About

Okura Pictures is a unique integration of film production, sports and property management, where we provide spaces to entertainment businesses throughout the nation. Our film business unit consists of three parts: production, distribution and exhibition. This gives us a unique edge, enabling us to make films that completely cater to our audience’s tastes. We’re currently focusing on the TV and Internet in the global market and expect to generate more revenue from global market than that of from Japan.

With a background as a prominent silent film narrator, Mitsugi Okura established the Radio Film Corporation in 1947. He changed the name to Fuji Film Corporation in 1954 and in 1961 founded Okura Pictures. Mitsugi had produced hundreds of films in his professional career, including “Emperor Meiji and the Great Russo-Japanese War” which held the domestic box office record of 20 million spectators until it was broken by Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away in 2001.

In 1962 Okura Pictures created a new genre, the pink film, with the production of “Flesh Market”. From then on Okura focused on making films with the R-18 rating: limited for audiences aged 18 and older. To this day, Okura Pictures is making close to 40 films a year and holds more than 90% of the market share in the pink film category. Okura’s films are shown in our own four theaters and dozens of others across the nation.

Besides film, there are two other divisions within the company: Sports Facility Management and Real Estate. We own and operate three bowling alleys, a golf driving range, and a batting practice facility for baseball – all across Japan. Properties we own and manage include restaurant and entertainment complexes, office buildings, apartment complexes, and parking facilities. We also provide spaces to entertainment businesses throughout the nation.

“The pink film business is dying”. Even though it might not completely disappear, the market for pink films is growing increasingly smaller. That was the biggest fear we shared within the company in 2013.

Our answer was OP Pictures Plus. The films falling under this umbrella are non-pink films and non-adult oriented. Rather, they seek to attract a wider audience with the R-15 film rating in Japan. From a distribution standpoint, films with an R-15 rating have a bigger reach than R-18. To create our OP Pictures Plus lineup, we have been signing deals with dozens of TV stations on the Japanese market. More importantly, this non-adult oriented style has created even bigger opportunities outside our home country. Internationally, our films have started being recognized at film markets such as FILMART and TIFFCOM, and most recently, Cannes’ Le Marche du Film. Currently, our OP Pictures Plus features are being sold in seven different countries and/or regions, and the number will be steadily growing in the years to come.

We have been working with the Global Creative Industries Program at The University of Hong Kong since October 2014 on multiple projects, including repositioning pink films on the Asian market. At the first Global Creative Industries Conference, held in Hong Kong in April 2015, we jointly announced “Sakuramentary” as the new name for pink film. Our staff members have also appeared as research associates and guest speakers at the classes of the program, and have been working on other joint programs which will soon be announced.

What makes us different is the style we portray intimate scenes; we don’t follow the “hug-kiss-bedroom-morning coffee” pattern of other filmmakers. That is the style of intimate scenes in which actors and actresses express intimacy by no more than kissing, and no nudity is shown. This is mostly to get a lower film rating which enables producers to get more theatres to screen their films. Okura’s approach is the opposite. We don’t stop at kiss scenes, but go further than that to nudity and even passionate bed scenes. Our belief is that intimate scenes are the core of a relationship, and it is imperative to show it in the film.

Our films have a running time of 70-90 minutes, and are produced from an original screenplay. None of our films are made from an adapted screenplay.

Without exception, our films have been released theatrically in Japan ever since we started our business. We have no plan to change this system in the foreseeable future. As for the international market, our policy is to decide on a platform through discussions with our distributors. Mainly because of the duration of our films, many distributors have chosen TV as the platform for our titles, such as PPV and Pay TV. Prequels, sequels, and series of films with a common theme are part of our repertoire. We are also thinking of creating episodic series for TV platforms.