Screen Japan Supp 2013

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JAPAN SPECIAL 2013

Japan special 2013 J-cinema’s bounty UK office MBI, 101 Finsbury Pavement, London, EC2A 1RS Tel: +44 (0) 20 3033 4267 US office Screen International, 8581 Santa Monica Blvd, #707, West Hollywood, CA 90069 E-mail: firstname.lastname@screendaily.com (unless stated) Please note our new London phone numbers Editorial Editor Wendy Mitchell +44 (0) 20 3033 2816 Chief critic and reviews editor Mark Adams +44 (0) 20 3033 4213 Senior writer and features co-ordinator (acting) Leon Forde +44 (0) 20 3033 4243 Asia editor Liz Shackleton, lizshackleton@gmail.com Deputy Asia editor Jean Noh +82 10 4205 0318, hjnoh2007@gmail.com Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray +44 (0) 20 3638 5060 Group art director, MBI Peter Gingell +44 (0) 20 3033 4203 peter.gingell@mb-insight.com Designer Luana Asiata Advertising and publishing Commercial director Andrew Dixon +44 (0) 20 3033 2928 Sales manager Nadia Romdhani +44 (0) 20 3033 2775 UK, South Africa, Middle East Andrew Dixon +44 (0) 20 3033 2928 France, Spain, Portugal, Latin America, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Nadia Romdhani +44 (0) 20 3033 2775 Germany, Scandinavia, Benelux, Eastern Europe Gunter Zerbich +44 (0) 20 3033 2930 Italy, Asia, India Ingrid Hammond +39 05 7829 8768 ingridhammond@libero.it VP business development, North America Nigel Daly +1 323 654 2301 / 213 447 5120 nigeldalymail@gmail.com Production manager David Cumming +44 (0) 20 3033 2678 david.cumming@mb-insight.com Group commercial director, MBI Alison Pitchford +44 (0) 20 3033 2949 alison.pitchford@mb-insight.com Corporate subscriptions sales Subscription customer service +44 (0) 3033 2626 customerservices@screendaily.com Festival and events manager Mai Le +44 (0) 20 3033 2950 mai.le@mb-insight.com Sales administrator Justyna Zieba +44 (0) 20 3033 2694 justyna.zieba@mb-insight.com Chief Executive, MBI Conor Dignam +44 (0) 20 3033 2717 conor.dignam@mb-insight.com

It’s a big year for Japan at Cannes — starting with two strong contenders in Competition. They are Takashi Miike’s Shield Of Straw and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Like Father, Like Son. The former is a bounty-hunter cop thriller, the latter a sensitive family drama — diversity on display.

Away from the Croisette, Japan has long been the international powerhouse to watch in terms of box office. Even if China has now become the world’s second largest film market, Japan has nothing to worry about — total box office rose 7.7% year on year to $2.15bn in 2012. That figure includes studio successes as well as local hits.

Later in 2013, the legendary Studio Ghibli offers two new films to bring out audiences in droves: Isao Takahata’s The Tale Of Princess Kaguya and Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Is Rising. Plus, there are other

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2 Japanese evolution Japan’s film industry is being shaped by the rise of digital, and the impact of studio hits and low-budget films on mid-budget releases

4 New directions The new head of the Tokyo International Film Festival, Yasushi Shiina, on plans to promote Asian film-making talent and attract younger audiences

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6 team tiff Programmers for Tokyo International Film Festival reveal their plans for this year’s event

8 Japan on the Croisette Profiles of the two Japanese films in Cannes’ Competition this year and a look at the Japanese greats who have won the coveted Palme d’Or

10 island dreams

Screen International is part of Media Business Insight Ltd (MBI), also publisher of Broadcast and shots

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big local films set for release including the next instalment of manga adaptation Umizaru and a live-action remake of superhero anime Battle Of The Planets (Gatchaman).

Meanwhile, there is plenty of anticipation for the next edition of Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) in October — the first edition under new director general Yasushi Shiina. Industry veteran Shiina is working with the TIFF programming team to build on the festival’s growth and success in recent years by sharpening some sections to boost new talent. As he explains in our interview, getting young audiences more interested in the festival is another goal.

With such exciting developments back home, and two modern masters in Cannes’ Competition, it’s a good time to celebrate Japan.

Wendy Mitchell, editor

As TIFFCOM celebrates its 10th anniversary, Screen looks at the event’s dramatic growth and how international producers can benefit from the CoPro Connection

May 2013 Screen International 1 n

Japanese evolution The film industry in Japan is being shaped by the rise of digital, and the impact of studio hits and low-budget films on mid-budget releases. Jasper Sharp reports

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he ongoing digitisation of Japan’s film industry has been the standout development of 2012. The seismic shift in production, distribution and exhibition was highlighted by the announcement by Fujifilm that it would cease production of motion picture stock, as well as the countrywide closure of numerous independent and arthouse venues yet to upgrade from 35mm. “The impact on the Japanese industry is very big,” notes Yokichi Osato, president of Live Viewing Japan.

Japan has had a tumultuous few years.

Since Cannes 2012, the Japanese film industry has mourned the loss of several important figures including directors Kaneto Shindo, Koji Wakamatsu and Nagisa Oshima, and the US critic responsible for introducing so many Japanese films to the West, Donald Richie.

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami has triggered an enormous creative response, with a run of documentaries including Atsushi Funahashi’s Nuclear Nation, Toshi Fujiwara’s No Man’s Zone and Ian Thomas Ash’s A2, plus features such as Sion Sono’s The Land Of Hope and Makoto Shinozaki’s Since Then (Arekara). The emotional impact on the country will last for decades, so whether audiences wish to buy a ticket to relive the tragedy is a matter of debate.

Still, there are many bright spots — for instance, new films by Takashi Miike and Hirokazu Kore-eda, both selected for this year’s Cannes Competition (see p8).

Box-office prowess Overall, the general picture at Japan’s box office is a rosy one, despite falling behind China to become the world’s third-largest film market. Total box office rose 7.7% to $2.15bn (¥195.2bn)

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‘Films that don’t establish a defined target audience won’t succeed’ Naoki Sato, Nikkatsu

Key Of Life

in 2012, countering the 2011 slump to $1.99bn (¥181.2bn) though still below the decade’s peak of $2.3bn (¥220.7bn) in 2010. Local releases accounted for an impressive 65.7% market share, exceeding the 65% mark for the first time since 1965, and way up on 2011’s 54.9%. Four local titles and one import exceeded the $51.4m (¥5bn) mark, all out-grossing 2011’s top home-grown hit, Studio Ghibli’s From Up On Poppy Hill, which took $45.8m (¥4.5bn).

As in previous years, distributor Toho dominated the local market, with seven titles in the top 10 grossing films of 2012, led by Brave Hearts: Umizaru, Thermae Romae and Bayside Shakedown The Final in the top three spots, each outgrossing the biggest foreign hit Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol. The leading foreign imports Resident Evil: Retribution, Marvel’s The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man performed solidly but failed to replicate the levels of success seen by the Harry Potter or Pirates Of The Caribbean films in previous years.

The fourth local release to exceed the ¥5bn mark (around $50.6m), Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, distributed by Toei subsidiary T-Joy, highlights the ongoing appeal of animation in the Japanese market. Toho’s releases of Mamoru Hosoda’s Wolf Children and the perennial outings of the long-established anime favourites such as Doraemon The Movie: Nobita And The Last Haven, Pokemon The Movie: Kyurem vs The Sword Of

Justice and Detective Conan: The Eleventh Striker that all figured among the year’s top 10 local grossers.

While there were no new offerings from Studio Ghibli during 2012, the legendary animation house looks poised for a major double hit later in 2013 with two films from its leading lights, Isao Takahata’s The Tale Of Princess Kaguya and Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Is Rising, also to be distributed by Toho.

Exhibition trends The absorption of Warner Mycal into the Aeon Cinema chain saw Toho relegated to the position of second largest exhibitor in Japan, with Aeon now operating 600 screens across 73 locations.

The conversion to digital exhibition, up from 29% of the nation’s screens in 2010 to 88% in 2012 was countered by an overall fall in the number of screens, down from 3,339 in 2011 to 3,290 in 2012. It was the independent exhibition sector that bore the brunt, with the screen count for multiscreen complexes falling by only nine to 2,765.

One of the key drivers for the changeover to digital exhibition, 3D has failed to curb the drop in average screen take of more than 40% per screen. Sadako 3D bucked the trend for local audience ambivalence towards home-grown 3D productions, earning $13.9m (¥1.4bn) for its distributor Kadokawa. The format is no longer seen as the cash cow it once was in 2010, when Avatar, Alice In

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OVERVIEW JAPAN SPECIAL

Wonderland and Toy Story 3 broke the ¥10bn mark (around $100m) and Umizaru 3 The Last Message grossed more than $82.2m (¥8bn).

A further instalment of the J-horror reboot is planned for release this year, while this earlier title became the first feature in Japan to be screened in an immersive 4D version on June 7, 2012, at Kadokawa Cinema in Shinjuku. The premiere of Iron Man 3 at a Nagoya theatre operated by the Korona World chain, using the new 4DX technology developed by South Korea’s CJ Group, marks a further attempt to give Japan’s exhibition sector a much-needed boost.

Similarly, both live and pre-recorded sports and music events are providing new revenue streams for exhibitors.

“Digitisation is making it possible to show many different types of alternative content in traditional theatres… alternative content is definitely a growing market,” says Live Viewing Japan’s Osato.

With pre-recorded screenings bolstering the number of releases of local product to a record-breaking 554, up from 2011’s 441, over-

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production has once more been identified as a problem, presenting an over-abundance of material for audiences.

The overall picture is similar to previous years: a reliance on franchises established on television or manga, such as the children’s fantasy Kaibutsukun: The Movie, and the aforementioned latest instalments of the Umizaru and Bayside Shakedown tie-ins.

Between this and the swelling tide of Jishu-eiga (low-budget independent or self-financed films), many in the industry have noted the dramatic decline in mid-budget releases.

Tokyo Sonata producer Yukie Kito says: “The budgets of so-called independent films are getting smaller and smaller and for that reason I haven’t been able to set up films that need a certain budget, even with acclaimed stars attached. However, the economy in Japan seems to be getting better now and I’m hoping more creative ways of financing, even from outside the film business, could be possible.”

‘I am hoping more creative ways of financing, even from outside the film business, could be possible’ Yukie Kito, producer

International stage Nevertheless, Daihachi Yoshida’s highschool volleyball drama The Kirishima Thing and Kenji Uchida’s identity-theft drama Key Of Life, both of which picked up prizes at the Japan Academy Awards in March, provide hope the industry is capable of turning out mid-budget releases that can play successfully to both foreign and local audiences. Other local hits likely to appeal to overseas markets include Helter Skelter, photographer Mika Ninagawa’s follow-up to her 2007 film Sakuran; Outrage Beyond, Takeshi Kitano’s sequel to his 2010 Cannes Competition entry; and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Penance, a 270-minute TV series, which also received a local theatrical release and was screened at last year’s Venice and Toronto film festivals.

Cult director Miike, whose Lesson Of The Evil and For Love’s Sake were released in 2012, looks set to maintain his lofty international profile with action cop thriller Shield Of Straw, selected for

Competition in Cannes. Kore-eda’s Like Father, Like Son, also in Cannes Competition, sees the director cementing his reputation for poignant family dramas including festival hits Still Walking (2008) and I Wish (2011).

Tokyo International Film Festival’s Japanese films section continues to play a vital role as a launch pad for some of the more audacious indie offerings. Last year’s section winner, Yutaka Tsuchiya’s GFP Bunny, was a multi-media collage of smartphone, webcam and YouTube footage that took as its subject a true-life case of a teenage girl who poisoned her mother. Tetsuaki Matsue’s Flashback Memories 3D, meanwhile, was an eccentric music documentary portrait of a didgeridoo player recovering from memory loss.

Whether such micro-budget works can find a broader market even within Japan remains a moot point in the rapidly changing exhibition environment.

According to Atsuko Ohno, head of the TIFFCOM CoPro Connection at Tokyo International Film Festival: “There are some interesting films coming out of the independent sector, but there are just too many films. It’s difficult for them to find the audience.”

Moreover, the balance is tipped in favour of the major companies Toho, Shochiku, Kadokawa, Toei and Nikkatsu. The latter’s scheduled releases this year include a live-action remake of 1970s animation Battle Of The Planets (Gatchaman) and Lee Sang-il’s Warner Bros co-production Yurusarezaru Mono.

“While the majors produced less than 20% of the total number of Japanese releases in 2011, they earned more than 80% of the total box office,” says Naoki Sato, president of Nikkatsu, which celebrated its centenary last year.

“This polarisation, the loss of the middle ground, reflects the economic and social disparities in Japan. Films that don’t establish a defined target s audience won’t succeed.” ■

Nuclear Nation

Month 2013 Screen International 3 n

JAPAN SPECIAL YASUSHI SHIINA

New directions Yasushi Shiina, installed as director general of Tokyo International Film Festival, tells Jean Noh about his plans to promote young Asian film-making talent and to attract more youthful audiences

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aving wrapped a quarter century’s worth of festival editions, Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is plotting a course for its 26th event under new director general Yasushi Shiina. The industry veteran is also director-executive adviser of Kadokawa Pictures at Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co. After being announced as Tom Yoda’s successor at the closing ceremony of the 25th TIFF, Shiina started making the rounds of festivals in Berlin with Yoda during their transitional period. Shiina’s official tenure started on April 1 and he will be in Cannes with the Japanese delegation to discuss TIFF’s new direction and strategies.

“It should be the role of TIFF to discover the talents of the new generation and become a platform from which they can express their sensibilities to the world. We’re working to create alliances with other film festivals towards that end as well,” says Shiina, who will be meeting with festival representatives to further this aim in Cannes.

Although the festival is keeping what has become TIFF’s signature green carpet and ecological stance, it is revamping programme sections to focus on up-and-coming talent from Asia and showcase Japanese content. The Natural TIFF section is out, while the former Winds of Asia-Middle East, Japanese Eyes and World Cinema sections have been remodelled in alignment with the festival’s new initiatives.

“This year we have five official sections — Competition, Special Screenings, Asian Future, World Focus and Japanese films, although we still have to announce the official name of this last section. Asian Future is a new section for young directors who have made only up to two feature films. It’s a platform to explore young talents in Asia,” says Shiina.

When asked whether this will create rivalry between his festival and Busan International Film

Month 2013 2013 ■ 4 Screen International May

‘It should be the role of TIFF to discover the talents of the new generation’ Yasushi Shiina, Tokyo International Film Festival

Yasushi Shiina

Festival (BIFF), which is also staged in October and has the New Currents competition for first and second-time Asian directors, he says: “I very much defer to BIFF, which is now getting bigger and bigger with pop culture created by Korean films. It has a lot of awareness now. Honestly speaking, it is a good study for film festivals.”

The Asian Future programme will include work by new Japanese filmmakers, but Japanese films will also have their own section in line with TIFF’s initiative to expand the reach of Japanese culture.

“The Japanese films section will showcase independent films by young and recognised directors. My concern is that local film-makers are looking only to the Japanese market, because it’s big enough in size — but they should look further. My duty is to bring them to the world stage,” he says.

The former World Cinema section has b e c o m e Wo r l d Focus. It will

include films from around the world, including Asia, that have been screened at international film festivals but have not yet been released in Japan.

“It appeals to core film fans and it is another opportunity for Japanese buyers to see and acquire non-Japanese films. Right now in the Japanese market, non-Japanese films — especially European films — are not so appealing to the Japanese audience. So TIFF should show good movies that appeal to audiences, and hopefully the distributors will see this and decide to release them in the Japanese market,” says Shiina.

Speaking about the local market and its ageing cinema-going population, Shiina also says the festival should play a role in stimulating more youthful audiences to visit cinemas.

“The young generation has great potential, but we need to have films with topics that can engage them. Right now, young people think TIFF is ‘art’ and they hesitate to come. We have to find films and ways to appeal to them,” he says.

One of the ways he suggests is to cultivate young cinema-goers through an expanded collaboration with Kinder Film Festival in Tokyo.

“It is a very small festival in Tokyo but so far TIFF has supported it and invited kids from Kinder Film Festival to walk the green carpet and show films produced by kids. Kinder is now trying to expand from Tokyo to a nationwide network in other cities, too. We’re looking for ways to collaborate with it,” he says.

Set to unveil a new TIFF logo in Cannes, Shiina says it introduces the design concept of “ecology plus heart” to symbolise a festival that wants to “collect excellent works that are filled with the ‘heart’ of film-makers, which move people’s hearts” and which the festival will send out into the world “with heart, s namely Japanese hospitality”. ■

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Japan special Tiff programmers

Kenji Ishizaka

Nobushige Toshima

Yoshi Yatabe

Team TIFF Members of Tokyo International Film Festival’s programming team tell Jean Noh about their plans for this year’s event

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he 26th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is set to run from October 17-25 this year, with Yasushi Shiina (see interview, p4) as the new head. His predecessor, Tom Yoda, had a term of five years, extended from the usual three, during which he increased the profile of the festival internationally with its ecology initiative symbolised by a signature green carpet.

Shiina is now looking to strengthen the festival’s selections and put more focus on discovering talent from Asia with a new competition, as well as highlighting Japanese content. Instead of Yoda’s title of chairman, Shiina has taken director general and encourages his colleagues to share the limelight in representing TIFF and TIFFCOM. These colleagues include Nobushige Toshima, former TIFF secretary general, whose title is now managing director and who also continues as Special Screenings programming director; TIFFCOM director Mika Morishita, whose former title was executive producer; and Takashi Nishimura, managing director of UniJapan (parent organisation of TIFF and TIFFCOM), and therefore the operational head of the not-for-profit organisation

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‘I am looking for films in which the strong personality of the director is present’ Yoshi Yatabe, TIFF

established by the Japanese film industry and government to promote Japanese cinema abroad.

“With the new director general, we worked on ‘selection and concentration’ of the sections. Reorganisation of the sections is its result,” says Yoshi Yatabe, programming director of the Competition section. With a background in film distribution and advertising, Yatabe has also produced documentaries and managed Festival du Film Francais au Japon.

Joining TIFF in 2002, he oversaw the programming division and selection of films, as well as serving as programming director for Japanese Eyes. He has been programming director of Competition since 2007.

“After five years of fruitful programming, Natural TIFF has been taken out.

World Cinema has become World Focus and it now contains films from around the world. Winds of Asia-Middle East has split in two parts — one to Asian Future, and the other part into World Focus. The Competition will remain the same,” he explains.

Kenji Ishizaka, Asian Future programming director, says: “Asian Future is a new competition section, focusing on first and second-time directors from

Asia. By doing so, we hope to be able to support new Asian film-makers to be introduced to wider international audiences, including film professionals.”

Ishizaka will also be selecting the Asian films for the World Focus line-up.

He began researching and critiquing Asian and documentary films after majoring in cinema at Waseda University’s Graduate School. He planned and managed approximately 70 AsiaMiddle East film festival series from 1990 through 2007 for the Japan Foundation, and has been a TIFF programming director since 2007. He is also a professor at the Japan Academy of Moving Images and a published author.

Yatabe, also involved in programming the World Focus and Japanese films sections, says: “In World Focus, films that have already been awarded or appreciated in other major festivals will be chosen. In the Japanese films section, we will introduce independent Japanese films by young and promising film-makers.”

Yatabe says they give priority to world premieres, and an Asian premiere is the least that is required. “I am looking for quality films in which the strong personality of the director is present. In other words, auteur films, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a film by a master.

I’m also looking for new talents.”

Special Screenings programming director Toshima comes from a background in theatrical distribution at Toho and was appointed TIFF secretary general in 2009 before becoming managing director. “I look for films that have stars and recognised directors, and films that can generate a festival mood. For example, last year there was Kon-shin in the section, for which the sumo fighters appeared at the opening event with the cast,” says Toshima, adding: “We wish to invite more overseas guests.”

TIFF is taking submissions for the Competition until July 12. Last year’s festival received 1,332 submissions from 91 countries and regions, 40% up from 2011 (168 were selected). Of the 15 Competition titles, Lorraine Levy’s The Other Son (France) won the $50,000 Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix and the $5,000 Best Director Award, and found a local distributor, Moviola.

Other Competition films that found Japanese distributors after TIFF screenings include What Maisie Knew, Nina s and A Hijacking. n

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Shield Of Straw

Japan on the Croisette Two Japanese films are in Cannes’ Competition this year. Mark Adams profiles both titles and looks back at the Japanese greats who have won the coveted Palme d’Or

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but the arrival of Akira Kurosawa and he Japanese films in Competition his first film, Sanshiro Sugata in 1943, at Cannes Film Festival this year continue the strong tradition of and Yasujiro Ozu making Late Spring in 1948, hinted at bigger international recthe territory’s entries in the main secognition to come for Japanese cinema. tion, with the two movies also reflectAfter success for ing the diversity of films originating Kurosawa’s 1950 classic, from acclaimed and established Rashomon — which won film-makers. the Academy Award for The two Japanese films up for best foreign-language the Palme d’Or award are Shield film and the Of Straw (Wara Wara No Tate) Golden Lion directed by Takashi Miike, a t Ve n i c e and Like Father, Like Son Film Festival (Soshite Soshite Chichi Ni —there was Na r u ) d i r e c t e d anticipation of

by Hirokazu KoreCannes glory. eda.

It came in 1954 when Looking Teinosuke Kinugasa’s back through Gate Of Hell (Jigokumon) Cannes his( (Jigokumon — the first film to be tory, the SecThe Ballad Of released in colour outside ond World War Narayama Japan — was the first Japaand a weak economy in nese effort to win the the 1940s had an Palme d’Or. impact on film proDirectors such as Kenji duction in Japan,

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Cannes Competition Japan special

Like Father, Like Son

Mizoguchi, Hiroshi Inagaki, Hiroshi Teshigahara and Ozu found success at other festivals, but it was not until 1980 that Japan again tasted Palme d’Or success, when Kurosawa (then deemed part of the older generation of Japanese film-makers) saw his sumptuous Kagemusha take the award.

In 1983, Shohei Imamura’s The Ballad Of Narayama (Narayama — Bushi Ko) took the top prize, while the director received a second Palme d’Or — one of only seven directors to have won the prize twice — with The Eel (Unagi) in 1997.

The contenders As for 2013, directors Miike and Koreeda have previous experience of showing in the main section. The prolific Miike had his movie Hara-Kiri: Death Of A Samurai screen in 2011 — the first 3D film to show in main Competition — while Kore-eda showed Nobody Knows in 2004 and Distance in 2001.

Miike’s genre film Shield Of Straw is

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Cannes glory came in 1954, when Teinosuke Kinugasa’s Gate Of Hell was the first Japanese effort to win the Palme d’Or

based on the novel of the same name by Kazuhiro Kiuchi, and follows two cops who transport a suspected murderer across Japan. The mission should be straightforward, but the murder victim’s billionaire grandfather takes out a full-page advert in three of Japan’s largest newspapers, offering a bounty of more than $10m (¥1bn) for the death of the alleged killer. The cast includes Ring star Nanako Matsushima, Ichi’s Takao Osawa and Battle Royale’s Tatsuya Fujiwara.

Kore-eda’s more sedate family drama Like Father, Like Son stars Fukuyama Masaharu as an egotistical, money-obsessed man whose ordered life is turned upside down when he finds out he has unwittingly raised someone else’s son after his biological child was accidentally switched at birth. He and his wife face a monumentally tough decision — should they take back their biological son or keep the little boy they have raised as their own for the past six years?

Two such different films — and filmmakers — makes for a strong balance in the main Competition, with both directors favourites of the critics.

Miike, who often averages two films a year, has delivered fine genre-oriented fare in the past, making his reputation with tough titles such as Ichi The Killer (2001) and Audition (1999), and later coming to the attention of the arthouse community with 2010’s 13 Assassins.

Despite his new-found popularity with major festivals, he still likes to mix up his output, with recent films including Ninja Kids!!! and Manga spin-offs Ace Attorney and musical For Love’s Sake (Ai To Makoto).

Kore-eda, meanwhile, fits much more easily into the arthouse bracket, having won jury prizes at several festivals and garnering acclaim for films such as Nobody Knows (2004), Hana (2006), Still Walking (2008) and his most recent title I Wish (2011). His themes tend to include loss, family s and memory. n

May 2013 Screen International 9 n

Japan special Tiffcom

TIFFCOM

Island dreams As TIFFCOM (Oct 22-24) celebrates its 10th anniversary, Jean Noh looks at the event’s dramatic growth, its new island home and how international producers can benefit from the CoPro Connection

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unning alongside Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), the TIFFCOM market (October 22-24) celebrates its 10th anniversary this year in its new, expanded home at the Grand Pacific Le Daiba. Host to the market since last year, the luxury hotel is situated on the man-made island of Odaiba with sweeping views of the Rainbow Bridge leading to central Tokyo across the bay.

TIFFCOM director Mika Morishita says: “The market has grown dramatically in the past 10 years. The number of exhibitors and visitors has increased threefold and the number of buyers twice from its first event, TIFFCOM 2004. So TIFFCOM has moved to Odaiba to expand its venue, and evolved as an urban resort-style event last year.”

A popular shopping and entertainment district, Odaiba’s atmosphere is influenced by futuristic architecture such as Fuji TV’s gleaming headquarters and a huge statue of the Japanese manga robot Gundam, about as tall as many of the shopping malls around it.

The island also boasts museums, a leisure/entertainment complex and onsen (hot springs).

Morishita says the continued growth

of the market made it implausible to stay in the old spot. The new venue allows for more spacious open-floor plans for film, television, digital media content, comics and publications booths in their designated areas. Attendees also take advantage of the hotel lobby’s coffee shop, one floor up from the market, for meetings.

The number of buyers at TIFFCOM in 2012 increased 120% year on year to 983. Buyers from Thailand doubled their numbers to 49, while Japan increased 129% year on year to 462.

Korean attendance went up 112% to 102 and Chinese buyers increased 113% to 53. Attendance from Taiwan and Hong Kong both dropped 3%, but still came in at 75 and 71 buyers respectively.

In total, last year’s market hosted 12,863 participants, up from 4,537 in its launch year, 2004. A record 229 exhibitors attended last year, hailing from 25 different countries and regions, up from 226 in 2011 from 20 countries and regions. TIFFCOM 2012 boasted 113 first-time exhibitors from emerging markets in South America, the Middle East and Africa. Umbrella stands were opened by national organisations from Canada, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, UK, Mexico »

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Japan special Tiffcom

and Spain, with the last two among those coming to TIFFCOM for the first time.

Regulars at TIFFCOM have been debating the pros and cons of the new venue, especially compared with the convenience of the former home in the Roppongi Hills complex along with the festival’s main venues. The consensus seems to be that the Odaiba venue is more spacious and suited to a large market, but location-wise can seem far from the city centre and TIFF venues.

Stephan Holl, managing director and founder of Rapid Eye Movies, says: “It was convenient to be in town. It was where the festival screenings were happening, too. But in terms of a market, it is better in Odaiba. It’s easier to have meetings — more space. So it’s useful, but it feels disconnected from the rest of the festival.”

tion-related TIAF 2013 Autumn [Tokyo International Anime Festival] will also be held at the same venue. We believe there will be more opportunities than before to buy Japanese content.”

She adds there is new support for local content going abroad: “J-LOP — the Subsidy for Localisation & Promotion of Japanese Content — started in March.

It’s a subsidy programme created to support the budget for local productions that have already been selected to be broadcast, delivered or shown overseas.”

Co-production launch

The number of buyers at TIFFCOM increased 120% in 2012

The time is right The growth in recent years could be attributed to the practicality of the market, scheduled towards the end of the year. Kini Kim, head of international at CJ Entertainment, says: “TIFFCOM is surprisingly useful. The deals might not be big, but there are quite a few of them and they’re lucrative. It might be because of the timing. We get to meet with buyers from TV and small and medium-sized companies who might not go to Busan or AFM. Busan can overlap with Mipcom, and if they don’t go to AFM they will make their final decisions at Tokyo.

TIFFCOM was useful for us last year in closing deals on films such as The Tower, Soar Into The Sun, A Werewolf Boy and Deranged, mainly to Asia.”

He and other sellers find an advantage in being able to meet Japanese buyers on their home turf, sometimes even pitching to them in their own offices in town.

“You have the opportunity and the right conditions to be able to pitch indepth in Tokyo. It’s much better than just seeing each other for 10 to 20 minutes or maybe 30 minutes and just moving on,” he adds.

Katherine Lee, executive vice-president at We Distribution, says: “TIFFCOM is a very good platform for us to meet with Japanese clients. In other markets, you’re all very busy, able to meet some but not all. But at TIFFCOM, you can meet all the Japanese companies.”

Lee was pre-selling Peter Ho-sun Chan’s American Dreams In China and Aubrey Lam’s The Truth Of Beauty at

n 12 Screen International May 2013

‘We do believe there will be more opportunities than before to buy Japanese content’ Mika Morishita, TIFFCOM

TIFFCOM last year. “If you have a film that launches around that period of time, it’s good for pitching and preparing your clients. Now in Cannes, I’ll be able to show them the feature.” (American Dreams In China will be released on May 18 in China.)

In addition, TIFFCOM has continued synergy with TIFF screenings. The festival offers Japanese-language subtitles on official selections that do not have local distributors. This can help buyers who might not fully appreciate a film seen in a market abroad with subtitles not in their native language. Distributors can also gauge local audience reaction at the festival’s screenings.

Of last year’s TIFF selections, competition films that found a local distributor include Sakura Grand Prix winner The Other Son, Lorraine Levy’s Israel-Palestine identity drama which sold to Moviola; Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s US drama What Maisie Knew, which sold to Gaga; debut director Elisa Fuksas’s Nina, which sold to Pandora Films; and Tobias Lindholm’s Danish film A Hijacking, which sold to Transformer Inc. In addition to boosting sales into the hard-to-crack Japanese market and into Asia, TIFFCOM aims to position itself as a one-stop market to buy local content.

“We expect many people will join TIFFCOM, as the venue offers lots of attractive content such as movies and TV, and also animation, music and others,” says Morishita. “In addition to TIFFCOM, the international music market TIMM [the 10th Tokyo International Music Market] and the anima-

Also taking place at the Grand Pacific Le Daiba during the market’s three-day run, TIFFCOM CoPro Connection is a platform aimed to encourage more international co-production with Japan.

The event hosts selected projects with business meetings, networking events and seminars.

“Major Japanese companies have traditionally been shy to get into co-production, and CoPro Connection is the only event in Japan that can offer this chance to meet them. It is an unmissable opportunity for those with projects looking for a partner in Japan. We have the co-operation of some of the largest film companies in Japan, including Toei, Shochiku, Kadokawa and Nikkatsu, which will evaluate projects and take part in meetings,” says Takenari Maeda of UniJapan’s International Promotion Department.

Maeda says CoPro Connection will also present and explain subsidy programmes available from the Japanese government. “The co-production subsidy that the Japanese government started in 2011 has previously given support to Abbas Kiarostami’s 2012 Cannes official Competition title Like Someone In Love. We will have presentations of this and other helpful Japanese support programmes with a hope that projects that find partners at CoPro Connection can then go on to apply for these subsidy programmes,” says Maeda.

CoPro Connection will also be collaborating with Ateliers du Cinéma Européen (ACE) to organise a workshop for European and Japanese pros ducers, ACE Co-production Lab. n TIFFCOM CoPro Connection is taking entries until August 2. Projects must be set up as co-productions with Japanese involvement. Inquiries can be directed to copro@unijapan.org.

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