Friday, January 27, 2023

The Best 10 and Worst 10 Japanese films in 2022 as selected by seasonal magazine "Eiga Geijutsu"


"Eiga Geijutsu" is a seasonal movie critics magazine with scriptwriter Arai Haruhiko as its chief editor. Every year, it releases its own best 10 and worst 10 Japanese movies ranking as selected by its panel of judges including movie critics, movie directors, scriptwriters, producers, cinema staff and the general public. 

Perhaps due to the niche nature of this magazine and the composition of the judging panel, the annual results do raise eyebrows for various reasons. One trend that is quite hard to ignore is, commercial films and box-office hits tend to make up the worst 10 list while indie or arthouse films appear quite prominently in the best 10 list. And the winning films in other movie awards tend to appear in the worst 10 ranking. Even past blockbuster hits or those which did very well in overseas movie awards like "Okuribito" or "Manbiki Kazoku" had also won the dubious honour of No.1 in the worst 10 ranking for 2008 and 2018.

And the lack of consistency in the results also shows in instances in the past when a single film appeared in both rankings e.g. "Kishibe no Tabi" starring Asano Tadanobu, Fukatsu Eri & Aoi Yu which was No.9 in the best 10 list but No.8 in the worst 10 list. Ironically, this year's No.1 in the Best 10 ranking is also the No.8 in the Worst 10 ranking.

Apparently, the final scores for the best 10 ranking are said to be derived by deducting the votes for the worst 10 ranking from those received for the best 10 ranking. Technically speaking, if the votes for the best ranking exceeds the worst ranking (positive difference), the film then has a chance of getting into the top 10 best ranking. The worst 10 ranking is derived purely from the votes received in this category. As such, that is the reason why you can see the same film appear in both rankings. However, this system had been criticised before for being vulnerable to manipulation.

And ever since the animation film "Kono sekai no katasumi ni" won the Best One title in 2016, this annual ranking excluded animation films from their consideration starting from 2017 which was seen as a display of the magazine's and judging panel's hostile attitude towards animation. In response to the criticism, it was said that animation and real-life films are different types of cinematic art and shouldn't be judged together.

In case you want to see the rankings for the earlier years back to 2007, you can check it out here.

Personally, I don't think that the films in the worst 10 list are all bad and some of the selections do make me scratch my head over the reasons for their inclusion. As such, please don't take this ranking too personally or seriously as it is ultimately just a reflection of a judging panel's tastes like any other ranking or movie awards. And what you like may jolly well be different from what the critics have in mind anyway.

The ironic thing is, just days earlier when the Nippon Academy Awards' nominee list was released, 3 of their Best Film nominees are actually in the top 3 of this worst 10 ranking. Uncanny coincidence or a barely-concealed dig at these films or the Nippon Academy?

Best 10 of 2022
1) Keiko Me wo sumasete
2) Yoake made basutei de
3) Tenjou no hana
4) Fuyusoubi
5) Yuugata no otomodachi
6) Kochira Amiko
7) My Small Land
8) Ai nanoni
9) Maki no iru sekai
10) Yodaka no kataomoi

Worst 10 of 2022
1) Rurou no tsuki
2) Shin Ultraman
3) Aru Otoko
4) Laageri yori ai wo komete
5) Bosei
6) Shikei ni itaru yamai
7) LOVE LIFE
8) Keiko Me wo sumasete
9) Tokyo 2020 Olympic SIDE:B / Hyakka

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