How important is a label when purchasing DVDs? If the amount of status updates and comments in my Facebook network regarding the recent Criterion Collection sale are anything to go by, they are very important indeed, at least with regards to connoisseurs of what can generally be termed ‘world cinema’. One of my friends is considering investing in the oeuvres of Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu. Another has finally been able to get his hands on a copy of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s deliriously demented House (1977). Someone wants to purchase Lars von Trier’s horror excursion Antichrist (2009), and almost everyone else in the network is asking, “Why?” In this sense, niche film distributors operate in much the same way as independent or specialist record labels, of which Blue Note, Rough Trade, and World Circuit are prominent examples. These DVD labels cater to the kind of customers who are willing to ‘blind buy’ based on brand identity and the track record that the label has in the distribution of classic, cult, foreign, independent, or underground movies. Connoisseurs exhibit an unwavering loyalty to these labels, even when they happen to be the American distributor of Antichrist.

                               
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购买DVD的时候，发行商的商标是否很重要？如果以脸书上的各种关于电影收藏的讨论作为依据的话，可以说是非常重要的，至少在收集所谓的‘世界电影’的时候。我的一个朋友正在考虑买下黑泽明和小津安二郎的全部作品，另一个为终于搞到大林信彦的《鬼怪屋》(1977)而激动不已。有人想买拉斯•冯•提尔的恐怖片《反**者》(2009)，每个人都在网上问:“为什么买这部片子？”。从这个意义上说，小规模电影发行商与唱片发行公司（像是著名的 Blue Note，Rough Trade和World Circuit公司）有着大致相同的经营方式。发行经典片，边缘片，外语片，独立片和地下电影的这些小型发行公司，专门迎合那些依据牌子来‘盲目’购买 DVD的电影迷的口味。电影‘鉴赏家’们对这些DVD品牌表现出一种坚定不移的忠诚，即使是像《反**者》这类的电影，他们也会毫不迟疑的掏钱购买。

For labels that handle relatively recent releases, as opposed to re-issues, the field of foreign film distribution is more challenging in that it requires an awareness of, and appreciation for, new films and filmmakers rather than a budget big enough to buy up the back catalogues of directors who are already established on the international pantheon. In terms of Japanese cinema, this is where Adam Torel’s UK-based Third Window Films has succeeded where other fledgling foreign-specialists have failed; Third Window has developed relationships with such directors as Satoshi Miki and Tetsuya Nakashima, then marketed films like Turtles are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers (2005) and Memories of Matsuko (2006) in a manner that makes them at once adventurous and accessible. It should be noted that Third Window is not only a distributor of Japanese films; the label has also handled a wide range of South Korean titles, from the blatant cash-grab of Nam Gee-woong’s digitally-shot exploitation item Teenage Hooker Becomes a Killing Machine (2000), to the difficult disability drama of Lee Chang-dong’s Oasis (2002), to the political satire of Im Sang-soo’s The President’s Last Bang (2005), and the extreme eccentricity of Lee Je-yong’s Dasepo Naughty Girls (2006). Throw in Johnnie To’s typically gripping Hong Kong cop thriller PTU (2003), and you have a selection of success stories from recent Asian cinema that have immense international appeal despite being almost defiantly local in their initial audience ambitions. Yet it is the label’s Japanese releases that prove to be the most consistently enjoyable as they generally convey cultural insight through offbeat humour and quirky characterisation.

                               
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发行新制作的外国影片对电影公司来说，挑战性要大得多，因为它需要对新电影和年轻的电影人的正确认识和评估，而不仅仅是用足够的预算来买断某个在世界上建立了一定声誉的伟人导演的作品，在其他公司的失败尝试之后，一个新兴的电影发行公司 - Adam.Torel的英国‘第三窗口’电影发行公司，在日本电影的发行方面取得了长足的成功。‘第三窗口’电影发行公司与一些日本导演们例如三木聪和中岛哲也，建立了良好的关系，冒险大胆的发行了像是《乌龟游泳意外迅速》(2005)和《松子被嫌弃的一生》(2006)这样的影片。除了日本电影之外, ‘第三窗口’也收纳了一些题材广泛的韩国电影，包括南启雄导演的露骨的《大学路雏妓之杀人机器》(2000) ，李沧东导演的《绿洲》(2002)，林常树导演的《那时侯的人们》(2005)和李在容导演的《多细胞少女》(2006)。加上杜琪峰的扣人心弦的的惊悚片《机动部队》,‘第三窗口’包揽了近期一批无论是国内还是海外都非常成功的亚洲电影。最令人拍手称快的还是‘第三窗口’发行的日本电影，因为它把幽默古怪的日本另类文化传向了西方。

Taken collectively, the films from Japan that have been released by Third Window provide a tapestry of the emotions, fashions, fears, personal and professional challenges and sexual preferences of the younger members of Japanese society. The house-wife in Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers wonders if she has settled for domesticity too early after comparing her lifestyle that of her free-spirited best friend, and embarks on a secret life as a spy. Daihachi Yoshida’s Funuke: Show Some Love, You Losers! (2007) focuses on a dysfunctional family that includes an elder daughter with a borderline-psychotic ambition to become an actress, and the young sister that has written a successful manga inspired by her sibling’s exploits. Strained familiar ties also feature in Miki’s Instant Swamp (2009), which follows the editor of a struggling magazine who becomes a shopkeeper as a means of getting to know her real father. Parental figures are notable by their relative absence in Nakashima’s Kamikaze Girls (2004), with the teenage heroines left to cultivate Westernised identities by shopping at Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, or by donning biker gear. Sexual curiosity and perversity are explored by, respectively, Momoko Ando’s Kakera – A Piece of our Lives (2009) and Masayuki Miyano’s Lala Pipo (2009), with the former dealing with the on-off relationship between two girls and the latter consisting of six stories that occur in and around the porn industry. Love Exposure (2008) also has sex on the brain, but Sion Sono’s scatological satire is radically resistant to succinct summary.

Third Window releases are more playfully suggestive than sexually explicit, and the teasing marketing campaigns effectively emphasise this aspect of the label’s Japanese acquisitions. The pink colours and mild sexual provocation seen in the promotional artworks for Kakera – A Piece of our Lives and Lala Pipo indicate that, although these films might be pretty kinky, neither is going to be the next Tokyo Decadence (1991). While you should never judge a film based on its poster (or DVD cover), Third Window is certainly putting the fun factor into Japanese cinema through its marketing materials; the poster for Kakera – A Piece of Our Life caused problems with the authorities of the London Underground for showing a bit of bum, while the promotional artwork for Love Exposure was so striking that eventual Australian distributor Madman ‘incorporated’ it into their own advertising strategy. For the uninitiated seeking to sample that ‘Third Window feeling’, this VCinema contributor would recommend the double-bill of Yosuke Fujita‘s Fine, Totally Fine (2008), a deadpan delight in which an aimless dreamer tries to build the world’s scariest haunted house, and Yoshihiro Nakamura‘s Fish Story (2009), a multi-narrative genre-bender that links the birth of punk to the end of the world. 2011 will see the label heading into the darker territory that was once associated with Tartan’s Asia Extreme division by distributing Nakashima’s classroom revenge thriller Confessions (2010) and Gen Takahashi’s police corruption epic Confessions of a Dog (2005). Discount deals on Third Window titles may not yet inspire the same shopping activity as the annual Criterion Collection sale, but this is certainly a label that will continue to make its mark in the collections of connoisseurs of Japanese cinema.

                               
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‘第三窗口’的电影对日本色情文化的涉及是带有半开玩笑性质的，从《碎片》和《六宅一生》的海报上对性的温和提示可以看出，这些电影可能很HENTAI，但是没有一部会像电影《东京堕落》(1991)那样的极端。虽然我们不应该以海报来判断一部电影的好坏，但‘第三窗口’肯定是把幽默搞笑放在了它的市场营销里，《碎片》的海报展示在伦敦地铁里的时候，因为露了一截屁股的画面而引起了有关当局的不满，而《爱的曝光》的海报是那么的惊人，澳大利亚的‘狂人’电影公司不得不用另一张宣传画来代替它。如果想体会一下‘第三窗口’的感觉，建议你看它在英国发行的两部日片：藤田容介的《全然大丈夫》，一个漫无目的的梦想家试图打造全球最恐怖的鬼屋的故事和中村义弘的《鱼的故事》(2009)，一部多故事线，多类型的把朋克音乐和世界末日联系在一起的影片。2011年,将会看到‘第三窗口’ 引进一批严肃主题的电影，包括中岛哲也的《告白》(2010)和高桥玄的《一只狗狗的自白》(2005)。‘第三窗口’也许不会在英国的娱乐市场做领头老大，但是它会继续在日本电影的发行领域占有一席之地。