Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ‘Drive My Car’ Rides Off With International Feature Oscar; Japan’s Second-Ever Competitive Win In Category

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EXCLUSIVE: Takashi Doscher is set to write the screenplay for Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions’ film adaptation of the latter’s hugely successful action adventure game Ghost of Tsushima, which crossed a massive milestone in January, with more than 8 million copies sold since its July 2020 debut. The project is in early development.

EXCLUSIVE: Los Angeles-based Synepic Entertainment is launching Sakka, a streaming service specializing in Japanese cinema. The platform will debut in North America and select further territories in early May, the company said. At launch, it will feature five movies: Happy Hour, the 2015 movie from recent Oscar nominee Ryusuke Hamaguchi; Shô Miyake’s 2018 feature And Your Bird Can Sing; Seiji Tanaka’s 2018 film Melancholic; Chihiro Amano’s 2019 pic Mrs Noisy; and Hajime Tsuda’s 2020 drama Daughters. Synepic said it was focusing on independent films and would be acquiring two further titles later in the summer. The company is also looking to host in-person screenings of films it acquires. “We are beyond proud to create this unique platform for Japanese films of new generations,” commented Chiaki Yanagimoto, the president of Synepic Entertainment and the founder of the platform. “There are many Japanese films that unfortunately don’t see their full potential outside of Japan because of the traditional distribution system there. After the win of Drive My Car, several critics pointed out that the Japanese system is outdated and indifferent to the international market. It is time to change that narrative and find new ways to share these inspiring works coming from Japan, and create a platform that truly cares about the films and the filmmakers.”

The recently-launched Strong Studios has acquired rights to Alec Sokolow’s script The Tank Job, setting the Oscar nominee as the film’s director.

LONDON -- Polish Nobel literature laureate Olga Tokarczuk is among six finalists announced Thursday for the International Booker Prize for fiction in English translation.Tokarczuk’s 18th-century epic “The Books of Jacob” is a favorite to win the award, whose 50,000-pound ($65,000) prize money is split between a book’s author and its translator. She and her translator Jennifer Croft previously won for “Flights” in 2018, the same year Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.“Tomb of Sand” by India’s Geetanjali Shree is also on the shortlist.

Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore is releasing ahead of domestic in 22 international box office markets this weekend, beginning in Holland and Belgium today and including the UK, Australia, Germany, Japan, Spain and China through Friday. The latter, unfortunately, is not expected to serve up any magic given significant cinema closures.

TOKYO -- Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi says he was surprised by the international popularity of his Oscar-winning film “Drive My Car,” but attributes it to the universality of the short story by Haruki Murakami on which it is based.The movie centers on an actor played by Hidetoshi Nishijima who is directing a multilingual production of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.” Still mourning the sudden loss of his wife, the actor, Kafuku, leads the cast in rehearsals in which they sit and read their lines flatly, ingesting the language for days before acting them out.The 3-hour-long story of grief, connection and recovery won an Academy Award last month for best international feature film.“Actually I was surprised by how widely this film has been accepted,” Hamaguchi said at a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, his first major event since the Oscar.While attributing its popularity to the universality of Murakami's story, Hamaguchi said the actors “put it on the screen in a very convincing way, even though I’m sure it was an extremely challenging task for them to embody Haruki Murakami's worldview.”The “inner reality” of the characters in the story is both the charm and difficulty of turning Murakami’s story into visuals, Hamaguchi said.“Describing inner reality ... is something movies are not very good at,” Hamaguchi said.

Refresh for latest…: New blood in the form of Sony’s Jared Leto-fronted Morbius led the global box office this weekend with an $84M debut, while Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog 2 got off to a booming $25.5M start from its first 31 offshore markets. Warner Bros/DC also has something to crow about as The Batman topped $700M worldwide.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentHamaguchi Ryusuke’s “Drive My Car” is now making headlines in Japan after winning the best international feature Oscar. The film is only the second from the country to take the prize, the previous one being the 2008 “Departures.” Released domestically in August, “Drive My Car” had earned only $250,000 by the end of 2021, despite winning three awards at Cannes, including best screenplay for Hamaguchi and co-writer Oe Takamasa.

Japan has won the award, and the first time since 2008.It beat out Italy’s “The Hand of God,” Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World,” Denmark’s “Flee” and Bhutan’s “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom.”———For more of AP’s Oscar coverage visit: https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards

Not surprisingly, the most celebrated film of the year took one of the most coveted Oscars in the world. No, this isn’t about “Power of the Dog” or the Best Picture race.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBruce Tuchmann-backed Rialto International has launched a branded on-demand streaming service in Japan, focused on independent film, and housed on Amazon’s Prime Video Channels platform.Rialto Channel launched in 1999 in New Zealand, where it was initially branded as The Sundance Channel. It established itself as an award-winning and industry-leading indie film destination for over twenty years.In Japan, the Rialto-branded venue will feature current and iconic independent films.

94th Annual Academy Awards are Sunday, and that means it's time to name the best of the best of the past year in film. While not quite as chaotic as last year's pandemic-altered releases, this year still offered an interesting mix of theatrical blockbusters, acclaimed streamers and some combination of the two (thanks, HBO Max!). The top films of the year span the cinematic spectrum as well, including a Western, a musical, a star-studded satire, a horror-noir, a Japanese road film and a handful of heartfelt family dramas, leaving voters with some big decisions to make when it comes to the Academy's biggest prizes. So, who will win? Here are ET's predictions for the 2022 Oscars, based on who's been winning with the guilds, the BAFTAs and other precursor awards shows, as well as the ebb and flow of recent film trends.

Neil Young has announced the fourth instalment in his ‘Official Release Series’ anthology, comprising three classic albums from the 1980s – one of his own, and two collaborative efforts – as well as a rare EP that was only ever sold in Australia and Japan.‘Official Release Series Volume 4’ is set for release on April 29 via Reprise. In addition to Young’s 1980 solo album ‘Hawks & Doves’, the box set includes his fifth album with Crazy Horse (1981’s ‘Re•ac•tor’) and his debut effort with The Bluenotes (1988’s ‘This Note’s For You’).It also marks the first time many fans will be able to hear the EP ‘Eldorado’, which was initially released in Australia and Japan in 1989.

“Best Supporting Actress” for “Minari” in 2021) for acting stars in the Apple TV+ adaptation of the generation-spanning 2017 novel “Pachinko.” “This role was suitable for my age – she’s 74,” Yuh-jung, 74, told The Post. “I read the script first.

Sasha Urban editorAs the pandemic raged and in-person screenings practically disappeared, the Academy’s Screening Room has found an appreciative audience.Many film distributors are able to send links to their films to various guilds, media members and voters; the Academy has stepped in with its screening room, offering voters those films plus other contenders who can’t afford to do that.With the Acad’s growing international membership, the website has been a boon, especially to those who submitted shorts, documentaries and international films.The website may also have helped international films such as “Parallel Mothers,” “The Worst Person in the World” and “Drive My Car” earn noms in other categories, such as original screenplay for “Worst” and three others for “Drive” (best picture, screenplay and director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi). Although there have been growing pains since its inception in 2015, the streaming room has found an appreciative audience among the 9,573 Oscar voters.“Our membership, especially internationally, was continuing to grow,” says Tom Oyer, senior VP of member relations and awards for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefFree Stone Productions has added a quartet of new Japanese film titles to its sales slate for this week’s virtual edition of Hong Kong FilMart. The female-led company is selling romance “Leave in Summer” and drama film “Yes, I Can’t Swim” both of which will release later this year.Directed by Igashi Aya, “Leave in Summer” is a tale of a lost soul and his spiritual guide. It depicts a man washing up in a seaside town at the end of the season and seeking to stay so that he can reconnect with his recently deceased wife.