Kore-eda Hirokazu Calls For Reform of Japanese Film Industry, Launches Lobby Group

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKakao Entertainment, part of Korean tech group Kakao, confirmed Monday that it is to produce a film version of “Solo Leveling,” a hit webtoon.The picture will be produced on its behalf by Japan’s A-1 Pictures (“Sword Art Online,” “The Seven Deadly Sins,” “Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, Erased,” and “Your Lie in April”) with Nakashige Shunsuke directing. Music is to be scored by Sawano Hiroyuki (“Attack on Titan”).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNetflix will produce the new Japanese film “In Love and Deep Water,” a suspenseful romantic comedy written by acclaimed creator Sakamoto Yuji.The story is set on a massive luxury cruise ship. While at sea, the loyal butler Suguru, and a mysterious woman named Chizuru cross paths as they try to uncover a murder-mystery that occurs on the ship.

Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Faithless’ Adapted For TV By SVT & ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ Director Tomas Alfredson

The classic TV game show “Password” is headed back to the small screen.

EXCLUSIVE: Greg Lauritano (Big Gold Brick) today announced the launch of his Brooklyn-based production company, Black Magic, at the same time offering details as to its upcoming slate.

EXCLUSIVE: Industry tech provider Deluxe has appointed former Netflix Korea exec Samantha Kim to the role of Managing Director, Business Development, APAC.

Katherine Tulich Lukas Dhont’s “Close,” which won the Grand Prix in Cannes last month, picked up the Sydney Film Prize, the top prize at the Sydney Film Festival, on Sunday evening.Accepting the award via video message Dhont said: “It’s a film that comes from our hearts, that we worked on for a lot of years with many people.”The international jury consisted of Australian actor David Wenham, Australian director Jennifer Peedom, writer-director-producer Mostofa Sarwar Farooki (Bangladesh), Berlin Golden Bear winner Semih Kaplanoglu (Turkey), and the executive director of the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute in Tokyo, Yuka Sakano (Japan). Twelve titles in the official competition included Carla Simon’s “Alcarras”, Hlynur Palmason’s “Godland”, Colm Bairead’s “The Quiet Girl” and Del Kathryn Barton’s “Blaze.” The winner is awarded AUD$60,000 ($41,600).

Another month, another bunch of new releases from everyone’s favorite boutique home video label, Criterion Collection. In the latest batch of releases, out this September, see Henri-Georges Clouzot’s fable of suspicion in a Nazi-occupied French town “Le Corbeau,” get a Blu-ray upgrade.

Lise Pedersen Six teams of budding animation professionals have pitched their projects at the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival as part of a new mentoring program for women from France and Africa launched by Les Femmes s’Animent (LFA), an organization that supports women in animation.The aim of the initiative, entitled “A Woman’s Journey,” is to help women who want to create short animated films but are not part of, nor have access to, the animation industry.

Naman Ramachandran Shailaja Padindala’s Kannada-language film “Naanu Ladies” won best narrative feature and Pedro Peira’s English and Spanish-language film “LA QueenCianera” best documentary feature at the 2022 Kashish LGBTQ+ film festival in Mumbai.Gujarati-language shorts “Muhafiz” by Pradipta Ray and “Dal Bhat” by Nemil Shah” won best Indian narrative short and the Riyad Wadia Award for best emerging Indian filmmaker respectively. “Muhafiz” also won best screenplay for Ray and Ashutosh Pathak.Padindala said: “ ‘Naanu Ladies’ is a film attempting to identify cis-het culture [as it] weaves itself into the queerness of everyday life.

Welcome to another episode of the Scene 2 Seen Podcast! It’s your host Valerie Complex and I am back with another exciting episode.

This year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament will see the end of an era. No, Roger Federer has not announced he will be zipping up his racquet – instead, the BBC’s veteran presenter Sue Barker has confirmed she will be hanging up her microphone after 30 years. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefSouth Korean TV network MBN is to give a weekly primetime slot this summer to a localized version of studio-based reality show “Mystery Duets.”The concept sees the nation’s most famous singers and celebrities perform a duet without knowing with whom they share the stage. It is only in the middle of the song that they discover each other’s identity as the screen between them rises.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Broker,” the unconventional family drama which appeared in competition at last month’s Cannes Film Festival, topped the box office in South Korea on Wednesday, its opening day.“Broker” grossed $1.10 million, enough to depose crime actioner “The Roundup” from the top spot that it had enjoyed for the past three weeks and which had made it the highest performing film this year.According to data from the Kobis tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council, “Broker” played on 1,590 screens and sold 145,000 tickets for Wednesday screenings. Its cumulative total of $1.15 million includes some $44,000 of previews earned on 14 screens.The feat by a local art-house film gives further support to the notion that cinema attendance is rebounding in Korea.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterFX is developing a series based on the life of Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki, best known as the founder of the Benihana restaurant chain, Variety has learned exclusively from sources.The series is currently titled “American Hiro” and is based in part on the book “Making It in America: The Life and Times of Rocky Aoki” by Jack McCallum.Representatives for FX and 20th Television declined to comment.The series will delve into Aoki’s colorful life as a mogul and businessman, from founding Benihana to being an Olympic wrestler, professional speed boat racer, hot air balloonist, and nightclub impresario. It will also examine his complicated relationship with his family and his attempts to reconcile his Japanese heritage with his American dreams. Jonathan Abrams created the series and will serve as an executive producer.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Jurassic World: Dominion” scored the third highest opening weekend of the year in South Korea, but still managed only second place at the box office, a further sign of recovery in the country.For the third weekend in a row, proceedings were dominated by local crime action film “The Roundup.” It earned $10.4 million over the Friday to Sunday period, down 32% from its previous weekend, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). After nearly three weeks on release, the film has an accumulated total of $73.3 million.Its cumulative total is built on 8.87 million spectators.