Introduction to The End of Japanese Cinema: Industrial Genres, National Times, and Media Ecologies

Abstract

Just a month before his film won the Palme d’Or at the 1980 Cannes International Film Festival, Kurosawa Akira performed a historic snub at the glamorous Tokyo premiere of Kagemusha. As film producer and media mogul Kadokawa Haruki approached the legendary director to congratulate him, Kurosawa coldly turned away and refused to speak with him, with the room looking on in embarrassment and shock. Yet presumably most of the onlookers understood the reason for Kurosawa’s chill-inducing rebuff. Against the odds and seemingly out of nowhere, Kadokawa Haruki had transformed how the film and media business in Japan operated, and he did so to tremendous financial success.