French Film, TV Sellers Tap Into Southeast Asia’s Youthful Markets

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hit Japanese anime series “Wind Breaker” has been confirmed for a second season, distributor Crunchyroll said on Thursday. The announcement came the same day as the finale of Season 1. “Welcome to Furin High School, an institution infamous for its population of brawny brutes who solve every conflict with a show of strength.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Expanding its Japanese content, Netflix has set up “Soul Mate,” a live-action series that charts the ten-year romance between a Korean man and a Japanese man. Traversing Berlin, Germany, Seoul, South Korea and Tokyo, Japan, “Soul Mate” starts when a man who left everything behind in Japan (portrayed by Isomura Hayato), is saved by a boxer named Johan (portrayed by Ok Taec-yeon) in a foreign land.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The family drama “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” has become the highest-grossing Thai film of all time in The Philippines, distributor Westec Media claims. The company, which released the film, does not quantify the receipts or the record. But there is little doubt of the film’s hit status across Asia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Malaysia International Film Festival (Miffest), which runs July 21-28, will open with horror film “Indera” by local director Woo Ming Jin and starring Shaheizy Sam and Azira Shafinaz. The festival will conclude with the double feature of “Love Lies” by Ho Miu Ki and “Peg O’ My Heart” by Nick Cheung.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Caught by the Tides,” the contemporary Chinese epic film directed by Jia Zhangke, has been acquired for U.S. release by Sidehow and Janus Films. The film appeared in main competition in Cannes in May and is on one an extended look at the romantic destiny of his perennial heroine, Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao) over a period of 21 years.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The stars of upcoming Chinese-language TV drama “See Her Again” are set to take to the red carpet on Monday, the first day of the Shanghai Television Festival. Telling the story of a police officer who traces a serial murder case across 25 years in Hong Kong, using clues from 1993 and technology from 2018, the show stars William Chan Wai-ting and Cya Liu (aka Liu Xin).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Feelgood local movie “Moments We Shared” ran off to a dominant win at the mainland China box office, despite releasing only on Saturday. If ever there was need of further evidence of Hollywood’s diminished power with Chinese audiences, this weekend provided it. “Moments’” win came at the expense of two U.S.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Inside Out 2” enjoyed a stellar second weekend at the South Korean box office, comfortably beating local thriller “Hijack 1971.” The Pixar animation recorded a week-on-week drop of only 15% to score $10.3 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis the box office tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). Its market share through the weekend was a powerful 70%. Those performances give the film a $28 million cumulative after 12 days in Korean cinemas.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The 17th edition of the SIFF Project Market, held on the margins of the Shanghai International Film Festival, wrapped this week with the awarding of various prizes and an early evening party. In the juried section prizes were determined by a panel including Lu Chuan, Luca Liang and Yao Chen.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Steve W. Chung, a former executive at Fox and Korea’s CJ ENM, has been appointed as the inaugural COO of Azuki, an anime community platform and digital art collection.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief France’s Canal+ Group has increased its stake in multi-territory Asian video streamer Viu to 36.8%. It says that the move is in accordance with the terms of the strategic partnership with Viu owner PCCW Group announced a year ago and follows the satisfaction of key business milestones.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese industry executives will get a first taste of “Coolie,” a big-budget historical miniseries that focuses on the enslaved Chinese workers in Cuba in the 1860s. MM2 Entertainment is handling China rights to the production on behalf of I.E. Entertainment.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Extinction,” the Malaysian-produced animation that is playing at the Shanghai International Film Festival, has struck its first international rights sales deals. The film was recently picked up by All Rights Entertainment, the Paris, Hong Kong and Los Angeles-based sales agency. All Rights has subsequently licensed the title to Magic Film for the CIS region, to Dazzler Media for the U.K., to Red Cape Distribution for Israel and to Bir Film for Turkey.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Wanda Film, China’s largest cinema operator, has expanded its business relationship with Imax Corp. in a huge deal that straddles technology and content. With 381 Imax installations, Wanda alone operates more Imax venues than most countries.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Kitano Takeshi, one of the biggest names in contemporary Japanese cinema, is directing an untitled movie for Amazon MGM Studios. Other details of the movie, such as cast and synopsis were also scant. Amazon said only that it, “will produce globally acclaimed Japanese director Takeshi Kitano’s feature film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Coralie Fargeat’s Demi Moore-starring feminist body horror film “The Substance” has been set as the closing night title for the New Zealand International Film Festival. The picture is one of 16 which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last month selected for the NZIFF which is now under the artistic leadership of Paolo Bertolin.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Zhang Yimou, director of many of China’s most spectacular and successful movies, is to try his hand at sci-fi. He will direct a film adaptation of “The Three-Body Problem.” The project was announced Sunday by Wang Changtian, founder and CEO of Enlight Media, one of China’s top three studios, at a forum organized within the Shanghai International Film Festival. Wang said that Zhang is in the early stages of preparations for the film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese animation film “Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle” took a clear lead at the mainland China weekend box office – despite only being available for two of three days. Data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway showed the film scoring $9.8 million (RMB69.4 million) in China, more than double that of second placed film “Be My Friend.” The win came despite “Haikyu!!” only being released on Saturday and measuring up against other tiles available throughout the whole of the Friday-Sunday period. “Haikyu!!” is the third Japanese film so far this year to lead the mainland Chinese box office, following “The Boy and the Heron” and “Doraemon the Movie: Nobita’s Earth Symphony.” It was produced by Production IG, Toho Animation and Sony Music Entertainment Japan and released by Crunchyroll in multiple territories.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Deadpool & Wolverine” will enjoy a release in mainland Chinese cinemas on July 26, simultaneous with its North American outing. And, despite hailing from what is arguably Marvel’s most adult franchise, the film will incur only “minimal cuts” for its China release. All foreign films entering China require permission to be imported, to clear censorship and must be allocated a release date by local authorities.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Parallax China, one of China’s leading independent film sales companies, has picked up rights to a pair of titles that debut this week at the Shanghai International Film Festival. It is handling world sales on “Qian Tang River,” directed by Wan Bo, and “Another Day of Hope,” by Liu Taifeng. Both are directorial debuts and both appear in the non-competitive Refreshing Chinese Cinema section.