Ishikawa Kei’s ‘A Man’ Sweeps Japan Academy Awards, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Wins Best Foreign Film

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “The Bad Kids,” a hit series from Chinese streamer iQiyi, is to be remade as a Japanese feature film “Gold Boy.” The 12-episode gritty crime thriller depicts the troubles that arise after three children accidentally film a murder. The series was previously licensed to Japanese pay-TV group Wowow.

Naman Ramachandran Yash Raj Films’ “Pathaan” is the biggest Indian hit of the year so far grossing $130 million. The studio’s Akshaye Widhani also served as a co-producer on the film. Part of the release strategy around “Pathaan” was keeping Shah Rukh Khan away from the film’s promotions, creating curiosity around the superstar’s comeback film, the first time he’d headlined a project since 2018’s “Zero.” “There was a lot of excitement and hunger to see India’s biggest movie star on screen after four years. We wanted to preserve that. So when we got into a room with him to talk about marketing the film, we all felt what if we went with a different strategy this time, which is less is more. So we hold back Shah Rukh, not have him seen pre-release, not have him interact with anybody pre-release,” Widhani told Variety. “But once the the film is out, then we come out into the media. That was a conscious decision and one that paid off well, because the whole excitement to go watch him on screen became even more, and the hunger increased when you didn’t see him. And it worked well for us.”

Lana Del Rey is back, and she’s heading for her sixth Number 1 album in the UK.  

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.)

Peter Andre has opened up about living in Japan, recalling a time when a Japanese mafia boss started yelling aggressively at him and tensions started to rise. Singer Peter, 50, said the experience left him "petrified" as hee described the “dangerous” situation as “a little too close for comfort”. He told The Sunday Times: "On this particular night, this man just started yelling at me really aggressively and it turned out he was a member of the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza.

told People, which the news as an exclusive on Monday. “Some of the descriptions of being jet-lagged in your family’s kitchen felt very familiar to me.”While Sharpe may be best known in the public eye for his breakout work on HBO and Mike White’s “The White Lotus,” “Crying in H Mart” hardly marks the multihyphenates behind-the-camera debut.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Will Sharpe, who endeared himself to audiences on “The White Lotus,” is directing a feature film adaptation of Michelle Zauner’s 2021 memoir “Crying in H Mart.” Zauner’s novel centers around her relationship with her Korean heritage and her mother, who died from cancer in 2014. Best known as the frontwoman for indie-pop band Japanese Breakfast, Zauner is adapting the screenplay and will also play a part in the film’s music.  According to the official synopsis from MGM, which is backing the movie, “Crying in H Mart” is a “coming-of age story about a half-Korean daughter who returns to small town Oregon to care for her Korean mother. Critical and smothering Chong-mi and creative and independent Michelle struggle to understand each other across a cultural fault line, only learning to see and accept one another through the formative power of music and the vibrant flavors of Korean cooking.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Like & Share” from Indonesia’s Gina S. Noer was named the best picture and collected the Grand Prix on Sunday at the Osaka Asian Film Festival. “All of us on the jury were struck by the film’s clear and powerful message, which affirms young women’s sexual curiosity and desire while clearly saying no to sexual violence. The style of the film is also original. The sweet, poppy feeling that fascinates the audience in the first half of the film becomes darker as the story progresses, making us shudder. “Like & Share,” with its strong message and brilliant direction, is a film that needs to be seen now more than ever,” said the jury in a statement.

John Wick series will be put on a “rest” after John Wick: Chapter 4 makes its way onto movie screens.The franchise’s director Chad Stahelski has said that both he and Keanu Reeves are “done for the moment” with the films. Telling The Hollywood Reporter that the character needs to be left alone for a while, adding that it has created a backlog of work for him.Asked if there was the possibility of a fifth instalment in the works, Stahleski replied: “In our minds, Keanu and I are done for the moment. We’re going to give John Wick a rest.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Fly Me to the Moon,” a work-in-progress from Hong Kong, dominated the prizes presented at the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum project market. It collected five awards and was invited to continue its journey at Cannes in May. Directed by first-time feature maker Sasha Chuk and produced by the veteran Stanley Kwan, the film tells the tale of a pair of sisters moving from Hunan to Hong Kong in the 1990s. They are faced with an identity crisis, poverty and their father’s drug addiction. It entered the market with $640,000 of its intended $705,000 production budget in place, and more than filled the gap with the prizes announced on Wednesday.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief U.K.- and Hong Kong-based company Phoenix Waters Prods. has formally partnered with Hong Kong’s Agog Films to create Phoenix Waters Asia, a new venture aimed at increasing content production in Asia. The venture was announced on the sidelines of a film investment conference held Tuesday in Hong Kong at the FilMart rights market, where Phoenix Waters Prods. CEO Bizhan Tong was a speaker. The two companies previously collaborated on “Chungking Mansions,” an ambitious pan-Asian action film on which Tong is director, and where production was previously scheduled for last year. Tong told Variety that lensing will start later this year, “after address any issues that could hinder filming in Hong Kong.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, is back in full force in 2023, celebrating its 25th anniversary edition from April 21–29. A key component of the celebrations will be a focus on the Asian films of the 1980s. “We have never programmed these films, nor put together this kind of program before,” says Thomas Bertacche, the FEFF’s co-head. “But these were the films and directors that inspired us to shape Udine into the festival that it is today.” Pitching the historical lineup as “hidden treasures,” the selection is expected to include early works by Japan’s Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Thailand’s Nonzee Nimibutr and South Korea’s Jan Sung-woo.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The blockbuster French cast of Amazon Prime Video’s third season of “LOL: Qui rit, qui sort” speaks volumes about the Japanese variety format’s tremendous popularity in France. The Amazon Original series, adapted from the format “LOL: Last One Laughing,” scored its biggest launch to date on Prime Video in France since bowing on March 10. The show is one of the streamer’s first unscripted originals in France and has been a major coup as a brand exercise that’s succeeded with limited resources — certainly in comparison to scripted comedy. Adaptations of “LOL” have also thrived in Italy and Germany where they have ranked as the most watched local titles on the service, respectively. Local versions are also available in Spain, Canada, Mexico and Australia (hosted by Rebel Wilson).

Roberto Stabile, head of special projects, Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual-Ministry of Culture at Cinecittà, told Variety. “This support will increase the presence of Italian audiovisual content not only in cinemas, but also on streaming platforms, online distribution, television, everything,” he added.

Mark Schilling Japan Correspondent Japanese author Oe Kenzaburo, the winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature, has died at age 88. His date of death, ascribed to old age, was March 3. A total of six films have been made from Oe’s work, most recently the 2001 “Gibier d’élevage,” a reworking of “The Catch” by Cambodian director Rithy Panh. Born in 1935 in Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku, Oe began writing while still a student of French literature at the University of Tokyo. Not long after graduating in 1957, he published “The Catch,” a novella about a Black American airman who finds himself captured by rural Japanese villagers in the waning days of the war. It won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize and was made into a 1961 film by Japanese Nouvelle Vague auteur Oshima Nagisa.

won the Academy Award for Best Original Song on Sunday, becoming the first song from an Indian film to win in the category.Composer M. M.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car was awarded with best feature at the Asian Film Awards (March 12), along with prizes for best editing and best original music. The multiple award winning Japanese drama premiered at Cannes film festival in 2021 and also won the Oscar for Best International Feature last year.  

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The much-decorated Japanese drama “Drive My Car” was named the best film Sunday at the Asian Film Awards, defeating hot favorite “Decision to Leave.” Other notable awards went to Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda whose “Broker” debuted at Cannes, but which was largely shunned in his home country. “Decision to Leave,” which started the evening with ten nominations, was nevertheless rewarded with three awards, best screenplay, best production design and best actress for China’s Tang Wei.

The 1975 were the musical guests on last night’s (March 11) Saturday Night Live – watch the band perform two ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’ tracks below.Earlier this week The 1975 were involved in a handful of promos for the late night comedy sketch show alongside guest host, Wednesday star Jenna Ortega.Taking to the show last night, the band performed ‘About You’ and ‘Oh Caroline’ from a set designed to look like a living room. The band used a similar setup during their recent At Their Very Best world tour.Check out the performances below:The 1975 previously appeared on Saturday Night Live in 2016 where they performed ‘Love Me’ and ‘The Sound’ from second album ‘I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It’.Prior to the performance, The 1975 released a short film.

TWICE took to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform new single ‘Set Me Free’ – check it out below:‘Set Me Free’ is the only song on ‘Ready To Be’ that has both Korean and English-language versions.TWICE’s appearance on Fallon saw the nine-piece band deliver slick choreography and glorious harmonies while the audience lost their minds.Check out the performance below:‘Ready To Be’ was released on Friday (March 10) and comes eight months after the release of TWICE’s last mini-album ‘Between 1&2’, which the group released after renewing their contracts with agency JYP Entertainment earlier in 2022.The launch of ‘Ready To Be’ was also marked by the release of a music video for ‘Set Me Free’.Following the release of ‘Ready To Be’, TWICE will debut their first-ever sub-unit comprising Japanese members Sana, Momo and Mina. Dubbed MISAMO, the trio will release their first original Japanese mini-album on July 26.Earlier this month, TWICE were named Billboard’s 2023 Women in Music Breakthrough act.