Slumming for Cinema: The Decline of the Repertory Theater (Meigaza) and Contemporary Japanese Cinephilia

Ryan Cook, Yale University

This paper looks at cinephile discourse in relation to the meigaza (“masterpiece” theater) phenomenon in contemporary Japan. Meigaza are repertory theaters that have traditionally been run as alternatives to studio-integrated venues, known for their variety and volume of programming, low admission prices, and “all-night” film marathons catering to cinephile communities. Of the remaining meigaza, many have long histories extending back into the postwar theater construction boom of the 1950s, and are now heavily invested with nostalgia for both the films they revive and the bygone film exhibition culture they represent. Where they have not closed their doors, Tokyo’s meigaza have largely fallen into a state of disrepair and “degeneration.” I will look to the Asakusa neighborhood, celebrated erstwhile center of downtown film culture from the 1920s, where Japan’s cinematic legacy now lives on behind the worn out facades of decaying Art Deco fire hazards. Amidst cigarette smoke, body odor, yakuza, cross-dressers, horse race betting, alcohol consumption, rodent life, cruising and public sex, resolute cinephiles continue to patronize these venues, citing rare films, intelligent programming, and even print quality. It is thus an unlikely combination of reprobates and cinephiles that preserve Asakusa film culture in suspended afterlife. Looking to venues such as the inaptly named Asakusa New Theater, which is known for programming studio classics from the 1960s and 1970s in an ambience that mirrors the criminal underworld frequently portrayed onscreen, I will examine the insistent investment of post-digital “soft” (sofuto-ka) cinephilia in the “hard” or material remnants of Japan’s cinematic modernity.