movie screenings is dropping, and cinema attendance overall is barely growing. So the trend towards mini-theatres may create a new wave on Japan's movie scene. I think I'll check it out this weekend.
