Japan Synopsis
“Where there's smoke… there's laughter!”
Writer Paul Benjamin is nearly hit by a bus when he leaves Auggie Wren's smoke shop. Stranger Rashid Cole saves his life, and soon middle-aged Paul tells homeless Rashid that he wouldn't mind a short-term housemate. Still grieving over his wife's murder, Paul is moved by both Rashid's quest to reconnect with his father and Auggie's discovery that a woman who might be his daughter is about to give birth.
Audience Engagement
426 audience reviews — more than 92% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (92th percentile) outruns trending popularity (66th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Other Titles From Miramax
Comedy + Drama in Japan
462 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Comedy and Drama genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Smoke itself).
The 1994–1996 Japan Window
Smoke holds position #55 of 143 Japan films in the 1994–1996 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 1990s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1990s in Japan, 447 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Smoke premiered alongside 59 others.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 1h 52m runtime, production spent $63K per minute on screen and earned $75K per minute back.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 59 other Japan films in 1995.
The 1016th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Smoke, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- smoking · 5
- cigarette · 4
- laden · 1
- writer · 15
- robber · 8
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,730 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (62nd percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.3 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Comedy productions specifically: #614 of 1,411 (top 44%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | Germany, Japan, United States of America |
| Original Language | En |
| Production Companies | Miramax, NDF International, Eurospace |
| Runtime | 1h 52m |
| Release Date | June 9, 1995 |
| IMDb | tt0114478 |