All articles by Mark Schilling – Page 8
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News
Cohn buys up Yellow Handkerchief remake rights
Japan's Shochiku has sold remake rights for The Yellow Handkerchief, a well-remembered 1977 hit by Yoji Yamada, to veteran producer Arthur Cohn (Behind the Sun, Central Station). Cohn intends to start filming next year, for release in 2005. Cast and crew have yet to be announced. Based on a story ...
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JAPAN
Boosted by its warm reception at the Venice Film Festival, Takeshi Kitano's samurai swashbuckler Zatoichi soared to $4.3m (¥500m) on its opening weekend in Japan - the strongest local start for any of Kitano's 11 films. Awarded the Open 2003 Mimmo Rotella Foundation prize midway through the festival, Kitano found ...
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Japanese goverment lines up behind local film
Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs has set aside $2.14m (Y250m) to back a series of measures aimed at supporting the Japanese film industry.The money will principally be spent on four initiatives: financing the first feature film of two young directors who have won prizes at film festivals and contests; financing ...
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Bayside shakes up Japanese box office
Bayside Shakedown 2 , the follow-up to the 1998 hit thriller, passed the Y10bn ($84m) mark at the box office on its 29th day of release - making it the third fastest film to reach this milestone in the Japanese market, after Spirited Away and Harry Potter And The Philosopher's ...
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News
Bayside Shakedown 2 smashes Japanese records
Bayside Shakedown 2, the sequel to a 1998 hit cop thriller, recorded the best-ever opening for a Japanese film, following its July 19 release on 400 screens. In its first three days the film grossed $15.7m(Y1.8bn) on 1,260,934 admissions. The previous record holder, Hayao Miyazaki's animated smash Spirited Away, earned ...
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News
Bayside Shakedown 2 smashes Japanese records
Bayside Shakedown 2, the sequel to a 1998 hit cop thriller, recorded the best-ever opening for a Japanese film, following its July 19 release on 400 screens. In its first three days the film grossed $15.7m(Y1.8bn) on 1,260,934 admissions. The previous record holder, Hayao Miyazaki's animated smash Spirited Away, earned ...
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News
Gaga veterans jump start Japanese indie
Former Gaga Communications acquisitions chief Kaz Tadashiki has joined Movie-Eye Entertainment as president and CEO. Together with COO Taku Ushiyama, another Gaga veteran, Tadashiki plans to reposition Movie-Eye, whose core business since its April 2000 start has been film promotion, as a production, distribution and talent management company.To support its ...
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Terminator 3 takes Japanese box office by storm for Toho-Towa...
Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines grossed $12.5m (Y1.458bn) and recorded 1,015,589 admissions on 550 screens on its opening weekend in Japan - the sixth largest such release ever in the country.Excluding preview screenings, its total of $9.5m for the weekend of July 12 and 13 broke the all-time record ...
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Gong Li named Tokyo jury head
Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, the new director-general of the Tokyo International Film Festival, has named Chinese actress Gong Li (Breaking The Silence, The Emperor and The Asassin, Temptress Moon) as the jury chairman for the festival's 16th edition. The other jury members have yet to be announced. Kadokawa has also unveiled Yoshimitsu ...
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Battle Royale II storms Japanese box office
Battle Royale II - Requiem, the sequel to Kinji Fukasaku's 2000 hit Battle Royale, had a better Japanese opening weekend than the original - and for that matter than any other film in the history of distributor Toei. Released on 261 screens on July 5, BR2 earned $2.8m (Y337m) from ...
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Reviews
Battle Royale II: Requiem
Dir: Kinji Fukasaku, Kenta Fukasaku. Japan. 133mins.Blood squib for blood squib, Battle Royale, Kinji Fukasaku's last completed film did not show much that had not been shown before. Based on a best-selling novel about a "class" of 42 teen troublemakers forced to murder each other by a repressive government it ...
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Japan's Groove files for bankruptcy
Groove Corporation, co-producer of Shohei Imamura's 1997 Cannes Grand Prize winner The Eel (Unagi), as well as other critically acclaimed indie titles, has filed for bankruptcy protection at Nagoya District Court. Its total debt was reported as $42m (Y5bn). Founded in 1976,. Groove began life as a video sales and ...
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News
Release of Otomo's Steamboy delayed
The makers of Steamboy, the $20m animated feature by Katsuhiro Otomo, have delayed the film's release date from October to sometime in 2004. Announced at a press conference on June 19, this decision leaves a huge hole in distributor Toho's autumn schedule. The film, Otomo's first full-length theatrical feature in ...
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News
Japanese government to ease film production fund regulations
Japan's Trade Ministry is set to relax the restrictions governing film production funds. Under the current law, only four such funds have been set up since 1992.Local industry analysts have been warning that unless Japan creates a system that makes it easier, and more attractive, to invest in feature film ...
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News
Hou Hsiao Hsien to direct Ozu homage
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Japan's Yasujiro Ozu, Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao Hsien (City Of Sadness, The Flowers Of Shanghai, Millennium Mambo) will direct a feature-length Ozu homage. Shochiku, the studio where Ozu spent his entire career, will head the film's production consortium. During a recent ...
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News
Japan acts to protect copyright of Golden Age directors
Japan has passed a revised Copyright Law extending copyright protection for movies and animated films from the current fifty years to seventy following the date of release. The new law goes into effect in January.The Japanese film industry has campaigned long and hard for this revision. The copyrights on films ...
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Gaga to produce feature version of Devil May Cry game
In the latest of a string of game-to-film adaptations, arcade game maker Capcom and distributor Gaga Communications have concluded a film option deal for Devil May Cry, a Capcom game series that has sold 4.37 million units internationally. According the terms of the deal Gaga, will have exclusive rights to ...
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Buyers battle for Battle Royale II
Japan's Toei sold Battle Royale II, the follow-up to the controversial 2000 dystopian thriller, to eight European territories at Cannes. In addition to sales to the three Scandinavian countries, the three Benelux countries and Iceland, Toei concluded deals for the UK, Germany, Russia, Hong Kong and Thailand. "All we had ...