All articles by Mark Schilling – Page 18
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News
Kadokawa boards Japanese movie channel
Kadokawa Publishing, a Japanese publisher with interests in film production, is boarding Japanese Movie Satellite Broadcasting (Nihon Eiga Eisei Hoso), a start-up movie channel operated by News Corp, Sony, Fuji TV, Softbank and Toho.Although Kadokawa has supplied content to satellite television, the move marks the company's first venture into satellite ...
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News
Japan's MPT asks government to carry digital costs
Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) has proposed that the Japanese government should shoulder the cost of the country's transition to digital terrestrial broadcasting, which is scheduled to begin in 2003. Representatives from the MPT, public broadcaster NHK and the commercial networks presented estimates of the cost to a ...
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News
Microsoft to buy controlling stake in Titus
Microsoft Corp is buying a 60% stake in Japan's second largest cable operator Titus Communications from US cable company MediaOne Group which is merging with telco AT&T.Microsoft claimed the deal would speed up the roll-out of broadband networks in Japan. Titus already offers cable telephony and high-speed Internet access to ...
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News
Info Avenue launches film investment web-site
Info Avenue, an e-commerce design and consulting company whose shareholders include the Itochu trading house and Sun Microsystems, has launched a web-site for raising film finance from film fans. Called cinem@net.com, the site recruits individuals for site-sponsored "support groups" based around specific projects. The "supporters" purchase membership in return for ...
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News
Kadokawa plunders comics for first kids' feature
Japanese media giant Kadokawa Shoten Publishing is making its first foray into children's features with Fushigi No Tatari-chan (Mysterious Little Tatari), based on a popular Kadokawa comic by Nanako Inuki.Kadokawa plans to release the film, which stars child actress Natxumi Ohira, during this summer's school holiday season. It will be ...
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News
Japan to revise broadcasting legislation
Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) plans to overhaul broadcasting and telecommunications legislation in a bid to break down regulatory barriers between the country's broadcasting and telecoms sectors.The MPT plans to make sweeping changes to Japan's Broadcasting Law, Telecommunications Law and NTT Law in a move to encourage convergence. ...
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News
Pia to float to fund digital expansion
Pia, a privately owned company that operates Japan's largest ticket agency, is planning an IPO by summer 2001 to finance development of a next-generation ticketing service that will relay customer orders via a digital network.Pia, which also publishes Japan's most widely-read weekly entertainment magazine and sponsors its largest and most ...
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Reviews
Monday
Dir: Sabu. Japan. 100 mins.Prod cos: CineQuaNon, Cinerocket, Media Factory. Int'l sales: Fortissimo Film Sales (+31 20 627 3215). Prods: Nobuaki Muro'oka, Yoshimi Ishihara, Reiko Arakawa, Takahito Kashino. Scr: Sabu. DoP: Kazuhito Sato. Music: Kei'ichiro Shibuya. Cast: Shin'ichi Tsutsumi, Yasuko Matsuyuki, Ren Osugi, Masanobu Ando.The first three films of Japanese ...
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News
Sony restructures to speed up Internet plans
Japan's Sony Corp is setting up a US-based holding company, Sony Broadband Entertainment (SBE), to house its movie and music businesses, as part of a plan to speed up exploitation of its entertainment assets on the Internet.Headed by current Sony Corporation of America president Howard Stringer, SBE's core companies will ...
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News
Pay-Per-View Japan gets greenlight from MPT
Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) has approved an application from PPV operator Pay-Per-View Japan to launch two channels specialising in foreign movies and sports.In its latest licensing round, the MPT greenlit 15 companies planning to launch 18 satellite channels in the Japanese market. The regulatory body started to ...
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News
DVD player sales soar in Japan
Sales of DVD players soared to Y660m ($6.2m) in February 2000, a 55% increase on the same month last year, according to the Japan Electronic Retailers Association.March is also turning out to be a banner month, with retail industry giant Kojima reporting that DVD player sales have doubled in March ...
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News
Toho joins Japanese satellite film channel venture
Japanese studio Toho is boarding Nihon Eiga Satellite Broadcasting (NESB), a joint venture launched in February by News Corp, Sony, Fuji TV and Softbank, to broadcast two satellite channels specialising in Japanese films and TV programming (Screendaily February 15). Toho will take a 20% share in NESB along with the ...
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Reviews
Jubaku (Spellbound)
Dir: Masato Harada. Jap. 1999. 115 mins.Prod cos: Kadokawa Shoten, Sankei Shimbun, Toei. Int'l sales: Toei (+81 3 3535 7621). Exec prods: Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, Tan Takaiwa, Shigeaki Hazama, Jun Sakagami. Prod: Masato Hara. Scr: Ryo Takasugi, Satoru Suzuki, Mugita Kinoshita. DoP: Yoshitaka Sakamoto. Prod des: Kyoko Heya. Ed: Akimasa Kawashima. ...
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News
Railroad Man sweeps Japan Academy Awards
Railroad Man, a comeback film for Japanese screen legend Ken Takakura which cleaned up at the Japanese box office last year, swept all major prizes at the 1999 Japan Academy Awards. In addition to selecting the film as best picture and veteran Yasuo Furuhata as best director, Academy voters named ...
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News
SKYPerfecTV issues shares to DirecTV shareholders
The merger of Japanese satellite platforms SKYPerfecTV and DirecTV is proceeding to plan as the directors of Japan Digital Broadcasting Services, which operates SKYPerfecTV, have agreed to issue Y12bn ($113.2m) in new shares to broadcast satellite station WOWOW and seven corporate shareholders of DirecTV Japan. With the exception of Matsushita ...
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News
Sony forms Internet venture with Toyota, Tokyu
Sony is teaming up with Toyota Motor Corp and Tokyo-based private railway Tokyu Corp in a joint venture to provide broadband Internet services via cable TV.The venture, called AII Kikaku, will start operations as a planning company in early April with each of the partners providing an equal one-third share ...
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News
Tsutaya changes meaning of video on demand
Japan's Culture Convenience Club, which operates the Tsutaya video rental chain, has launched a service that allows customers to order videos and other software in advance, using mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo's i-mode Internet access technology. The service enables customers to order videos from Tsutaya's web-site through i-mode mobile phones ...
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News
Toho kickstarts DVD outing for Japanese films
Japan's leading distributor-exhibitor Toho plans to start releasing Japanese films in the DVD format starting with Saimin (Hypnosis), a psycho thriller featuring pop idol Goro Inagaki, which is set for release in June.Toho has been releasing foreign films on DVD since last summer, but has not offered domestic titles in ...
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News
Hitachi takes on Iwanami library
The Digital Media Group of electronics giant Hitachi has acquired the film library of Iwanami Productions, one of Japan's oldest and largest makers of documentary and educational films, which filed for bankruptcy in 1999.Hitachi plans to preserve the films and market them under the name Iwanami Library. The library contains ...
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News
Japan's DirecTV swallowed up by larger rival
Hughes Electronics' Japanese pay-TV platform, DirecTV, is merging with SKY PerfecTV in a move that marks DirecTV's effective withdrawal from the Japanese market after an unsuccessful three-year struggle to catch up with its larger rival.The deal was negotiated by DirecTV majority shareholder Hughes and the leading shareholder group of SKY ...