All articles by Silvia Wong – Page 11
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News
Singapore festto open with Sri Lankan drama Sankara
The Singapore International Film Festival (April 18-30), which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, will showcase more than 300 films from 40 countries. For the first time, a Sri Lankan film will open the festival - Prasanna Jayakody's feature debut Sankara - a Buddhist fable about desire and non-attachment. Indonesian ...
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News
Malaysia bans Muhammad's Village People
Malaysia has banned Amir Muhammad's Village People Radio Show, a documentary about former Malay-Muslim Communists now living in exile in southern Thailand, after the censorship board rejected the film for being sympathetic towards communism. Without relying on a narrator or voiceover, the documentary recorded the life of 15 surviving members ...
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News
Dorm sweeps the board at Thai Critic Awards
Songyos Sugmakanan's solo directorial debut Dorm dominated the 15th Thailand National Critic Awards with five wins, including best film and best director, out of ten nominations. The coming-of-age horror tale also took best supporting actress for Jintara Sukphat, best script and best cinematography. It recently won the crystal bear for ...
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News
Second Naresuan film conquers Thai box office
Following the success of the first instalment of Thai historical epic, The Legend Of King Naresuan, the second film in the trilogy, Declaration Of Independence, stormed the Thai box office on its four-day opening weekend, raking in a whopping $3.9m (130m baht) in Bangkok. The second instalment, also directed by ...
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News
Neo's Just Follow Law has strong opening in Singapore
Singaporean director Jack Neo's Just Follow Law had a strong but not record-breaking four-day opening during the Chinese New Year holiday, scooping $421,000 from 35 prints for second place in the chart. Ghost Rider topped the chart with $678,000 on 39 prints over the four days, while Hong Kong drug ...
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News
Singapore's Royston Tan to direct musical drama
Singapore's most celebrated writer-director Royston Tan, whose previous credits include 15 and 4:30, will next turn his hand to a musical drama, 881, which is scheduled to start principal photography on March 1. Major Singapore players are joining forces to back the new $653,000 (S$1m) production, including Tan's long-term producer ...
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News
Golden Flower leads Hong Kong Film Awards nominations
Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower is the clear frontrunner in the 26th edition of the Hong Kong Film Awards after earning 14 nominations, including best film, best director, best actor for Chow Yun Fat and best actress for Gong Li. The lavish historical drama also garnered nods for ...
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News
Thailand 's box office up by 2.5% in 2006
Thailand 's box office scored a hat trick in 2006 by breaking the $87m (BHT3bn) milestone for three years running. Total box office in the major cities of Bangkok and Chiangmai reached $91.69m (BHT3.15bn) in 2006, up by 2.5% from the previous year. The results were better than the Thai ...
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Thai director turns on Chinese-language Pleasure Factory
Thai writer-director Ekachai Uekrongtham has wrapped principal photography of his first Chinese-language feature, Pleasure Factory, financed by his new Singapore-based production company Spicy Apple Films. The HD feature, set in Singapore 's red-light district Geylang, stars Taiwanese Golden Horse best actress Yang Kuei Mei and up-and-coming Thai actor Ananda Everingham. ...
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News
Asian locations: Thailand
The December 2004 tsunami may have swept away many shooting locations in Thailand, but the territory's film sector has made a swift recovery.In 2006, 23 international feature films were shot in Thailand, contributing a combined $25m (bht874m) to the Thai economy. This marks an increase of 40.5% from 2005, the ...
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News
Asian locations: Hong Kong
Despite being one of the world's most expensive cities, Hong Kong has attracted several international film-makers. With its VAT-free tax system, highly professional crews, world-class infrastructure and unique cityscape, the territory has bagged several large-scale shoots including Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life, Rush Hour 2 and Spy ...
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News
Indonesian box office for US studios up 30%
Indonesian box office for Motion Picture Association (MPA) member films soared to new heights in 2006, increasing 29.5% to $33.8m (Rp307.55bn) from 67 releases. The strong results were mainly driven by two record-breaking titles: Superman Returns took $2.68m (Rp24.43bn) and Casino Royale collected $2.37m (Rp21.56bn), to become the highest and ...
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News
King Naresuan tops Thailand's box office
Pegu's Hostage , the first part of the long-awaited Legend Of King Naresuan trilogy, raided Thailand 's box office over its four-day opening weekend, grossing $2.2m (80m baht) in Bangkok alone, according to distributor Sahamongkolfilm International. Although it was certainly the biggest opening weekend since 2005 action film Tom Yum ...
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Features
Malaysia - Leading the charge
Malaysia's recent cinematic surge has been partially fronted by two female directors who have plenty to say and are not afraid to say it. With female directing voices thin on the ground, even in much less conservative societies than Muslim-dominated Malaysia, Yasmin Ahmad and Tan Chui Mui are airing their ...
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News
Bangkok film festival reveals new venue and dates
The organisers of the Bangkok International Film Festival (BKKIFF) have revealed that this year's edition will take place July 19-29 at SF Cinema City's new 15-screen flagship located in the recently renovated Central World entertainment complex. The event had been scheduled to take place Jan 26-Feb 5 but was postponed ...
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News
Ascension's Anna & Anna rises in Shanghai
Principal photography started today in Shanghai on Hong Kong writer-director Aubrey Lam's Anna & Anna, a $2.2m romantic thriller financed by US and Hong Kong-based Ascension Pictures. The cast is toplined by Hong Kong actress Karena Lam who plays two roles in the film: Anna, a career woman who has ...
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News
Malaysian box office reaches all-time high in 2006
Malaysia 's box office continued to grow in 2006 with total takings reaching an all-time high of $75.7m (RM265.2m) from 314 releases, a 9% increase on record takings of $69.6m (RM243.6m) the previous year. Following consistent growth since 2001, the 2006 box office is 131% bigger than six years ago. ...
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News
Bali bombings project passes Indonesian censorship
The first Indonesian film to tackle the 2002 Bali bomb blasts, Long Road To Heaven produced by Nia Dinata, has passed local censorship despite its controversial subject matter. Inspired by true events and characters, the picture is a docudrama of the terrorism act and its aftermath. In October 2002, a ...
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News
Singapore bounces back with 6% box office increase
After a flat 2005, Singapore box office regained growth momentum in 2006 with a 6% year-on-year increase in total box office takings which amounted to $85.18m (S$131.08m) from 341 releases. As with previous years, Hollywood mega blockbusters ruled the box office. The top grossing film was Fox's X-Men: The Last ...
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Bangkok International Film Festival postponed until July
The 2007 BangkokInternational Film Festival (BKKIFF), scheduled to start on January 26, hasbeen postponed until July, according to Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, co-festivaldirector and Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)'s international publicrelations director.The decision to delay theevent came after 'a potential cinema venue [decided] not to proceed withfurther discussions with TAT ...