Donnie Yen, Zhang Ziyi Among Talent On Debut Slate Of Peter Chan’s Changin’ Pictures

A messianic ruler, already considered the world’s most influential figure, is about to get absolute power over the planet’s most-populous state.  What happens next will be remembered for generations. Chances are, Chinese President Xi Jinping will lead China into war.   The drama begins at the Communist Party’s 20th National Congress, which starts Sunday.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Cargo Film & Releasing has acquired domestic and international rights to director Violet Du Feng’s feature documentary “Hidden Letters.” The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and its European premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. It won Best Documentary and the Audience Award at the Austin Asian American Film Festival. Cargo will premiere the film theatrically starting in New York and Los Angeles on Dec. 9. “Hidden Letters” follows two millennial Chinese women connected by their passion for Nushu, a secret female-only language that for centuries has allowed women to communicate privately without men understanding their correspondence.

ATLANTA – Stacey Abrams is blasting Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for enticing increased Chinese investment in the state despite what she says is the greater threat to national security it could bring, as well as the potential surveillance of Georgians by the Chinese Communist Party.

EXCLUSIVE: Seoul- and Los Angeles-based Bound Entertainment (Apple’s Dr Brain) is teaming with author Ann Liang to develop her genre-bending YA debut novel, If You Could See the Sun as a series.  

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Patriotic rescue film “Homecoming” largely dominated the Chinese box office over the latest weekend and brought to a close a deeply-depressed National Day holiday period. “Homecoming” earned $21.5 million between Friday and Sunday to lift its ten-day cumulative to $163 million, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That score accounted for a 71% share of the weekend’s $30.3 million total. Second-placed film “Ordinary Hero” earned just $2.2 million, giving it a ten-day total of $19.7 million. Previous top-ranking film, “Give Me Five” held on to third place, despite the volley of new releases on either September 30 or October 1. It collected $1.7 million for a cumulative of $60.8 million since release on Sept. 9, 2022.

China's reported overseas police service stations and their operations to persuade citizens to return to the homeland mark a dangerous expansion of the regime’s international reach, according to a human rights advocate.  Safeguard Defenders, a pan-Asian human rights organization, published an investigation last month detailing a Chinese campaign to combat "fraud and telecom fraud" crimes committed by its citizens living abroad.The report indicated that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has established at least 54 police stations across 30 different countries, including the U.S. "I think it shows how brazen the CCP is getting and how little regard they have for other governments," Laura Harth, Safeguard Defenders' campaign manager, told Fox News.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong multi-hyphenate Peter Chan Ho-sun is far too intellectual to call himself an “arms dealer,” as Sony Pictures has in casting itself as an unattached supplier to streaming platforms. But politeness and Bob Dylan references aside, Chan’s new company, Changin’ Pictures, aims to become a major independent purveyor of premium Asian TV content for the streamers. The company is using this week’s Busan International Film Festival as its launchpad and will unveil the first five series of its 20-title pan-Asian slate.  Chan’s thesis is that global audiences are hungry for Asian content but have not been able to access it easily under legacy film and TV distribution systems. With streaming making everything accessible everywhere, and audiences no longer balking at subtitles, quality Asian drama can and will travel.

China still has much to gain from its current relationship with Russia even as the invasion of Ukraine drags on, turning Russia into an international pariah and threatening to rub off on China’s reputation as well.  "China has, in effect, doubled down on its support for the Putin war effort, and we saw this, for instance, last month when China's third rank leader went to Moscow, spoke to the State Duma, and in very clear terms, expressed Beijing's support for Russia," Gordon Change, author of "The Coming Collapse of China," told Fox News Digital.  "Then, [we] see Jinping himself when he was in Uzbekistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, actually confirmed that endorsement," Chang added. "The only conclusion that we can come to is that Beijing is not backing away from Russia."  The China and Russia dynamic has remained a troubling one for the United States since even before the invasion of Ukraine started in March 2022.

came to terms on a sale, Musk put his plan on blast, and even gave his vision for a super-app a name: X.Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app“Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” he said. And there it is: Quite possibly the real reason Musk threw down $44 billion for the social-media app.

TheSingapore Film Commission has selected He Shuming’s Singapore-Korea co-production Ajoomma as its submission to the best international feature category at the Oscars.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief EST Studios, the film company established this year by 88Rising co-founder Jaeson Ma and former Vice Media executive Eric Tu, has struck a partnership arrangement with China’s Hugoeast Media. The partnership is looking at an initial slate of eight projects, with EST Studios representing sales at the major film markets including the upcoming Asian Contents and Film Market and Asian Project Market at the Busan International Film Festival. EST will be the exclusive representative for Hugoeast’s titles in North America. In other territories (outside of China) it will handle them on a non-exclusive basis.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Patriotic action film “Homecoming” dominated cinemagoing in China over the weekend with a nearly $60 million haul. But the National Day holiday season is in a deep slump compared with recent years. Directed by Rao Xiaozhi, the film is yet another tale of a heroic rescue of Chinese citizens in danger in foreign lands. In this instance, two Chinese diplomats must return to war-torn 2011 Libya to save 125 people who have been left behind. The film opened on Friday and garnered an impressive $59.3 million (RMB421) according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. It accounted for a thumping 67% market share. Imax reported that the film had been shot with Imax-certified cameras and that $3 million of the total came from its screens in China.

It was a varied offering at the international box office this weekend with newcomers from Hollywood and offshore markets, as well as notable holds, as we inch closer to full-on action later in October. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Soi Cheang Pou-soi’s crime thriller “Limbo” is the front-runner in the Golden Horse Film Awards, with 14 nominations. It is narrowly ahead of Taiwan-produced “Coo-Coo 043” and “Incantation,” which both have 13 nominations. All three films compete for the best feature award, best director, supporting actor, art direction, makeup and costume design, original film score, film editing and sound effects. The Taiwan-based Golden Horse Awards have long been considered as the most prestigious prize race for Chinese language films, but they have been boycotted by mainland Chinese films and filmmakers for the past three years on the order of mainland Chinese authorities. This followed a pro-Taiwan independence speech given from the stage in 2018 by a local prize winner.

Universal Music has announced a new partnership with General Motors’ Buick brand to release music inspired by the car maker.The first song to be released under the deal is ‘Guang Zhi Suo Xiang’ performed by Liu Lingfei, a leading musical theatre actor in China. Oh yes, I probably should have mentioned that this is a deal between the Chinese divisions of the two companies.That song was actually unveiled last month, to coincide with this year’s Buick Owners Day in China, and an accompanying video was put out earlier this month.According to the two brands, “the song and its accompanying music video are crafted to depict Buick owners’ lives and deepen their pride of Buick ownership”.The news now is that there’s more of this sort of thing to come.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief China recorded an unchanged top five films and its weakest box office weekend since Chinese New Year. Nationwide gross box office was just $18.6 million. Comedy drama film “Give Me Five” held on to the top spot for the third week, with a weekend score of $6.3 million (RMB43.3 million), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. It now has a cumulative of $46.4 million since release on Sept. 9, 2022. The film is the story of a young man who is helping his father rediscover his lost memories. As he does so, he is transported back in time and accidentally alters his parent’s pasts. That means he must reunite the pair or risk never being born. It stars Ma Li Chang Yuan and Wei Xiang and is directed by Zhang Luan.