Yibing Wu Becomes First Chinese Tennis Player to Win ATP Tour Title

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sculptor turned director Wu Lang made a splash at the Berlin Film Festival with his debut feature “Absence” playing in the festival’s showcase Encounters section. With a high-profile cast headed by Lee Kang-sheng (“What Time Is It There?” “The Wayward Cloud”) and Li Meng (“The Bad Kids,” “The Guillotines”) “Absence” is an art-house romance that uses skyscapes and urban landscapes as metaphors for inner feelings. The seduction starts with a man’s return to Hainan Island after ten years in jail and ends with a flock of sheep in an abandoned construction site. Wu: Shooting the first short film for me had two purposes. First, making a film is not easy in terms of financing and finding coproducers. So, first I wanted to make a short in order to get myself started.

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Taylor Fritz just reached a new career-high!

Jessica Kiang The quote that opens Chinese director Liu Jian’s shaggy but amiable new animated feature is instructive. “To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life” is a passage from James Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” and indeed, Liu was himself at art college as a young man in the early ’90s, when and where “Art College 1994” is, unsurprisingly, set. The quasi-memoir feel to the movie does have its charm — it’s always a kick to see animation techniques applied not to extravagant flights of fancy but to slices of real, ordinary life — but it’s also its chief flaw. In re-creating life out of life, Liu is quite successful; whether he makes it into drama is another question. Like its characters, “Art College 1994” gives the impression of having just too much time on its hands.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief China-based video streamer iQiyi achieved a surge in paying subscriptions and achieved net profits in the fourth quarter of 2022. While still loss-making over the full year, the company hailed its turnaround as “miraculous.” In the October-December period, gross revenues were RMB7.6 billion ($1.1 billion), representing a 3% increase year over year, the company said in a regulatory filing. Net income attributable to iQiyi was RMB304 million ($44.1 million), compared to a net loss of RMB1.8 billion in the same period in 2021. Over the course of the full 2022, total revenues were RMB29.0 billion ($4.2 billion), representing a 5% decrease from 2021. Net losses decreased from RMB6.2 billion to RMB136 million ($19.7 million).

Usher has become a fan of BLACKPINK, praising the girl group’s live show in a recent interview.The R&B star recently sat down for an interview with GQ Magazine, during which he talked about seeing BLACKPINK – comprising Rosé, Jennie, Jisoo and Lisa – live in Atlanta last November with two of his sons. Usher told the publication: “I literally went to a BLACKPINK concert in Atlanta, and I was like, man! I’m goofy! I’m looking like, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’ ” The magazine also pointed out that he “took notes in his head” while watching the show.“They were putting on a show.

Lise Pedersen The Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, also known as CPH:DOX, has unveiled the full program of its 20th edition, which includes 200 new films, more than half of which are world premieres, sealing CPH:DOX’s reputation as one of the leading events of its kind in Europe. For the first time, all 13 films competing for the top Dox:Award are world premieres. These include “A Storm Foretold,” the long-awaited doc on Donald Trump’s former adviser Roger Stone by Danish political journalist Christopher Guldbrandsen; established filmmaker Margreth Olin’s highly anticipated epic film “Songs of the Earth”; “A Tiger in Paradise,” a surreal journey into Swedish singer José González’ inner world by Ruben Östlund’s regular creative partners Mikel Cee Karlsson and Erik Hemmendorff; and “Total Trust” by Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), described as “the first major film about the Chinese surveillance state (…) – a disturbing tale of technology, (self-) censorship and abuse of power in the 21st century.”

James Cameron truly is king of the box office.

Avril Lavigne revealed if there was any truth in a rumor that she had been cast in a Chinese reality show.

Jessica Kiang The unusual design of the White Pagoda, a 13th-century Buddhist temple in the Xicheng district of Beijing, makes it hard to see its shadow. This has given rise to the local legend that its shade can actually be found some two thousand miles away in Tibet, the temple’s spiritual home. The landmark is a constant presence in Chinese director Zhang Lu’s tender, brimming “The Shadowless Tower,” which fixes its setting in the very heart of the Chinese capital, a city rarely portrayed as fondly as it is here. But the pagoda can also be seen as an evocatively imperfect metaphor for a lifestage: that tipping point in the middle of one’s time when, with the past and future weighing equally on either side, you can feel disoriented and suddenly directionless, as when the sun is directly overhead and you cast no shadow. 

Nick Frost, Alicia Silverstone & Kevin Connolly To Star In Dark Comedy ‘Krazy House’Nick Frost, Alicia Silverstone, and Kevin Connolly have signed on to star in the dark comedy Krazy House from writer-directors Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil. Production on the pic has just been completed in Amsterdam. The cast is rounded out by Gaite Jansen, Walt Klink, Jan Bijvoet, Chris Peters, and Matti Stooker. Maarten Swart will produce the film for Kaap Holland Film, in a co-production with Haars and van der Kuil. Kaap Holland Film’s Jorn Baars and XYZ’s Todd Brown are executive producers. Splendid Films is handling distribution in the Benelux. XYZ has North American sales rights.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Nick Frost, Alicia Silverstone and Kevin Connolly will star in the dark comedy “Krazy House” from writers-directors Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil, marking the first English-language film by the duo. Dutch Gaite Jansen, Walt Klink, Jan Bijvoet, Chris Peters and Matti Stooker round out the cast. Production on the film has just been completed in Amsterdam. Set in the 90s, “Krazy House” is about religious homemaker Bernie (Frost) and his sitcom family. When Russian workers in Bernie’s house turn out to be wanted criminals, they make Bernie and his family tear the place up in search of some old hidden loot. In order to free himself, Bernie has to man up and save his imprisoned family, while slowly going crazy.

An evangelical Christian group have hopes of transforming a long vacant nightclub building into a church. The Potters House Church, want to use the building on St Georges Road in Bolton town centre for their services and meetings.

diagnosed with advanced macular degeneration (AMD) in 2012 and shared that she has been struggling with the loss of her vision.While appearing on “The Graham Norton Show,” the Oscar winner admitted that she has found it to be harder and harder to read scripts and learn her lines — something she used to find very easy.“It has become impossible and because I have a photographic memory,” she said. “I need to find a machine that not only teaches me my lines but also tells me where they appear on the page.”Her photographic memory used to come in handy when memorizing scripts.“I used to find it very easy to learn lines and remember them,” the Dame said.

BTS rapper Suga has become the first member of the K-pop group to announce a solo world tour.The group went on hiatus last year and plan to reconvene in a group around 2025, with separate plans to launch their own solo projects and undertake mandatory military service duties. All able-bodied men in their home country of South Korea are legally required to serve a military term of 18-21 months.Now, Suga has announced a string of tour dates in the US and Asia for later this year.

Adele‘s shushing people around her at the Super Bowl last night as she waited for Rihanna‘s halftime show has thoroughly amused the Internet, inspiring a trending meme.The singer had previously said that she was going to the American football game, telling a fan at a recent Las Vegas show: “I’m only going for Rihanna. I don’t give a flying fuck.”Now, clips of her getting people to quieten down because Rihanna was about to arrive on stage while watching the game have circulated online.

Super Bowl 2023 commercial featuring spheres in the sky.“An unidentified object has been spotted over the skies,” the ad proclaimed. While the commercial is advertising “U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere” — a series of concerts that marks the band’s first live shows in four years — many on social media were quick to point out the similarities to the Chinese spy balloon that has been making headlines.“Did you guys make this commercial before last week?” one person asked.“Read the room.

Jordin Sparks is applauding Rihanna for taking on the Super Bowl stage as a new mom.  "It's a big deal... I really, really want her to have the best show," Sparks said in an interview with People Magazine. "I've been sending so much good energy to her since I heard since she was doing it, 'cause after I had my first son, I was nervous to get back out onstage." The "American Idol" alum made these comments ahead of Rihanna’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, where she will perform on "the biggest stage ever." Rihanna welcomed a baby boy with rapper A$AP Rocky in March 2022.

Hollywood royalty arrived in Manchester at the weekend - and film star Will Ferrell soon found himself making some new friends here. American actor Will made a surprise appearance at Manchester City to watch their Premier League match against Aston Villa on Sunday.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired North American rights to Japanese director Kôji Fukada’s drama Love Life.