Scenes from Nagori yuki (Regretful snow). (Skip)

For a movie to be seen by 12,000 viewers in the week after it opened would be quite a poor performance for a major film shown in Tokyo. In a provincial town with a population of 37,000, however, it is quite a feat. This means that one resident in three saw the movie, director Nobuhiko Obayashi's latest work Nagori yuki (Regretful snow). Before opening in Tokyo, Nagori yuki was shown in April in the city where it was shot, Usuki in Oita Prefecture, where it achieved the amazing success described above. It was then shown all over Oita Prefecture, attracting 50,000 moviegoers in 30 days.

Grassroots Efforts
Nagori yuki is a love story that depicts the pasts and presents of three men and women meeting for the first time in 28 years in their hometown, Usuki. Obayashi, who received plaudits for his previous films set in provincial towns, including the Onomichi trilogy, got the idea for Nagori yuki from a hit song by 70s singer-songwriter Shozo Ise, who was born in a town near Usuki. The director received the full cooperation of the local community in making his film. Nagori yuki opens in Tokyo and nationwide in the autumn.

This year has seen a series of movies open in provincial areas prior to getting a wider release. Shiroi fune (A White Ship), a film telling the true story of elementary-school students fascinated by white ferries sailing out into the open sea, opened in May in Shimane, where it was filmed. It was seen by some 27,000 people in five weeks, a considerable number for a rural area. Meanwhile, Mori no gakko (Forest school), a film based on a book by zoologist Masao Kawai that portrays Kawai's childhood and is based on children's literature, opened in Sasayama City, Hyogo Prefecture, in February and attracted 4,000 viewers. Shiroi fune opens in Tokyo and nationwide in July. Mori no gakko opened first in the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe area in June and opens in Tokyo and nationwide in July.

	A scene from Shiroi fune (A White Ship). (There's Enterprise)

Besides the quality of the movies themselves, one of the reasons behind the success of these films cited by all of the filmmakers is that they were made using grassroots filmmaking, with the active involvement of local people. The producer of Shiroi fune, Koichi Kusakabe, thanked local fishermen for taking a day off and sacrificing their daily catches of 300,000 yen (about U.S. $2,610 at 115 yen to the dollar) to participate in a flotilla of 50 fishing boats in one of the movie's most striking scenes. Kusakabe said, "That kind of support and dedication is reflected in the film and must be one of the things that has moved viewers." A total of 1,500 locals participated in the filming of Nagori yuki, playing a variety of roles from staff to extras. The film's producer, Terumichi Yamazaki, commented: "Most filmmakers tend to shy away from using amateurs in their movies because it costs time and money, but we avoided that kind of emphasis on efficiency that you find in Tokyo-based films and were determined to make the film using local power. That's why people are so attached to 'our film.'" Yamazaki also stresses the significance of screening such movies for local people before they open in Tokyo: "I think it is the duty of people involved in spreading regional culture to spend time giving performances so that you can see the faces of each and every viewer, the end users."

Film Commissions Spring Up
This type of homegrown, regional film is expected to become a regular feature of Japan's cinema scene. In fact, in the town of Tobetsu in Hokkaido, a preview screening of Mori no gakko set off a trend in filmmaking, and recently a film commission was established. Similarly, the film commission of Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, was set up as a result of the filming of Shiroi fune.

Kusakabe is half surprised that "movies are giving meaning to local people's lives." Toyoji Suzuki, the producer of Mori no gakko, describes the feelings local people have toward the films like this: "These movies are a way to show the world at large the pride they feel toward their regions, pride that they usually have no opportunity to express."

The process of setting up regional film commissions first accelerated in 2000, and it is expected that the success of recent provincial-based films will provide further momentum for this trend.