Shintoho's films: what's their fate?

[mikelcho]

I was just wondering: what was the fate of Shintoho's various films after they went out of business?

Did they get absorbed into Toho's inventory or have they been stuck in legal limbo somewhere?

[Joseph Goodman]

The Shintoho library is controlled by International Television Films, Inc (http://www.kokusaihoei.co.jp), which grew out of Shintoho back when it still was in operation. Since 2010, they have operated as a subsidiary of Toho.

[mikelcho]

Thanks; at least I now know what happened to them. I take it, then, that this includes the nine Starman films as well.

I say this because, on my 4-4-18 post on "Daiei Films and Sinister Cinema", I mentioned that most, if not all, of the Japanese tokusatsu movies that the aforementioned company has been releasing lately have come from either Daiei/Kadokawa or Shintoho. You can see the film lists for both studios on the Wikipedia articles "Shintoho" and "List of Daiei Films" (the latter should be "List of Daiei films"; the first way that it's written is incorrect).

I wonder why Toho hasn't found out anything about this and acted accordingly, like they always do and have done in the past? As I recall, they're very protective when it comes to what's theirs.