Over the years, many people have asked me why I bother to review Japanese films, when so few non-Japanese-speaking foreigners can fully appreciate them.
I have stock answers: Many readers of "The Japan Times" are Japanese and many Japanese films today are subtitled and screened at foreign film festivals or released abroad on DVD. Also, a few distributors will screen a subtitled print, often at one theater in Tokyo, sometimes only once a week — but better than nothing. So it's not quite as though I'm writing for my own amusement. Not quite.
Still, a film like Miyuki Sohara's documentary "Hannari — Geisha Modern" makes me realize again how insular and provincial the local industry really is. Most Japanese film producers and distributors, from the big networks on down, have about as much concern for the international market, including the expat community in Japan, as a banquet chef does for the after-dinner mints, with attitudes typically ranging from mild interest to frank indifference.