[Mini Theater Revisited] No. 26 Shibuya style trend, hot summer of mini theaters... Part 3 Shibuya's pioneering mini theater, Cine Saison Shibuya

luc besson boom

At the time, the arthouse theaters were canvases on which opinion leaders could paint whatever they wanted, and young audience members no doubt enjoyed that free-spirited atmosphere.

In addition to these 1960s-style works, Luc Besson's " The Big Blue " was also a successful revival produced by this theater. Producer Takasu and editor Katsumi Ishikuma of the aforementioned Japan Herald Films teamed up to bring the film back to life in 1992.

This is the French version of "The Great Blue," which was released in English in 1988. The English version was two hours long, but the French version added 49 minutes, giving it a very different feel from the original.

The main characters are two French men (Jean-Marc Barr and Jean Reno) who are fascinated by the allure of diving, and they are modeled after Jacques Mayol, a real-life diver who could dive more than 100 meters without an air tank.

The French version focuses on his romance with an American woman (Rosanna Arquette, a cute Hollywood actress who was popular at the time), highlighting the differences in men's and women's views of love.

The catchphrase for the newspaper advertisement that appeared in the Asahi Shimbun on the day before the opening (June 19th) was "6/20 The Big Blue(Great Blue/Complete Edition) Returns." Popular singer-songwriter Yumi Matsutoya also provided a comment.

"The heroine accepts everything and lets the man go to the sea. That's one form of love."

It is a clean design using white text with a picture of a dolphin, and it is precisely because of its simplicity that the advertisement stands out.

The 1988 English version was a flop in Japan, but the revival was a huge hit. Former manager Hirano reflects on the success of the film.

"Luc Besson wasn't that famous back then, but his films were a hit because they touched people's hearts. The films were about three hours long and were shown three times a day, but they were always full to capacity. There were no assigned seats in those days, so overflowing audience members had to wait on the stairs for nearly three hours to see the next showing. One time the line stretched from the sixth floor to the first floor. Looking back, it was rather unkind, but at the time it seems the audiences waited with excitement and anticipation for the next showing."

At that time, programs costing 1,000 yen each apparently sold well.

"We made a large-format program and a poster with almost no Japanese on it, and it sold like hotcakes. Nowadays, we're lucky if 10% of the audience buys a program ticket, and even back then we usually only make about 30%. For The Big Blue, about one in two people bought a ticket. We also had a magazine-style editor on the pamphlet, which made the visuals look cool and different from those made by traditional film companies. Our customers were not just couples who had previously come to the cinema, but also so-called creators, or people with what are called katakana professions."

The film was screened for five weeks at Cine Saison Shibuya, but then travelled to various other theaters, including Kabukicho Toei, Shimotakaido Cinema, and Cine Switch Ginza, making it a long-running film across Tokyo.

At this time, the popularity of Luc Besson was established, which led to the release of " Léon: The Professional: The Complete Edition " (1994) in October 1996, which ran for 17 weeks at the box office, setting a new record for the number of people who attended Cine Saison Shibuya.

Looking back at the record number of moviegoers over the years, three films starring Asano Tadanobu have been in the top ten, with " Party 7 " coming in third (19 weeks in theaters), a double feature of " PiCNiC " (96) and " Fried Dragon Fish Thomas Earwing's Arowana " (96) coming in sixth (14 weeks in theaters), and " Shark Skin Man and Peach-Bum Girl " (98) coming in tenth (12 weeks in theaters). It has also become a theater where up-and-coming directors of the 90s, such as Ishii Katsuhito and Iwai Shunji, who directed these films, have taken on new challenges.

Among foreign films, Pedro Almodovar's masterpiece " All About My Mother " (1998) was the second-highest-ever with 18 weeks in theaters, " Kiss of the Romeo Is Bleeding " was fourth with 15 weeks in theaters, " Es" (2001) was fifth with 18 weeks in theaters, and the Coen brothers' " O Brother, Where Art Thou? " (2000) was ninth with 15 weeks in theaters. Other films that made it into the top 20 include " The Kids ," " Elephant " (2003), " Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels " (1998), and " Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery " (1997).

Late-night screenings were favored by revivals of 1990s director Jean-Luc Godard's films, with " One Plus One " (1968) coming in sixth after 12 weeks of screening, and " Breathless " (1979) coming in tenth after 12 weeks of screening. Six of Godard's films are in the top 20.

Looking back at the films screened, many of them were of high quality, but there was also an undeniable impression that they were somewhat disjointed.

When it first opened, Cine Saison mainly showed films that it distributed itself, but over time it was also used as part of the Toho cinema chain, and eventually Tokyo Theatres took over the programming, and the types of films shown at the theater changed over the years.

When we interviewed Tokyo Theatre's last manager, Nozaki Chinatsu, and Public Relations Manager Takahara Taro, they both said, "Shibuya's audience was young, so we targeted that demographic. But the audience's preferences changed, and eventually they shifted away from the cultural works of the past and towards easier-to-understand works that emphasized entertainment and storytelling."

The film that is closing is the comedy " Due Date" (2010) starring Robert Downey Jr., which is quite a transformation considering that the opening film was Fellini's arthouse film.

Meanwhile, the revival screenings of the 1990s, which featured unique editors and creators as opinion leaders, had a power that was typical of Shibuya at a time when movies were happily linked to music and fashion, and they have left a major mark on the box office history of late-night screenings at Cine Saison Shibuya.

(Next time we will be introducing PARCO's new venture, Cine Quinto, which will follow the unprecedented Vincent Gallo boom.)

◉The site where Cine Saison Shibuya once stood has been transformed into a theater for plays, vaudeville shows, and other entertainment.

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Text: Sawako Omori

Movie journalist. His books include "Lost Cinema" (Kawade Shobo Shinsha) and other books, and his translations include "Woody", a biography of Woody Allen (written by D. Evanier, Kinema Junposha). Contributes to magazines such as ``Music Magazine'' and ``Kinema Junpo.'' A research book based on the web series, ``Mini Theater Revisited,'' is also scheduled to be published.

*This article was serialized on a website run by Geijutsu Shimbun between 2013 and 2014. This time, we have received permission from Sawako Omori and Geijutsu Shinbunsha Co., Ltd. to reprint this work. In addition, ``Mini Theater Revisited'' has been significantly revised, new interviews have been added, and it is scheduled to be published as a book by Artes Publishing in 2021.