"JFF+ INDEPENDENT CINEMA," a special streaming project organized by the Japan Foundation, focuses on "artisanal theaters" that have long supported Japan's film culture, and will stream Japanese films recommended by artisanal theater managers free of charge to overseas audiences.

Forum Sendai, a movie theater in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, recommended two films: "Double Town: Weaving the Song of the Substitute" (2021) directed by Haruka Komori and Natsumi Seo , and "At the Edge of the Alps Stands" (2020) directed by Hideo Jōjō. Both are popular films that have toured mini-theaters all over Japan.

This time, we visited Forum Sendai and spoke with the theater's general manager, Sayumi Hashimura, and Aya Nagasawa, who is in charge of programming for the entire Forum Cinema Network, about the history of the cinema and the current state of Japanese films.

Interview and text: Tsukinaga Rie Photography: Nishimura Masahiro Editing: The Japan Foundation

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Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, known as the "City of Forests" and opened by the Sengoku warlord Date Masamune, is the largest city in the Tohoku region and a gourmet town blessed with lush greenery. It is also the setting for many novels by popular author Isaka Kotaro, who lives in the city, and several of his works have been made into movies filmed in Sendai. Forum Sendai is popular among film fans along with its sister theater Cine Lavita at the east exit of Sendai Station. The theater, marked by a green sign, is located on Aoba Jinja Street, a street that still retains the streetscape opened by Masamune, a little north of the entertainment district of Kokubuncho and the government office district. The manager is Hashimura Sayumi, who has been with the theater since it opened in 1999. A native of Sendai, Hashimura's love of movies led her to work at a movie theater.

Hashimura:I went to Yamagata when I entered university and started working part-time at Forum Yamagata, which is part of the same group, and continued working there after graduation. After that, I worked at Forum Morioka for four years, and then came back to Sendai to open Forum Sendai. Forum Sendai opened in December 1999, when the world was in a frenzy over the Y2K problem, and I remember how difficult it was at the time of opening.

Forum Sendai is operated by Forum Cinema Network, which operates 10 movie theaters mainly in the Tohoku region. Representative Nagasawa Yuji opened Forum Yamagata 1 & 2 in Yamagata City in 1984, Japan's first citizen-funded movie theater. While running the movie theater with his wife, he raised his children and expanded the theaters to seven cities across the country, including Sendai. Currently, his daughter Nagasawa Aya, together with her brother Jun, is in charge of programming for the entire Forum.

Nagasawa:Previously, the manager directly dealt with the distribution companies, but now my brother and I are in charge of programming. That being said, we still leave special features and planning to the managers of each theater. The managers at Forum all have very strong personalities and are huge movie buffs. When they start talking about movies, they can't stop. I think the charm of our theater is that the personalities of the managers are reflected in each theater.

On the other hand, by having a headquarters, they can deal with major distribution companies when selecting films, and by having the headquarters take charge of accounting and personnel affairs, they can operate while balancing the profitable and unprofitable theaters. Although it is a mini theater, the unique style of being a group company may be the strength of Forum Cinema Network.

Nagasawa is someone who literally grew up with movie theaters.

Nagasawa:Both of my parents worked at Forum Yamagata, and our house was next to a movie theater, with only a door connecting the office and the living room. Other employees and salespeople who came to the movie theater would regularly come and go from our house, and the magazine's editorial meetings were always held in the living room. I've known Hashimura-san since I was a child, as the older sister of Forum.

Forum Sendai was soon the site of a major hit film after its opening, the Korean film "Shiri" (1999), which sparked the first Korean wave in Japan.

Hashimura:Before the opening of Forum Sendai, I saw it in a screening room in Tokyo and was very impressed. The distributor, Cine Canon, told me that they hadn't decided on a theater to screen it in Sendai, so I said, "In that case, please let us screen it at our theater!" and we started screening it in January 2000. It was a huge hit, with the theaters packed every day and the screenings continuing until October of that year. At the time, there were very few venues in Sendai that screened Asian films, so we screened a lot of Korean films there afterwards, such as director Lee Chang-dong's Peppermint Candy (1999).

Nagasawa:Thanks to Mr. Hashimura, Forum Sendai has a loyal fan base of Asian films, and special screenings of Taiwanese films have become a regular event.

Hashimura: What first opened my eyes to Asian films was the special screening of "The Whole Picture of Chinese Films," which was held every year while I was working at Forum Yamagata. At first, there weren't many visitors, but there were a lot of films, and the preparation and cleanup was a lot of work, so I couldn't help but ask, "Do we really have to do this every year?" Then the director told me, "You have to watch the films first and then say something." So I watched films such as "Yellow Earth" (1984) by director Chen Kaige and works by director Zhang Yimou, and I was instantly hooked.

In 2005, Cine La Vita opened in front of the station (it moved to a nearby building in 2009). The two are easily accessible by subway, so how do they decide what films to show at each theater?

Nagasawa:Cine Lavita is located just a short walk from Sendai Station, so the location is easy to recognize, and so films aimed at a casual audience are shown at Lavita and films aimed at a more hardcore audience are shown at Forum, but the two cinemas aren't clearly separated.

Although we are originally a mini-theater, we are not a movie theater that specializes in art films, and we screen major works as well if they are good. The other day, we also screened the Hollywood movie "Bullet Train" (2022), which was based on an original work by Kotaro Isaka, who lives in Sendai City. The movie theater "Forum" was born as a "movie theater for movie fans," and that is its origin. So when it comes to programming, I don't think about whether I like the movie or not, but rather think first about what the movie fans living in this town want to see, and try to screen a wide range of movies regardless of genre or scale.

When you start thinking about what makes a film suitable for an independent theater, or what makes an art film, it's hard to find an answer. The line between independent and commercial films has also become increasingly blurred in recent years.

Hashimura:The more I think about it, the more I realize that in the end, they are all "movies," aren't they? In reality, there should be no distinction between big and small movies. After all, the opening film of Forum Sendai was "The Matrix" (1999). Moreover, the late-night screening at that time was "Buffalo '66" (1998), which was a hot topic at a mini-theater in Tokyo. From the beginning, we didn't care about the genre or the size of the film. "Buffalo '66" attracted many young customers and was full every day. Subsequent hits include "Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone" (2007), which is our highest-grossing film of all time, and "One Cut of the Dead" (2018).

On March 11, 2011, 11 years after the opening of Forum Sendai, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck the entire Tohoku region. Sendai city suffered major damage, and cinemas in the city were forced to close for several months.

Hashimura:Fortunately, the street where Forum Sendai is located has strong foundations, and the building itself sustained almost no damage. The water supply was restored one week after the disaster, and the cinema was soon reopened.

Nagasawa:At the time, distribution in the Tohoku region had completely stopped, so nothing was coming in and we couldn't send anything out. We had to make do with the materials we had available, so we rearranged the screening schedule from scratch.

Hashimura: Other cinemas had been closed for three months to six months, and soon customers started saying things like, "I bought a ticket for 'Doraemon' in advance, but I can't see it because the cinemas haven't reopened," or, "I saw the first part of 'SP' (a major Japanese film made as a two-part series) (Ambition), but I can't see the second part (Kakumei-hen)." At the request of movie companies, we screened a variety of films that we don't usually screen, and soon the theater was full of customers.

Nagasawa:Immediately after the earthquake, there were some voices wondering whether movie theaters should really be reopened and whether it was the right time to watch movies, but once they reopened, it became clear that everyone really wanted to watch movies in a theater.

After the disaster, the "Center for Not Forgetting March 11" was established as a platform to record and disseminate the events that occurred in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake at the "Sendai Mediatheque" (opened in January 2001), located close to the "Forum Sendai." Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and others lived in Sendai and were deeply involved in the project, producing documentary films. The "Forum Sendai" also received many messages of support from directors, actors, and other people in the film industry.

Hashimura:After the disaster, everyone was really concerned about Tohoku. Some people even came all the way to Sendai, and one director later told me, "I went to Tohoku as a volunteer at that time." Wim Wenders, a director from overseas, even came to Fukushima.

Nagasawa:When he came to Japan for the Tokyo International Film Festival in October 2011, he said he really wanted to go to Fukushima. He showed "Pina" (2011) for free at the Fukushima Forum, and even visited Iitate Village, which was designated as a planned evacuation zone. The manager of the Fukushima Forum was a big fan of Wenders, so he was really touched.

In fact, even before that, there was a film director who had been frequently visiting local art theaters: Koji Wakamatsu, whom Hashimura calls "the godfather of art theaters."

Nagasawa:After "Caterpillar" (2010) won the Best Actress Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, Director Wakamatsu went on a stage greeting tour to visit four Forum theaters. I toured the theaters with Wakamatsu and Terashima, and many of the audience members were thrilled, saying, "I can't believe such a great actress and director would come to a small theater in Tohoku."

Nowadays, it is not uncommon for a director to independently produce and distribute a film and tour theaters across the country, but at the time it was groundbreaking. Wakamatsu-san took Iura Arata, the star of "11.25 Suicide Day: Mishima Yukio and the Young People" (2011), on a tour of six theaters in the Tohoku region, and after that, Iura-san started bringing young actors with him. With the COVID-19 pandemic as a turning point, Iura-san started an activity to support movie theaters called "Mini Theater Park" together with fellow actors Saito Takumi and Watanabe Makiko, but in fact, even before that, he had been doing various activities to take over Wakamatsu-ism and liven up theaters.

After the spread of the new coronavirus infection continued and a state of emergency was declared nationwide, Forum Sendai and Cine Lavita were forced to close for about a month.

Hashimura:However, even in these really difficult times, the number of people attending the cinema did not decrease that much. The number of older visitors to the cinema has certainly decreased, but it has not fallen to zero. And, unexpectedly, the number of young audience members has increased. The other day, we had a special screening of the 4K version of Wong Kar-wai's films, and in addition to the old Asian film fans, many young people came to see it. This was a pleasant surprise, as I had thought that the number of young audience members would only decrease.

The president has always said, "Small theaters like ours may be shaken by the waves, but they won't capsize." After videos and DVDs, streaming became more and more common, and movie theaters have fallen into an increasingly tough situation, but the fact that we've managed to avoid capsizing despite being shaken by these waves is a strength that comes with being a small theater.

Nagasawa:Among the Forum cinemas, Sendai has the highest sales ratio for art films. I think that's because of the support of its regular customers.

The reason why the number of regular customers has not decreased can be attributed to the cinema's careful attention to detail and daily efforts.

Hashimura:We publish an e-mail newsletter, and currently we have about 10,000 subscribers. On SNS, even if you get a lot of responses, it often doesn't lead to attracting customers, but when you send out an e-mail newsletter, you definitely get a response. Also, while it's now mainstream to post screening schedules and screening times online, we always print them on paper and distribute them at the theater. There are quite a few movie fans, such as older people, who rely solely on this printed material to get movie information. When it comes to showing trailers at the theater, we always try to think, "The customers of this movie might also like this type of movie." There are surprisingly many people who see the trailer and decide, "Oh, I'll come to see this one next time."

The films they recommended were "Double Town: Weaving Songs of the Replacement Site" and "The Edge of the Alps Stands." Haruka Komori and Natsumi Seo, directors of "Double Town: Weaving Songs of the Replacement Site," moved to Tohoku for a time after volunteering during the Great East Japan Earthquake and have continued to work as an art unit.

Hashimura:Komori lived in Sendai for a while and came to the Forum Sendai many times, and the filmmaker, Yusuke Fukuhara, is from Sendai and has been coming here since he was in high school. Komori's filming technique is to simply be there without forcing anything on people. There aren't many documentary filmmakers like him in Japan, so I hope he continues to do his best.

Nagasawa:"At the Edge of the Alps Stand" is a really small movie with few characters, but you can tell that everyone involved really believed it was interesting. It's great to see such a low-budget but interesting movie become a hit at independent theaters.

Finally, we asked about the appeal of the town where Forum Sendai is located.

Hashimura:Forum Sendai faces Aoba Shrine Street, which has a history of over 400 years. At the end of the street is Aoba Shrine, dedicated to Date Masamune, where the Sendai Aoba Festival is held every May. Since Aoba Shrine Street was used as the setting for the anime Wake Up, Girls!, pilgrims from overseas have come to visit Kumagaya-ya, a famous Sendai sweets store that has been in business since 1695, diagonally opposite, and Cafe Bijou, located to the north. A five-minute walk south will take you to Kokubuncho, the most bustling shopping district in the Tohoku region. There are many delicious restaurants, and the Sendai Mediatheque is within walking distance. If you come to Sendai, I recommend you take a stroll around this area.

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"JFF+ INDEPENDENT CINEMA"

https://www.jff.jpf.go.jp/watch/independent-cinema/

Organized by: The Japan Foundation (JF)
Cooperation: Community Cinema Center
Implementation period: December 15, 2022 - June 15, 2023 (6 months)
Distribution area: Worldwide except Japan (some titles are not available in certain regions)
Viewing fee: Free (user registration required to watch)
Subtitles: English, Spanish (some films have Japanese subtitles)

Recommended work by Forum Sendai (Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture) Haruka Komori + Natsumi Seo "Double Town / Weaving a Song of the Substitute" (2021) [Streaming period: December 15, 2022 - March 15, 2023]
Hideo Jyojo's "At the Edge of the Alps Stands" (2020) [Streaming period: March 15th - June 15th, 2023]