All articles by Mark Schilling – Page 11
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News
Japan's Toei launches Laterna animation affiliate
Toei Animation, Asia's largest animation house, has launched a wholly-owned subsidiary to produce animation for families and young adults, over a range of media platforms. Called Laterna, the new subsidiary is capitalised at $420,000 (Y50m) and is headed by Tsutomu Tomari, Toei Animation president. Instead of developing projects exclusively with ...
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Reviews
Dark Water
Dir: Hideo Nakata. 2002. Jap. 91mins.The latest film by Japanese horror master Hideo Nakata, who directed two of the celebrated Ring series, relies on classic genre staples to run its narrative motor, including a creepy old building where bad things happened, a little girl in jeopardy and parents badly in ...
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Reviews
Chicken Heart
Dir: Hiroshi Shimizu. Japan. 2002. 105 mins.Hiroshi Shimizu is a Takashi Kitano protege, having worked as an assistant director on several of his films, including Hana-Bi, Kikujiro and Brother. At the same time he has also received backing for his first two features from Kitano's production company, Office Kitano. Shimizu's ...
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Reviews
Women In The Mirror (Kagami No Onnatachi)
Dir: Kijyu Yoshida. Japan. 2002. 129mins.Kijyu Yoshida's first feature in 14 years, Women In The Mirror, is a throwback to the humanistic films with a political slant that once flowed from Japan's 1960s Nouvelle Vague, of which he was a key member. It is also a reminder of why such ...
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News
Avex enters adult animation market
Leading Japanese music company Avex, is launching into the animation business with a major new project that it expects will generate international sales of $806m (Y100bn) by 2003.The company is setting up a new subsidiary, Avex Mode to work with best selling author Yoshimi Ishikawa on the project, Son Goku ...
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Japan's Toei names new president, posts fiscal 2001 results
Toei, one of the Japan's major film studios, is expected to name current president Tan Takaiwa as its new chairman. Managing director Tsuyoshi Okada, son of outgoing chairman, Shigeru Okada, will take over as president.Tsuyoshi Okada's appointment will see him hit the ground running to regain financial stability for the ...
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Hollywood SFX pioneer launches Japanese digital film studio
Richard Edlund, a special effects master who is president and CEO of Boss Film Studios, has launched a start-up for the production of digital films in Yokohama, Japan. The winner of four Academy Awards for his work on Stars Wars, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back and ...
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News
Spider-Man takes Japanese box office opening record
In what is regarded as its most important international territory, Spider-Man smashed yet another opening record at the weekend when it was released in Japan on Saturday (May 11).With a massive estimated weekend gross of $9.6m (¥1.23bn) and 820,000 admissions from 412 screens, the blockbuster recorded the best figures ever ...
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Japan's Kadokawa Shoten, Toshiba team to provide digital content
Kadokawa Shoten Publishing, whose media empire includes film producer and distributor Asmik Ace, has linked with electronics maker Toshiba to provide film and other contents for digital broadcasts. As part of the tie-up, Toshiba bought a 1% stake (270,000 shares) in Kadokawa in March, with the intention of increasing ...
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Reviews
A Snake Of June (Rokugatsu No Hebi)
Dir: Shinya Tsukamoto. Japan. 2002. 80 mins.Having burst onto the international indie scene in 1989 with Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Shinya Tsukamoto has always been a one-main show, writing, filming, editing and acting his private visions of a nightmare world in which humans have fused to machines, all set to ...
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Reviews
KT
Dir: Junji Sakamoto. Jap. 2001. 138mins.A thriller about the true-life 1973 kidnapping of Kim Dae-jung, the current South Korean president, from a Tokyo hotel, KT tries for a no-frills approach that presents its knotty Cold War story in realistic shades of grey, as if John Le Carre was transposed to ...
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News
Japan's theme parks ride recession rollercoaster
Japan's Disney and Universal Studios theme parks have enjoyed banner years despite a long recession which has plunged several local sites into receivership.Visitors to Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea totalled 22.05 million, for a year-on gain of 27%, according to recently released figures. Although the newly opened DisneySea park accounted for ...
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News
Tecmo's Dead Or Alive to be made by Mindfire
Game publisher Tecmo has signed a license deal with US production company Mindfire Entertainment to make a live-action film based on its hit Dead Or Alive fighting game series. Shooting will begin by the end of this year, with release set for 2003.Tecmo and Mindfire are now in the midst ...
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News
20th Century Fox to roll with $100m Dragonball
Twentieth Century Fox is to make a $100m live-action feature based on the Japanese cult comic Dragonball, the inspiration behind 17 animated films as well as a highly successful TV series.Fox has engaged the comic's creator, Akira Toriyama as creative consultant, and has concluded a rights deal with Shueisha, the ...
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News
Rings grosses $6.8m from 2-day Japanese debut
Lord Of The Rings grossed a powerful $6.8m (Y900m) over its opening two-day weekend in Japan, recording 620,000 admissions from 600 screens. While impressive in itself, the film's debut weekend was nowhere near the level of business that Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone generated, which grossed a record $12.8m ...
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News
Disney gets Spirited Away for North America
Walt Disney Co. has acquired North American rights to Hayao Miyazaki's smash animated hit Spirited Away, which has broken all box office records in Japan. Disney also bought rights to the film for Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and France in previously concluded deals. Meanwhile, sales agent Wild Bunch is handling ...
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News
Japan's Toei to focus on DVD business
Toei, Japan's leading video rental distributor, is to follow the example set by Blockbuster last year (Screendaily Sept 12, 2001) and shift its focus to DVDs.The company plans to release 30 classic film titles on DVD and place them, along with its existing DVD library in 4,000 rental outlets by ...
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Independent cinema to double size in Tokyo
Tokyo Theatres Co., a leading independent exhibitor specialising in Japanese and European arthouse films, has announced plans to double the number of theatres it operates in Tokyo from eight to sixteen, over the next five years. During Japan's long recession and consequent deflation, urban land prices have plunged, bringing residents ...
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News
ApolloMedia lines up Hyams, Duguay projects
German private film fund ApolloMedia is lining up another three features in the Euros 25m-Euros 70m bracket with producer Moshe Diamant, which will see the fund reunited with directors Peter Hyams and Christian Duguay after working on D'Artagnan (The Musketeer) and The Extremists, respectively.According to the fund's production coordinator Jan ...