All articles by Mark Schilling – Page 12
-
News
Japanese box office reaches all-time high
Confirming early predictions (Screendaily Jan 7) official data just released by the Motion Pictures Producers Association of Japan (Eiren), reveals that national cinema admissions reached 163.3m in 2001, generating all-time record box office revenues.Boosted by the massive success of Spirited Away, the Japanese box office soared 17.% in 2001 compared ...
-
Reviews
Alexei's Spring (Alexei To Izumi)
Dir: Sei'ichi Motohashi. Japan. 2001. 104mins.Located deep in a Belarus pine forest , the village of Budische was devastated when radiation from the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power station fell from the skies on April 26, 1986. Most villagers left, but when documentarian Sei'ichi Motohashi arrived in Budische in early 2000, ...
-
News
Pandemonium to remake Japanese horror film
Kadokawa Shoten, a leading Japanese publisher with extensive media interests, has reached a agreement with Pandemonium, former Fox president Bill Mechanic's production company, to remake Dark Water, the latest film by horror-meister Hideo Nakata, who was responsible for the hit Ring series. The rights fee is reported to be $400,000, ...
-
News
Japan's Toho reports record box office results
Toho, Japan's leading distributor, has reported $415m (Y54.8 billion) in total box office for 2001 - a 25% gain over the previous year and a company record. Toho had originally projected a $227m (Y30 billion) take for the year The biggest earner was Spirited Away, the Hayao Miyazaki animation that ...
-
Reviews
The Children Of God
Dir: Hiroshi Shinomiya. Japan. 2001. 105mins.A documentary about children who scavenge for a living in a Philippine trash dump may sound like depressing fare, but Children Of God director Hiroshi Shinomiya has found strength and dignity in his subjects, as well as human dramas that make for compelling, if occasionally ...
-
News
Dentsu, Tohokushinsha acquire Disney package
Dentsu and Tohokushinsha are to jointly acquire exclusive Japanese broadcasting rights to 150 Disney movies and TV series. The deal, set to be finalised soon according to Dentsu officials, covers titles from 1999 to 2001, including The Sixth Sense, Pearl Harbor and 102 Dalmatians, as well as older films such ...
-
News
Pony Canyon launches sci-fi extravaganza Returner
Production has started on Returner, a CGI extravaganza that promises to be one of the biggest Japanese releases of 2002. Directed by Takashi Yamazaki and starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Returner is a sci-fi thriller about a killer for hire who boasts a matchless martial arts technique but has a soft spot ...
-
News
Yukisada's Go sweeps top Japanese awards
In addition to being selected as Japan's nomination for best foreign-language Oscar, Isao Yukisada's Go has now been awarded a record seven prizes from a critics' panel for Kinema Jumpo, Japan's oldest film magazine. The Kinema Junpo awards, considered Japan's most prestigious, went to Go for Best Film, to Yukisada ...
-
News
Japan BO passes $1.5bn for first time in history
According to figures compiled by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper, Japanese box office passed the $1.5bn (Y200 billion) mark in 2001 for the first time since records began in 1955.At the same time, Japan's cinemas recorded a total of 160 million admissions in 2001 - the highest figure in fifteen ...
-
News
Warner, Asahi bank on Son's Room in Japan
Warner Bros. Pictures and the TV Asahi network will jointly distribute Nanni Moretti's The Son's Room in Japan in a deal that is a first for the Japanese market. According the terms of the partnership, the two companies will split p&a costs and share film distribution and video sales revenues. ...
-
News
Japan's DVD penetration to hit 50% by 2005
Penetration of DVD players in Japanese households rose to 22% by September 2001, a gain of 10.5% from July 2000, according to a survey by the Japan Video Association. The Association calculates that 25% of Japan's nearly 44 million households owned a DVD player by the end of 2001 and ...
-
News
Movie TV to launch on Japan's Jasdaq
Movie Television, a leading seller of Hollywood films and TV programs to Japanese television, will list its shares on the Jasdaq over-the-counter market on December 13. Launched in 1984 by current president Kenichi Morohashi, the company has output deals with 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Warner, MGM and Universal. It earns ...
-
News
Investor confidence returns to Japan's Shochiku
Shochiku, one of Japan's leading distributor/exhibitors, saw its share price rocket to $5.8 (Y715) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday Nov 28. In just 25 days, the company's stock has soared by $1.2 (Y141), partly in anticipation of the Dec 1 release of Harry Potter, but also thanks to ...
-
News
Japan's SunCent restructures, loses president
Beset by red ink, leading Japanese independent producer SunCent Cinema Works has relocated to the headquarters of its parent Wowow , while president and founder Takenori Sento is preparing to exit the company and launch a new production venture, Rumble Fish. SunCent will continue to manage the rights for the ...
-
News
Japan's Softbank posts $411m net losses
Softbank Corp., a Tokyo-based Internet and computer software company with extensive media interests, has posted a group net loss of $441m (Y54.3 billion) for the first half of fiscal 2001, ending in September. This compares with a $295m (Y36.3 billion) profit for the same period the previous fiscal year. Despite ...
-
News
Universal Studios Japan to top 8m in first year
Despite a deepening recession at home, the Japanese appetite for US-style theme parks remains undiminished. According to Daniel Jensen, vice president, Universal Studios Japan (USJ), the company's Osaka-based park has "hit a home run" since its March 31 opening, with admissions expected to exceed eight million before the end of ...
-
News
Japan's Shinoda announces final project
Masahiro Shinoda, a leading director of Japan's 1960s New Wave, has announced the production of what he says will be his last film: Spy: Sorge. A project Shinoda has been developing for the past fifteen years, Spy: Sorge will tell the story of Richard Sorge, a German journalist who served ...
-
News
Tokyo court fines paper for pirated film images
In a case that may set a legal precedent, Tokyo District Court ordered Kodansha Publishing to pay the producers of Isao Morimoto's Ichigensan, a film about a cross-cultural love affair set in Kyoto, $46,290 (Y5.6m) for copyright violations. Shukan Gendai, a weekly tabloid magazine published by Kodansha, ran nude shots ...
-
News
Firefly Dreams wins Hawaii's Golden Maile award
John Williams' Firefly Dreams was the winner of the First Hawaiian Bank Golden Maile award for the main competition of the Hawaii International Film Festiva (Nov 2-11). Shot on location in Japan and starring Maho Ukai and Yoshi Minami, the film is the British-born Williams' first feature. Among other entries ...
-
News
Japan, Uruguay select Oscar nominations
The Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (Eirin) has selected Isao Yukisada's Go (pictured) as Japan's nominee for the Foreign Film Academy Award, out of a short list of twelve candidates. The film, Yukisada's third feature, tells the story of a Korean youth's coming of age - and his struggle ...