Netflix Announces Series ‘Ooku: The Inner Chambers’ at Anime Japan Event

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Michelle Yeoh, who made history by winning the best actress Oscar for her performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” last month, made an emotional return trip to her native Malaysia last week. She visited her mother in time for the traditional Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, and stopped by the grave of her father who died in 2014. In an Instagram post on Wednesday she said, “Brought Mr. O home. Without my parents’ love and trust and support, I wouldn’t be here today.”A post shared by Michelle Yeoh 楊紫瓊 (@michelleyeoh_official) Her trip home represented a promise that Yeoh made during her Oscars acceptance speech.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Competition reality TV format “Lego Masters” has been picked up by Tokyo Broadcasting System for adaptation in Japan. The deal is the 19th for the Banijay Rights-represented format and the third in Asia. Production is currently underway for the show, which will see pairs compete against each other to wow judges with inspiring designs and brick builds. “I am looking forward to working with Banijay Rights and not only learn about the production of the show, but also to closely examine the essence of creation behind it,” said Aso Kunihiro, producer, contents solution department at TBS in a prepared statement.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A growing range of Thai, Japanese and Chinese-language films and TV shows are reaching global audiences – joining the by-now well-established international viewership for South Korean shows.Netflix’s Global Top 10 for the week April 3-10, sees made-for-streaming Korean title “Kill Boksoon” on top of the non-English-language films list, with 27.5 million hours watched in its second week of release. It is immediately followed by Thai film “Hunger,” about a young woman apprentice in an upmarket restaurant working under a tough boss. The film is directed by Sitisiri Mongkolsiri and stars “Bad Genius” breakout Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese animation “Suzume” held on to top spot for a fifth consecutive weekend at the South Korean box office, as Korean-produced sports film “Rebound” proved to be misnamed. Arriving only in second place, “Rebound” failed to provide any bounce to the beleaguered cinema sector, leaving the weekend as the lowest scoring this year.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Jackie Chan-starring stunt-man comedy drama “Ride On” pratfalled its way to first place at the mainland Chinese box office with a lowball $11.7 million opening. Still, that was enough to beat another new release, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which ranked fourth over the latest weekend. Chan is an enduring, but fading, star in China and in the past his new release titles were often scheduled for the three biggest holiday seasons. “Ride On,” which sees Chan in an ode to the stunt players he has worked with, was released two days after the Ching Ming (Wednesday 5 April) holiday, when many folks honor their ancestors. Its opening three days were enough to depose “Suzume” from the top spot, where “Suzume” had ranked for the previous two weekends. “Suzume” earned $8.0 million over the latest weekend in China, according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. That gives it a $103 million cumulative after 17 days in mainland theaters, a China record for a Japanese animation film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Cinedigm has acquired all North American rights to the Japanese sci-fi horror film “New Religion.” “New Religion” is a surrealist body horror film written, directed and produced by first-time feature filmmaker Kondo Keishi. It stars Seto Kaho, Nunami Daiki, Oka Satoshi and Ryuseigun Saionji. After her daughter’s death, divorced Miyabi begins working as a call girl. One day, she meets an unsettling customer who wants to take pictures of her body parts. Soon, she realizes that every time she allows her body to be photographed her daughter’s spirit gets closer. She must decide how far she is willing to go to connect with her daughter once again.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Michelle Yeoh, star of the globally acclaimed Oscar-winning film “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” will serve as guest of honor and advisor at the fifth Meihodo International Youth Visual Media Festival, a platform for young visual artists and one of the largest short film festivals in the world. The festival takes place in Fukuoka, Japan. Other new guests include Maggie Q (“Mission Impossible: III,” the “Divergent” franchise and CW series “Nikita”), film editor Gabriella Cristiani and Stephen Castor (“Spider-Man”), co-CEO of It’s Just Us Productions, Rocket Science 3D and Rocket Science Motion Capture Studios, franchise.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hoshino Koji, president of the iconic Japanese animation firm Studio Ghibli, made public his plan to retire Tuesday. He will be replaced by Studio Ghibli co-founder Suzuki Toshio. His move comes as the company, which is poised to release Miyazaki Hayao’s last film “How Do You Live?” in July, is reported to be weathering an executive scandal. The studio has denied that there is a connection between Hoshino’s resignation and a recent swirl of media allegations about Suzuki. Studio Ghibli on Tuesday published a letter of resignation from Hoshino, which appeared already to be several days out of date.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” opened in fourth place at the mainland China box office with a muted $5 million haul. Top honors belonged to Japanese animation film “Suzume” for the second weekend. “Suzume” incurred a 55% week-on-week drop, falling from $49.6 million in its opening weekend, to $22.1 million in is second, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. After ten days in Chinese theaters, “Suzume” now has a cumulative total of $80.6 million. Nevertheless, its lead at the top of the box office chart was unassailable. The weekend’s best-placed new release title was “Hachiko,” a Chinese retelling of the Japanese tale of a dog which faithfully waited at a station for its master years after his death. (The story was previously given a U.S. version with Richard Gere in the lead human role.) It earned $8.9 million (RMB61.2 million) in its opening weekend.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sony group companies, Aniplex of America and streaming service Crunchyroll are to begin simulcast streams of anime series “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc” from April 9. Crunchyroll will simulcast new episodes every week where the service is available, and exclusively in North America, South America, and Europe.  The underlying manga series was published under Shueisha’s Jump Comics operation, consists of 23 volumes and has seen sales of over 150 million copies. The animation production is by Ufotable. The narrative began when Tanjiro Kamado, a boy whose family is killed by a demon, joins the Demon Slayer Corps to turn his younger sister Nezuko back into a human after she is transformed into a demon.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” landed into second place at a depressed South Korean box office with a market share barely a fifth that of chart leader “Suzume.” The Japanese animation film earned $4.46 million in its fourth week of release, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). While that was a 26% week-on-week drop, its hold on the chart remained at over 60%. Since releasing on March 8, it has grossed $29.9 million, making it the second highest film of the year in Korea – behind another Japanese animation “The First Slam Dunk” on $35.1 million. “D&D” was the weekend’s top-placed new release and earned $958,000 for a 13% market share. Over the full five days since its opening on Wednesday, it achieved $1.36 million.

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.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix will give a May launch to “Sanctuary,” a sports drama series set in the specialized world of Japanese sumo wrestling. Produced by the Slowtide company for the streamer, the show follows a juvenile delinquent who becomes a sumo apprentice. He soon finds himself on a collision course with a voiceless wrestler carrying a secret. Netflix pitches it as “a gritty look into the underbelly of professional sumo, a world full of young men with ambitions for money, women, fame, and power […] where some may find sanctuary with a history of more than 1,500 years in Japan’s traditional culture and as a religious ceremony.”

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.)

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hit Japanese animation “Suzume” improved its box office performance in its third week of release in South Korea and remained far ahead of all competing titles. “Suzume” earned $6.06 million over the weekend between Friday and Sunday, a 7% increase on its previous weekend, itself a strong hold that almost equalled its opening session. Data is sourced from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). The film, which has been a huge hit in Japan and some other Asian territories, enjoyed a 66% share of the entire Korean cinema box office over the most recent weekend and expanded its cumulative haul to $23.9 million after 19 days on release.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Viz Media has picked up a wide collection of rights in North America and Latin America to animated Japanese sports series “Captain Tsubasa: Junior Youth Arc.” The series is adapted from a popular manga by Yoichi Takahashi and is licensed by Shueisha Inc. The deal includes digital streaming, TV, electronic sell-thru, home video and merchandise rights for North and Latin American territories. The new series is currently being produced by Studio KAI, with the official main staff including: director Ono Katsumi; character design and executive animation director, Watanabe Hajime; and series composition, Tomioka Atsuhiro. The voice cast includes Sanpei Yuko as Tsubasa Ozora, Gukuyama Jun as Karl Heinz Schneider and Suzumura Kenichi as Wakabayashi Genzo and Hyuga Kojiro as Sato Takuya. It is set to launch October 2023.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Leading Japanese publisher, Kodansha is to launch an online comic book distribution service from May. Titled K Manga, the operation will go live in May and be exclusive to readers in the U.S. The company is publisher of many of the best-known manga titles in history including “Attack on Titan” and “Ghost in the Shell.” These and some 400 others will be available at the launch of the serialization platform.

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.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese animation “Suzume” retained the top spot at the South Korean box office for a second weekend, far outstripping holdover titles and newcomers including “Shazam! Fury of the Gods.” On its second weekend of release, “Suzume” earned $5.65 million, just a small fraction below its opening weekend score of $5.71 million. Underlining its dominance, the film increased its market share from 60% previously to 62%. After 12 days of release, the film has accumulated $15.8 million, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

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.