Kadokawa Pictures
Encyclopedia
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese movie studio
Movie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...
.
History
One of the most famous studios in Japan and founded in 1942 as , it is best known for having produced the giant monster GameraGamera
is a giant, flying turtle from a popular series of kaiju films produced by Daiei Motion Picture Company in Japan. Created in 1965 to rival the success of Toho Studios' Godzilla during the daikaiju boom of the mid-to-late 1960s, Gamera has gained fame and notoriety as a Japanese icon in his own...
film series and the Daimajin
Daimajin
The is a daikaiju from the Daimajin trilogy created by Daiei. All three movies in the trilogy — Daimajin, Return of Daimajin , and Wrath of Daimajin — were made in 1966, and were released months apart. Daimajin Kanon a new television drama based on the films premiered in Japan in 2010...
Trilogy. It also produced the Zatoichi
Zatoichi
is a fictional character featured in one of Japan's longest running series of films and a television series set in the Edo period. The character, a blind masseur and swordmaster, was created by novelist . This originally minor character was developed for the screen by Daiei Studios and actor...
and Nemuri Kyoshiro film series and the television series Shōnen Jet before going bankrupt in 1971. In 1974 it was bought by Tokuma Shoten
Tokuma Shoten
is a publisher in Japan, that was established in 1954.The company was also the parent company for the film studio Daiei Motion Pictures, bought in 1974, and the record label Tokuma Japan Communications, bought in 1972, until both were sold off when Yasuyoshi Tokuma, who established this company,...
; and in 2002 was sold to Kadokawa Shoten
Kadokawa Shoten
is a well-known Japanese publishing company based in Tokyo, Japan. Kadokawa has published both manga novels and magazines, such as Newtype magazine...
and renamed Kadokawa Daiei Motion Picture Co. Ltd., later Nippon Kadokawa Pictures. In March 2004, Nippon Kadokawa Pictures acquired a 44% stake in Nippon Herald Films and acquired the remaining 56% stake the following year. http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=8789 http://money.cnn.com/news/deals/mergers/reports/851268040.html Following the passing of Yasuyoshi Tokuma, Daiei was sold to the massive Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Company. In November 2002, Chairman Maihiko Kadokawa announced that Daiei would merge with the company’s own film division to form the Kadokawa-Daiei Motion Picture Company. Shortly thereafter, the company’s name was simplified to Kadokawa Pictures. On March 1, 2006, it merged with the Kadokawa Herald to become Kadokawa Herald Pictures Inc. (later Kadokawa Shoten Pictures).
The new studio quickly went to work on several projects. It approached Toho Company Ltd.
Toho
is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...
about co-producing Godzilla vs. Gamera, but the offer was rejected, so Kadokawa Shoten turned its attention to reviving some of the combined studio’s best known properties. 2005 saw successful releases for both Masāki Tezuka’s Samurai Commando: Mission 1,549 (Sengoku Jieitai 1,549) and Takashi Mīke’s The Great Yokai War (Yokai Daisenso). As these two films opened in Japan, Kadokawa Shoten Pictures revealed that the studio would begin shooting the twelfth Gamera film in July 2005.
Five of their Gamera films were mocked (twice) on Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
. According to Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
, because of this, they were horrified by the mockery and refused to let Shout release the MST3K versions on home video. Brian Ward (one of the members of Shout) even stated in his own words that "The Japanese just aren't into their man-in-suit flicks being parodied or mocked in any way." However, thanks to Kadokwa selling the rights to a U.S. company (also according to Brian Ward), all 5 of the Gamera episodes were released by Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
on August 2, 2011.
External links
- Company Web Site
- Kadokawa Anime Channel at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....