It took a while for Junichi Yasuda to realize that he had a winner on his hands. In August, the filmmaker¡¯s low-budget feature ¡°A Samurai in Time¡± opened at a single theater in Tokyo. A comedy about a 19th-century warrior who finds himself transported to present-day Japan, the movie had been warmly received at Montreal¡¯s Fantasia Film Festival the previous month. Local audiences seemed to like it, too.
Yasuda¡¯s phone was buzzing with messages, but he didn¡¯t let that go to his head. When a screening sold out, he figured it was because the cast and crew were making a stage appearance, or because tickets at the theater ¡ª Ikebukuro¡¯s Cinema Rosa ¡ª were discounted that day.
But the momentum kept building. In short order, ¡°A Samurai in Time¡± expanded to a second cinema, then to more than 50. Film distributor Gaga stepped in to take charge of the theatrical rollout, and by October the movie had broken into the box-office top 10.
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