Thriving studios
Japanese cinema has a long history, dating back to 1896. It was first shown in theaters with puppet showmen. Tokyo and Kyoto were at the forefront, with screenings taking place in both metropolises. In 1908, Kyoto's Shinnyodo temple was the setting for Shōzō Makino's first film, Honnoji Kassen. Two years later, Kyoto saw the birth of the first film studio: the Nijo Castle Studio. It wasn't until 1912 that the first Japanese film production company, Nikkatsu, was born, this time in Tokyo. In 1926, Toei Studio Kyoto came into being. This gigantic facility was ideal for the construction of fake sets and the development of special effects.
A difficult start
The 1930s brought Yasujiro Ozu's first films: The Heart of Tokyo, After We Parted and Tokyo Kids. The 1950s represent the golden age of Japanese cinema. In 1951, Akira Kurosawa won the Venice Golden Lion for Rashōmon, set in Kyoto. In 1953, Ozu tells the story of a retired couple who come to visit their children living in Tokyo in Voyage à Tokyo. Ozu brings the disintegration of the Japanese family system to the screen for the first time, creating a monument of Japanese cinema. The number of films declined in the 1970s and 1980s, as the major national production companies began to disappear. Oshima Nagisa's Empire of the Senses (1975), in which a former prostitute in middle-class Tokyo enjoys watching her masters' lovemaking, is a notable example. The 1980s-1990s saw the emergence of a cinema of the shadows, which was not exported and to which the Japanese preferred Hollywood cinema. The 2000s brought an auteur cinema led by directors such as Kichitarō Negishi, Sōmai Shinji and Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose innovative, uncluttered approach to fiction is closer to documentary. In 2018, the latter released A Family Affair, featuring the story of a lost little girl who finds refuge with a family living in Tokyo. The film was an international success, winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes the same year, as well as the César for Best Foreign Film in 2019. In 2023, another Kore-eda film, Monster(Kaibutsu), was awarded the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.
The world of animated films
Japanese cinema is undeniably marked by a particular genre: the animated film. High-quality animated films emerged in the 1990s, seriously competing with American productions. Tokyo and Kyoto played a major role in the development of this genre, with Hayao Miyazaki and Studios Ghibli in Tokyo among others. An undisputed master of the discipline, Miyazaki is Japan's most famous director abroad. Born in Tokyo in 1941, he began his career as an intervalist at the famous Tōei animation studios, where Japan's greatest mangas were created. There he met Isao Takahata. They signed their first feature film, Cagliostro Castle, in 1979. Not only was the film a huge hit on release, it remains one of the classics of its genre to this day. In 1985, Miyazaki and Takahata set up their own studios, Studios Ghibli, a think tank producing the very best in manga and animated films. Studios Ghibli produced animated masterpieces such as Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke and Chihiro's Journey, which went on to sell millions of tickets worldwide, not to mention their immense success in Japan. Kyoto, for its part, saw the birth of KyoAni Studios (short for Kyoto Animation) in 1981. Under the initiative of producer Yoko Hatta, the studio initially worked in post-production or co-production with other names such as Sunrise and Studios Ghibli (notably on the cartoon Kiki the Little Witch). In 2003, KyoAni began its own productions with the Munto cartoon. Three years later, the studio gained notoriety with the series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya , recounting the adventures of two young high-school students fascinated by paranormal phenomena. The studio's latest releases include A Silent Voice (2016) and Liz et l'oiseau bleu (2018).
Internationally
Japanese culture continues to fascinate directors and producers the world over. Once again, Tokyo and Kyoto find themselves at the heart of numerous works, both independent and big-budget. Here's an overview of some of the most famous. Starting with Sydney Pollack's Yakuza, released in 1974. Now a cult classic, it has inspired many films, including Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill (2003). This two-volume film recounts the vengeful quest of a bride (Uma Thurman) who is assassinated on her wedding day. Her journey takes her to Tokyo, Japan. Tarantino, inspired by Tokyo's Gonpachi Nishiazabu restaurant, decides to use it as the backdrop for one of the film's most spectacular scenes. In 2005, the magnificent Memoir of a Geisha transports us to Kyoto. This delicate work by Rob Marshall tells the story of Chiyo, a young blue-eyed Japanese girl, and her life as a geisha, from her apprenticeship to her apogee. Although set in Japan, the film is shot almost entirely in California, with the exception of a few scenes shot in Kyoto (at the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine, the Kiyomizu-Dera temple and the Yoshimine-Dera temple, among others). A year later, Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu visited Tokyo for his drama Babel. In 2008, three renowned directors (Frenchmen Michel Gondry and Leos Carax, and Korean Bong Joon-Ho) teamed up to release the beautiful Tokyo! This film, made up of three short films all set in the city of Tokyo, received a nomination at the Cannes Film Festival in the "Un certain regard" category, and won the Titra film prize at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival. Let's not forget hit films such as Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), in which all that is most picturesque and folkloric in Japanese culture serves as the backdrop for a chaste love story between Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson; the blockbuster Fast and Furious : Tokyo Drift ; Stefan Liberski's delicate Tokyo Fiancée; and the screenplay prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, L'Innocence.
