‘Monster’ Exclusive Clip: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Acclaimed & Compassionate Mystery Melodrama Is In Select Theaters Now

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Disney animation film, “Wish” topped the South Korean box office on its opening weekend. It toppled local epic “Noryang: Deadly Sea,” which had dominated over Christmas and New Year. “Wish,” which has slowly been rolling out worldwide since a late November start in North America, made a respectable $3.29 million debut between Friday and Sunday according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). After five days on release in Korea, it has garnered $4.57 million. “Noryang,” which released on Dec.

Forget the riddle of steel, here’s the riddle of glitter: Bertrand Mandico‘s “She Is Conann” finally hits theaters next month after a rousing run on the 2023 festival circuit. Premiering at Cannes and screening at Fantastic Fest, Locarno, and more, Mandico’s latest is a gender-swapped take on Robert E.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Choi Min-sik, the veteran Korean actor who previously starred in “Oldboy” and Korea’s all-time box office record breaker “Roaring Currents,” heads the cast of upcoming mystery-thriller film “Exhuma.” The title, which will debut in Korean theaters in February, also released its first-look images and an atmospheric trailer. Choi appears as an exorcist who unleashes unexpected supernatural forces. According to a synopsis supplied by Showbox, “A wealthy family living in Los Angeles calls on a pair of young shaman, played by Kim Go-eun and Lee Do-hyun, to save their newborn child after they are visited by a series of paranormal events. [The shaman duo] senses that the dark shadow of an ancestor has latched on the family, a so-called ‘Grave’s Calling’.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean film and TV director Kim Hong-sun has signed with U.S. talent agency Creative Arts Agency (CAA) for representation. A prolific director and producer, Kim specializes in genre television, including action, thrillers and horror.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A strong December for local films helped make up for an otherwise miserable 2023 at the South Korean box office – previously the fifth largest cinema territory worldwide. And while theatrical markets in other major territories have recovered to reach at or near pre-pandemic levels, Korea finished 44% below 2019. Data from the Korean Film Council’s Kobis tracking service showed annual gross revenues of KRW1.261 trillion ($964 million at Jan 2024 rates of exchange) in 2023. That represented a gain of 9% on 2022, but it was far below the KRW1.91 trillion ($1.46 billion) recorded in 2019, the last pre-COVID year. The bleak trend was mirrored in terms of attendance or ticket sales, which remains the country’s preferred performance measure.

Korean historical action drama 12.12: The Day has grossed $90.5M and sailed past the 12 million admissions mark at the Korean box office over the Christmas holiday period to become the highest grossing film of 2023. 

Jordan Moreau Lee Sun-kyun, a South Korean actor who starred in the Oscars’ 2020 best picture winner “Parasite,” died Wednesday morning, according to the Associated Press and the South Korean news agency Yonhap. He was 48. He was found dead in a car in a park in central Seoul, according to the AP.

The standout movie at Sundance this year, Celine Song’s indie hit Past Lives has touched the parts of the human heart not reached since Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy. Starring Greta Lee, it tells the story of Nora, a Korean-born playwright on the brink of breakout success in New York, who is taken by surprise when, out of the blue, her childhood sweetheart from Seoul, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), makes contact on social media. Will it lead to some light nostalgic fun? Or is there something deeper — Koreans call it inyeon, the idea that some things are meant to be — that makes them soulmates?

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Cheating pays — for Bart and Homer, that is. This Sunday’s episode of “The Simpsons” takes on sports cheating, college admissions scandals (like “Varsity Blues”) and more, as father and son become kings of the blue-collar sports circuit. But in “Do the Wrong Thing,” Marge soon suspects that there’s something dishonest going on.

EXCLUSIVE: Ava DuVernay is handing out a big screen holiday gift on Christmas Day, but you can get a sneak peek right now.

It’s been 20 years since John Woo last worked on a big Hollywood production (2003’s “Paycheck“). But this year, the legendary filmmaker returned with a proverbial (and quite literal) bang with “Silent Night,” which combines Woo’s love of a revenge story, gratuitous action and over-the-top violence and the beautiful holiday of Christmas.  READ MORE: The 21 Best Films Of 2023 And with “Silent Night” arriving on VOD just in time for the holidays, we are thrilled to give our readers an exclusive look at a clip from the action film.

When you think of iconic action films of the past decade or so, “John Wick” and “The Raid: Redemption” are probably at the top of that list. Both, in their own ways, have forever altered how action films are made in the 21st century.

This year was full of incredible Korean drama offerings.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Fact-based action drama “12.12: The Day” won a fourth weekend at the South Korea box office and became the second highest grossing film of the year. The political thriller incurred a steep week-on-week drop in takings, managing only $5.89 million in its fourth weekend, compared with $11.4 million in its third. But it still hogged a 72% market share, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). After releasing on Nov.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian director Edoardo De Angelis’ anti-war epic “Comandante” – the opener of this year’s Venice Film Festival – has secured North American distribution via Uncork’d Entertainment, which will release the film theatrically in tandem with partner company Dark Star Pictures. The movie stars Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino as Sicilian World War II naval captain Salvatore Todaro and depicts his act of wartime humanitarianism on Oct.

The Lost Boys. The film is released through Peccadillo Pictures after premiering at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.Khalil Ben Gharbia (Peter Von Kant) and Julien De Saint Jean (Liewith Me) star in the film, the story of a burgeoning relationship between two young men in a detention centre.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Fact-based political thriller “12.12: The Day” dominated the Korean box office for the third successive weekend and advanced its takings haul beyond $50 million. It was far ahead of “Napoleon,” which opened a disappointing third. The Kim Sung-soo-directed picture earned $11.4 million between Friday and Sunday, accounting for 75.8% of nationwide weekend cinema revenues, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). It has held up particularly strongly and dropped by only 12% in its third weekend.

Like the Japanese with their Godzilla movies, the Koreans are partial to a bit of post-apocalyptic social satire, and Um Tae-Hwa’s box office hit Concrete Utopia follows a path trailblazed in 2013 by Bong Joon-ho’s cult sci-fi Snowpiercer. Adapted from the popular webtoon Pleasant Outcast by Kim Soong Nyung and partly inspired by British writer J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel High-Rise, it centers on a Korean apartment block whose residents become lawless after a terrifying earthquake rips through the country.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Thailand’s broadcast and streaming group Mono Next and Korea’s Studio Genie have struck a deal to collaborate on content creation and distribution. Production of a Thai remake of a Korean series is on the cards, but has not been finalized. The memorandum was announced on stage at the Asia Television Forum in Singapore on Wednesday, with streaming unit Mono Streaming signing on behalf of the Thai group.

Your Christmas Or Mine 2 which heads to Prime Video from tomorrow, 8th December. Asa Butterfield, Cora Kirk, Alex Jennings, Daniel Mays, David Bradley, Angela Griffin, Natalie Gumede, and Jane Krakowski star in the film, a follow-up to the brilliant Your Christmas Or Mine which was released last year.Here’s some more info on the film.It’s the most wonderful time of the year … but will it be for James and Hayley? James’ father has invited the Taylors to spend Christmas in a luxury ski resort in the Austrian Alps, so they can meet his new American girlfriend (played by Jane Krakowski).