ABSTRACT
The first section charts the creation of a direct-to-video model for filmmaking in Japan from the late 1980s, led by the Toei studio and patterned after similar strategies for the production and diffusion of animation in use since 1983, but also after methods, genres, and conventions of the studio system of the 1950s and ’60s, as well as social trends and media phenomena contemporary to their production. This section also looks at the creation of media discourse around V-Cinema and how its epicenter shifted from dedicated film journals to tabloid journalism over the course of V-Cinema’s existence.
The second section looks at initial industry attempts to internationalize V-Cinema through co-production—which led to early lead roles for later Hollywood stars such as Viggo Mortensen and Russell Crowe but not much in the way of discourse—and how certain developments discussed in the previous section allowed for exceptions to emerge within the V-Cinema production paradigm that managed to break into global film culture by means of festival exposure.
