The Problem

Japan is the third-largest box office market in the world, behind the shared US/Canada market and China, which only passed Japan as recently as 2012. It’s a huge market, and for years and years Japan has watched the same Hollywood movies that the United States watches. Look at the top earning movies in Japan over the past decade and it won’t look too different to the top movies in the United States: Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, and so on. Of the top ten opening weekends in Japanese cinema history, only one isn’t American-made: One Piece Film Z. The biggest Hollywood films will gross 80 to 120 million dollars in Japan, such huge jumbo numbers that it’s hard to get your head around.

But in 2012, that changed. While The Avengers was setting box office records around the world and other movies like The Dark Knight Rises and The Hunger Games, Skyfall, and the Spider-Man reboot were making hundreds of millions of dollars, Japan had no interest in any of it. Every single Hollywood movie was beaten that year by Umizaru 4, a Japanese Coast Guard drama based on the manga of the same name; Thermae Romae, another manga-inspired live action film about an ancient Roman bathhouse architect who finds a tunnel to modern Japan; the millionth Bayside Shakedown movie, a spectacularly successful Japanese police comedy-dramas; and the aforementioned One Piece Film Z. The top-earning American-made movie was Les Miserables, which earned a relatively weak $62 million. The blockbuster of the year, The Avengers, only earned $42 million in Japan, and Hollywood realized that they might be about to lose the world’s third-largest box office to the suddenly dominant Toho and Toei studios.

The Plan

So Hollywood set out to make movies that they thought would appeal to Japan. Of the Big Eight studios, four released films within the past year and a half that seemed to take on this basic goal of “doing something Japanese to recapture their market”:

Disney produced an animated film about video games called Wreck-It Ralph in most of the world, but called Sugar Rush in Japan. The basic idea for Wreck-It Ralph had been sitting on a desk at Disney since the late ‘80s, but it got picked up and quickly produced with an unprecedented amount of Japanese cooperation: Licensing deals with Nintendo, Sega, and other Japanese companies, a marketing campaign starring the Japanese geek comedy duo Yoiko, and even an AKB48 song and video with the same name as the movie.

Warner Bros. released Pacific Rim, a Guillermo del Toro tribute to kaiju films. The movie includes characters and segments about the defense of the Japanese, American, Chinese, and Russian Pacific coasts (Hey! Can you name four of the five largest box office markets?), and Pacific Rim also cast Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi as the female lead.

Fox bewildered some people when they announced they were making another Wolverine movie, only this time set in Japan and with a number of Japanese actors, including Hiroyuki Sanada. Yes, even though The Wolverine may have had a fairly weak plot justification for sending Hugh Jackman to Japan, the economic factors may have been a bit stronger.

And finally, Universal gave us 47 Ronin, an American version of a classic Japanese tale with virtually all Japanese actors besides Keanu Reeves. Fraught with re-writes and re-edits to determine exactly how Japanese the movie should be, the film was such an overt attempt to earn Japanese box office that it was a marketing disaster when 47 Ronin debuted at #5 in its opening weekend in Japan, ahead of its American release.

The Results

And the beautiful part is that all this effort, all this extra attention toward trying to bring Japan back into the Hollywood fold, resulted in a second straight year of Japanese ambivalence to American movies, with the Japanamerican movie attempts doing even worse than normal. Monsters University was Hollywood’s only clear hit in the Japanese box office, earning $90 million, followed, surprisingly, by a subtitled version of Seth MacFarlane’s wise-cracking stuffed animal bro-comedy Ted at $44 million. The rest of the Japanese box office top 10 are domestic products like Miyazaki’s latest film The Wind Rises and Lupin III vs. Conan.

Wreck-It Ralph earned a disappointing $30 million, worse than Cars 2 or Up or Tangled did in Japan in previous years, and only slightly better than Brave. Yet it was the best success of these four “Japanamerican” movies. Pacific Rim made $14.5 million. The Wolverine earned $8 million. And 47 Ronin: Only $2.8 million.

Besides 47 Ronin, the movies all made a modest profit (going by the standard rule of thumb: movies generally break even when they gross twice their production budget worldwide), but none of them did well in Japan, the place they were supposed to win back for Hollywood. If the studios’ strategy with these curiously Japan-heavy films was in fact to win back the Japanese box office, then they failed miserably. (If their objective was to get Rinko Kikuchi some more work then hey, good job.)

The plan didn’t work, and it’s not terribly hard to see why. Japan has never had a problem with non-Japanese actors and non-Japanese settings before, so giving them that is a very shallow approach to the problem. An anonymous U.S. studio marketing executive told Variety that he thought Hollywood had a tone problem and an audience problem in Japan: “What we’d like to see are more family-oriented films. Too many films coming out of Hollywood are rather dark and depressing — there’s not a lot that families can take their kids to.” And media consultant Geoffrey Bossiere attributed Japanese disinterest to the tone of violence and destruction in even the more light-hearted American blockbusters like The Avengers.

One last diagnosis: America (and many other countries) love comic book adaptations, and Japan loves to go see manga adaptations. Hollywood can’t stop making Marvel and DC superhero movies, which take in boatloads domestically and in other English-speaking countries like the United Kingdom and Australia. But with the slight exception of Spider-Man movies, superhero movies have never made much money in Japan, whether that’s a tone problem (dark, violent, and so on) or just a lack of interest in the characters.

So, although a new Godzilla movie is on the horizon, this is probably the end of this swath of American movies with Japanese actors, themes, and settings, at least if Hollywood does what it usually does, that being going where the money is.

If you’ve seen any of these films, you’ll probably intuitively understand why they didn’t do well in Japan… and in some cases America as well. And, if you haven’t heard the bad news yet… check out John’s Tofugu review of 47 Ronin. Basically, don’t spend your own money on going to see it, especially if those moneys are counted in yen.

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Bonus Wallpapers!

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Sources:

• The Wall Street Journal – China Is Now No. 2 Box Office Behind U.S.
• Motion Picture Association of America – Theatrical Market Statistics, 2012
• Box Office Mojo
• Edge – Sonic Team’s Sugar Rush
• Variety – Japan: Hollywood No Longer Dominates Box Office

Jazz hands!

Traditional theater has always been a huge part of Japanese culture. Noh, kabuki, and bunraku theater have been around in Japan for literally hundreds of years, but Japan has also been quick to adapt western-style theater as well. There’s no better example of this than a well-known theater group that specializes in western plays, but – get this – also has no male actors.

The name of this all-female group is the Takarazuka Revue (宝塚歌劇団). Located in the city of Takarazuka, the Revue is the longest running theater group in Japanese history, performing its first ever show 1914.

You might think that an all-female cast would limit the roles in the productions, but far from it. Takarazuka Revue doesn’t let things like male roles get in its way. The ladies of the Revue aren’t at all shy to cross dress for an otokoyaku (男役), or male role. In fact in Takarazuka Revue, only the most senior, experienced actresses play the otokoyaku.

The group specializes in romantic musicals, covering everything from classics like “West Side Story” and “Phantom of the Opera” to more modern stories and even opera!

Takarazuka Revue is for ladies, by ladies. Not only are all the actors women, but a staggering majority of the audience is female as well. Maybe it’s the musicals that attracts so many female audience members, or maybe it’s empowering to see women playing such strong roles. Whatever the reason, Takarazuka Revue shows are so drenched in estrogen, you might walk out of the theater with an extra X chromosome.

Training for the Revue

Joining the Revue ain’t easy. The actresses of Takarazuka Revue have to go through the Takarazuka Music School, where they’re rigorously trained in acting, singing, dancing, and even things like art and traditional tea ceremonies. Competition is fierce in the Takarazuka Music School. The School receives tons of applications every single year, but the school only accepts a handful of applicants.

In some ways, this cut-throat school sounds a lot more like boot camp than an acting school.

“Let me see your acting face!”

The 5 Troupes

After graduating from Takarazuka Music School, the actresses are divided up into the five different troupes in the Takarazuka Revue. Each troupe has its own different specialty. The five troupes are called Flower, Moon, Snow, Star, and Cosmos. Let me break down each one for you:

Star Troupe

Star Troupe specializes in more modern, experimental theater instead of the tried-and-true Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals other troupes perform.

Flower Troupe

Flower Troupe is the most prominent troupe in the whole revue. The size and scale of its shows are heads and shoulders above the rest, and they sport the most talented and dreamy otokoyaku.

Moon Troupe

Moon Troupe not only has the youngest members of any of the troupes, but also focuses the most on music. The ladies of Moon Troupe are the most talented singers of the bunch, and go to great lengths to perfect their musical abilities.

Snow Troupe

In a group known for its western performances, Snow Troupe is known for its performances of more traditional Japanese plays and dramas.

Cosmos Troupe

Cosmos, like Star Troupe, specializes in new, modern, and experimental theater. Cosmos is probably best known (and loved by otaku everywhere) for their Phoenix Wright musical: Phoenix Wright: The Truth Reborn (逆転裁判 −蘇る真実−).

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UD00kYcmQ8']

Objection!

Phoenix Wright: The Truth Reborn was so popular it got a sequel only six months later. Never underestimate an otaku’s love of a good musical, I guess.

All Aboard!

The weirdest part about Takarazuka Revue? All of these lady thespians are employees of the Hankyu Railway company. You might not know Hankyu by name, but you probably recognize its trademark maroon train cars and maybe even have seen a Hankyu train in the soul-crushingly sad animated movie “Grave of the Fireflies.”

Not pictured: the musical happening inside the train.

Way back in the day in 1913, the president of Hankyu Railway wanted to attract more people to the city of Takarazuka, where Hankyu had a major rail line. The president, sick of what he called old-fashioned Kabuki, decided to turn the idea of all-male theater on its head and instead have an all-female theater troupe. The idea stuck and the Takarazuka Revue has been been around ever since. I can’t ever imagine an Amtrak theater troupe ever doing this well.

Have you seen a Takarazuka Revue show? Desperately want to go to Takarazuka and see one? Let us know in the comments.

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(All credit for the awesome title goes to John!)

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