Tom Yoda, president and CEO of Japanese distributor and producer Gaga Corporation, wants everyone in Cannes to know that “Japan is on the mend” after the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Even after a turbulent two years, Gaga is “strong and we are growing” according to the renowned executive. At the Marché, Gaga is announcing a multi-platform strategy that comprises international film distribution; local film and anime production; game and character businesses derived from anime; as well as “aggressive overseas market cultivation” and internet business. The latter involves NFT and metaverse businesses including VR.
“We want to let our long-time overseas friends know that we are not only buying foreign films as a distributor, but we have also diversified lines of business and want to get more relationships with many people in Cannes,” says Yoda.
After starting out in video imports in 1986, Gaga successfully expanded into importing and distributing international films and most recently acquired Cannes Competition title Broker, the first Korean-language film from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, from CJ ENM.
It also distributed the Oscar winner Coda, which has grossed $5.5m in Japan since its release in January - despite reduced pandemic attendance of Oscar titles’ target audience of seniors - and is still screening in cinemas. The company plans to release 26 titles this year.
Gaga’s move into production has included involvement in all of Kore-eda’s films from I Wish in 2011 to Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters in 2018 and is also involved in remakes such as Cannes opening film Final Cut, Michel Hazanavicius’ adaptation of Japanese sleeper hit One Cut Of The Dead, on which Gaga made an equity investment to secure Japan distribution rights.
Yoda, formerly chairman of Tokyo International Film Festival and an Avex co-founder, explains Gaga has been expanding its businesses and working on a diverse, multi-platform strategy since 2021 and that it will be fully realised in the first quarter of 2024.
“This is a full-scale range of business coverage from production to distribution to games and character businesses, internet downloads and streaming, as well as potentially NFTs and metaverse,” he says. “That is usually only possible for large-scale studios or film companies but as an independent, we still have a chance to do it.”
Sales slate
At Cannes, Gaga is launching sales on suspense thriller #Manhole, the first feature for five years from My Man director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, with an original screenplay from Michitaka Okada, who wrote hit features Masquerade Hotel and Masquerade Night.
The suspense thriller is about a young man with a great job and fiancée whose father owns the company who, on the eve of his wedding day, falls to the bottom of a deep hole armed with nothing but his smartphone. Produced by Tsuyoshi Matsushita (Your Eyes Tell) and Gaga Corporation, the cast is under wraps. Remake rights are also available for worldwide.
Its slate also includes animation title Break Of Dawn, based on Tetsuya Imai’s comic Bokura No Yoake, in which a boy connects with an alien who communicates via a robot. Gaga is the lead in the film production committee, co-producing with Avex Pictures and TV Tokyo, with all three splitting territories for sales.
At the Marché, Gaga is also talking to buyers about Wandering, from Korean-Japanese filmmaker Lee Sang-il; Genki Kawamura’s drama A Hundred Flowers; and My Small Land, the feature debut of former Kore-eda assistant director Emma Kawawada, which screened at the Berlinale in February.
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