so I bought a pinball machine: exploring pachinko in foreign cinema...

While I was doing research for the post about pachinko in Japanese cinema I came across a number of films made in Japan, or at least about Japan, that featured pachinko but weren't made by Japanese creators.

As with any external cultural gaze, many liberties get taken, and characterizations are done in broad strokes that lack in varying levels of nuance. But ever since I saw Jackie Chan smash the shit out of an Interflip Dragon pinball machine in Rumble In The Bronx, I've kind of been curious about how different cultures present cultural touchstones like this.

Once again this is not a definitive list of any kind, just a general survey. It might still get added to at a later date if I stumble on other interesting examples. Feel free to suggest some. I'd especially like to get more pre-1980 ones on here.

The list of movies included: (so far)

1955 - House of Bamboo [America]

1983 - Tokyo-Ga [Germany]

1984 - Sukiyaki And Chips [Britain]

1987 - 最後勝利 (Final Victory) [Hong Kong]

1989 - Black Rain [America]

1995 - 霹靂火 (Thunderbolt) [South Korea]

1999 - 8½ Women [Netherlands]

1999 - Erleuchtung garantiert (Englightenment Guaranteed) [Germany]

2003 - Lost In Translation [America]

2009 - 新宿事件 / San suk si gin (Shinjuku Incident) [Hong Kong]

1955 - House of Bamboo

this film is interesting because it was made entirely in Japan and is one of the few colour documents of pachinko halls of the time.

mechanical ball dispenser on the counter

on the left there is another table-top ball dispenser

this guy is a "classic American dipshit" trope. He doesn't speak Japanese, so compensates by yelling words in English even louder.

the shakedown!

uhhhhh ok

1983 - Tokyo-Ga

this Wim Wenders documentary, a questionable meditation on director Yasujiro Ozu, is very iconic in that it introduced an incredible amount of foreigners to pachinko.

hey I've got one of those buckets!

Wenders has zero empathy or kinship for the pachinko parlors, but boy does he loves the colours

one thing that foreign filmmakers do that you don't often see in Japanese movies is highlight the smaller aesthetics.

these kinds of details would be redundant and facile for a Japanese audience

but to a foreign eye, this is all new and WOAH CHECK THAT OUT

1000 ball tray

dude looking BOSS

Always show the ball dispensing and counting machines!

the gem here is this scene where he follows the after-hours work of nail adjustment

tool sets will include "balls on sticks" that are of various diameters so it can be run through to verify the gap is at least a certain width

sets of tools like this are available from Japan and oh my gosh how I love my tiny hammer

1984 - Sukiyaki And Chips

if you're interesting in the history of medal games you need to go to nazox2016's blog

this is actually a great documentary about sound and music in Japan.
It's all a bit scattershot and cluttered, but it's a great watch and features some wonderful artists.

people that visited Japanese pachinko parlors comment on the noise and the smoke. Japan recently passed a ban on indoor smoking, but I'm unsure if that applies to parlors?

1987 - 最後勝利 (Final Victory)

I have to wonder if that sign was installed just for the movie. Seems weird to see a large business with no Japanese signage.

In North America you never see sinks out in a publicly accessible way. There should be way more of that post pandemic, IMHO.

I will always highlight the ball vendors.

using the ball dispenser

True.

Also true.

100% true.

1989 - Black Rain

try and keep in mind what a real pachinko parlor looks like before you move on to Thunderbolt

these shots are kind of cool because you can see the older retired machines just propped up in the back room

1995 - 霹靂火 (Thunderbolt)

Establishing shots of the mall arcade. Candy Cab alert on the left! I have no idea what the machines are on the right. The giant "wall of pinballs" is a design idea only the 1980s could have given us.

seriously, what are those machines with the arm rest? Some kind of strategy or quiz game?

the set designers must have had a huge budget, and they spent it all on cocaine.
Did malls ever look like this? A+ set piece

I've never seen open-air pachinko parlors like this. They obviously rented out some kind of shopping mall and built all this into it. You wouldn't have islands of machines like this because the ball management behind it has to all be connected.

~cocaine~ baby

JACKIE, DON'T DO IT

JACKIE, NO!

ok maybe you're wondering why Jackie Chan has a comically large mallet inside a shopping mall pachinko parlor? Well I'm happy to inform you that the answer is very dumb.

dude knows no chill

one great thing here is the variety of camera angles used in the fight scenes.

smashy smashy

what are those lit marquees supposed to be? Yellow and green slime?

Go back to the candy cabs!

on the right is a coin-operated ball dispenser, the kind you have to collect into your hand.

lots of machines get smashed into

I'll never get tired of fight scenes that include launching large buckets of pachinko balls at assailants

1999 - 8½ Women

good shot

aisle spacing here seems a lot less claustrophobic that most parlors

...but I kind of dislike rows of the same game. I like parlors that have the "classics" rows, where it's just a clutter of different machines.

pachinko machine in the bedroom!

boy is this frame ugly to me

good colours, and again it's the kind of detail that Japanese cinema would never bother obsessing over

I would totally buy an art book just showing storefront shots of pachinko parlors over the years

the movie is so silly that scenes like this end up just washing over you

NAKED PACHINKO TIME

1999 - Erleuchtung garantiert (Englightenment Guaranteed)

the ergonomics of this suck. Get taller seats.

look at how those 2 nails are bent

everyone's having a jolly good time, smiles all around

2003 - Lost In Translation

a short scene running through a pachinko parlor

I'm kind of surprised at how drab the cinematography is here

you know you want Bill Murray to do pachinko commercials

pachislo row