Movie Going Madness in Japan

[Jason C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jason C]

So cool. Your pictures really make me wish I could be there. So jealous.

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

Cannibal Holocaust is getting a nationwide theatrical 4K re-release in Japan from this Friday. And I don't mean some limited special screenings, I mean full theatrical run. Got my ticket reserved already.

https://syokujin4k.com/

T-shirt was also released:

https://core-choco.shop-pro.jp/?pid=174165612

[Jason C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jason C]

Hmmm. Not sure how I'd feel watching Cannibal Holocaust in a theater. I love it but its a bit of a downer. Kind of a secret shame of a film.

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

So I went to see Cannibal Holocaust yesterday. The film is given a nationwide theatrical 4K re-release to celebrate its 40th anniversary (*). It’s been booked to 21 theaters so far. In Sapporo where I saw it, it plays twice a day on Satsugeki’s biggest screen (of four), which comes with 200 seats. There were about 100 people in the audience in the first screening. Let’s see if this will go on for a 2nd week.

* 40th Anniversary counting from the original Japanese theatrical release in 1983, when the film was the 9th highest grossing foreign film of the year at the box office, and reportedly a huge hit on video (I do not believe the internet tale of this outperforming E.T. on video however. Surely it did not. In theaters at least E.T. was not only the no. 1 highest grossing film of 1982, but 1983 as well, and by a huge margin).

As advertised, Cannibal Holocaust was fully uncensored this time, which I assume wasn’t the case in terms of nudity back in the 80s. Naturally lacking the convenient animal cruelty free option of the US home video editions, I had to resort to manual eyelid censorship during those regrettable scenes.

Nevertheless, it was great to see this in theater, especially on a nice screen. The red coloured no. 1 screening room at Satsugeki has been in operation for decades. I’m not sure when it was built but Toho operated a theater there until around 2010, then it was out of regular use for a decade until Satsugeki moved into the premises a few years ago. The audience was the usual-for-the-theater young(ish) adult crowd, mostly men but quite a few women as well. At least one was wearing Hardcore Chocolate’s new Cannibal Holocaust t-shirt.

The audience was also given rather cool Cannibal Holocaust artwork cards upon entrance (Yoshiki Takahashi’s name is on the reverse side).

After the film I briefly considered having yakiniku for dinner, but settled for raw fish by the river (take out sushi) before heading to the next theater for a 4K restoration of Vanishing Point.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Very cool - was there a Cronenberg retrospective going on there as well?

[Jason C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jason C]

Very cool. I love how you describe/photograph these outings.

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

Very cool - was there a Cronenberg retrospective going on there as well?

Not quite. Videodrome is going for a nationwide theatrical re-release next month, ahead of Crimes of the Future which opens in August.

Obviously I've not seen Crimes of the Future yet, but I was a little surprised about the Japanese PG-12 rating it has been given

Very cool. I love how you describe/photograph these outings.

Thanks. Always good to hear someone finds them useful / entertaining.

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

I also find your movie experiences and photos very interesting. You folks get a goldmine of vintage films there. That never happens in my city.

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

So I went to see Cannibal Holocaust yesterday. The film is given a nationwide theatrical 4K re-release to celebrate its 40th anniversary (*). It’s been booked to 21 theaters so far. In Sapporo where I saw it, it plays twice a day on Satsugeki’s biggest screen (of four), which comes with 200 seats. There were about 100 people in the audience in the first screening. Let’s see if this will go on for a 2nd week.

I forgot to drop the news earlier, but the answer is yes! Cannibal Holocaust indeed headed for a 2nd week of screenings and is currently playing on the no. 4 screen for 170 seats twice every day. This is the 2nd biggest screen Satsugeki has and is somewhat fittingly located underground.

And it doesn't end here! The latest update came out last night that the film will go on for a 3rd week of screening from Friday. It will continue on the same no. 4 screen with one screening each day.

I also took a brief look at the situation in Tokyo, where Cannibal Holocaust opened simultaneously in three theaters two weeks ago. It's still playing in each of them, and they all announced last night that the screenings will continue next week as well. In one of them, Cinemart Shinjuku, it will continue on their 335 seat no. 1 screen where it's currently playing.

I was hoping for the film to do well, but this is much better than I expected. Japan gets a lot of theatrical re-releases of old classics (Vanishing Point, Escape from New York, Dawn of the Dead, Django, Last Tango in Paris, The Way of the Dragon, Sorcerer just to mention a few from the past 5 years) but it's rare for re-releases to play longer than one week, and even many new European arthouse dramas or smaller Japanese dramas and genre films have to settle for one or two weeks. Glad to see the Japanese haven't lost their taste for human flesh!