JFF+ INDEPENDENT CINEMA, a special streaming program organized by the Japan Foundation, is shining the spotlight on independent theaters, so-called “mini-theaters” that have nurtured the diversity of Japanese cinema culture. The free program aimed at overseas audiences is streaming Japanese films selected by managers of mini-theaters.

Forum Sendai, a movie theater in the city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture, selects the two films, "Double Layered Town" / "Making a Song to Replace Our Positions" (2021) directed by Haruka Komori and Natsumi Seo, and"On the Edge of Their Seats" (2020) directed by Hideo Jojo. Both are much-discussed films that made the rounds at mini-theaters across Japan.

We visited Forum Sendai and heard about the history of the movie theater and Japanese film today from the theater’s manager, Sayumi Hashimura and Ryo Nagasawa who is programmer of Forum Cinema Network.

Text: Rie Tsukinaga Photo: Masahiro Nishimura Editing: The Japan Foundation

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Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture, known as the “City of Trees,” was developed by the military commander of the Warring States period, Masamune Date. It is the largest city in the Tohoku region, blessed with an abundance of greenery, and home to gourmet foods. In addition, it is often the setting for novels by Kotaro Isaka, a popular writer who lives in the city. In fact, several of his works have been turned into movies filmed in Sendai. Forum Sendai is loved by film fans, together with its sister theater, Cine La Vita near the east exit of Sendai Station. This theater, identifiable by its green sign, is located on Aoba Jinja-dori, a street that retains the townscape developed by Date. It is slightly north of Kokubuncho, an entertainment district, and the government office district. The theater manager is Sayumi Hashimura who has worked there since its doors opened in 1999. She hails from Sendai and says she came to work at the movie theater because of her great love of films.

Hashimura: I went to Yamagata Prefecture for university and started a part-time job at Forum Yamagata, which is part of the same Group. After graduating, I just continued working there. Later, I worked for four years at Forum Morioka, then returned to Sendai to open Forum Sendai. Forum Sendai opened in December 1999, and I clearly remember it being quite difficult because it was around the time the world was in an uproar over Y2K.

Forum Sendai is operated by Forum Cinema Network, which has opened ten movie theaters centering in Tohoku. In 1984, its representative, Yuji Nagasawa opened Forum Yamagata 1/2 in Yamagata City. It was the first movie theater in Japan to be financed by private citizens. The movie theater was run by a married couple who was also raising their children. The business was expanded to seven cities, including Sendai. Today, their daughter, Ryo Nagasawa is in charge of program creation for all Forum theaters, together with her older brother, Jun.

Nagasawa: Previously, the managers would work directly with film distributors, but now my brother and I are in charge of collectively putting together programs. That being said, even now we often leave things like special screenings and projects up to the managers of each theater. All the Forum managers have really strong personalities and are big film fans. When they get started talking about films, they all can go on and on. I think one of our strengths is the fact that the personalities of those managers are reflected in each theater.

On the other hand, having a head office lets us deal with major film distributors when choosing movies. Also, because the head office takes care of all the accounting and personnel matters, we can operate while balancing theaters in the black and in the red. We run mini-theaters, but our unique style of also being a Group company is probably an advantage of the Forum Cinema Network.

Nagasawa is truly someone who has grown up with movie theaters.

Nagasawa: Both my parents worked at Forum Yamagata. Our home was next to the movie theater, and the office and our living room were connected by a single door. Other employees and sales people who came to the movie theater would usually go and out of our house, and the newsletter editing meeting was always held in our living room. I’ve also known Hashimura really well as a Forum staff member since I was a child.

As soon as Forum Sendai opened, a huge hit film was made. That was the Korean film, "Shiri" (1999) that kicked off the first round of popular Korean dramas in Japan.

Hashimura: Before Forum Sendai opened, I saw it in the preview room in Tokyo and was blown away. Staff from the distributor, Cine Qua Non said they hadn’t found a theater to show it in Sendai, so I said they should definitely show it in our theater and we began screening in January 2000. From that point crowds came every day. It became a big hit that we continued showing until October that year. At the time, there were few places screening Asian films in Sendai, and even after that we showed quite a few Korean films, including "Peppermint Candy" (1999) by Director Lee Chang-dong.

Nagasawa: Thanks to Hashimura, there are diehard fans of Asian films that come to Forum Sendai. We also regularly have special screenings of Taiwanese films.

Hashimura: There was a special screening called “All About Chinese Films” that was held every year when I worked at Forum Yamagata, and it really opened my eyes to Asian films. At first, there weren’t that many people in the audience, but there were many films, so getting ready and cleaning up was a lot of work. I went so far as to ask if we really had to do it every year. The representative said to me, “Watch the films before you say anything.” So, I watched "Yellow Earth" (1984) by Director Chen Kaige and films by Zhang Yimou and became enthralled before I knew it.

In 2005, Cine La Vita opened in front of the train station (it moved to a nearby building in 2009). If you ride the subway, the distance is convenient when going to different places in succession, but how do you decide what films to show at the two theaters?

Nagasawa: Cine La Vita is a very short walk from Sendai Station and easily recognizable, so we use the separate approaches of showing films targeting casual moviegoers at La Vita and those targeting more devoted audiences at Forum. But, it’s not like we make a clear distinction.

From the start our theaters have been mini-theaters, but they’re not movie theaters exclusively screening art films. We also show quite a few major films if they’re good. The other day, we showed "Bullet Train" (2022), a Hollywood movie based on the work of Kotaro Isaka who lives in Sendai. The Forum movie theater was created as movie theater for film fans. That’s our origin story. So, when putting together programs, we don’t think about whether we personally like a particular film. We first and foremost think of what movies film fans living in this community want to watch, and try to screen a wide range of films without being constrained by genre or scale.

What kind of films are appropriate for a mini-theater anyway? What are art films? When you start to think about it, the answer becomes elusive. The line between independent films and commercial films is also becoming more and more blurred of late.

Hashimura: I guess, the more you think about it, in the end all of them are “films,” right? Essentially, there’s no distinction between big and small films. As it happens, the opening film at Forum Sendai was "The Matrix" (1999). But, at that time "Buffalo ‘66" (1998), which caused a stir in Tokyo mini-theaters, was being screened as the late show. From the start, we’ve never been particular about the size or genre of films. Lots of young people came to see "Buffalo ‘66" and our theater was full every day. Following that, some of our biggest hits include "EVANGELION: 1.0 YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE" (2007), which brought our biggest box office revenue to date, and "One Cut of the Dead" (2018).

Eleven years after Forum Sendai opened, the Great East Japan Earthquake hit the entire Tohoku region on March 11, 2011. Sendai was also seriously damaged, and cinema complexes and other businesses in the city had no choice but to close for a few months.

Hashimura: Luckily, the street where Forum Sendai is located is on solid ground, and the building mostly escaped damage. One week after the earthquake, the water was back on and we reopened right away.

Nagasawa: Deliveries to Tohoku had completely stopped then, so nothing was coming in and nothing was going out. We could only show the films we had on hand and had to reorganize the film schedule.

Hashimura: Other cinema complexes were shut down for about three to six months, and we heard from moviegoers that they had purchased tickets to "Doraemon" in advance, but couldn’t see it because the cinema complexes weren’t open yet, while others had seen Episode V, the first "SP: The Motion Picture" (a major two-part Japanese film), but couldn’t watch the second part, "Episode VI" . We also received requests from film companies to show their films, and when we screened various films of the type we don’t normally show, our theaters immediately filled up.

Nagasawa: Right after the earthquake, we were not sure if we should actually reopen and if it was the right time for films, but when we reopened, we really understood that people wanted to watch movies at a movie theater.

Following the disaster, we became deeply involved with activities, such as the creation of a documentary film by Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi who came to live in Sendai, and the launch of “The Center for Remembering 3.11,” a platform for recording and sharing events that happened because of the Great East Japan Earthquake that was carried out by The Sendai Mediatheque (opened in January 2001), which is pretty close to Forum Sendai. Forum Sendai also received many messages of encouragement from people in the film business, including directors and actors.

Hashimura: Everyone really expressed concern for Tohoku after the earthquake. Some people took the time and trouble to come to Sendai, and there was a director who later told me he came to Tohoku as a volunteer during the disaster. Director Wim Wenders from overseas came to Fukushima, too.

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 screened "Pina" (2011) for free at what was then Forum Fukushima and even visited the village of Iitate, which was a planned evacuation zone. The manager of Forum Fukushima was a huge fan of Wenders, so he was very moved.

Actually, even before that there was a film director who frequently visited regional mini-theaters. That was Director Koji Wakamatsu, who Hashimura calls the “godfather of mini-theaters.”

Nagasawa: After "Caterpillar" (2010) earned the Best Actress Award at the Berlin Film Festival, Director Wakamatsu was kind enough to go on a screening tour of four Forum theaters giving remarks on stage. I went to the theaters together with Wakamatsu and Shinobu Terajima. Many audience members were deeply impressed that such a great actress and director had come to mini-theaters in Tohoku.

Nowadays, it’s not unusual for a director to independently produce and distribute films, then visit theaters throughout the country, but at the time it was unprecedented. Wakamatsu brought Arata Iura, star of "11:25 The Day He Chose His Own Fate" (2011) with him and toured six theaters in Tohoku. After that, Iura also began bringing along young actors. Spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, Iura worked with fellow actors Takumi Saito and Makiko Watanabe, and started the Mini-theater Park to support mini-theaters. Actually, even before that he followed in Wakamatsu’s footsteps and carried out various activities to boost support for theaters.

After the pandemic spread and the state of emergency was declared nationwide, both Forum Sendai and Cine La Vita were forced to close for about a month.

Hashimura: However, even during that really tough time, audience turnout didn’t drop to a great degree. The frequency of older people coming has undeniably dropped, but it hasn’t become zero. Plus, surprisingly the number of young audience members has grown. Lots of young people came to the special 4K film showings of Wong Kar Wai films the other day, along with established fans of Asian film. I’d thought that young audiences were dwindling, so that was a pleasant surprise.

Our representative has said for many years that small theaters like ours will be tossed by the waves, but won’t be overturned. Following videos and DVDs, streaming has become popular and movie theaters are falling into more and more difficult circumstances, but I think it’s truly our small size that’s our strength so each time we may be battered but somehow aren’t beaten.

Nagasawa: Among the Forum theaters, the Sendai theater does the best box-office business for art films. That’s how much we’re bolstered by our regular audiences.

The reason your regular audiences don’t drop in number can be attributed to the attentive care and day-to-day efforts by the movie theaters.

Hashimura: We issue an email newsletter, and right now we have around 10,000 people signed up for it. Even when the reaction on social media is great, strangely it often doesn’t lead to garnering audiences, but we never fail to get a reaction when we issue the email newsletter. Also, releasing the screening schedule and times online has become mainstream now, but we always print a paper version and hand it out at our theaters. That’s because there are older customers and quite a lot of film fans who depend only on the printed version to get information on films. We’re also always thinking about what kind of films certain audiences would like when considering how to distribute announcements at the theaters. Remarkably, there are a lot of people who see the announcements and decide on what to come and see next.

You two have selected "Double Layered Town / Making a Song to Replace Our Positions" and "On the Edge of Their Seats". Haruka Komori and Natsumi Seo who directed "Double Layered Town / Making a Song to Replace Our Positions" were prompted to move their base of activities for a time to Tohoku after volunteering during the Great East Japan Earthquake, and they have continued their work as an art duo.

Hashimura: Komori lived in Sendai for a while and came to Forum Sendai many times. Yusuke Fukuhara who was in charge of filming is from Sendai and has been coming to the theater since he was a high school student. Komori is a person whose approach to filming is to just be nearby, without forcing anything onto people. There aren’t many documentary filmmakers in Japan of that type, so I hope she keeps at it from now on.

Nagasawa: There are few characters in "On the Edge of Their Seats". It really is a small film, but it comes across that everyone involved made it believing the story was truly interesting. It makes me very happy when this kind of low budget, yet interesting film is a hit in mini-theaters.

Finally, we asked about what is so special about the neighborhood where Forum Sendai is located.

Hashimura: Forum Sendai faces Aoba Jinja-dori, which has over 400 years of history. At the end of the street is Aoba Shrine where Masamune Date is enshrined, and the Sendai Aoba Festival is held every May. Ever since Aoba Jinja-dori became the setting for the anime, "Wake Up, Girls!", many people from Japan and abroad traveling to the setting have come to Kumagaiya, the famous shop selling cheap Sendai sweets. It’s been in business since 1695 and kitty corner from the theater. They also visit Café bijou which is next door to the north. If you walk about five minutes to the south, you’ll reach the busiest area in Tohoku, Kokubuncho. There are lots of restaurants there serving great food, and The Sendai Mediatheque is within walking distance, too. If you come to Sendai, you shouldn’t miss strolling around this area.

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JFF+ INDEPENDENT CINEMA

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

Organizer: The Japan Foundation (JF)
In cooperation with: Japan Community Cinema Center
Period: December 15, 2022–June 15, 2023 (6 months)
Streaming areas: Worldwide, excluding Japan (some films not streamed in certain areas)
Fee: Free (user registration is required to watch)
Languages: English, Spanish (some films have Japanese subtitles)

Films selected by Forum Sendai (Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture)
Director Haruka Komori and Director Natsumi Seo "Double Layered Town / Making a Song to Replace Our Positions" (2021) [Streaming: December 15, 2022–March15, 2023]
Director Hideo Jojo "On the Edge of Their Seats" (2020) [Streaming: March 15–June 15, 2023]