Last week, I read a review of the new Sofia Coppola movie, "Lost in Translation," on the Web. The movie, which was received enthusiastically at the Venice Film Festival, is about two Americans who strike up a friendship in Tokyo, and the writer referred in passing to the "unfathomable craziness of [Japanese] TV." In the context of the movie, where the two visitors try to cope with a foreign culture, the remark makes sense, but the writer seemed to be making a general comment: The weirdness of Japanese television transcends language and cultural barriers. It's just plain bizarre.
As someone who spends way too much time watching and thinking about Japanese TV, I found the remark itself unfathomable. I've always considered Japanese TV to be very conventional, and not just conventional within the parameters of Japanese culture. The bulk of nondramatic prime-time programs mix and match elements of quiz shows, talk shows, burlesque comedy and light documentaries. Most producers try to figure out new ways to reconfigure these elements rather than devise completely new ones. "Reality TV" was a reality in Japan long before it became popular in the United States and Europe, and not because it was innovative or edgy, but because it was cheap.
In fact, I'm more intrigued by the production values of a program than by its concept or content. Right now, the highest rated series on commercial TV is Fuji's "Trivia no Izumi -- Subarashiki Muda Chishiki" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), whose very title trumpets its frivolity: "Fountain of Trivia -- Wonderful and Useless Knowledge." Like the old American "Gong Show," which was recently given a fresh coat of topicality with the release of the movie "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," "Trivia" revels in its own marginality.