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.

Toshiyuki Kajiwara is manager of Cinema Jack & Betty, a movie theater in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. He selected the two films, "Somebody’s Flowers" (2021) by Director Yusuke Okuda and "What Can You Do about It? " (2019) by Director Yoshifumi Tsubota. The directors of both films have a connection to Yokohama.

We visited Cinema Jack & Betty where the manager, Toshiyuki Kajiwara works and heard about the history of the movie theater and the current circumstances of Japanese cinema.

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

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Yokohama is a city that has developed as a port town since long ago. It has numerous European-style historic buildings such as the Redbrick Warehouse, and Yokohama Chinatown has long been appreciated as one of the three largest Chinatowns in Japan. It can be reached from Tokyo by train in about 30 minutes. The historical port town with an exotic mood is buzzing with tourists on weekends.

Yokohama is also very well known as a movie town that has produced many great films. Director Akira Kurosawa’s "High and Low" (1963) was famously set in the city. Also set in Yokohama was the popular series, “Abunai Deka (Dangerous Detectives),” a TV drama broadcast from 1986 that later spawned movies. "Shiritsu Tantei Hama Mike" (The Private Detective Mike) was a series starring Masatoshi Nagase that gained popularity as hard-boiled detective films. Set in the Koganecho area, a downtown district of Yokohama, three films were made by Director Kaizo Hayashi in the 1990s. In 2002, it was turned into a TV drama with each episode being directed in turn by one of twelve well-known film directors, including Shinji Aoyama, Isao Yukisada, and Alex Cox.

It is in Koganecho in the movie town of Yokohama that Cinema Jack & Betty is located. This mini-theater has been a popular neighborhood movie theater for over 30 years and has shown not only independent films, but also unique special screenings, as well as held numerous film festivals.

Kajiwara： In the old days, this really was a community with lots of movie theaters. I’ve heard there were over 30 screens in Yokohama alone. This area had many distinctive theaters, too. Across from our theater was Yokohama Nichigeki (closed in 2005) that was also famous for being the setting of the film series, "Shiritsu Tantei Hama Mike". In Isezakicho, there was Yokohama New Theatre (closed in 2018) and the Kannai Academy Theater (closed in 2004) that was a famous mini-theater.

Yokohama Cinemarine, which was renovated a few years ago, is also an old theater that has been in business since 1964. But, these kinds of unique theaters have been steadily decreasing as the number of cinema complexes increase. Around 2007 when we took over Jack & Betty, there were hardly any movie theaters in Yokohama showing art films. So, one of the criteria for choosing the films we screen is making this theater into a place where people who like art films can come so they don’t have to go as far as Tokyo. We strive to show a wide range of films, regardless of the country of origin or genre, so that all kinds of audiences will come. That was true in the past and is still true today.

What kind of movie theater was Jack & Betty, a long-established movie theater in Koganecho, originally?

Kajiwara： It was established in 1952. At the time, it was a large, one-story theater seating over 200 named Yokohama Revival House. Kikuo Fukuju, called the renowned manager of Yokohama, was managing both Yokohama Revival House and Yokohama Nichigeki across the street. Locally, Nichigeki was familiar as the theater for Western films and the Revival House for Japanese films.

Yokohama Revival House had become run down, so in 1991 the opportunity was taken to rebuild it as Cinema Jack & Betty. The movie theater was considerably changed. The first floor became the entrance with the second and third floors turned into a two-screen theater with apartments built above. Back then the strategy was to show samurai films and the like, so-called men’s films, on one screen and romance films and other movies women would prefer on the other screen. A typical man’s name and woman’s name was given to each theater. Jack and Betty were taken from the title of a textbook used at the time in English lessons at schools.

However, around 14 years after its renovation, the movie theater faced a crisis.

Kajiwara： The management company, Chuo Kogyo was dissolved around 2005 and all the movie theaters it operated in Yokohama and Tokyo were closed. Jack & Betty also closed, but a different company announced it would take over operations and reopened the theater since closing it would’ve been a waste of a perfectly good theater given that it had recently been renovated in 1991.

It was about this time that Kajiwara visited Jack & Betty. Though he is from Tokyo, he often came to Yokohama as a child since his mother’s family home is in Yokohama.

Kajiwara： The Koganecho area originally had an image as a dangerous place, but around 2006 a project began centering on Yokohama that revamped Koganecho into a community of art. Around that time, I began community development activities together with my university classmate, Rio Asai (former assistant manager) and the current assistant manager, Yoshio Kobayashi.

At that time my impression of Koganecho was of a somewhat deserted place, but even so there were strong undercurrents of a lingering dubious atmosphere from the past, and I hoped we could create some kind of new place for culture here. So, we began volunteer activities to support Jack & Betty and that was our first encounter with this movie theater. Wanting to support this old movie theater that symbolizes Yokohama, a movie town, the three of us carried out various endeavors, including introducing great places in the area in a blog and holding networking events in a part of the movie theater’s lobby. This led the management company to ask us whether we’d like to take over the movie theater. At first, we couldn’t believe it. But, if we turned it down, in the near future the movie theater might once again be shut down. That would’ve been a real shame, so we dared to take up the challenge and plans were made to take over management of Jack & Betty in March 2007.

That is how Kajiwara and the two others took over management of a new Jack & Betty. While they all were enthusiastic about community development, none of them had experience working at a movie theater and had to start from zero.

Kajiwara： In the beginning, we had no idea what we were doing. We learned from scratch how to operate a movie projector from a projectionist, and also learned how to organize programs from someone who had worked at the management company. Of course, the program concept was to show films that were small but of good quality that wouldn’t be shown at cinema complexes, but we were also mindful of showing films that women would be interested in as much as possible.

Our reputation from back when the theater was the Yokohama Revival House drew primarily male audiences at that point. When answering the phone, we were even asked whether it would be safe for a woman to come alone. Though the area’s atmosphere had considerably changed, it still had a strong image as a dangerous place. Thinking their worries would be dispelled if they came once, we put together programs with female audiences in mind that centered on films shown at mini-theaters in Tokyo known for attracting large female audiences, including Iwanami Hall (closed in 2022), Cine Switch Ginza, and Bunkamura LE CINEMA.

However, things still weren’t getting off the ground, and for a few years it was truly a tough time. It started gradually changing from around 2008. When we screened the documentary "Our Daily Bread" (2005) by Director Nikolaus Geyrhalter, surprisingly many people came. It was a valuable experience that made us realize that if you show a good film, audiences will come.

Once people came, they would come again to see different films, so bit by bit audiences grew. A big turning point came in 2010 when we screened "Caterpillar" by Director Koji Wakamatsu. The star, Shinobu Terajima had won Best Actress (Silver Bear) at the Berlin Film Festival, and day after day crowds came. It was the first film that could be called a big hit for our theater. The attendance at that time was the highest ever and the record still stands.

Director Koji Wakamatsu began in softcore porn films and was involved in several anti-establishment films such as "Sekigun PFLP: Declaration Of World War" (1971) and "United Red Army" (2008). He was an important person for mini-theaters in Japan. He established Wakamatsu Productions and independently produced and distributed films throughout his life. When one of his films was screened, he personally contacted the theaters and traveled to mini-theaters throughout the country with the actors in tow.

Kajiwara： Wakamatsu would always bring along the film’s actors and give remarks on the stage on the first day of a film’s screening. There used to be a Chinese restaurant here on the first floor where they’d have a wrap party and he loved to eat his favorite food, pig’s feet, there.

Think about it now, it must’ve been around 2010 when remarks by directors and talk shows became established at mini-theaters all over Japan. Before that, directors mostly went to theaters in Tokyo. I don’t think they ordinarily did that even in Yokohama.

After we took over management, as much as possible we asked the director to give some remarks and talk on stage when an independent film was screened at this theater. We got to know lots of directors because of that. In 2010, we held a special screening of ten young directors called “Future Great Masters.” At that time, we showed films by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Natsuki Seta who had just finished Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School, and Director Sho Miyake who had graduated from The Film School of Tokyo and was in the middle of preparing his first feature-length film. The directors gave talks each day. Back then it was a program to introduce young, promising directors that were unknown, but now when I think of it, it was an amazing lineup.

I think there are quite a few opportunities to screen films by students from Tokyo University of the Arts since it’s also in Yokohama (the Graduate School of Film and New Media was established in Bashamichi, Yokohama in 2005). Film assignments for the graduate school are often shot in Yokohama, and it’s encouraging that new directors from Yokohama are being produced one after another.

There are many directors in addition to those from Tokyo University of the Arts who have ties to Yokohama and are friends of Jack & Betty.

Kajiwara： Director Yusuke Okuda, whose film, "Somebody’s Flowers" that I selected, submitted productions to “Yokohama HAPPY MUS!C Film Festival,” the predecessor to the “Yokohama Independent Film Festival” that we originally held together with GACHINKO Film. It’s through that connection that this film was created. Director Okuda is from Yokohama and came to Jack & Betty with his mother when he was a child, so he’s got a stronger connection to this theater than we do. Jack & Betty doesn’t appear in the film, but a Yokohama housing complex is the main setting, and the cake shop and yakiniku restaurant (a restaurant where patrons cook their own meat on a griddle or grill; very popular in Japan and South Korea) that appear part way through the film are also located nearby.

Yoshifumi Tsubota who directed "What Can You Do about It?" also lives quite close to Jack & Betty, so I often run into him at bars in this neighborhood. That film is a documentary about the director visiting his uncle who has a developmental disorder and lives in Kanagawa Prefecture where Yokohama City is located. It’s a story about Kanagawa and Yokohama, and I hope that viewers overseas will also watch it with great interest as a film that addresses a current issue in Japan.

The current situation faced by mini-theaters can’t be talked about without mentioning the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020 when a nationwide state of emergency was declared, Jack & Betty also had no choice but to shut down for over a month. After that, there were ongoing restrictions such as limits on seating. The number of audience members tumbled and have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels even today.

On the other hand, an effort to save mini-theaters was soon launched. The film directors Koji Fukada and Ryusuke Hamaguchi voluntarily established the Mini-theater Aid and started crowdfunding right away. In the end, the fund collected over 330 million yen and distributed it to 118 theaters and 103 organizations.

Kajiwara： We were so thankful when that happened. More than anything, we were surprised that such a huge amount of money was collected from around Japan. There were also many other directors who took action during the difficulties due to the pandemic. For example, Director Yu Irie called on people through Twitter and a blog to buy merchandise from various theaters to support them. That inspired us to also put together an original relief set for our theater and sell it through an online shop. About 2,000 people bought it. That really gave us encouragement.

Kajiwara： That also prompted me to think a lot about how great it’d be if theaters throughout Japan could collaborate to share what’s great about mini-theaters. One of those collaborations is a regional screening exchange started by the Yokohama Cinema Network. We’ve applied to the city for subsidies and are carrying out activities together with people managing film screenings and film festivals, including the small movie theaters in Yokohama, Yokohama Cinemarine and Cinema Novecento, as well as the Yokohama Football Film Festival and others.

The year before last, we held a screening exchange with Cinema Onomichi in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture. A film set in Onomichi was screened in Yokohama and a dialogue was remotely held with the manager of Cinema Onomichi through an online connection. Conversely, a film set in Yokohama was screened in Onomichi and I spoke through an online connection. Last year, we held an exchange with mini-theaters in the Kansai region, which is located in the midwest of Japan’s main island of Honshu. In this way, I hope we can learn from each other about the advantages of each theater and how people engage with local movie theaters in other communities. Precisely because we’re small theaters, we all have to join together and communicate in various ways.

Before the pandemic, we started an exchange with the Mirim Theater in Incheon, South Korea in 2019. As mini-theaters in the port towns of Incheon and Yokohama, we have a lot in common and we were excited to carry out exchange programs. In 2019, we were invited to South Korea. Our staff and Director Shuichi Okita went to Incheon for screenings and talk shows. Following that, people from the Mirim Theater came to Yokohama and we screened South Korean films and held talk shows. It was a very interesting undertaking, so it was really too bad that it had to be suspended because of the pandemic.

Finally, we asked about what makes Yokohama so special.

Kajiwara： For such a long time, Yokohama has been the setting for so many films and dramas that it’s called a movie town. I think it’s because the air of an old port town still remains in various places. Above all, what’s wonderful about Yokohama is that there are many neighborhoods within walking distance that have completely different characteristics. From here, you can walk to Chinatown, and there’s also the Motomachi area with its retro-vibe streets and popular cafes, as well as Yamashita Park right in front of Yokohama Port. There’s Bashamichi with the Redbrick Warehouse, but there’s also Noge and Yoshidamachi with a collection of small, long-established bars. Many people with overseas roots also live in the Koganecho area, so it’s a neighborhood where you can enjoy many cultures along with some questionable things. If you come to Yokohama, you should definitely take a walk to explore the different places.

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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 recommended by Cinema Jack & Betty (Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture)
Director Yusuke Okuda "Somebody’s Flowers" (2021) [Streaming: December 15, 2022–March15, 2023]
Director Yoshifumi Tsubota "What Can You Do about It?" (2019) [Streaming: March 15–June 15, 2023]