All Asia articles – Page 506
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Reviews
Night and Day (Bam gua Nat)
Dir: Hong Sangsoo, S. Korea, 2008. 147mins.Light, charming but not terribly engaging, and as French as any Korean film is ever going to get, Hong Sangsoo's full-on tribute to the New Wave follows Korean expatriates around the City Of Lights. While brevity has never been one of Hong's particular talents, ...
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Reviews
Cherry Blossoms (Kirschblüten - Hanami)
Dir: Doris Dorrie, Germany, 2008, 127minsDoris Dorrie's bittersweet film is a story of mourning and the futility of trying to recover something lost. A Bavarian husband who is nearing retirement loses his wife suddenly, and flies to Japan to visit sites that she never had a chance to see while ...
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Reviews
Sparrow (Man Jeuk)
Dir: Johnnie To. Hong Kong. 2008. 87 mins.The spirit of Jacques Demy lives on in Hong Kong in prolific genre auteur Johnnie To's latest offering. Some of the scenes in this gentle romantic pickpocketing yarn are pure cinematic pleasure, but in the end the plot and the characters are too ...
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News
Paramount Home Entertainment switches to SPI in New Zealand
Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE) has assigned its New Zealand license for Paramount and DreamWorks titles to SPI Entertainment NZ with effect from Feb 1.PHE previously distributed its titles in New Zealand through Roadshow.Paramount's 2008 international releases include No Country For Old Men, Iron Man, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of ...
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News
Thailand's Major Cineplex expands into film production
Thailand's largest exhibitor Major Cineplex is set to expand into film production following the completion of a share swap between its subsidiary M Pictures and media and content provider Traffic Corner Holdings. Through a new subsidiary, Traffic Corner now holds 99.99% in M Pictures, the distribution arm of Major Cineplex. ...
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Reviews
Good Man Dog
Dir: Singing Chen. Taiwan, 2007. 118 mins.Singing Chen's bleak but richly-detailed portrait of contemporary Taiwan has elicited praise for its artistic ambitions but will do well to move past the festival world and into art-house release.Her second feature boast four separate stories, each playing out separately with occasional overlap until ...
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Reviews
Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger (2007)
Dir: Cathy Randall. Australia, 2008. 103minsThis charming, highly-accomplished first feature will gladden the hearts of parents everywhere looking for a film to watch with their pre-teens, especially girls. Directed by 35-year-old South-African-born newcomer Cathy Randall, who has been working in Australia for some years, this coming-of-age story of a 13-year-old ...
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Reviews
Son of a Lion
Dir: Benjamin Gilmour. Australia/Pakistan. 2007. 92mins.Childrens' exposure to gun culture is fast becoming one of the fail-safe themes of world cinema, but we haven't yet seen it in quite the context presented by the inventive Pakistan-set drama Son Of A Lion.Benjamin Gilmour's no-frills DV feature, co-written with collaborators from the ...
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News
T-Joy acquires Japanese rights to Bodrov's Mongol
Japan's T-Joy has pounced on Oscar-nominated epic drama Mongol, acquiring all Japanese rights through its recently-established Laterna label. Beta Cinema is selling the Sergei Bodrov-directed film, which is one of the final nominees for this year's best foreign-language film Oscar and features Japanese star Asano Tadanobu in the lead role ...
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News
Content closes slew of Splinter deals, including Icon for US/Australia
ContentFilm International has closed a slew of deals on Toby Wilkins' Splinter here at EFM.The film has gone to UK & Australia/New Zealand (Icon), Italy (DNC), The Middle East (Gulf Film), Mexico (Gussi), Czech and Slovak Republics (AQS), Poland (Best Film), The West Indies (Caribbean Film Services), Singapore (Cathay), Venezuela ...
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News
Johar's Dharma Productions unveils expansion plans
Hot Indian filmmaker Karan Johar has announced expansion plans for his production outfit, Dharma Productions. After producing five films over the past decade, Johar plans to release three films a year from 2009, focusing on contemporary stories, debut directors, CG animation and new talent both in front of and behind ...
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News
Palador Pictures acquires Indian rights to Shine A Light
Mumbai-based Palador Pictures has acquired Indian rights to Berlin opening film Shine A Light from Fortissimo Films. Although the Indian market has traditionally been dominated by local product, Indian buyers are becoming more active as local multiplexes and audiences open up to foreign films.In addition, three Indian companies - Palador, ...
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News
Minghella to head Shanghai film festival jury
Anthony Minghella will serve as president of the international jury at this year's Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF), which takes place June 14-22. This year's festival will also feature the second edition of contents market SIFF Mart and projects market China Film Pitch & Catch (CFPC). The latter two-day event ...
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News
Japan's Iseki Satoru to produce Korean epic Sharaku
Japanese producer Iseki Satoru (Battle Of Wits) has boarded epic mystery fantasy Sharaku (working title), which Park Tae-choon is directing for Korea's Studio2.0. Studio 2.0 is co-financing and handling international sales on the $8m Korean-Japanese co-production, which will be shot in Japan with a mostly Japanese cast and crew. Behind-the-scenes ...
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News
TWC's Shanghai and other foreign shoots face China crisis
The Chinese authorities have refused to grant shooting permission to Mikael Hafstrom's period drama Shanghai, set to star John Cusack and Gong Li, forcing the producers to scramble to find another Asian location.The Weinstein Company is backing the production, which has been in pre-production in China since last September and ...
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News
Devillers to bring western film-makers to China for genre slate
Natacha Devillers' Les Petites Lumieres is launching a project to bring Western filmmakers to China to make genre movies. Devillers is developing a slate of low-budget genre films - entitled China Syndromes - in partnership with Taiwanese producer Wendy Kuan and UK filmmaker Simon Rumley. Among the directors who are ...
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News
Eros takes international rights to Ram Gopal Varma's Sarkar Raaj
Indian powerhouse Eros International has acquired international rights to Ram Gopal Varma's upcoming Sarkar Raaj. Starring the hot family trio of Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, the film is a sequel to Varma's award-winning Sarkar, which delves into the links between politicians and the underworld in modern-day Mumbai. ...
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News
iDream looks into The Voyeurs by Dasgupta
London and Mumbai-based iDream Independent Pictures has picked up worldwide rights, excluding India, to The Voyeurs directed by veteran Bengali filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta.The film follows a young man who falls in love with the girl next door, and looks at whether our obsession with surveillance has really made the world ...
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News
The Weinstein Company, Showbox hot for Chocolate
Thai actioner Chocolate - which opened at the top of the Thai box office this week - has been gobbled up by several international distributors including The Weinstein Company which has taken North American rights. Produced and sold by Sahamongkolfilm International, the picture has also been sold to Showbox Media ...
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News
CJ Entertainment to sell The Good, The Bad And The Weird
Korea's CJ Entertainment has confirmed that it has picked up worldwide rights, excluding Japan, to Kim Jee-woon's The Good, The Bad And The Weird, while producer Barunson is handling Japanese rights. The film was previously sold internationally by Cineclick Asia whose founder Suh Youngjoo recently quit to found international sales ...