Anime Takes Four Top Places in Netflix Weekly Global Chart Dominated by Japan, Korea Series

Neon’s re-release of Park Chan-Wook’s 2003 Oldboy grossed an estimated $495k on 250 screens this weekend for a total cume of $880k over five days. It’s set to cross the $1 million in its first week back – surpassing a cumulative North American gross of $707k with original distributor Metro Tartan Film. The classic revenge thriller came out in 2003 and was released Stateside in 2005. It was the first South Korean film to win the Grand Prix in Cannes in 2004 and took in $15 million worldwide.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Production begins next month on “Black Tide Island,” a historical drama series that presents a Taiwanese insight into the Korean War. Production is headed by Hakka TV and Go Inside. Halla TV is the local Hakka-language linear satellite television channel operated by Taiwan Broadcasting System.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Noted Japanese director Ando Momoko (“Kakera: Pieces of Our Life,” “0.5mm”) has been named as the ambassador for this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival. She also features, alongside her father Okuda Eiji in the festival’s newly-released poster, which recreates a scene from Ozu Yasujiro’s “Tokyo Story” and in which Okuda and Ando represent the classic film’s Ryu Chishu and Hara Setsuko characters. The poster image, shot at the rooftop garden of Kitte Marunouchi Building, with Tokyo Station in the background, was designed by Koshino Junko, who has created the festival’s key visuals for the past three years.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief With the global entertainment industry still rocked by the impact of streaming, the pandemic – and Hollywood’s twin strikes – the APOS conference will next month examine disruption and the responses to it from a senior executive Asian perspective. After being held virtually during the COVID era and then last year making a stop in Singapore, the conference itself will return to Bali, Indonesia, and be held 26-28 Sept.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief South Korean police said on Wednesday that they had found evidence that the box office performance of 323 films over the past five years had been inflated. Seoul Metropolitan Police said that, as a result, they had referred 69 people from major exhibition chains and 24 film distribution companies to prosecutors.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lee Byung-hun-starring disaster movie “Concrete Utopia” topped the South Korean box office over the latest weekend, replacing female led crime caper “Smugglers.” Directed by Um Tae-hwa, “Concrete Utopia” is set in a Seoul that has been largely destroyed by a massive earthquake. One building stands tall among the wreckage and becomes a refuge for those already inside, but the inhabitants must fend of the unwanted attentions of outsiders. It opened on Wednesday, earning $8.40 million between Friday and Sunday and fully $11.3 million over its full opening five days, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Amazon-owned Prime Video has launched “The Killing Vote,” a hardboiled crime drama series from Korea. The 12-part show uses the premise that a text message is sent to ordinary citizens who get to vote for or against the application of the death penalty in individual criminal cases. If more than 50% vote in favor, the criminal is killed by a mysterious character called Dog Mask.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Evil Does Not Exist,” the new drama film by “Drive My Car” director Hamaguchi Ryusuke, has been picked up for North American release by Sideshow and Janus Films. The title will have its world premiere in competition at the Venice festival before playing as a special presentation in Toronto and the main slate of the New York Film Festival. Sideshow and Janus Films, which acquired all North American rights, expect to release the film in theaters after a run of top festivals.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix is further expanding its slate of unscripted TV content from Japan, its most lucrative market in East Asia. The new shows cover the reality, variety and dating genres. “We’re excited to move into a new phase of our content strategy, ramping up our investments in unscripted and bringing new concepts to the screen.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hybe Corp., the Korean pop music giant behind BTS, has further expanded the scale of its empire by buying out its partner in Belift Lab, the firm backing another K-pop powerhouse Enhypen. The company said that it has signed an agreement to acquire CJ ENM’s 51.5% stake in Belift. Deal terms were not disclosed.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Significant decreases in profits at the pictures division and financial services led Japanese electronics and entertainment conglomerate Sony to reveal corporate-wide revenues that increased by a third, but net profits that slipped by 17%, for the first quarter of its financial year. In the April to June period group revenues weighed in at JPY2.23 trillion (up 33% year on year) or $21.6 billion at current rates of exchange.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hybe, the Korean music and entertainment firm, achieved record revenues in the first half of the year as album sales climbed and live performances took off. This was achieved despite the hiatus being forced on BTS, the company’s most famous K-pop act, by its band members’ military enlistment. On Tuesday, Suga, who had his first solo music tour earlier this year, became the third member of BTS to begin his compulsory military service.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A team of United Nations inspectors has said it is “deeply alarmed” by the allegations of sexual abuse that may have taken place at leading Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates. Abuses may have involved “several hundred” talents, according to the org. The United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights began its first official visit to Japan last month and concluded 12 days of meetings and interviews last week.

Kilmarnock provided the biggest story of the opening weekend in the Premiership and had a host of top-class performers.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Ryu Seung-wan’s female-led crime caper “Smugglers” topped the South Korean box office for a second weekend, ahead of new release title “Ransomed.” “Smugglers” enjoyed a strong hold in its second weekend of release and commanded 42% market share. It delivered $7.09 million, a drop of only 20% on its opening weekend, giving a 12-day cumulative of $26.2 million, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Heavens: The Boy and His Robot,” a Singapore-produced movie, will have its world and commercial premiere in Japanese cinemas this November. The film is Singapore’s first live-action feature film of the mecha genre, a genre of Japanese manga and anime that features or focuses on mechanical innovations such as robots and cyborgs.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan film festival’s Asian Project Market is set to welcome several of the region’s top auteurs either as producers or prospective directors at its next edition in October. APM organizers Thursday unveiled 30 projects to be presented during a four-day round of one-on-one meetings and pitching sessions. India’s Rima Das (“Tora’s Husband”) will pitch “Malti My Love.” Japan’s Fukada Koji (“Love Life,” “Harmonium”) will pitch “Nagi Notes.” Indonesia’s Makbul Mubarak (“Autobiography”) will pitch “Watch It Burn.” Among the successful producers adding their weight to APM contenders are: Patrick Mao Huang (“Moneyboys,” “Tiger Stripes”) selling Peter Ho’s project “Appetite for Desire”; Jeremy Chua (“Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell,” “Autobiography”), pitching Rafael Manuel’s “Filipinana”; Ichiyama Shozo (“Ash Is Puirest White”) pitching Song Fang’s Japan-China collaboration “Full Moon”; Fran Borgia (“A Land Imagined,” “Tiger Stripes”) pitching Aakash Chhabra’s “I’ll Smile in September”; and Tan Chui Mui (“Barbarian Invasion”) pitching Jian Xiaoshuan’s “To Kill A Mongolian Horse.” The project market and the Asian Contents & Film Market are both scheduled to operate Oct.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Upcoming female-led mystery-thriller series “Mask Girl” sees an unassuming office worker secretly rise the heights as a popular, masked online model and, in a downward spiral, become Prisoner #1047. Seemingly repentant, she secretly plots her escape. The Korean-produced show employs three different actors Ko Hyun-jang, Nana and a yet-to-be-revealed newcomer to represent the Kim Mo-mi character in her different evolutions.Netflix will Thursday drop a trailer and three separate posters intended to create intrigue as to Kim’s real nature, ahead of the series’ Aug.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Asia Contents Awards, held as part of the Busan International Film Festival since 2019, is to join forces with the Global OTT Awards to form a wider-reaching event. The merged events are to be known under the ungainly abbreviation ACA & G.OTT Awards and will be co-hosted by South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT and Busan Metropolitan City authorities. The ceremony will be held in Busan on Sunday Oct.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief There is female empowerment in Korean cinemas, but it is coming more from local characters, than global hit “Barbie.” Female-led crime action film “Smugglers” dominated the weekend at the South Korean box office and pushed aside “Mission: impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” which had headed the chart for the previous two sessions. “Smugglers” earned $9.31 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic), giving it a nearly 54% market share. Over its full five opening days, the film has built up a cumulative total of $13.1 million.