All articles by Mark Schilling – Page 15
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NTT, Motion Pro start downloading films to PCs
Japan's NTT Satellite Communications, together with film distributor Motion Pro, has started the first service in Japan for downloading films to home PCs. Launched on December 1, the service charges viewers Y300 ($2.73) per download. The partners transmit films via the Sky PerfecTV communications satellite platform. Viewers receive them using ...
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Bac planning wide release for Kitano's Brother
French distributor Bac Films is releasing Takeshi Kitano's Brother on 300 screens across France on Wednesday, marking the country's biggest ever release of a Japanese film."It is also the largest opening anywhere for a film of mine," Kitano said at a press conference in Tokyo.The film, a cross-border gang thriller ...
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Japanese DVD sales set to triple by 2003
Sales of DVDs in Japan are set to overtake sales of videocassettes next year, and more than triple to $3.106bn (Y341.7bn) by 2003, according to a report from the Japan Video Software Association (JVSA). In 1999, the market share of DVDs in Japan was only 12%, rising to 30% in ...
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Wowow first-half profits plunge by 73%
Japanese satellite and cable broadcaster Wowow reported a 73% decrease in profit to $12m (Y1.32bn) in the first half of 2000, on turnover down 6.5% to $273m (Y30.02bn). Operating profit fell 79% to $9m (Y988m).Wowow officials attributed the disappointing results to slow growth in subscriptions and the high costs of ...
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Digital satellite broadcasts go live in Japan
Regular broadcasts started aboard Japan's new digital broadcast satellite (BS) on December 1, bringing high-definition and data programming to 1.2 million Japanese households. Among the 20 broadcasters taking part in the launch were five new BS stations backed by the commercial networks, as well as BS veterans NHK, Wowow and ...
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Whiteout star wins Japanese box office award
Japan's Yuji Oda, who stars in local hit thriller Whiteout, has been awarded the 18th annual Money-Making Star Award, from the Japan Association of Motion Picture Producers and the All-Japan Exhibitors Association. Released on August 19, Whiteout grossed $37.3m (Y4.1bn) at the domestic box office and has since been sold ...
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Omega, Latin partners to launch virtual market
Japanese production outfit Omega Pictures is teaming up with three Latin American media companies to launch an on-line film sales outfit, based in Puerto Rico, where they have been lured by significant tax and funding initiatives.Omega will take a 40% stake in the joint venture, entitled Intermedia Contenido, with the ...
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Jupiter Telecom postpones Mothers listing
Japan's largest cable operator, Jupiter Telecommunications, has postponed its scheduled December 8 initial public offering (IPO) on the Mothers market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.Company management decided that, given the beatings that IPOs have recently taken on Mothers, it would be difficult to raise funds at their asking price. Jupiter ...
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Dentsu, partners land Tanaka for internet movie
Japan's Dentsu, Ten Carat and Scale have produced a ground-breaking internet movie starring Rena Tanaka, a supermodel who swept domestic newcomer prizes for her screen debut in the 1998 drama Give It Your All. Titled Suki, the three-part omnibus will premiere on the click-cinema web-site (http://www.click-cinema.net), whose backers include NTT ...
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Diplomat, Chunhyang triumph in Hawaii
The 20th edition of the Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) awarded the top prizes in its competition section to Im Kwon Taek's Chunhyang, which took the best feature award, and Tom Zubrycki's The Diplomat, which won best documentary.Chunghyang, based on a popular Korean folk song, premiered at Cannes this ...
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Jupiter to float before Christmas
Japanese cable operator Jupiter Telecommunications, which is part-owned by both Microsoft and John Malone's Liberty Media, has announced plans for a $2.5bn-$4bn initial public offering.The company, which is Japan's leading cable operator, plans to float before Christmas on both the Nasdaq in New York and the fledgling Mothers high-tech stock ...
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Motohiro cranks up Bayside Shakedown follow-up
Japanese director Katsuyuki Motohiro, whose 1998 cop comedy Bayside Shakedown grossed nearly $100m at the Japanese box office, has started production on SF drama Satore.The film stars hot male TV star Masanobu Ando as a mind-reading doctor whose gift becomes a national treasure - and personal misery. It marks the ...
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Love's A Bitch wins Tokyo's Grand Prix
Mexican title Love's A Bitch (Amores Perros), directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, was awarded the Grand Prix at the 13th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival, which ended on Sunday (November 5). Inarritu also took the Best Director Award. Other top awards at the festival went to Stuart Blumberg, ...
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Tokyo governor set to open film office
The governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, has called for the creation of a Tokyo film office to assist film-makers shooting in the Japanese capital.Tentatively called the Tokyo Location Box, the new office is set to open next spring. Speaking at the Tokyo International Film Festival, Ishihara said the Tokyo government ...
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Toei's Firefly finally ready to roll
Toei's Firefly (Hotaru), a feature about Word War II kamikaze pilots starring Japanese screen legend Ken Takakura, is finally ready to go before the cameras after months of delay. Toei intended the film as a tentpole release for the New Year season but dropped it from its line-up when negotiations ...
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Jupiter invests in Japanese movie channel
Japan's Jupiter Programming is taking a 9.9% stake in local movie channel Nihon Eiga Broadcasting Corp, which is part-owned by Sony and Fuji TV.Jupiter, a supplier of programming to cable and satellite television, is also acquiring a 15% stake in Mitsui-owned children's channel Kids Station. The company plans to take ...
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T Joy unveils plans for digital multiplexes
T Joy, part of Japan's Toei group, plans to start construction in Hiroshima this December on a multiplex that will project digitised films downloaded from a communications satellite. The company will spend $7.2m (Y780m) on the six-screen theatre which will have a seating capacity of 668. In addition to films, ...
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Info Avenue finances latest Imamura project
Japanese ecommerce outfit Info Avenue Corp has raised finance for a second production - Shohei Imamura's Lukewarm Water Under The Red Bridge (Akai Hashi No Shita No Nurui Mizu) - through its on-line financing scheme.Info Avenue recruits film fans through a web-site as paying members of "support groups" for individual ...
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Sky Perfect tumbles 20% on market debut
Sky Perfect Communications, which operates the Sky PerfecTV communications satellite (CS) platform, made a disappointing debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's MOTHERS market for venture firms on Friday.On the first day of trading, October 20, Sky Perfect shares fell 20% from their pre-market price of $2.962 (Y320,000) to $2.083 (Y255,000) ...
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Applications pile up for new Japanese bird
Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has said that 25 companies have applied for licences to broadcast on the next-generation N-SAT-110 communications satellite (CS), which launched from French New Guinea on October 7. The ministry expects to receive about 30 to 40 applications in total and will announce the successful ...