With a history of over 100 years, cinema in Japan features the film genres of Anime, Jidaigeki, Horror, Cult Horror, Kaiju, Pink films and Yakuza films, these categories of films being shown regularly at the Movie Theatres and Cinema Chains in Japan. Some of the most popular cinema chains and movie theatres in Japan which play the movies in Japan include Toho, Shochiku, Toei Company and Tokyu Recreation. Toho Company Ltd. is one of the greatest film studios in Japan which has its headquarter based in the special ward of Chiyoda in Tokyo. Being one of the major companies of the famous Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group, Toho is most commonly known as the maker of numerous tokusatsu and daikaiju movies, the Chouseishin series, Akira Kurosawa’s films, and studio Ghilbi’s animation films, its name being associated also with the production of many anime films.
The most popular creation of Toho is Godzilla while the Big Five productions of Toho include Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Mothra, Rodan, and Mechagdzilla. Shochiku Company Limited is a renowned Japanese production company for traditional Japanese kabuki and film studio which makes and distributes the animation films of Japan. The most notable directors working with Shochiku include Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, Yoji Yamada, and Kenji Mizoguchi. Shochiku Company Limited has also made films under the directions of independently working directors like Takeshi Kitano, Takashi Miike, Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Akira Kurosawa. Shochiku, established in 1895, started producing movies in 1921. This company was the first to stop using the female imitators in films and wanted to follow the standards of Hollywood by incorporating things like the sound stage and star system to the country. The Toei Company Limited is a television and film production and distribution company.
From its base in Tokyo, Toei Company Limited operates 34 theatres in many cities in Japan, a small system by the standards set by the United States in 1930. Toei owns film studios at Kyoto and Tokyo and also stocks in various TV companies. Toei is widely popular for producing Anime, historic dramas and Tokusatsu films, and also for pioneering the use of transformation of characters in live-action dramas of martial arts, a technique modified for Ultraman, Devilman and Kamen Rider and continuing for Super Sentai and Metal Heroes. The Tokyu Group of companies focuses on the Tokyu Corporation of the Big 15 connecting Tokyo with its suburbs. One of the most popular of these companies owned by the Tokyu Group is the Tokyu Recreation Company Ltd which operates a number of movie complexes and many alleys for bowling.
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