Japanese films had a good 2004, even if eight of the 10 top box-office slots went to Hollywood. The Japanese exhibition business is coming to resemble the American one, with more multiplex screens and wider openings. This structure favors major Hollywood product -- the latest "Harry Potter" or "Lord of the Rings" -- over the local, which is usually competitive only in certain formats (TV spinoffs, animation) or under certain brand names (Hayao Miyazaki, Godzilla).

This year, however, many big Hollywood titles underperformed, an indication that Hollywood's grip on the local market is weakening. The glaring exception was "The Last Samurai," which not only topped the year's box-office chart, with 13.7 billion yen, but beat its U.S. gross. Meanwhile, several Japanese films outdid themselves, beginning with Isao Yukisada's "Sekai no Chushin de Ai o Sakebu (Crying Out Love In the Center of the World)." This weeper about a man's journey of remembrance for a lost teenage love grossed 8.4 billion yen, while leading the boom for so-called jun-ai (pure love) films and TV dramas.

Meanwhile, original talents emerged, including Kazuaki Kiriya ("Casshern"), Masaaki Yuasa ("Mind Game") and Taku Tada and Gen Sekiguchi ("Survive Style+5") and several veterans, including Yoichi Sai ("Chi to Hone") and Hirokazu Kore-eda ("Dare Mo Shiranai"), turned in their strongest-ever work.