Uzbekistan Title ‘Sunday’ Claims Asian New Talent Prize at Shanghai Film Festival

EXCLUSIVE: Christine Vachon offered her outlook on some of the industry’s most pressing issues at a keynote masterclass session this afternoon at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Authorities in Vietnam have banned commercial screenings of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” The Warner Bros. film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, one of the most anticipated movies of the summer, was set to have been released in the country on July 21. The film contains a scene that depicts a map with the “nine dash line,” a representation of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Vietnam says violates its sovereignty. Vi Kien Thanh, director general of the Vietnam Cinema Department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, said on Monday that the ban was decided by the National Film Evaluation Council.

From Studio Ghibli leading the charge for the expansion of anime to BTS and BLACKPINK topping the music charts to TV series and films such as “Squid Games,” Parasite,” “Minari,” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once” dominating the awards circuit, the popularity of Asian culture and media has surged recently in the United States in recent years.

In exciting news for movie lovers and soccer enthusiasts alike, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced that Taika Waititi’s soccer comedy, “Next Goal Wins”, will have its world premiere at the 48th edition of the festival.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese mystery drama “Lost in the Stars” was the top-grossing film on the planet over the latest weekend – despite playing only a single territory. The film earned $70.7 million (RMB502 million) between Friday and Sunday in mainland China, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That put it far and away ahead of other Chinese new releases and Hollywood’s holdovers “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and “The Flash.” With the Dragon Boat Festival holiday occurring on Thursday, the film was given an unusual one-day advance on the normal releasing pattern in China. Including Thursday takings, the film made a total of $98.3 million (RMB968 million).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Shanghai was the venue for the launch of Chinese streaming firm iQiyi’s latest venture into Virtual Reality. Its ‘Luoyang VR Project’ is a studio-based experience in which users are invited to experience up to 12 different entertainment zones in the ancient city of Luoyang in Henan province. Requiring headsets and using a physical space of some 300 square metres, the set-up stimulates the physical experience of high winds, waterfalls and explosions. IQiyi described the project as “the first attempt in the VR industry to integrate different elements from immersive theatre, VR, and original IP,” and said that it leverages “inside-out tracking” technology and other industry-leading, sensory-simulation techniques to build in cars, boats, carriages, and other props. “The upshot is a highly realistic environment that fully immerses the audience in the story,” the company said.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The 28th edition of the Shanghai TV Festival wrapped up on Friday with its Magnolia Awards presented to a range of TV drama series, documentaries and animation programs. The drama awards were dominated by two shows “A Lifelong Journey” and “Bright Future.” “A Lifelong Journey,” adapted from a novel of the same name by Liang Xiaosheng, tells the story of three generations of one family in China’s Northeast as time moves from the late Cultural Revolution period through to the country’s reform and opening up. With a starry cast and broadcasters including CCTV-1 and Jiangsu Satellite TV, the show is reported to have attracted 310 million viewers at the beginning of 2022. In mainland China, it ran for 58 episodes, while in Hong Kong it played in 35 parts.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The technical aspects of China’s embrace of smart broadcasting were given a thorough workout this week as part of the ongoing Shanghai Television Festival. Topics covered by keynote speakers included: future broadcasting planning; AI content generation’ big data construction; and the development of ultra-high definition broadcasting. Sun Suchuan, deputy Director-General of the Science and Technology Department of the National Radio & Television Authority explained that the national government has iterated a strategic development plan for the TV sector running until 2035 as well as medium- and long-term technological strategies.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The members of the international juries that will decide the Magnolia prizes at the ongoing Shanghai Television Festival were Thursday made to do double duty as speakers in public masterclasses that were open to a generation of aspiring documentary and animation makers. David Stephan, jury president in the animation category, along with fellow judges Spencer Ooi and Jia Fou, spoke at length about getting their starts in the business and finding inspiration. “When I studied animation, I didn’t have a textbook available. I saw extremely limited things, so I did further research to make myself understand what I was doing in such a career,” said Jia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong action film “The White Storm: Heaven or Hell” will have its North American premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival, where it is a late addition to the line-up. The festival runs July 14–30, 2023 at Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Directed by Herman Yau, the film sees Louis Koo, Aaron Kwok and Sean Lau (aka Lau Ching-wan) appear together for the first time. It is set in the ‘Golden Triangle’ region famous for drugs production and trafficking. Kwok plays an undercover cop who infiltrates a drug cartel led by a notorious Thai drug lord (Lau). In classic heroic bloodshed fashion, the two develop a bond of brotherhood. The cop’s only hope of escaping the treacherous jungle region and his ambiguous morality is to somehow contact the superintendent of the Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau, who has solemnly sworn to demolish the cartel once and for all.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce, technology and entertainment giant, said Tuesday that Joseph C. Tsai will succeed Daniel Zhang as chairman of the group. Eddie Wu (aka Wu Yongming) will take over Zhang’s role as group CEO. Both men are veterans of the group. Tsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball franchise, is currently Alibaba’s executive vice chairman. Wu is one of Alibaba’s founders and was its original chief technology officer in 1999. He has since held the CTO role at key businesses units including Taobao and Alipay and is currently chairman of Taobao and Tmall Group. Zhang, who took over as group chairman from the iconic Jack Ma, is in the process of orchestrating the biggest restructuring in Alibaba’s 24-year history. Alibaba, which has share listings in New York and Hong Kong, is to transform itself into a holding company with stakes in six separate business units that are free to raise their own capital or even go down the IPO route.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Asia Satellite Telecommunications (AsiaSat), a leading operator of satellites, has moved into content distribution with the acquisition of Hong Kong- and U.K.-based TV distributor Lightning International. The diversification was described by AsiaSat as “a strategic move to expand the company’s services and extend its clients’ reach to global audiences through traditional and new distribution platforms including OTT and FAST.” AsiaSat is known to be acquiring 100% of Lightning International, but other deal terms were not disclosed.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Barbarian Invasion” director Tan Chi Mui from Malaysia scored a top result from the SIFF Project Market. The market is a component event of the Shanghai International Film Festival, which wrapped up over the weekend. Tan’s “All About Yuyu” was named as the “recommended project for creativity” at the project market’s closing event. The project, which is already being structured as a Malaysia-China coproduction, is a story that combines contemporary wuxia (heroic martial arts) with youth elements. “I want to make a modern wuxia film to recapture the magical feeling I had when watching films during my childhood,” she told local media.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief After a golden age in the 1980s, Chinese filmmakers were quietly discouraged from dabbling in the sci-fi genre – it isn’t real science and authorities did not want youngsters to get confused. That stance changed during the last decade and the Shanghai International Film Festival has just hosted its first sci-fi week, comprising nearly a dozen film screenings and a trio of panel discussions featuring the new luminaries in the sector. Reasons for the revised position of China’s authorities are not hard to understand. Not only was Hollywood getting away with dominating a genre that was popular with Chinese audiences, China in the 21st century has become a global technology powerhouse. Its space program, in particular, is now among the most advanced, capable of a normalized rocket launch schedule, international co-operation and lunar and interplanetary missions.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japanese drama feature “Yoko” won the Golden Goblet best picture award at the Shanghai International Film Festival. The jury Grand Prix was awarded to Spain’s “Muyeres” with China’s Liu Jin winning the best director prize.The trio also collected additional prizes making them the only multiple winners in a ceremony that sprinkled its awards widely. “Yoko,” directed by Kumakiri Kazuyoshi, who earlier this year saw melodramatic “#Manhole” play in Berlin, takes the structure of a road-movie and is a journey of self-discovery of a woman who had been socially isolated in her apartment for many years. Portrayed by global star Rinko Kikuchi (”Babel,” “47 Ronin”), the woman is forced to confront the real world, and herself, when she takes a 658 kilometre cross-country journey to her father’s funeral. Without a cell phone or the money for public transport, she finds herself having to hitch hike. Kikuchi also earned the best actress award.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Eastern Grace Film, a new production company that teased its debut production “The Sand Murmurs” earlier this month, has gone one step further. It used the Shanghai International Film Festival to unveil a slate of nine new film productions. The company is an indirect subsidiary of Baination Pictures, a Beijing-based film and TV group that is listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange. Eastern Grace is headed by president Wilson Jiang, a veteran film distributor in China.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Cypher,” a drama about the astronomical rise of rapper Tierra Whack, and “A Strange Path,” which follows a young filmmaker who returns to his country of Brazil during the pandemic to reconnect with his father, won the top prizes for U.S. narrative feature and international narrative feature, respectively, at this year’s Tribeca Festival. “Between the Rains,” a film that captures the Turkana-Ngaremara community as they contend with prolonged drought, took home the award for documentary feature. The festival, which dropped the word “film” from its name in 2021, hosts more than 600 events across New York City and hands out awards in categories including short film, audio storytelling and games. This year’s edition ends on June 18.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Killing Romance,” one of the most creative Korean films of the past year, has been set as the opening night title for the upcoming New York Asian Film Festival. The deliberately multi-genre picture tells the tale of a beautiful movie star with dubious acting skills (portrayed by Le Ha-nee) who suddenly quits the industry and retires to newly-married life that turns out to be anything but bliss. When she decides to return to acting she teams up with a fan and an absurd plot to kill her absurdly rich husband. The film is directed by Lee Won-suk who previously attended the NYAFF with his first film, “How to Use Guys With Secret Tips,” in 2013 and returned with his second feature, the big-budget period drama The Royal Tailor, which earned the audience award at NYAFF in 2015.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Disney is to close its six remaining linear TV channels in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea as the conglomerate puts a greater emphasis on direct-to-consumer streaming. The channels concerned are National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, Star Chinese Movies, Star Chinese Channel, Star Movies and Star World. Linear services will end from September in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Korea, and by December in Taiwan. The group expects to retain a streamlined television portfolio with channels in Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand for the time being.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hungarian director and screenwriter Ildikó Enyedi brought some art-house royalty to the Shanghai International Film Festival this week with a masterclass that focused on her process and the struggle to maintain a unique voice. At one point in her on-stage discussion with Chinese director Zheng Dasheng, she called filmmaking “essentially a sole desperate cry, hoping to be heard by others.” Enyedi’s voice has certainly registered and been heard at Europe’s major film festivals. She won the Camera d’Or in Cannes in 1989 for best debut feature “My 20th Century,” saw her 1994 film “Magic Hunter” play in competition in Venice and she won the top prize Golden Bear in Berlin in 2017 with “On Body and Soul.”