BRANC Panel To Weigh Chinese Market Prospects For Japanese Film
The session pairs an executive who handled physical distribution in China with a festival programmer, which is the closest thing to a front-line read on whether political friction or audience demand is actually driving the current uncertainty.
Reporting from 1 source: GameBusiness.jp.
BRANC's Dialogue for BRANC Vol. 15 will run from 19:00 on Monday, November 9, on whether Japanese films and anime can still aim at the Chinese market. Guests are Yuki Matsumoto, who spent four years as sales manager at China distributor Road Pictures, and film journalist Xu Haochen, a Shanghai International Film Festival programmer. There is no online livestream and no archive stream.
The event runs in two parts. Matsumoto covers the front lines of Japanese anime distribution and licensing operations, along with business negotiation trends he saw at the Shanghai Licensing Expo. Xu addresses the state of the Chinese film market from factual and on-the-ground perspectives, drawing on years of programming Japanese films at the Shanghai International Film Festival and introducing Chinese films in Japan.
The framing question is deliberately blunt. It comes after 2023, when Suzume and THE FIRST SLAM DUNK became major hits in China, and against reports of postponed Japanese film releases, effects on review and release of new titles, and cancellations of Japan-related events as political friction between the two countries continues.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.