Kadokawa Daiei Studio, formerly Kadokawa Pictures Inc. is the film division of the Japanese company the Kadokawa Corporation. It is one of the four members of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, and is therefore one of Japan's Big Four film studios.
History
In 1945, Genyoshi Kadokawa established Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., focusing on the publishing business. In 1975, Kadokawa's president, Haruki Kadokawa, decided to venture into the film business, launching the film division of Kadokawa Shoten; thus Kadokawa Pictures was born. His goal was to try to reap synergy benefits by creating film adaptations of the publishing house's most popular books and marketing them simultaneously. The company's first film was the 1976 release The Inugamis, directed by Kon Ichikawa and adapted from a Kadokawa Shoten published novel written by Seishi Yokomizo. Due to an aggressive marketing campaign, the film ended as the second-largest earner of the year in Japan. Between 1976 and 1993, Kadokawa produced close to 60 films. The company's pictures were usually large-scale epics with sizable budgets and matching advertising campaigns, aimed for mass audiences and box-office success. While critics were not always kind on Kadokawa's works, the films were consistently popular among the viewing public. By 1992, seven out of the top 20 all-time highest box-office grossing Japanese films were Kadokawa productions. During his time at Kadokawa Shoten, Haruki Kadokawa was often hailed as the savior of Japan's struggling film industry. Kadokawa's efforts to branch into foreign markets were consistently less successful. Its biggest failure came in 1992, when the 25 million US$ film Ruby Cairo, starring Andie MacDowell, failed to find a distributor in the United States. Haruki Kadokawa was forced to resign from Kadokawa Shoten after being arrested for smuggling cocaine. The new president was Haruki's younger brother Tsuguhiko, who had previously been forced out of the company in favor of Haruki's son Taro. Kadokawa Shoten later acquired Daiei Film Co. from Tokuma Shoten following the passing of its president, Yasuyoshi Tokuma. In November 2002, Chairman Maihiko Kadokawa announced that Daiei Film Co. would merge with the company's own film division to form Kadokawa-Daiei Film Co., Ltd. In March 2004, Kadokawa-Daiei Pictures Inc. acquired a 44% stake in Nippon Herald Films Inc., an independent film distributor founded in 1956, and acquired the remaining 56% stake the following year. It later changed its name to Kadokawa Pictures. On March 1, 2006, it merged with the Kadokawa Herald to become Kadokawa Herald Pictures Inc. and later Kadokawa Pictures. In 2007, it changed its name to Kadokawa Shoten Pictures, with Shinichiro Inoue as its President and CEO. After a merger with Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co. in 2011, it became the studio division of its parent company, Kadokawa Group Holdings Ltd. and maintained its name, Kadokawa Pictures, focusing on mixed-media business.
The Gamera films
After the friendly acquisition in 2004, Kadokawa Pictures quickly went to work on several projects. It approached Toho Company Ltd. about co-producing Godzilla vs. Gamera in 2002, but the offer was rejected, so it turned its attention to reviving some of the combined studio's best-known properties since the Daiei Film Co. era. 2005 saw successful releases for both Masaaki Tezuka's Samurai Commando: Mission 1,549 and Takashi Miike’s The Great Yokai War. As these two films opened in Japan, it revealed that the studio would begin shooting the 12th Gamera film in July 2005. Five of their original eight Gamera films were mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000. According to Shout! Factory, because of this, they were horrified by the mockery and refused to let Shout! release the MST3K versions on home video. Brian Ward even stated in his own words that "The Japanese just aren't into their man-in-suit flicks being parodied or mocked in any way." However, thanks to Kadokawa selling the rights to a U.S. company, all five episodes were released by Shout! Factory on August 2, 2011.
