All articles by Mark Schilling – Page 16
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News
Universal to enter Japan's CS market
Universal Studios is tying up with Japanese companies including Hitachi and the Asahi media group to enter the communications satellite (CS) broadcasting business in Japan. The partners will launch a joint venture company in April to provide broadcasting services starting from autumn 2001. They plan to use the Universal film ...
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Digital alliance to compete with Sky PerfecTV
Japan's largest trading house Mitsubishi Corp has joined forces with four corporate allies to enter the communications satellite (CS) broadcasting market, currently dominated by the Sky PerfecTV platform. According to a basic agreement signed on September 28, Mitsubishi, Nippon Television Network, Japan Satellite Broadcasting, NTT DoCoMo and NTT Communications have ...
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Sky Perfect to raise $1bn in IPO
Japan's Sky Perfect Communications, which operates the Sky PerfecTV communications satellite platform, expects to raise more than $1.019bn (Y110bn) via its initial public offering (IPO) scheduled for October 20.Sky Perfect intends to list its shares on the MOTHERS market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. If it reaches its target figure, ...
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Fuji Bank launches film funding drive
Fuji Bank, one of Japan's largest city banks, is plunging into film financing in a drive to invest in the production of entertainment software, including films, animation and music. By the end of 2000, Fuji plans to expand its entertainment investments, reaching a year-on total of $9.5m. The bank is ...
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Reviews
Whiteout
Dir: Setsurou Wakamatsu. Japan. 129 mins.Prod cos: Destiny, INB Production. Backers: Nippon Herald, Fuji TV, Toho, NTV, Dentsu, INB, Destiny. Dist: Toho, Nippon Herald, tel (813) 3213-6821. Prod: Shohei Kotani. Scr: Yuichi Shimpo. DoP: Hideo Yamamoto. Prod Des: Fumio Ogawa. SFX: Hajime Matsumoto. Music: Osamu Onodera. Main cast: Yuji Oda, ...
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Warner Bros strikes TV deal with Tohokushinsha
Japan's Tohokushinsha, the country's largest distributor of foreign films to television, has signed a three-year free TV output deal with Warner Bros International Television. The deal includes Warner's theatrical releases for the period 1999-2001, as well as TV series, made-for-TV movies and selected classic film titles. A prime sales target ...
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Korea's Digital Nega backs Asian digital package
Seoul-based venture capital firm Digital Nega, a subsidiary of entertainment magazine publisher Nega, is financing a trio of digital features by prominent Asian directors Fruit Chan, Park Ki-Hyung and Hideo Nakata.Although the themes of the three films differ, all are being shot using Sony HD Cam 1080/24P digital cameras and ...
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Reviews
Hotaru
Dir: Naomi Kawase. Japan. 164mins.Prod co: Dentsu, Imagica, Suncent CinemaWorks, Tokyo Theatre. Int'l sales: Wild Bunch (Le Studio Canal Plus), tel: (33) 1 4443 9800. Prod: Takenori Sento. Scr: Kawase. DoP: Masami Inamoto. Lighting: Atsuko Suzuki. Prod des: Kyoko Heya. Mus: Kawase, Naoko Matsuoka. Main cast: Yuko Nakamura, Toshiya Nagasawa, ...
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Japan's Square to securitize Final Fantasy assets
Japanese games software company Square has announced a scheme to securitize cost overruns on the feature version of its Final Fantasy computer game which it is producing with Columbia Pictures. Though other securitization schemes have been devised for film production, Square's will be the first to offer shares to ordinary ...
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News
Liberty buys stake in Sony's Game Show Network
Liberty Digital, a subsidiary of the US' Liberty Media Corp, is acquiring a 50% stake in Sony Pictures Entertainment's (SPE) Game Show Network (GSN) for $275m. The two partners said they are joining forces to create what they describe as "the first game-based interactive TV network." The deal is expected ...
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Toei plugs New Year hole with Battle Royal
Japanese studio Toei has lined up Battle Royal, the latest film by veteran action director Kinji Fukasaku, for release in the New Year, after it realised that its big movie for the key New Year's season, Firefly (Hotaru), would not be ready in time.Starring Beat Takeshi, better known abroad as ...
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Taxi 2 Drives Admissions In Japan
Even though its villains are Japanese, Taxi 2 is burning rubber at the Japanese box office. Opening on August 12, it recorded 110,000 admissions on 165 screens its first weekend, for a gross of $1,587,156 (Y173m), enough for third place in the rankings after MI:2 and The Perfect Storm.To rev ...
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Reviews
Scout Man
Dir: Masato Ishioka. Japan. 2000. 125 mins.Prod co: Gold View. Int'l sales: Gold View (+81 3 5342 726). Prod: Kiyo Jo. Scr: Masato Ishioka. DoP: Atsuhiro Nabeshima. Ed: Toshihide Fukano. Music: Koji Endo. Sound: Hiroshi Yamagata. Main cast: Miku Matsumoto, Hideo Nakizumi, Yuka Fujimoto, Akihito Yoshie. Scout Man is Japanese ...
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Reviews
Wheels (Tockovi)
Dir: Djordje Milosavljivic. 2000. Serbia. 93 mins.Pro co: Cinema Design. Int'l sales: Cinema Design, tel +381 11 488 23 77. Prod: Ljubisa Samardtzic. Scr: Milosavljivic. DoP: Dusan Ivanovic. Prod des: Vladislav Lasic. Ed: Branka Ceperac. Music: Lajko Felix. Main cast: Dragan Micnovic, Nikula Kojo, Anica Dobra. If further proof is ...
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News
Shochiku unveils Korean co-production
Japanese major Shochiku and Korea's Cinema Service are teaming up to produce $1.8m (Y200m) drama Pure Love Melody (Sunebo), billed as one of the most equal co-productions between the two countries since Korea lifted its 35-year-old cultural embargo against Japan. At a Tokyo press conference yesterday, representatives from the ...
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News
Sony launches joint venture with Panavision
Sony Corp has taken an 8% stake in film equipment manufacturer Panavision, worth $10m, and plans to establish a joint venture with the company to develop and market high-definition digital video cameras to the Hollywood studios and other film production companies. Headquartered in a Los Angeles suburb, Panavision recorded sales ...
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Wowow subscriber levels reach six-month high
Japan's Wowow recorded 2,550,874 subscribers at the end of June, the first time the satellite broadcaster has passed the 2.5 million mark in six months. Wowow officials attributed the boost to its Digital Passport promotional campaign which features free sign-ups, fee discounts and live broadcasts of European soccer. However nearly ...
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Sega to install video-on-demand in game centres
Sega Enterprises plans to equip its Net@ chain of game arcades in Tokyo with video-on-demand (VoD) systems developed by NEC and linked via fibre-optic cable.Each Net@ game centre will be supplied with a server able to store up to 120 hours of films and other video software. Sega claims that ...
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Jiang defies ban with Korean project
Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen, who was recently banned from making films for seven years by the Chinese authorities, has set his next project with a Korean company, Ahn's World Production. Despite the ban he intends to shoot the film in China with an all-Chinese cast.Based on the best-selling novel The ...
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Toei invents digital colour technique for cartoons
Toei Animation, Hitachi and Toei Chemical Industry have jointly developed a technique for digitally colouring black-and-white animated films - a first for the Japanese film industry. Toei Animation researchers have successfully used the technique to colour part of an episode of Wolf Boy Ken, a 1963 Toei cartoon series.After cleaning ...