Friday, October 28, 2016

The Blockbuster In Japan

From The Reporter:

Makoto Shinkai on His Anime Hit 'Your Name,' Being Called the "New Hayao Miyazaki" ...

Former graphic designer Makoto Shinkai's latest film has topped the Japanese box office since it was released at the end of August and brought in more than $160 million, becoming the fifth-highest grossing Japanese film of all time. ...

Your Name has already grossed more than 100 times what his last film finished with, become the first anime movie not from Hayao Miyazaki to make more than $100 million and has spent the last nine weekends at the top of the country's box office. ...

Why do you think Your Name is such a huge hit?

It's difficult to explain it. I didn’t imagine it would be this big. I think the biggest reason is that there was a desire from young Japanese audiences in particular to see a boy-meets-girl story, and there has not been that kind of film in recent years. So at a time when there was latent demand for such a film, we happened to produce one.

It has done more than a hundred times the box office of your last film, how does that feel?

I have conflicting feelings about it. Obviously, there is no way that my filmmaking abilities have increased 100 times since my last production, so there are factors beyond my control that have helped make this such a hit. ...

Mr. Shinkai, forty-three years old, started his professional career at Falcom, a video game company where he worked on multiple games before moving on to animated shorts and features in the early oughts. To date, he's written two novels and one picture book, produced commercials, and directed a half-dozen features.

Your Name is Makoto Shinkai's first blockbuster movie; there will likely be others.

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