Abstract
Cinema attendance and domestic production is once more on the rise in East Asia. At the same time, Japanese cinema is enjoying a domestic boom. This chapter takes as a case study alternative viewership practices in the city of Kyoto from 2014 to 2017, where Shōwa era (1926–1989) classics were screened twice a day at the Kyōto Bunka Hakubutsukan (City Culture Museum), while just streets away younger audiences viewed art house and independent films at the Rissei “squatter cinema.” Combining ethnographic materials including interviews, questionnaires, and participant observation with analysis of venue spaces and programming, this chapter analyzes the attractions of alternative cinema spaces for viewers in Kyoto.
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Filmography
About My Liberty (Watashi no jiyū ni tsuite). Directed by Takashi Nishihara. 2015.
Apostasy (Hakai). Directed by Kon Ichikawa. 1962.
Black Rain (Kuroi ame). Directed by Shōhei Imamura. 1989.
Broken Drum (Yabure taiko). Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita. 1947.
Death by Hanging (Koshikei). Directed by Nagisa Ōshima. 1968.
Gate of Hell (Jigokumon). Directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. 1953.
Happy Hour (Happī āwa). Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. 2015.
I Was Born But (Umarete wa mita keredo). Directed by Yasujirō Ozu. 1932.
Ikiru (Ikiru). Directed by Akira Kurosawa. 1952.
In This Corner of the World (Kono sekai no katasumi ni). Directed by Sunao Katabuchi. 2016.
Kwaidan (Kaidan). Directed by Masaki Kobayashi. 1965.
Like Father Like Son (Soshite chichi ni naru). Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda. 2013.
Muddy River (Doro no kawa). Directed by Kōhei Oguri. 1981.
Nobody Knows (Dare mo shiranai). Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda. 2004.
Our Neighbor Miss Yae (Tonari no Yae chan). Directed by Yasujirō Shimazu. 1934.
Rashomon (Rashōmon). Directed by Akira Kurosawa. 1950.
Rickshaw Man (Muhōmatsu no issho). Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki. 1957.
Samurai Part I (Miyamoto Musashi). Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki. 1954.
Song of the Fishermen (漁光曲). Directed by Cai Chusheng. 1934.
Suzaku. Directed by Naomi Kawase. 1997.
Tale of Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari). Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. 1953.
The Burmese Harp (Buruma no tategoto). Directed by Kon Ichikawa. 1956.
The Constitution of a Strange Country: Raising Our Voices (Fushigi na kuni no kenpō: koe o agaru watashitachi). Directed by Hisako Matsui. 2016.
The Mourning Forest (Mogari no mori). Directed by Naomi Kawase. 2007.
Tokyo Story (Tokyo monogatari). Directed by Yasujirō Ozu. 1953.
Twenty Feet from Stardom. Directed by Morgan Neville. 2013.
Where Chimneys Are Seen (Entotsu no mieru basho). Directed by Heinosuke Gosho. 1953.
Woman in the Dunes (Suna no onna). Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara. 1964.
Your Name (Kimi no na wa). Directed by Makoto Shinkai. 2016.
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Coates, J. (2018). Alternative Viewership Practices in Kyoto, Japan. In: Magnan-Park, A., Marchetti, G., Tan, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Asian Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95822-1_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95822-1_12
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