All articles by Jason Gray – Page 16
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News
Universal picks up NA rights to Midnight Eagle
Universal Pictures has acquired North American rights to Japanese thriller Midnight Eagle, which is produced by a production consortium headed by Universal Pictures Japan. Co-producer, distributor and world sales agent Shochiku made the announcement following the film's world premiere in Los Angeles on October 2 at Universal Studios. Teruki Matsumoto, ...
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Buddha, Jellyfish among competition titles at Tokyo Filmex
Tokyo Filmex announced the full line-up for its 8th edition (November 17-25) at a press conference held today at Tokyo 's National Film Center. The opening film will be Cannes-produced short film omnibus To Each His Own Cinema. As previously announced, Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine will be the closing film. ...
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Tokyo International Film Festival unveils full line-up
The Tokyo International Film Festival has announced the full line-up for this year's 20th edition (October 20-28). The 15-film competiton section includes three world premieres - Jin Chen's Crossing Over, Peter Howitt's Dangerous Parking and Yu Nakai's Bloody Snake Under The Sun. Also competing are Jacob Thuesen's The Early Years ...
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Yamada to shoot kabuki feature for Shochiku
Shochiku has announced that famed Japanese director Yoji Yamada will shoot a feature film version of a live kabuki performance next month, which is intended for theatrical release Two different performances of classic stories Renshishi and Ninjo-banashi Bunshichimottoi will be filmed at the Shimbashi Enbujo theatre, starring Japan 's most ...
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Japan selects I Just Didn't Do It as Oscar entry
Masayuki Suo's I Just Didn't Do It has been selected as Japan 's official entry to the Academy Awards' foreign-language film category, the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan announced Friday. I Just Didn't Do It follows the struggles of a young man, played by Ryo Kase (Letters From Iwo ...
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Tokyo Filmex to close with Lee's Secret Sunshine
Tokyo Filmex has announced that Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine will be the closing film of this year's edition (Nov 17-25). Additionally, Lee will serve as the head of the competition jury. The film won the best actress award at Cannes this year for Jeon Do-yeon's performance. Earlier this week, the ...
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Hero tops Japanese box office
Fuji TV's Hero, starring Takuya Kimura,took the number one spot at the weekend's box office in Japan (Sep 8-9), becoming an instant hit with earnings of $9.54m (Y1.08bn). Distributor Toho opened Fuji TV's Hero on 475 screens, the widest ever release for a domestic film, topping Fuji/Toho's own Monkey Magic ...
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Silk to close curtains at Tokyo InternationalFilm Festival
The Tokyo International Film Festival (October 20-28) has announced that François Girard's Silk will be the closing film of this year's 20th edition. The $26m Canadian-Italian-Japanese co-production stars Michael Pitt, Keira Knightley, Koji Yakusho, Alfred Molina, Miki Nakatani and newcomer Sei Ashina, who won the part through an audition of ...
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Evangelion soars to the top of Japan's box office
Japanese animated feature Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone took the top spot at the local box office over the September 1-2 weekend, grossing just over $2.42m (Y280.4m). The film, which is set to close this year's Pusan International Film Festival, opened on 84 screens for a high per-screen average ...
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Features
Japan - Production - Out with the new in with the old
After a phenomenally successful year - Japanese productions grossed an unprecedented $920m (Yen107.8bn) at the local box office in 2006 - the territory's film-makers and financiers are continuing their reliance on proven books, comics, manga and TV shows (known as 'gensaku').Of the top 20 local films in Japan last year, ...
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Features
Japan - Technology - Jumping between platforms
BroadbandThere are now around 26 million broadband connections in Japan, with some of the fastest and cheapest services among Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (Oecd) countries. Many consumers watch TV on computers with built in TiVo-like functions, increasing the audience for the dramas that are often made into movies.Unlike ...
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Action thriller Midnight Eagle to open Tokyo film festival
The Tokyo International Film Festival has announced that Midnight Eagle will be the opening screening of the festival's 20th edition (October 20-28). The film is directed by Izuru Narushima and stars Takao Osawa (Crying Out Love, In The Center Of The World), Yuko Takeuchi and Hiroshi Tamaki. The story follows ...
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Kitano to receive newly-created director prize in Venice
The Venice International Film Festival has announced that director Takeshi Kitano will be the inaugural recipient of the newly-created 'Glory To The Filmmaker Prize'. The prize is named after Kitano's latest feature Glory To The Filmmaker! (Kantoku Banzai!) and will be awarded for recognition of directorial talent. Kitano is set ...
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Pal lines up live-action version of Studio Ghibli's Fireflies
Tokyo 's Pal Entertainment is set to produce a live-action version of Akiyuki Nosaka's semi-autobiographical novella Grave Of The Fireflies (Hotaru No Haka), to be directed by Taro Hyugaji. The story was famously adapted into an animated feature directed by Isao Takahata in 1988 and released on a double bill ...
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Kadokawa, Miike join forces to solve God's Puzzle
Japanese producer Haruki Kadokawa has announced that his next production will be an adaptation of Shinji Kimoto's award-winning science fiction novel Kamisama No Puzzle (God's Puzzle), to be directed by Takashi Miike. The film will star Hayato Ichihara (All About Lily Chou-Chou) playing the dual role of identical twin university ...
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Features
International box office - That rising feeling
Japan's overall box-office earnings for the first half of 2007 totalled $778.2m (Yen92.5bn), a tiny 0.7% increase from the same period last year, according to data from Japan's top 13 largest distributors.Toho, Japan's largest distributor, topped the list with earnings of $194.1m (Yen23.8bn), but managed only 75% of last year's ...
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Death Note spin-off L to get same-day release across Asia
L, the spin-off of the successful Death Note series, is slated to open simultaneously in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan on Feb 9, 2008.The pan-Asian release strategy is the widest of its kind for a Japanese film, with more countries possibly signing on. Previous sequel Death Note 2: The ...
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FUNimation acquires three live-action Shochiku titles
US-based FUNimation Entertainment has acquired three live-action titles produced by Japanese major Shochiku. The titles include Yoji Yamada's Love And Honour, Hirokazu Kore-Eda's Hana and Haruki Kadokawa-produced Genghis Khan. The deal signals FUNimation's further expansion into live-action Japanese features, as well as contents of a more serious nature. Released in ...
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Japan's box office remains flat in first half of 2007
Japan's overall box office earnings for the first half of 2007 totalled $778.22m (Y92.52bn), a tiny 0.7% increase over the same period last year, according to data from Japan's top 13 largest distributors. Toho, Japan 's largest distributor, topped the list with earnings of $194.13m (Y23.79bn), but managed only 75% ...
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William Ireton: the interpreter
First he brought the Hollywood A-list to Japan. Now the head of Warner Entertainment Japan is turning his attention to stars closer to home. Jason Gray reports.In 2006, when Japanese films took a larger bite of the pie than Hollywood imports for the first time in more than two decades, ...