China’s ‘Bad Kids’ Series Set for Film Remake in Japan – Global Bulletin

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Jackie Chan-starring nostalgic stuntman comedy film “Ride On” trotted to a second weekend atop the mainland Chinese box office. “The Super Mario” Bros. Movie” remained in fourth place. “Ride On” earned $6.0 million (RMB41.5 million) between Friday and Sunday, a 48% week-on week drop, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That took it to a $22.6 million total since release on April 7. Below it, Japanese animation “Suzume” and Chinese shaggy dog story “Hachiko” swapped places. “Hachiko,” on its third weekend outing, earned $4.9 million, for a cumulative of $35.1 million. “Suzume” earned $4.5 million in its fourth weekend on release in China, giving it a $109 million cumulative.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese electronics giant, Sony has opened a virtual production studio in Shanghai, China, that it says can be used for shooting film, TV and commercials. The studio opened last month and is jointly operated with Gwantsi, one of China’s largest commercials production companies. Virtual production involves the use of high-resolution screens that create a backdrop in front of which actors perform. This can reduce the need for location travel, cut set-up times, shorten post-production and provide a more life-like environment for performers than traditional green-screen environments. VP studios are also well adapted to motion capture production.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Competition reality TV format “Lego Masters” has been picked up by Tokyo Broadcasting System for adaptation in Japan. The deal is the 19th for the Banijay Rights-represented format and the third in Asia. Production is currently underway for the show, which will see pairs compete against each other to wow judges with inspiring designs and brick builds. “I am looking forward to working with Banijay Rights and not only learn about the production of the show, but also to closely examine the essence of creation behind it,” said Aso Kunihiro, producer, contents solution department at TBS in a prepared statement.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Wanda, the Chinese conglomerate that once threatened to take over Hollywood, has put up for sale the Hoyts cinema chain in Australia that it bought in 2015. Hoyts is Australia’s second largest movie theater operator with 46 multiplexes housing 412 screens, according to 2022 data from Screen Australia. It also owns Val Morgan, Australia’s biggest cinema advertising firm.Wanda Cinema Line, itself China’s biggest theater operator, has appointed Credit Suisse and Nomura to handle the sale. Bidders are understood to have access to a “stapled debt” package (a line of agreed financing arranged by the banks) if the potential buyer cannot arrange sufficient finance of their own. A first deadline for bids is set at the beginning of May, with final offers to be submitted by the end of June.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A growing range of Thai, Japanese and Chinese-language films and TV shows are reaching global audiences – joining the by-now well-established international viewership for South Korean shows.Netflix’s Global Top 10 for the week April 3-10, sees made-for-streaming Korean title “Kill Boksoon” on top of the non-English-language films list, with 27.5 million hours watched in its second week of release. It is immediately followed by Thai film “Hunger,” about a young woman apprentice in an upmarket restaurant working under a tough boss. The film is directed by Sitisiri Mongkolsiri and stars “Bad Genius” breakout Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief U.K.-based sales agent Mister Smith Entertainment has picked up international rights to “Grafted,” a New Zealand-set horror film which marks the feature directing debut of Sasha Rainbow. The film is now in production. Mister Smith will launch sales next month in Cannes. The film tells story of a Chinese student who travels to New Zealand to complete the scientific work of her deceased father only to find a new way of achieving popularity, one body at a time.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Jackie Chan-starring stunt-man comedy drama “Ride On” pratfalled its way to first place at the mainland Chinese box office with a lowball $11.7 million opening. Still, that was enough to beat another new release, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which ranked fourth over the latest weekend. Chan is an enduring, but fading, star in China and in the past his new release titles were often scheduled for the three biggest holiday seasons. “Ride On,” which sees Chan in an ode to the stunt players he has worked with, was released two days after the Ching Ming (Wednesday 5 April) holiday, when many folks honor their ancestors. Its opening three days were enough to depose “Suzume” from the top spot, where “Suzume” had ranked for the previous two weekends. “Suzume” earned $8.0 million over the latest weekend in China, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. That gives it a $103 million cumulative after 17 days in mainland theaters, a China record for a Japanese animation film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Beijing 2022,” the official documentary about the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, has been set as the opening film of the revived Beijing International Film Festival. It is directed by noted narrative and documentary film maker Lu Chuan (“Kekexili,” “City of Life and Death” and Disney’s “Born in China”) and will have its world premiere at the festival. The festival will run April 22-29 and be based in the Huairou district which has become an out of town hub for the film industry, as well as other venues in the Chinese capital. For the past three editions the BJIFF has been held online due to disruptions caused by China’s strict anti-COVID measures.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Cinedigm has acquired all North American rights to the Japanese sci-fi horror film “New Religion.” “New Religion” is a surrealist body horror film written, directed and produced by first-time feature filmmaker Kondo Keishi. It stars Seto Kaho, Nunami Daiki, Oka Satoshi and Ryuseigun Saionji. After her daughter’s death, divorced Miyabi begins working as a call girl. One day, she meets an unsettling customer who wants to take pictures of her body parts. Soon, she realizes that every time she allows her body to be photographed her daughter’s spirit gets closer. She must decide how far she is willing to go to connect with her daughter once again.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Michelle Yeoh, star of the globally acclaimed Oscar-winning film “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” will serve as guest of honor and advisor at the fifth Meihodo International Youth Visual Media Festival, a platform for young visual artists and one of the largest short film festivals in the world. The festival takes place in Fukuoka, Japan. Other new guests include Maggie Q (“Mission Impossible: III,” the “Divergent” franchise and CW series “Nikita”), film editor Gabriella Cristiani and Stephen Castor (“Spider-Man”), co-CEO of It’s Just Us Productions, Rocket Science 3D and Rocket Science Motion Capture Studios, franchise.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Shanghai International Film Festival has unveiled plans for its return to an in-person event that will mark its 25th edition and its 30th anniversary. The festival was canceled last year, due to the severe restrictions imposed on the city in reaction to a Spring flare-up in the COVID outbreak. The 2023 edition will run June 9-18, 2023, organizers confirmed on Tuesday. They said it would, “open a two-way journey between Chinese films and world films.” The Jinjue (Golden Goblet) Awards competition will this year operate across five categories: main feature film competition, Asian newcomers, documentaries, animation and short films.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” opened in fourth place at the mainland China box office with a muted $5 million haul. Top honors belonged to Japanese animation film “Suzume” for the second weekend. “Suzume” incurred a 55% week-on-week drop, falling from $49.6 million in its opening weekend, to $22.1 million in is second, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. After ten days in Chinese theaters, “Suzume” now has a cumulative total of $80.6 million. Nevertheless, its lead at the top of the box office chart was unassailable. The weekend’s best-placed new release title was “Hachiko,” a Chinese retelling of the Japanese tale of a dog which faithfully waited at a station for its master years after his death. (The story was previously given a U.S. version with Richard Gere in the lead human role.) It earned $8.9 million (RMB61.2 million) in its opening weekend.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Amazon MiniTV, a free-of-charge service within the Amazon shopping app and on Fire TV, will next month begin airing short-form teen romance series “Gutar Gu.” The show is produced by Guneet Monga and Sikhya Productions, whose “The Elephant Whisperers” recently won the Oscar for best documentary short. “We at Sikhya are super excited to work with director Saqib Pandor, transforming our well-received short film into its own web series! “Gutar Gu” – a new chapter in the story of Ritu and Anuj, dives deep into the many ups and downs of teenage relationships- navigating strict parents, dating protocols, and the innocence and moments of first love,” said Monga.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix will give a May launch to “Sanctuary,” a sports drama series set in the specialized world of Japanese sumo wrestling. Produced by the Slowtide company for the streamer, the show follows a juvenile delinquent who becomes a sumo apprentice. He soon finds himself on a collision course with a voiceless wrestler carrying a secret. Netflix pitches it as “a gritty look into the underbelly of professional sumo, a world full of young men with ambitions for money, women, fame, and power […] where some may find sanctuary with a history of more than 1,500 years in Japan’s traditional culture and as a religious ceremony.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce and media group, unveiled a top to bottom corporate restructuring that it says is intended to “unlock shareholder value and foster market competitiveness.”  The group, which has a current market capitalization of $228 billion, will split itself into six divisions of differing sizes. Each unit will have a CEO and a board of directors and can pursue independent fund-raising or even IPOs, when they are ready. At present Alibaba has its shares and ADR shares listed in Hong Kong and New York. Some parts of its media business also have their own Hong Kong share listing Alibaba Pictures. (And there is a healthcare business with yet another share quote.)

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese animation film “Suzume” made just shy of $50 million on its opening weekend in mainland Chinese theaters. Data from consultancy Artisan Gateway, shows “Suzume” grabbing the top spot at the box office with $49.6 million (RMB342 million) between Friday and Sunday. That is the biggest opening score by any film this year outside of the Chinese New Year holiday week in late January. The next best is “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” which opened with $19.4 million in mid-February. Directed by Shinkai Makoto, “Suzume” was a hit in Japan where it was released late last year and has remained on screens for a $105 million total. It played in February at the Berlin Film Festival, where it came away largely empty-handed, but has subsequently performed strongly in the Asian territories where it has released. (In South Korea, where it is now the second highest grossing film released in 2023, its third weekend is its strongest to date.)

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix has announced new series “Ooku: The Inner Chambers,” the first anime adaptation of a hit Japanese manga by Yoshinaga Fumi. At the ongoing Anime Japan convention in Tokyo, the streamer also unveiled “Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune,” another anime series, adapted from a military sci-fi novel by Carlo Zen and set to upload in May. Directed by Abe Noriyuki and produced by Studio Deen, “Ooku” is inspired by tales emerging from the Ooku women’s quarters within Edo Castle and imagines that gender roles are reversed. After a plague threatens the male population women take up positions of authority. The new (female) Shogun Yoshimune enquires into why the women adopt male names when taking power and starts to unravel other mysteries within the inner sanctum. The original manga was published by Hakusensha / Melody.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taiwan has become a go-to destination for Chinese language series production over the past few years, as international streamers have taken the initiative and as the local content trend has become entrenched in Asia. While some of Taiwan’s advantage may have been handed to it as a result of regional political factors, the movement has led to greater interest in Taiwan stories, both historical and modern.Five Taiwan TV projects are being pitched at Series Mania, that are deemed to have international appeal according to Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), a government-backed agency that has become noticeably proactive over roughly the same period.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Viz Media has picked up a wide collection of rights in North America and Latin America to animated Japanese sports series “Captain Tsubasa: Junior Youth Arc.” The series is adapted from a popular manga by Yoichi Takahashi and is licensed by Shueisha Inc. The deal includes digital streaming, TV, electronic sell-thru, home video and merchandise rights for North and Latin American territories. The new series is currently being produced by Studio KAI, with the official main staff including: director Ono Katsumi; character design and executive animation director, Watanabe Hajime; and series composition, Tomioka Atsuhiro. The voice cast includes Sanpei Yuko as Tsubasa Ozora, Gukuyama Jun as Karl Heinz Schneider and Suzumura Kenichi as Wakabayashi Genzo and Hyuga Kojiro as Sato Takuya. It is set to launch October 2023.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief It is becoming harder not to perceive Tencent, China’s tech and entertainment giant and the world’s largest games firm by revenue, as a utility. It is now too big to be a growth stock darling and too widely-spread to escape the gravity of China’s underlying economic trends. Revenues in calendar 2022 flatlined at RMB554 billion, while net profits dropped 16% to RMB188.2 billion ($27.0 billion). The decrease reflected China’s economic reversal that began in the second quarter of the year with the arrival of a new COVID strain and stricter government measures to combat it. Tencent’s advertising revenues fell slightly, costs rose somewhat, and subscriber number were mixed – rising in music, but falling in video.