At 20:41 8/28/96 -0500, Ai Anazawa wrote:
>Mr. Aaron Gerow reminded me of something which I've been wondering for
>quite a while when he mentioned something about Beet Takeshi (Takeshi
>Kitano) on Japanese war movies.
>
>My question is: Have any of his films ever been distributed in the US?
>I've been longing to see films he's directed, including SONATINE, yet I've
>never seen any at video stores.  Does anyone know?
 
Not living in the US anymore, I do not know for sure (my guess would be his
films have only been limited to festival screenings).  But I can say that
someone from the distributor of KIDS RETURN in Japan told me that a US
distributor (Miramax, I think) has bought the US rights to distribute
SONATINE on the recommendation of Quentin Tarantino.  Whether they can
actually distribute it given the continuing difficulties of foreign
(especially non-English language) films to break the American market, I
don't know.  If this story is true and it does open, I would recommend
people see it if they can.
 
Aaron Gerow
Tokyo, Japan
(formerly Univ. of Iowa, soon to be Meiji Gakuin University)
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