All articles by Jason Gray – Page 17
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Climates wins top prize at Japan 's Skip City festival
Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Climates was awarded best picture at the 4th Skip City International Digital Cinema Festival (July 14-22) in Tokyo. The accolade also carried a $82,722 (Y10m) cash prize by fest sponsor Sony. The Turkey-France co-production depicts the volatile relationship between a professor and his young girlfriend. ...
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Suite Dreams director Mitani set to make Magic for Toho
Toho has announced details of Suite Dreams writer-director Koki Mitani's next project. Entitled The Magic Hour, the film will star Satoshi Tsumabuki (Dororo) and Koichi Sato (Sukiyaki Western Django). The story follows a young underworld figure (Tsumabuki) who promises to track down a hit man for his boss. When he ...
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Pia Film Festival awards grand prix to Bare-assed Japan
Director Yuya Ishii's Bare-assed Japan (Mukidashi Nippon) won the Grand Prix at this year's Pia Film Festival (PFF), which ran July 14-20 in Tokyo 's Shibuya district. A total of 14 films, both feature-length and shorts, were selected to screen in competition from 780 submissions. Shot for a budget of ...
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Monkey Magic leads Japan's quest for summer movie success
Fuji TV's Monkey Magic (original title Saiyuki) has become the first local live-action success of the summer season, grabbing the number two position at Japan 's box office this past weekend. However, it was unable to beat the latest adventure in the ever-successful animated Pokemon franchise, Gekijoban Pocket Monsters: Diamond ...
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Japan's BS-i, Tsutaya form joint production label
Japanese digital satellite channel BS-i, owned by broadcaster TBS, and Tsutaya video chain parent company Culture Convenience Club (CCC) have jointly formed a label to produce feature films based on TV programmes. Dubbed Cinema Drive, the label will initially produce one to two features per year, with a stated goal ...
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Tokyo multiplex to screen hit TV show Winter Sonata
A special version of Korean hit television drama Winter Sonata will be screened at Toho's flagship Roppongi Hills cinema in Tokyo. All 20 episodes of the series will be shown on Tuesday mornings from July 10 to September 11, featuring extra footage only shown once previously on NHK's BS satellite ...
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Kadokawa starts streaming features on mobile phones
Kadokawa Group Holdings (Kadokawa GHD) has begun streaming feature films, TV dramas and animation titles from its library through mobile giant NTT DoCoMo's i-mode cell phone internet connection service. Short films, music videos and animation clips have been popular mainstays in recent years, but Kadokawa's service marks the first time ...
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Kaneshiro to star in first Japanese film in six years
Actor Takeshi Kaneshiro is set to star in his first Japanese film in six years. Based on Kotaro Isaka's novel The Accuracy Of Death (Shinigami No Seido) the story follows an irreverent version of the Grim Reaper (Kaneshiro) who visits people with a week left to live and passes judgment ...
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Mamoru Oshii set to direct adaptation of Sky Crawlers
Japanese animation director Mamoru Oshii is gearing up to start work on a big-budget adaptation of Hiroshi Mori's five-part novel series The Sky Crawlers. The film will be produced by Oshii's long-time backer Production IG in collaboration with Nippon Television Network (NTV). Warner Brothers Japan will distribute the film as ...
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Japan's Movie-Eye lines up Nightmare Detective sequel
Japanese producer-distributor Movie-Eye Entertainment unveiled its production and distribution slate at a press conference in Tokyo yesterday, which includes a sequel to Nightmare Detective, to be again directed by Shinya Tsukamoto. Tsukamoto and star Ryuhei Matsuda were on hand to answer questions about the second instalment in the series, which ...
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Japan's new CoFesta announces autumn plans
Details of this year's newly-established Japan International Contents Festival were announced at a press conference at Tokyo's National Art Centre in downtown Tokyo yesterday. The festival, nicknamed CoFesta, is the result of several years' planning to consolidate contents events surrounding the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) and TIFFCOM Market. CoFesta ...
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Tarantino wraps scenes in Miike's Sukiyaki Western
Quentin Tarantino has completed his scenes in Takashi Miike's Sukiyaki Western: Django. The rest of the film had already been completed, with scenes between Tarantino and actress Kaori Momoi remaining to be shot until 7am yesterday (June 11). At a press conference attended by 600 members of the media yesterday ...
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Japan's Skip City digital fest unveils lineup
Japan's Skip City International Digital Cinema Festival has announced the lineup for its fourth edition. Competition features include Heartlines, directed by Angus Gibson (Mandela), Children Of The Moon, Climates, Without You, Steen Rasmussen's Skymaster - A Flying Family Fairytale, Maria's Navel, Skies Above The Landscape, Tangier, Paper Dolls, German-set Chinese ...
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Japan's Bandai Visual lines up Tamagotchi feature
Japanese video producer-distributor Bandai Visual has announced an animated feature film starring the popular tamagotchi virtual pets. The first feature foray for the franchise, entitled Eiga De Tojo! Tamagotchi Dokidoki! Uchu No Maigotchi!', is set for a December release through Toho. The production consortium includes Bandai Visual, WiZ, Toho, Asatsu-DK ...
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Toho-Towa unveils Universal release slate
Japanese distributor Toho-Towa has announced its upcoming slate of Universal Pictures releases. As previously announced, the third film in the Bourne trilogy, The Bourne Ultimatum, will be the first Universal release through Toho-Towa, the foreign film distribution arm of Toho Studios. Bourne will be released in November 2007, three months ...
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Dai Nipponjin beats 'Beat' Takeshi at Japan's box office
Comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto's debut film Dai Nipponjin has beaten veteran helmer Takeshi Kitano's Kantoku Banzai! at the Japanese box office. Dai Nipponjin earned $1.86m (Y226.9m) to grab the number two position behind Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End while Kantoku Banzai! (Glory To The Filmmaker!) grossed $333,501 (Y40.6m), just ...
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Cannes Grand Prix winner The Mourning Forest to air on Japanese TV
Cannes' newly crowned Grand Prix winner The Mourning Forest (Mogari No Mori) will air on Japanese public broadcaster NHK on May 29, five days before its June 3 theatrical release in Japan. Though the broadcast was planned before the film's win, the great amount of additional press combined with NHK's ...
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Japanese master filmmaker Kei Kumai dies aged 76
Kei Kumai, one of Japan 's most respected directors, died of a brain hemorrhage in the morning of May 23 at the age of 76. Born on June 1, 1930, in Nagano Prefecture, Kumai attended Shinshu University. After graduation, he became an assistant director on independent films before joining Nikkatsu ...
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Kitaro sets opening week box office record for Shochiku
Live-action creature feature Kitaro has become producer-distributor Shochiku's highest-grossing first week release ever. Released on April 28 on 339 screens, Kitaro earned $8.5m (Y1.02bn), achieving the standard Y1bn mark of a box office hit faster than any previous release in the studio's history. Kitaro opened in the number two position, ...
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Nikkatsu, IMJ join forces to launch production outfit
Japan 's Nikkatsu Corp and production company/creative agency Inter Media Japan Entertainment (IMJE) have jointly established a new production company named Dzonot Corp. IMJE invested 51% and Nikkatsu 49% of the initial $85,000 (Y10m) in capital to set up Dzonot, which will be headed by IMJE chief executive Osamu Naito. ...