All Asia articles – Page 508

  • Reviews

    CJ7

    2008-02-04T12:00:00Z

    Dir: Stephen Chow. Hong Kong . 2008. 86 mins.Some might have had serious misgivings about Stephen Chow's plans to blend his trademark slapstick comedy with an ET-style story about a poor child and an alien, but they need not worry. The resulting souffle CJ7 is ...

  • News

    Hoshino appointed president of Japan's Studio Ghibli

    2008-02-04T11:57:00Z

    Japan 's Studio Ghibli has announced that Koji Hoshino has taken over as company president from Toshio Suzuki as of February 1. Suzuki, who had served as producer of all Ghibli productions since 1989, became president in 2005 after the studio became independent from parent company Tokuma Publishing.Suzuki stepped down ...

  • News

    Protege, Warlords lead race for Hong Kong Film Awards

    2008-02-04T11:47:00Z

    Derek Yee's Protege, produced by Peter Ho-sun Chan, and The Warlords, directed and produced by Chan, dominated the nominations for this year's Hong Kong Film Awards. Drug-trafficking thriller Protege picked up 15 nods, including best film and director, while The Warlords scored 13, including best film, director and two nods ...

  • News

    Korea's Showbox sells M, Happiness to Japan

    2008-02-03T20:30:00Z

    South Korean distributor Showbox Mediaplex has announced the sales of director Hur Jin-ho's Happiness and Lee Myung-se's M to Avex for Japan. The announcement comes on the heels of the Korean Film Council (KOFIC)'s latest report on exports dropping by 50% last year, with flat fee and high minimum guarantee ...

  • News

    Noise dominates Australian critics awards

    2008-02-03T11:32:00Z

    Noise , a drama about a police officer with a debilitating case of tinnitus, dominated the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards (FCCA).It earned best film for producer Trevor Blainey, best director for Matthew Saville, best actor for Brendan Cowell, best editor for Geoff Hitchins, and best music score for ...

  • News

    Noise dominates Australian critics awards

    2008-02-03T11:32:00Z

    Noise , a drama about a police officer with a debilitating case of tinnitus, dominated the Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards (FCCA).It earned best film for producer Trevor Blainey, best director for Matthew Saville, best actor for Brendan Cowell, best editor for Geoff Hitchins, and best music score for ...

  • News

    India's UTV changes name to avoid AIM listing confusion

    2008-02-01T16:51:00Z

    India's UTV Motion Pictures, which floated on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) last year, has changed its name to UMP Plc to avoid confusion with another AIM-listed company, UTV Media Plc (formerly Ulster Television Plc). The company will be trading under the new name from Feb 4. Its wholly-owned subsidiary ...

  • News

    Warner Bros taps Oz tax break for next Harry Potter

    2008-02-01T13:52:00Z

    Warner Bros is set to be the first company to trigger the 15% post-production, digital and visual effects (PDV) offset introduced by the Australian government in May last year. The studio has signed with local effects house Rising Sun Pictures for some of the visual effects on Harry Potter And ...

  • News

    Strand Releasing takes US rights to Lee's Help Me Eros

    2008-02-01T12:08:00Z

    Fortissimo Films has announced a slew of sales coming out of the Rotterdam Film Festival and in the run up to next week's European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin. The company has sold all US rights to Lee Kang-sheng's Venice competition entry, Help Me Eros, to Strand Releasing. The Culver ...

  • News

    Imports gain upper hand at flat Japanese box office

    2008-02-01T10:49:00Z

    According to annual data published today by The Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (Eiren), overall box office revenues for 2007 totalled $1.87bn (Y198.44bn), a 2.2% decrease from 2006's $1.91bn (Y202.93bn). The figure represents earnings on 163.19 million admissions, only a 0.8% drop on the previous year's 164.56m cinemagoers. The ...

  • News

    New Zealand box office up in 2007 but no records fall

    2008-01-31T18:06:00Z

    The $118.93m (NZ$151.74m) worth of tickets sold at New Zealand cinemas in 2007 exceeded the previous year by 3.6%, but fell short of 2003, the country's stand-out year in terms of gross box office. 'All the blockbusters did well in the middle of the year, yes, but business petered out ...

  • News

    Jeonju unveils African trio for digital shorts project

    2008-01-31T17:23:00Z

    South Korea's Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) has announced three African directors - Idrissa Ouedraogo, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun and Nacer Khemir - for its Jeonju Digital Project 2008, the festival's trademark shorts troika showcase. The festival provides each director with $53,000 to make a 30-minute short to be put in the ...

  • News

    CineMart prizes go to new projects from Sophie Fiennes, Liew Seng Tat

    2008-01-30T22:00:00Z

    At tonight's CineMart 2008 closing night party in Rotterdam, the Arte France Cinema Award for best project this year's co-production market went to The Pervert's Guide To Ideology, to be directed by UK film-maker Sophie Fiennes.The honour also comes with $14,856 (Euros 10,000) in cash. The film will continue Fiennes' ...

  • News

    Canning, Sherman launch Aus/UK production outfit See-Saw

    2008-01-30T21:00:00Z

    UK-based acquisitions executive Iain Canning and Australian producer Emile Sherman have launched Australia/UK-based production outfit See-Saw Films. One of the first credits for the new company will be as producer of an English-language remake of writer/director Guillem Morale's 2004 Spanish mystery thriller The Uninvited Guests (El Habitante Incierto).Canning and Sherman ...

  • News

    Paramount Australia pacts with start-up Transmission

    2008-01-30T21:00:00Z

    Dendy Films' executives Andrew Mackie and Richard Payten are leaving the company to establish a new Australian/New Zealand distributor, Transmission, that will conduct most of its business through a joint venture with Paramount's local theatrical and home entertainment divisions. The deal was negotiated with Paramount in the US and is ...

  • News

    Korean admissions up by 3.5% according to KOFIC

    2008-01-30T15:50:00Z

    Korean admissions increased by 3.5% to 158.8 million in 2007, according toa year-end report by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), contradicting earlier figures released by exhibitor CJ CGV which estimated a 5.5% dip in admissions. However, KOFIC agreed with CJ CGV that the market share of local films was down ...

  • Reviews

    Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)

    2008-01-30T15:40:00Z

    Dir: Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath, US, 2008, 87mins.Even by the standards of independent documentaries, Ellen Kuras's Nerakhoon is the ne plus ultra of ultra-marathons. For her directorial debut, the cinematographer spent 23 years with the family of her co-director, Thavisook Phrasavath (Tavi), as Laotions settled in New York ...

  • News

    Edgerton debut to feature in AFC's IndiVision Lab

    2008-01-30T12:17:00Z

    The Australian Film Commission (AFC) has unveiled the eight low-budget projects that will take part its IndiVision Project Lab, one of which will be the directorial debut of Kinky Boots star Joel Edgerton. Edgerton's film The Professor is a thriller about a top forensic scientist investigating a family murder-suicide, who ...

  • News

    Japan's Sun Music unveils details of debut film production

    2008-01-30T11:40:00Z

    Japanese talent management company Sun Music has announced details of its first feature film production, a drama entitled Yesterdays. The main character will be played by 25-year-old Takashi Tsukamoto in his first leading role. The story follows Tsukamoto's mission to find his estranged dying father's ex-lover, when he slips back ...

  • News

    Bumper Asian crop set for release over Chinese New Year

    2008-01-29T15:53:00Z

    Two Chinese-language films, Stephen Chow's CJ7 and Kung Fu Dunk starring Jay Chou, are poised to kick off the first major box office battle of the year with massive pan-Asian releases over the upcoming Chinese New Year. This year, the first day of the lunar New Year holidays falls on ...