US distributors of Asian films just don't "get it.&quot

[Gary Soup]

The San Francisco Chronicle today has a good article on the problems Asian films hve getting distributed in the US HERE.

I consider myelf fortunate to live in a town with many Asian DVD shops, and typically get to see the latest and greatest long before they are ever released theatrically.

[wushijiao]

Good link. Asian films haven't been able to crack the US market, but then again, no other country's film industry has either.

[Jizzosh]

I think the USA just doesn't want to admit that other countries have produced movies that are just as good if not sometimes better than Hollywood. Don't get me wrong, I love the movies from my home country, but I always hated the fact that I had to consciously look and listen for great foreign films and try and find a theatre that was hosting them. Pics like Amelie, Farewell my Concubine, House of Flying Daggers, Shaolin Soccer, The Places Promised in Our Early Days, and even many big-name Japanese Anime movies (Anime is gaining huge popularity in the USA among younger generations) don't get theatre play.

I just think it limits the USA... On one hand, you have an incredibly diverse country with people from all walks of life. On the other hand, you have a media delivery system that is far too predictable. Everything is stolen or Americanized - Just look at Most Extreme Challange, Trading places, Iron Chef, and shows that were taken from other countries and adapted to the USA. Perhaps this will change, but I think Hollywood will continue to try and maintain it's stranglehold on the market.

[Outofin]

Somewhat like how Chinese treat food. Because Chinese food is so great and has so many various styles, we don't have many places or time to try Italian, French, Mexican, Thailand food. On the contrary, Americans have all these restaurants everywhere because they themselves could only make fast food, and don't watch too many foreign movies because they think they're the best movie makers.

[wushijiao]

I think the movie industry is just conservative with their money. Because distributing movies costs millions of dollars, if you are the guy who signed off on a project that loses a lot of money, you could get fired.

In any case, I read a New York Times article in which people in the mid-1990's were predicting the demise of cinema. Yet, the opposite has happened. Becuase of the Internet, one now can research films and develop personal tastes like never before. You can go to this site's "Film and Television" and see which films people are talking about, you can go to Amazon, www.metacritic.com ...etc. Also, with e-commerce you can now live in rural Montana and still order a wide variety of movies. Ten years ago, you would have had to move to New York.

Sadly, mainstream America is left out of all of this.

I think Hollywood will continue to try and maintain it's stranglehold on the market.

Maybe the solution is for fans to demand these sorts of films? A grassroots film revolution?