New Chinese film praises Wuhan ahead of lockdown anniversary

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese New Year is the biggest, most lucrative and brashest season of the year in mainland China cinemas. It is a time for big-budget tentpoles and fun films that are pitched as family entertainment.Having reserved their place in the releasing calendar for months or even a year, seven films open simultaneously on Friday (Feb.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefMore than 80% of movie tickets in China are sold online or via mobile device, one of the world’s highest penetration rates.

Netflix has picked up international streaming rights to Chinese fantasy feature The Yin Yang Master, one of the major titles set for release during China's upcoming Lunar New Year box office bonanza. The film is an adaptation of the popular Chinese role-playing game Onmyoji, which is itself based on the blockbuster fantasy novel of the same name by Japanese author by Baku Yumemakura.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNetflix has picked up international rights to “The Yin Yang Master” a film that is one of the big seven tentpole titles that will open in mainland Chinese cinemas on Friday and compete for Lunar New Year holiday audiences.Netflix acquired distribution rights in the rest of the world ex-mainland China from Huayi Brothers Media (“The Eight Hundred”).The fantasy movie is a game-to-film adaptation of “Onmyoji” directed by Li Weiran (“Love Will Tear Us Apart,”

Netflix has acquired exclusive global streaming rights outside of China to The Yin Yang Master. This is not to be confused with The Yin-Yang Master: Dream Of Eternity which is already on the service and was released in China late last year. The new acquisition is one of the anticipated Lunar New Year titles that will begin its Chinese theatrical run on Friday. Netflix has not yet set a streaming date.

Cinemas in Beijing were ordered Thursday to limit seating capacity to 50 percent during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday. The decision adds to local industry worries that recent flareups of COVID-19 cases could dampen earnings during what is usually the biggest period for China’s box office by far.

Rebecca Davis editorAuthorities on Thursday ordered Beijing cinemas to cut their max capacity to just 50% over the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday to combat the spread of COVID-19, Chinese reports said, slashing prospective returns in what is typically, far and away, their most profitable week of the year.Cinemas in China’s capital received urgent word from the Beijing Film Bureau late Thursday evening local time that the capacity changes must be imposed during the public holiday running from

Vivienne Chow Hong Kong cinema operators and filmmakers are crying for help following a government announcement on Monday that COVID-19 social distancing measures will remain in place until Feb. 17.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorApple tapped director Lulu Wang to showcase the cinematic features of the tech company’s latest iPhone.Wang, who wrote and directed 2019 feature film “The Farewell,” directed a new short for Apple in celebration of Chinese New Year, “Nian,” which puts a fresh twist on a well-known Chinese folktale.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- A Chinese-Canadian singer says a Chinese corruption charge against her mother, who has been held in custody for six years, has been withdrawn but she remains in detention.Wanting Qu, 36, who has lived in Canada since she was a teenager, shared a social media post by her aunt saying that prosecutors in Harbin had withdrawn the charge of embezzling $54 million (350 million yuan) in 2019, but that her mother has still not been released.

immigration chiefs. After spending 17 years in the UK and becoming a pillar of the community in Moray supporting people with mental health problems, Matthew Jun Fei Freeman has been told to return to China.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBig name Hollywood executives and talent including Sam Raimi, Gianni Nunnari, Patrick Wachsberger and Paula Wagner have joined the “Stars Collective” diversity program launched by Chinese film financier Starlight Media.

Jessica Kiang A sport as quickfire as indoor volleyball deserves a nimbler workout than it gets in “Leap,” Peter Ho-Sun Chan’s lavish but curiously low-boil based-in-truth sports movie. Telling the decades-spanning tale of the Chinese Women’s Volleyball team and its star-player-turned-head-coach, Lang Ping, it’s essentially a rise-and-fall-and-rise-again story.

2021’s off to a very bad start for Zheng Shuang!

Michelle Keegan has showed off the incredible Chinese feast she rustled up in her kitchen after confessing she no longer feels guilty over eating what she wants.The 33 year old, who recently went to work with her husband Mark Wright and their pet dogs, took to her Instagram stories to tell her 4.8million followers how much she loves packet noodles before picking out the ingredients for her meal.