All articles by Mark Schilling – Page 5
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News
Tokyo film fest announces major new prize
Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, director general of the TokyoInternational Film Festival, has announced the launch of the Akira KurosawaPrize, to be awarded for the first time at this year's 17th TIFF (October 23 -31).The prize, worth US $100,000, will be given to anoutstanding director or producer, Japanese or foreign. An internationalcommittee of ...
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News
Buena Vista embarks on Japanese animation
Fuji TV has announced the production of a major animatedfeature based on Brave Story, afantasy novel by Miyuki Miyabe that has sold 420,000 copies since publicationin March of 2003.The production company will be Gonzo Digimation, ananimation house responsible for several hit TV series, including Hellsing and Gantz, as well as ...
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JAPAN 23 June
Only one film entered the nine-major-cities chart for the week of June12 to 18 -- Eiichiro Hazumi's Sea Monkeys (Umizaru).Produced by Robot, the same company that delivered the two mega-hit BaysideShakedown films, Sea Monkeys depicts the trials and triumphs ofyoung Japan Coast Guardsmen training to be divers -- in other ...
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Reviews
Izo
Dir: Takashi Miike. 2004.Jap. 128mins.The bad boy of Japanesefilm, with a growing international following, Takashi Miike likes violence wellenough, injecting everything from slow torture to mass slaughter into his50-plus films. But until his latest, Izo,he had never done samurai swordfighting. The traditionalist genre, until younger film-makerscame along like Nakano (Samurai ...
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Reviews
Steamboy
Dir/scr: Katsuhiro Otomo.Jap. 2004. 126mins.In 1988, with his debut feature Akira,Katsuhiro Otomo introduced the world to the post-apocalyptic future,Japanese-style - and spurred a global boom for Japanese animation that has yetto subside. Sixteen years later, he is back with Steamboy, an animatedepic set in the London of 1866, when the ...
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News
School killing halts Battle Royale 2 DVD release
Toei Video will delay the DVD and video release of BattleRoyale 2, which was scheduled for September, company officials haveannounced. The reason: a highly publicised recent incident in which an11-year-old girl stabbed and killed a friend and classmate, reportedly fortexting disparaging remarks about her.The suspect, who has not been named ...
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News
Shochiku names Sakomoto as new president
Junichi Sakomoto has been appointed president of Shochiku,one of Japan's Big Three film companies, with interests in production,distribution and exhibition.Formerly vice president, Sakomoto replaces Nobuyoshi Otani,who served as president since emerging victorious in a boardroom coup in 1998.The grandson of Shochiku mega-producer Shiro Kido, who ranthe studio during its postwar ...
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JAPAN 8 June
The strongest opener for the week of May 29 to June 4 wasNigel Cole's Calendar Girls, whichrecorded a $36,964 average on two major cities screens.Meanwhile, the Luc Besson-produced Crimson Rivers 2 opened at number four on the nine-major-citieschart, with a $26,340 average on 16 screens.Despite a massive publicity build-up by ...
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JAPAN 13 May
Only one percent of all Japanese may be Christians, but MelGibson's The Passion Of The Christ has made many converts, if the film'sfirst week box office total is any indication. Opening on fivenine-major-cities screens, the film earned $457,987 for a screen average of$91,579 -- topping the number one The Haunted ...
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Reviews
Casshern
Dir/scr/cine: KazuakiKiriya. Japan. 2004. 141mins.With digital technology,it is now possible to create big, visionary movies without breaking budgets -even those of the Japanese film industry. The result has been a spate ofJapanese films, such as Mamoru Oshii's Innocence, screening incompetition at Cannes, and Katsuhiro Otomo's forthcoming Steam Boy, thattake up ...
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JAPAN 4 May
Disney's TheHaunted Mansion led the weekend before the start of the Golden Weekholiday. Family fare usually goes over well this week-long period -- one of thefew times of the year when the millions of workaholic dads take in a movie withtheir kids. Also, nearly every sentient and ambulatory Japanese has ...
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Reviews
Appleseed
Dir: Shinji Aramaki. Japan. 2004. 103 mins.Japanese animation is insinuating itself into everything from Kill Bill Vol. 1 to kiddy cartoon channels on US cable. Unlike makers of Japanese live-action films, whose total annual exports wouldn't underwrite one middling Hollywood movie, Japanese animators can strike it truly rich abroad - ...
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News
Japan's production sector resorts to violence
Best known in the West for the films he has directed, including the 1997 Cannes Palme d'Or winner Hana-Bi and the 2003 box office smash Zatoichi, multi-talented Takeshi Kitano has had a longer career as an actor, going back to his breakout role as a brutal prison camp guard in ...
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News
JAPAN
Both of this week's new releases in the nine-major-cities chart opened strongly, with Something's Gotta Give recording a $41,935 average on 17 screens and Bong Joon-ho's Memories Of Murder, $40,909 on two.Something's Gotta Give was boosted by its raft of awards, particularly the Oscar Best Actress nomination for Diane Keaton. ...
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JAPAN
In the box office battle between Disney's bears and Shochiku's dog, the latter again emerged victorious for the second week running.Helmed by Yoichi Sai, a director better known for his excursions into the underworld and, on TV, his pungent wit, Quill grossed $883,396 on 17 major urban screens, compared ...
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Reviews
Innocence
Dir/scr: Mamoru Oshii. Japan. 2004. 99mins.Japanese sci-fi animation, from Katysuhiro Otomo's Akira (1988) onwards, often points towards a post-apocalyptic part-human future. For all the blasts 'n' babes - the buffed heroines in spandex pouring thousands of rounds into clanking foes - the essential vision is dark. But as Mamoru Oshii's ...
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JAPAN
With Spring Break in full swing in Japan, distributors have been busy rolling out films aimed at teens and kids.The two new openers most successful in attracting this demographic are both Japanese. Quill, a drama about cuddly seeing-eye dog, debuted on the chart at number two, with a sky-high screen ...
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JAPAN
With Spring Break about to start, Japanese distributors rolled out more new releases on March 13.The biggest in terms of screen average, $46,002, was Hotel Venus, a heavily promoted ensemble drama starring a member of the popular boy band SMAP and filmed entirely in Korean -- a first for a ...
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News
New force emerges in Japanese market
Kadokawa Group is reportedly finalising negotiations to purchase a 40% stake in Nippon Herald and to acquire Herald's local distribution network.The news was reported in Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun.Despite distributing the three Lord Of The Rings films together with Shochiku, Herald is forecasting a loss of $9.5m (Y1.06bn) for the ...