The Japanese Market for UK Films - BFI

2-5 Successful UK Films in Japan
Quality movies have recently been successful in the Japanese market, which
used to rely on Hollywood’s blockbusters. Following are the titles that were
successful, with suggested reasons for their success.
(1) Quality titles aimed at women
Almost to the exclusion of the male audience, the marketing of these titles was
concentrated on a female audience. This was effective, especially for release in
small theatres.
Such titles were “Girl with a Pearl Earring “, “Callas Forever “, “Hilary and
Jackie”.
(2) Titles that won an Academy Award
It is unique to the Japanese market that Academy Award winning titles are not
guaranteed to succeed. Yet, it is unmistakable that the Award is a trigger for
success. Titles targeting women have this tendency.
Representative titles are “The Queen“, “The Hours“, ”Elizabeth”, and “The
English Patient”.
(3) Titles with Popular Actors
These could be categorized as female targets, especially the titles with Johnny
Depp and (“Chocolat”, “Finding Neverland “), Hugh Grant ( “Notting Hill“, “Love
Actually “) have a strong probability of success.
(4) The Documentary Boom
Starting with American Michael Moore, documentaries were often seen to have a
big success. After the huge success of “ Deep Blue “, titles dealing with the
ecology of living things were released one after another.
(5) Titles produced by Aardman
The Aardman animations are popular in Japan and are familiar from TV
commercials. Their titles have potential to succeed in the future.
Representative titles are the “Wallace and Gromit” series and “Chicken Run “.
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