‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’, ‘Squid Game’ Win Big At Busan’s Asia Contents Awards

The UK Music Video Awards took place in London last night, with Pharrell Williams and Little Simz the big winners – taking home four and three prizes respectively.Among Williams’ trophies was the Video Of The Year award for ‘Cash In Cash Out’, his collaboration with 21 Savage and Tyler, The Creator. Williams also took away the prizes for Best International Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Video, Best Visual Effects and Best Animation – all for the same video.Meanwhile Little Simz was handed Best UK Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Video, Best Wardrobe Styling and Best Colour Grading for the video to her track ‘Point And Kill’, featuring Obongjayar.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief While the Busan International Film Festival was busily hailing a return to normality the slump at South Korea’s commercial box office deepened dramatically over the most recent weekend. Cinemagoing nationwide was worth only $4.20 million between Friday and Sunday, the lowest weekend total since April and a time before Korean cinemas shed their COVID restrictions. The weekend’s top film “Life Is Beautiful” managed the lowest first place score of any film this year, with a weekend haul of just $777,000, according to data from Kobiz, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The free concert by K-pop sensation BTS in Busan, Korea, was viewed by upwards of 49 million people on Saturday. The free-of-charge “BTS ‘Yet to Come’ in Busan” concert was held in support of Busan’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo and represented an attempt to introduce the city and Korean culture to global audience. After a change of venue, the physical component was held at the city’s Asiad Main Stadium and attracted some 50,000 in-person guests. An additional 10,000 people in the city watched a live retransmission at the Busan Port, and a further 2,000 gathered in Haeundae, the tourist area that recently played host to the Busan International Film Festival.

Korean filmmaker Lee Jeong-hong’s A Wild Roomer and Shivamma, from India’s Jaishankar Aryar, were the winners of the New Currents Awards at the close of an encouragingly busy Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, October 5-14).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean film “A Wild Roomer” and India’s “Shivamma” have been announced as the joint winners of the New Currents competition, the prestige discovery section of the Busan International Film Festival. “We were particularly sensitive to the lightness and subtlety of the director’s view of his characters. Through his innovative cinematography, he creates original circulations between the characters within a house, and builds a very contemporary universe,” the competition jury said of the Lee Jeon-hong-directed “A Wild Roomer.” “We appreciated the originality and intensity with which the director was able to tell this very contemporary story. Here documentary and fiction meet in an organic and spirited way of making cinema. The generosity of the actors and the scenes create a closeness with this universal story that takes place in an Indian village,” the jury said of the Jaishankar Aryar-directed “Shivamma.”

Adrian Sanderson has become a favourite among fans during his stint on Married At First Sight UK, with many showing their support for him online throughout the series.The 37 year old digital designer married Thomas Hartley, 31, on the hit E4 show and while the couple had their fair share of ups and downs, they definitely formed a close bond and won viewers over. Both Adrian and Thomas hail from Liverpool, but Adrian now lives in Manchester in a stylish apartment which regularly features on his social media.

Married At First Sight UK fans have been left in bits after Thomas Hartley and Adrian Sanderson called it quits before their final vows.Tuesday night's episode saw the couples have their final dinner party of the series but after watching the other happy couples, Thomas made an emotional announcement. He said to camera: "Looking around the table I'm seeing how happy everyone is and I just don't feel like that. I need to talk to Adrian." He then asked to speak to his husband outside, and the pair emotionally agreed to part ways.

Naman Ramachandran An influential panel of buyers from Asia and Europe identified multiple problems in the current, depressed post-pandemic box office landscape for arthouse films and attempted to find solutions at a Platform Busan panel on Monday. The panel included Laure Parleani of Totem Films (France), Kim Heaok of Hark & Company (Japan), Beril Heral of Filmarti (Turkey) and June Lee from Korean streamer Watcha. The panel was moderated by Variety Asia editor Patrick Frater. Parleani mentioned that France has had its worst box office September in 42 years, with only Rebecca Zlotowski’s Venice title “Other People’s Children” and Alice Winocour’s Cannes title “Revoir Paris,” both starring Virginie Efira, bringing some cheer amongst local fare.

Alex Jones stunned fans on Sunday as she posed for pictures on the red carpet of the annual BAFTA Cymru Awards. BAFTA Cymru is the Welsh version of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the One Show presenter was on hosting duties.The BBC star wore a stunning dress from Sophie Couture that featured a plunging black bustier and a metallic skirt with shimmery flowers for the event. She paired this with chandelier earrings from Zara and rings from Augustine Jewels.The 38 year old opted for fresh, glowy makeup with smokey eyes and a matte pink lip.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Rithy Panh, director of “Rice People” and “S21 The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine” is an icon of art-house cinema, at once political, unique, and charming. The iconic image may be another of his confections – a palatable work built on uncomfortable facts. On the incomplete evidence of a 50-minute on-stage dialog at the Busan International Film Festival on Sunday, Panh comes across as simultaneously contrarian and principled. A curmudgeonly veteran and yet a filmmaker still curious to learn. “If there were no Khmer Rouge maybe I would not be a filmmaker,” he said of the Communist insurgents, who won the Cambodian civil war in 1975 and whose brutality and atrocities he has spent a lifetime documenting and exposing.

Rebecca Souw The Astory-produced “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” claimed the ‘Best Content Award’ Saturday at the fourth edition of the Asian Contents Awards in Busan. The hit show’s lead actress, Park Eun-bin bagged the best actress award, thrilling assembled local fans. The ceremony took place outdoors at the BIFF Theater at the Busan Cinema Center, on the sidelines of the Busan International Film Festival. With the venues filled to almost 80% capacity, the best of Asia TV, OTT and online content were presented with a total of 12 awards.

Thomas Hartley has been at the centre of the drama in this series of Married At First Sight UK, and he turned heads as he sported a new look in Manchester. Thomas, who married Adrian Sanderson in the E4 social experiment which sees singles matched-up and meet for the first time on their wedding days, looked completely different with a close-cropped hairstyle.

Lee Jung-jae will get a chance to see the “Squid Game” star in his earliest starring role, as a manipulative male model in 1994’s “The Young Man.” Korean indie distributor and sales agent Mirovision has added the 1994 picture to its sales lineup at the Asian Contents & Film Market, on the sidelines of the Busan International Film Festival. Set in Seoul’s Rodeo Drive district, the film sees Lee play a model trying to break into commercials. After he accidentally kills an agent and dumps the body in a river, he has to turn up the charm to get away with the slaying. The role earned him best new actor awards from four organizations.

Married At First Sight UK's Adrian Sanderson has hit back at fans' claims about his "Captain Curtains" hairstyle. The digital designer, 37, took to Instagram on Thursday night to take part in a candid Q&A following the final Commitment Ceremony with his 114K followers and viewers of the show. With one fan asking: "I got told that producers told you what to have your hair like (curtains) is that true? xx".To which an amused Adrian responded: "Right, I'm finishing the night on this silly one.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kamila Andini, Indonesian filmmaker and member of the jury at this year’s Busan International Film Festival, said that she would look out for “Asian texture” among the films presented in the festival’s premiere New Currents competition section. French director Alain Guiraudie said that he would be seeking “new colors” and “new flavors.” He added that he thought Asian cinema could be “enigmatic and mysterious.” Both were speaking at a meet the press event on Thursday, the first full day of the festival. And jurors have yet to start screening the competition titles.

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.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese indie sales Firm Free Stone Productions has added a quartet of new titles to its line-up in time for the rights markets in Busan and Tokyo. The company is unable to travel to Busan and will meet with clients virtually at the Asian Contents & Film Market. The TIFFCOM market, which runs alongside the Tokyo International Film Festival later in the month, is anyway a virtual event. Top of the list is “In Her Room,” a romance about a young dentist who embarks on a romance with a mysterious woman but cannot figure her out. The film will play in the Nippon Cinema Now section of the Tokyo festival and have a Japanese commercial release from January. It is the feature debut if Ito Chihiro and stars Iguchi Satoru, Baba Fumika and Kawai Yuumi.