Japan has the fewest female top execs of any country in Asia or the developed world -- and the Japanese media biz is no exception. So when Gaga Communications, a leading indie distrib, appointed marketing vet Yuka Hoshino as its first-ever prexy in its 23-year history in March, it was more than just another exec suite shuffle.
In fact, the 41-year-old Hoshino, who studied art history at NYU and joined Gaga in 1997, is the only woman topping any midsized-to-large Japanese distrib. "It's a conservative industry," Hoshino comments, "but Gaga has always been different. (Appointing me as president) was a very Gaga-like thing to do."
Tetsu Fujimura, who founded Gaga in 1986 as an importer of low budget videos, was a savvy entrepreneur, whose aggressive buying tactics and keen instinct quickly built the company into an indie powerhouse. But for all its hits -- "The Mask," "Seven," "The Green Mile," "Hannibal" and "Phantom of the Opera" among them -- Gaga also had its share of expensive flops and failed business ventures, giving its investors a roller-coaster ride.
In 2004, Internet giant Usen took a majority stake in Gaga and, not long after, installed a new regime whose ambitious production and acquisition plans generated a tide of red ink. In April of last year, Usen announced Gaga was withdrawing from the making and buying of films, and instead partnering for distribution with other companies.
Hoshino, however, rose to the top as a marketer, especially of arthouse titles, which had never been a Gaga strength, until Hoshino and her team -- comprised of just one other woman at the beginning -- began turning them into hits.
One early breakthrough was Pedro Almodovar's 1999 drama "All About My Mother." Hoshino promoted it as a pic for, not arthouse buffs, but women who "did not go to the theater often and did not know the names of directors" but would enjoy a good, if offbeat, drama. "Before joining Gaga, I seldom went to the movies myself -- maybe twice or three times a year, so I understood that sort of mentality," she says.
Another success was Rodrigo Garcia's 2000 drama "Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her." Dissatisfied with the poster, Hoshino commissioned an eye-catching original that helped make the pic a B.O. standout. "I'm interested in art, so poster design is something I pay particular attention to," she explains.
In 2003, Hoshino was promoted to general manager in charge of marketing and promotion, and in 2004, she joined the Gaga board of directors. Along the way to the top she developed and supervised marketing campaigns for nearly 100 pics, including such hits as "8 Women," "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and Franco Zeffirelli's 2002 "Callas Forever," which filled theaters for months with female auds.
In addition to her signature arthouse pics, Hoshino points to other genres that Gaga has marketed successfully, in defiance of industry conventional wisdom, including docus ("Bowling for Columbine"), pics produced from TV series ("Earth") and foreign comedies ("Borat"). "By buying films in genres that everyone said wouldn't work in Japan --- and making them work -- Gaga has broadened the market here," she says.
Still, with the worldwide economic meltdown, Japanese buyers have becomemore cautious and foreign sellers more willing to compromise on price.
"It's a buyer's market now," Hoshino notes.
Gaga's lineup for this year and next includes "Che Part 1," which has so far pulled in $9 million; "Burn After Reading"; "Streetfighter: The Legend of Chun-Li"; "Final Destination IV"; "Oceans"; "My Sister's Keeper"; and local thriller "MW," based on a classic comic by Osamu Tezuka. In other words, the usual Gaga mix of indie and mainstream product.
"We're always going to be different," Hoshino says. "When people ask me to describe us, I say we've got the spirit of an independent, but the profits of a major. That's the ideal, anyway."
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