Blogathon Survey Results!

(Click on the image to see all articles)

The Blogathon has just ended, and this year it was great fun too. Once again, this kind of initative has provided us lots of interesting articles and, most important of all, a great spirit of sharing and of a community united by the same passions and dreams. I must thank you all who participated (writting, sharing your views), and voted in our two polls. One week later, the results are the following:

As you can see, the 60's are, without a doubt, the favorite decade of our readers. Although it's my favorite decade too, I was really surprised, because I guess the 50's are somewhat much more celebrated than the 60's (scholars and critics are almost unanimous regarding that age, calling it "the golden age of japanese film"). And of course, the 90's and the 00's represent the decade in which most of us discovered Japanese cinema, and although those decades came in second place, I was expecting them to be even more voted. Nonetheless, I'm happy to know people out there really enjoy the 60's in all their might and power of subversion and aesthetic and ethic radicalism.
Then came our film genre poll:


The results were to be expected here. Period movies are still the most enjoyed and they kind represent japanese film better than any other genre. Of course, Modern dramas are also well represented here (maybe because of Ozu, Naruse?) as well as Yakuza cinema (Fukasaku up to Miike I guess). But what most amazed me was the "Horror" category which only has one vote: wasn't it mostly because of the 90's J-Horror that Japanese cinema has been revitalized in the West? Also, it's interesting to notice that Pink film comes in penultimate place: is it because erotic films can't be taken as seriously as the others (the artistic side of it) ? And then, we have Anime, which I think it would have come in first place, if we were to question all the Anime community (way bigger than Japanese Cinema one). Fortunately, it hasn't been that way.

I wanted to thank Michael from Wildgrounds to make this possible. Once again, congratulations for our work and may Japanese Cinema live in our hearts forever!

Japanese Film Blogathon 2010 - Second and Third Surveys!

In order to start the 2nd Edition of the Japanese Film Blogathon with the right spirit (thinking about the readers and the community), we propose you two new polls about your choices and taste regarding Japanese Cinema! To vote check on the right side of the blog. Both polls end in the 11th of December, so don't wait, vote and feel free to comment!

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I

What's your favorite Era of Japanese Cinema?

1) Beggining of 1900's to end of the 1930's

2) Beggining of 1940's to end of the 1950's

3) Beggining of 1960's to end of the 1960's

4) Beggining of 1970's to end of the 1980's

5) Beggining of 1990's to end of the 2000's

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II
Regarding Japanese Cinema, what's your favorite genre?

a) Jidai-geki*/Chambara**

b) Horror/ Monster Movie

c) Yakuza /Gangster Movie

d) Gendai-geki***/ Shomin-geki****

e) Pinku*****/ Roman-Porno

f) Anime

Notes:
* The term “jidaigeki” literally means “period piece,” with most jidaigeki dramas being set in the Edo Period of Japanese history, which ran from the early 1600s to 1868.

**In Japan, the term chambara is used for this genre, literally "sword fighting" movies. Chanbara is a sub-category of jidaigeki, which equates to period drama. Jidaigeki may refer to a story set in an historical period, though not necessarily dealing with a samurai character or depicting swordplay.
***Gendaigeki is a genre in which the stories are contemporary dramas set in the modern world.

****A genre dealing with lower-middle-class Japanese family life.
*****Pink film is a style of Japanese softcore pornographic theatrical film. Films of this genre first appeared in the early 1960s, and dominated the Japanese domestic cinema from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s.

First Survey Results

Nikkatsu - 9 votes (27%)
(Nikkatsu logo circa 1964)

Shochiku - 7 votes (21%)
(Shochiku logo circa 1951)

Toei - 7 votes (21%)
(Toei logo circa 1955)

Toho - 5 votes (15%)
(Toho logo circa 1954)

Daiei - 5 votes (15%)
(Daiei logo circa 1969)

Shintoho - 0 votes (0%)
(Shintoho logo circa 1960)

The most voted studio is Nikkatsu! I would like to know what are your favorite Nikkatsu movies. If you want you can say what's your favorite movie in the comment section. Thank you all for voting!

First Survey: which studio is the best?

It already started! Welcome to our first summer survey about Japanese Cinema. Please make your choice: which studio do you preffer? Which one put out the greatest films and directors, the best actors? You don't have to hurry, it'll only end 5 of September. Don't forget to vote on the right side of the screen.

Still hard to answer? Then, let's sum up the best of each studio (i'm sure i will forget someone/something):

Shochiku

(Shochiku logo circa 1977)

Tendencies: The most classical studio (art-house; family dramas; light comedies, essence of japaness etc.). Home of Yasujiro Ozu, Hiroshi Shimizu, Heinosuke Gosho, Keisuke Kinoshita, Yasujiro Shimazu, Yoshitaro Nomura, Yoji Yamada (Tora-San saga). First works of Masaki Kobayashi and Hideo Gosha. Beggining of Japanese New Wave (first works of Nagisa Oshima, Masahiro Shinoda, Kiju Yoshida).

Toho

(Toho logo circa 1969)

Tendencies: More Ocidental- influenced studio than Shochiku., while mantaining some sort of classical quality. Home of Akira Kurosawa, Mikio Naruse, Sadao Yamanaka, Shiro Toyoda, Hiroshi Inagaki, Kihachi Okamoto, Ishiro Honda etc. Also known for their Tokusatsu movies (and kaiju-eiga, monster movies) like Godzilla, Mothra etc.

Toei

(Toei logo circa 1964)

Tendencies: Toei will be always known for their action-oriented and yakuza movies. At first competing with Daiei and their kabuki-like sword films, Toei started directing highly stylised films (almost "B quality"), turning into one of the two transgressive studios during the 70's and 80's (the other being Nikkatsu). Home of Tomu Uchida, Tadashi Imai, Eiichi Kudo, Tai Kato (jidai-geki) Kinji Fukasaku (Yakuza films), Teruo Ishii (the "Joys of Torture series"), Norifumi Suzuki, Female Convict Scorpion films (Meiko Kaji), and almost every Sonny Chiba (martial-arts) or Ken Takakura (Yakuza classic) movie. Also known for producing many kinds of anime.

Daiei

(Daiei logo circa 1959)

Tendencies: The experts in Jidai-geki (historical samurai movies) and chambara (swordplay) , during the 50's and 60's. Home of classical directors like Kenji Mizoguchi, Teinosuke Kinugasa, Kon Ichikawa, Satsuo Yamamoto, Yasuzo Masumura (films about youth), Daisuke Ito (last films), Kenji Misumi (and the so-called "artisans": Kimiyoshi Yasuda, Kazuo Ikehiro, Kazuo Mori, Tokuzo Tanaka, Akira Inoue etc.). Famous for their top actors, Shintaro Katsu (Zatoichi movies) and Raizo Ichikawa (Nemuri Kyoshiro, Ninja etc.) Kurosawa shifted temporarily from Toho to make Rashomon at Daiei. Also known for some Tokusatsu (special-effects) movies like Gamera or Daimajin and some classic horror movies. It went in bankruptcy in the early seventies.

Nikkatsu

(Nikkatsu logo circa 1973)

Tendencies: The oldest japanese studio, Nikkatsu produced many classic movies. However, in the 60's, Nikkatsu was responsible for many film-noir and youth-themed films with stars such as Akira Kobayashi, Yujiro Ishihara, Tetsuya Watari or Joe Shishido. Films in this era were directed by Ko Nakahira (sun-tribe movies) Koreyoshi Kurahara, Takumi Furukawa, Toshio Masuda, Seijun Suzuki etc. Nonetheless, with fear of bankrupcy, Nikkatsu shifted their direction radicaly, producing the so called Roman Porno films (erotic movies with big budget), directed by such names as Yasuharu Hasebe, Tatsumi Kumashiro, Masaru Konuma, Noburo Tanaka, Koyu Ohara, Chusei Sone etc. and starring actresses like Junko Miyashita, Naomi Tani, Tomoko Ai etc. Also the home of the first Shohei Imamura films (50's, 60's).

Shintoho

(Shintoho logo circa 1960)

Tendencies: Shintoho's speciality was the horror genre. Although being the most modest studio, Shintoho always surprised the viewers with the style, colors and surreal atmosphere of its horror films or thrillers. Home of Nobuo Nakagawa and the first works of Teruo Ishii. It went bankruptcy in 1960.