Mark Schilling
- News
Girl power boosts Japanese comic-book shoots
It often seems as though everyproducer of commercial films in Japan is playing follow the leader, chasing afterhot novels, comic-books and TV shows - while seldom developing originalmaterial themselves.
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Like father like son, new director for Toho
Toho has announced that GoroMiyazaki, the 38-year-old son of anime auteur HayaoMiyazaki, will direct a new feature based on the third and fourth novels in Ursula K. Le Guin'sEarthsea saga. He will work with the animators of Studio Ghibli,his father's creative home since 1985. Toho will release the film in ...
- News
Memoirs star signs on for Penal Colony Of Love
Koji Yakusho, lately seen inMemoirs Of A Geisha, is set to starin an adaptation of hit serial novel AiNo Ryukeichi (Penal Colony Of Love)for Japanese major Toho.
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Yuya Yagira to make romantic drama
Fuji TV has revealed plans to cast Yuya Yagira -- the 15-year-oldwinner of the 2004 Cannes Best Actor prize for his work in HirokazuKore-eda's NobodyKnows -in Sugar and Spice Fumizekka (Sugarand Spice - Great Flavour), a romantic dramabased on a bestselling novel by Amy Yamada.
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Kadokawa to make One Missed Call 3
Kadokawa HeraldPictures will make a third instalment in its hit One Missed Call horror series, company sources have revealed.Called Chakushin Ari Final (One MissedCall Final), the new film will be directed by Manabu Aso and will starMeisa Kuroki and Maki Horikita, two seventeen-year-old ingenues whohaveenjoyed a meteoric rise to the ...
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Fuji TV, animation house join forces for digital studio
TheFuji Television Network and Production IG animation houseplantojointlyunderwrite and launcha new post-productionstudio, Fuji TV has announced. Called FILM LLP (Fuji IG Laboratory for Movies),the new studio will open in January of 2006. Fuji TV will supply 86% andProduction IG the remaining 14% of the $2.4m (Y200m)initialinvestment.Equippedwith the latest Apple Computer ...
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Bashing scores top prize at Tokyo's FILMeX
MasahiroKobayashi's drama Bashing has taken the Grand Prize at the Tokyo FILMeXfilm festival, together with a Y1 million ($8,400) cash award . Premiered in thisyear's Cannes competition, the film tells the story of a young woman who, afterbeing taken hostage in a Middle Eastern country, returns to Japan only to ...
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Howl's Moving Castle scores DVD chart triple
Three DVD editions of HayaoMiyazaki's hit animation Howl's MovingCastle grabbed the top three spots in the latest Oricon chart released onNov 22.
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Animation master Otomo begins work on live-action sci-fi
Japan Digital Contest Trust, a new contents fundmanagement company, will launch a fund call Cinema Trust Mushishi to raise $2.2m (Y260m) of the film's $8.5m (Y1bn)budget.
- Reviews
Riding Alone For Thousands Of Miles (Qian Li Zou Dan Ji)
Dir: Zhang Yimou. HK-Chi-Jap. 2005. 108mins.
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Negishi takes top honours at Tokyo festival
Kichitaro Negishi's drama What the Snow Brings became the first Japanese film to win the Tokyo International Film Festival's top prize, the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix, since the fest's first edition in 1985. Jury chairman Zhang Yimou said the judges had reached the decision quickly and unanimously - "a first ...
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Shochiku to finance Kore-eda period drama
Japanese director HirokazuKore-eda (After Life, Nobody Knows) is set to make his firstperiod drama, Hana Yori Mo Naho, withShochiku providing financing and distribution.
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Kadokawa to enter Chinese cinema market
Kadokawa Holdings (HD), thecore company of Japan's Kadokawa media group, has announced plans to join with HongKong-based Sun Wah Group to build and manage 20 multiplex cinemas in mainlandChina.
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Yoji Yamada to complete samurai trilogy
Shochiku has announced that Yoji Yamada will complete the trilogy of samurai dramas he beganwith The Twilight Samurai - nominated for best foreign-language film atthe Oscars in 2004 - and The Hidden Blade.
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Japan submits Blood And Bones as Oscar entry
Yoichi Sai's Blood AndBones has been selected by the Japan Motion Pictures Association (Eiren) asJapan's nominee for the best foreign-language film AcademyAward.
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Tokyo Project Gathering unveils full line-up
The Tokyo Project Gathering,a new section of the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), has announcedthe full list of twenty projects to be presented at the TIFF's main venue fromOct 26 to 28.
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Japanese industry ramps up production
A sign of flagging creativity' Perhaps, but the Japanesemovie industry has long ridden winning formulas to the point of exhaustion andbeyond. The Tora-san series, scripted and mostly directed by Yoji Yamadafrom 1969 to 1996, is basically 48 tellings and retellings of the same story:Folksy-but-feckless peddler falls in love, but loses ...