The Japan Academy Film Prize Association held the 47th edition of its awards ceremony on March 8, 2024. The nominees are selected by the Nippon Academy-Sho Association of industry professionals from the pool of film releases between January 1 and December 31, 2023 which must have screened in Tokyo cinemas.
Following its success at the recent Blue Ribbon Awards and leading with 12 nominations, Toho Studios' and Takashi Yamazaki's kaiju cinema masterpiece “Godzilla Minus One” takes top honours winning Picture of the Year and a slew of technical awards. Sakura Ando cements her place as one of Japan's top actresses securing both awards for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (for “Monster”) as well as Supporting Role (for “Godzilla Minus One”).
The full list of winners is described below.
Picture of the Year
Monster
Godzilla Minus One
Mom, Is That You?!
September 1923
Perfect Days
Animation of the Year
Kitaro Tanjo – GeGeGe no...
Following its success at the recent Blue Ribbon Awards and leading with 12 nominations, Toho Studios' and Takashi Yamazaki's kaiju cinema masterpiece “Godzilla Minus One” takes top honours winning Picture of the Year and a slew of technical awards. Sakura Ando cements her place as one of Japan's top actresses securing both awards for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (for “Monster”) as well as Supporting Role (for “Godzilla Minus One”).
The full list of winners is described below.
Picture of the Year
Monster
Godzilla Minus One
Mom, Is That You?!
September 1923
Perfect Days
Animation of the Year
Kitaro Tanjo – GeGeGe no...
- 3/12/2024
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
Mubi’s retrospective Takeshi Kitano: Destroy All Yakuza—featuring Violent Cop, Boiling Point, and Outrage Coda—is now showing in the United States, Canada, and select countries.Kubi.The presidential suite of the Grand Hotel Yerevan sits at the end of an amber-lit, carpeted corridor. The door comes fitted with its own CCTV camera, the concierge proudly gloats as an elevator slingshots us several floors above the ground, “so guests can feel safer.” Not that the current occupant has much to worry about. Guarding the suite on this exceptionally hot July afternoon is a small platoon of suit-clad Japanese men, looking equally stern and jet-lagged. The lucky few who get to pad in and out of the room do so in reverential silence, and even those outside speak in hushed voices, lest he should be disturbed. "He" is somewhere in the suite right now, and his name is Takeshi Kitano.
- 1/11/2024
- MUBI
In the 1960s, director Kinji Fukasaku created what would be the ultimate yakuza-sage for years to come with his “Battles Without Honor and Humanity”-series. While the various features of the series can be regarded as great entertainment on the one hand, they gain much more value when considered as a reflection on human greed, power and manipulation. Over the course of his career, director Takeshi Kitano has made quite a number of features, such as “Sonatine” or “Brother”, which would blend these themes with a certain poetic or philosophical approach, depending on your point of view. However, with the “Outrage”-series, he attempted to create his own version of Fukasaku's epic, albeit with a much more cynical undertone.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The second entry into the “Outrage”-series, “Beyond Outrage”, takes place five years after the incidents of “Outrage”, with the...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The second entry into the “Outrage”-series, “Beyond Outrage”, takes place five years after the incidents of “Outrage”, with the...
- 1/5/2024
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
A project that’s reportedly been in gestation for 30 years, so long that Akira Kurosawa once expressed huge hopes for its success before he died, Kubi is a labor of love.
Billed in its press materials as “the latest film by Takeshi Kitano” but hopefully not the veteran director’s last, it marks Kitano’s return to the samurai genre for the first time since 2003’s Zatoichi (a.k.a. The Blind Swordsman). The latter did modestly solid business in its day for an international film, and it will be interesting to see if Kitano, practically a national treasure in Japan, still has the same pull across Asian territories as he used to, let alone across the Pacific and beyond.
But regardless of any box-office performance, this challenging, extremely violent, ravishing-looking, intricately plotted adaptation by Kitano of his novel is of interest for its fresh take on a musty genre.
Billed in its press materials as “the latest film by Takeshi Kitano” but hopefully not the veteran director’s last, it marks Kitano’s return to the samurai genre for the first time since 2003’s Zatoichi (a.k.a. The Blind Swordsman). The latter did modestly solid business in its day for an international film, and it will be interesting to see if Kitano, practically a national treasure in Japan, still has the same pull across Asian territories as he used to, let alone across the Pacific and beyond.
But regardless of any box-office performance, this challenging, extremely violent, ravishing-looking, intricately plotted adaptation by Kitano of his novel is of interest for its fresh take on a musty genre.
- 5/25/2023
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In the early ’90s, Japan’s Takeshi “Beat” Kitano was on a roll, with a superb string of nuanced crime movies that stood in stark contrast to the good-vs.-evil bullet operas that were coming out of Hong Kong at the time. Kitano’s darkly funny cynicism (who else could have made Violent Cop?) made him stand out by miles, but it soon became his weakness, as became evident in the lean period after the success of Zatoichi in 2013. The experimental, semi-autobiographical trilogy that followed — Takeshis’, Glory to the Filmmaker and Achilles and the Tortoise — seemed to offer little more than self-sabotage, the work of a frustrated artist trying to take a blowtorch to his populist image without much thought for the future.
The collateral damage was his international reputation, which took a hit to the extent that his next trilogy, the Outrage series, generally was received as the half-hearted work of a bored auteur.
The collateral damage was his international reputation, which took a hit to the extent that his next trilogy, the Outrage series, generally was received as the half-hearted work of a bored auteur.
- 5/24/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Kadokawa has revealed the first look teaser for a movie called Kubi, a historical epic from iconic Japanese actor Beat Takeshi. This will be premiering at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival later this month in the Cannes Premiere section. This film was conceived by director Takeshi Kitano around the same time as Sonatine, one of his early masterpieces, and has been in the works for 30 years. It depicts the "Honnoji Incident" along with the ambitions, betrayals, and fates of various characters, including warlords, ninja, comedians, and peasants. The ambitious new film has assembled a splendid and unique cast! Takeshi plays Hideyoshi Hashiba, who plots the "Honnoji Incident," and Hidetoshi Nishijima plays Mitsuhide Akechi. Ryo Kase gives a dubious performance as the mad genius Nobunaga Oda, while Tadanobu Asano and Nao Omori play the military strategist Kanpei Kuroda, who supports Hideyoshi, and his brother Hidenaga Hashiba with a great sense of humor.
- 5/3/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
While many genres work on certain formulas and conventions, which can make some of them predictable and tedious in the wrong hands, perhaps no other genre is quite as elusive as comedy. Often said to be one of the hardest crafts to master, finding the right kind of irony or punchline can be quite tricky, many times resulting in features not clicking with audiences, but being appreciated more and more by later audiences. As many cultures have their own unique brand of comedy, Japan’s concept of the genre is perhaps one of the most hermetic, as it often refers to ideas, topics or themes which are exclusive to the country’s (pop) culture. In the early 2000s, a number of unique comedic features were released, with “Funky Forest: The First Contact”, a collaborative effort of directors Katsuhito Ishii, Hajime Ishimine and Shunichiro Miki being among the most interesting entries,...
- 11/23/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
It is always a joyful event whenever a new film by director Shûichi Okita is released; you can count on it, you know you will get a gift of beauty and laugh. His latest work, “Mori, the Artist’s Habitat” is no exception. Based on a day in the real life of the eccentric artist Kumagai Morikazu, the film is a loving portrait of a content man.
“Mori, The Artist’s Habitat“ is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
It’s a summer day of 1974 and 94-year old artist Morikazu Kumagai (Tsutomu Yamazaki) lives with his wife Hideko (Kirin Kiki) and jolly housemaid Mie-chan (Nobuke Iketani) in an old-fashion house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, surrounded by a lush and rather overgrown garden. He is well known for his reclusive life – not having left the house for decades – and for his routine explorations of nature in the yard. Every day after breakfast,...
“Mori, The Artist’s Habitat“ is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
It’s a summer day of 1974 and 94-year old artist Morikazu Kumagai (Tsutomu Yamazaki) lives with his wife Hideko (Kirin Kiki) and jolly housemaid Mie-chan (Nobuke Iketani) in an old-fashion house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, surrounded by a lush and rather overgrown garden. He is well known for his reclusive life – not having left the house for decades – and for his routine explorations of nature in the yard. Every day after breakfast,...
- 11/22/2022
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Click here to read the full article.
The Busan International Film Festival has unveiled its 10-film selection for New Currents, the event’s main competition section that focuses on Asian cinema. Since the festival launched in 1996, the program has been one of the region’s most important platforms for introducing emerging directors.
This year, two Indian films have been selected for the section including Jaishankar Aryar’s debut film Shivamma (2022), which traces the struggles of a poor and uneducated middle-aged woman; and Aamir Bashir’s The Winter Within (2022), which also depicts the suffering of a woman set in the Kashmir region, where political disputes and terrorist attacks are ongoing.
No End (2022) by Iranian filmmaker Nader Saeivar will also premiere in Busan. The film depicts the story of a man who faces brutal violence as a result of a trivial lie. Singapore’s He Shuming, who has earned widespread recognition by...
The Busan International Film Festival has unveiled its 10-film selection for New Currents, the event’s main competition section that focuses on Asian cinema. Since the festival launched in 1996, the program has been one of the region’s most important platforms for introducing emerging directors.
This year, two Indian films have been selected for the section including Jaishankar Aryar’s debut film Shivamma (2022), which traces the struggles of a poor and uneducated middle-aged woman; and Aamir Bashir’s The Winter Within (2022), which also depicts the suffering of a woman set in the Kashmir region, where political disputes and terrorist attacks are ongoing.
No End (2022) by Iranian filmmaker Nader Saeivar will also premiere in Busan. The film depicts the story of a man who faces brutal violence as a result of a trivial lie. Singapore’s He Shuming, who has earned widespread recognition by...
- 9/5/2022
- by Soomee Park
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
French filmmaker Alain Guiraudie to also sit on New Currents jury.
The 27th Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has announced the line-up for its two Asian competition juries with Unifrance president Serge Toubiana set to preside over the New Currents jury.
New Currents is Biff’s main competition section, which introduces first or second feature films of emerging directors that the festival sees as potential future leaders in Asian cinema.
Toubiana will be joined on the jury the French director Alain Guiraudie, whose Stranger By The Lake won the Queer Palm and directing prize when it played in Un Certain...
The 27th Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has announced the line-up for its two Asian competition juries with Unifrance president Serge Toubiana set to preside over the New Currents jury.
New Currents is Biff’s main competition section, which introduces first or second feature films of emerging directors that the festival sees as potential future leaders in Asian cinema.
Toubiana will be joined on the jury the French director Alain Guiraudie, whose Stranger By The Lake won the Queer Palm and directing prize when it played in Un Certain...
- 8/24/2022
- by Jean Noh
- ScreenDaily
Indian Media World Shaken By Hostile Takeover Bid For Ndtv
Indian billionaire Guatam Adani looks set to acquire India’s premiere independent news broadcaster New Delhi Television (Ndtv) after his Adani Group exercised a right to buy a 29.18 stake under a loan agreement taken out by its founders more than a decade ago. The Adani Group has indicated that it plans to make an offer for a further 26 stake to give it a controlling 55 share in the company.
Ndtv was founded by the husband and wife team, economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy, in 1984. The company has put out a statement saying that Adani’s move to execute the right to buy clause had been undertaken without first consulting the co-founders, who hold a 32.26 stake.
Ndtv is regarded as one of the last homes of independent journalism in India and there are fears that a takeover by the Andani Group,...
Indian billionaire Guatam Adani looks set to acquire India’s premiere independent news broadcaster New Delhi Television (Ndtv) after his Adani Group exercised a right to buy a 29.18 stake under a loan agreement taken out by its founders more than a decade ago. The Adani Group has indicated that it plans to make an offer for a further 26 stake to give it a controlling 55 share in the company.
Ndtv was founded by the husband and wife team, economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy, in 1984. The company has put out a statement saying that Adani’s move to execute the right to buy clause had been undertaken without first consulting the co-founders, who hold a 32.26 stake.
Ndtv is regarded as one of the last homes of independent journalism in India and there are fears that a takeover by the Andani Group,...
- 8/24/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
To The Ends Of The Earth (Tabi no Owari Sekai no Hajimari) Tokyo Theatres Co./ Loaded Films Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa Cast: Atsuko Maeda, Tokio Emoto, Ryô Kase, Adiz Rajabov, Shôta Sometani Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 11/18/20 Opens: December 11, […]
The post To The Ends of the Earth Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post To The Ends of the Earth Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 12/6/2020
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
"It was like a dream." KimStim Films has released an official trailer for the US release of the Japanese indie film To the Ends of the Earth, one of the latest works by prolific Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa. This premiered at the fall festivals last year including Locarno, TIFF, and New York, and is opening in select theaters (starting at the Metrograph) this December. A Japanese woman finds her cautious and insular nature tested when she travels to Uzbekistan to shoot the latest episode of her travel variety TV show. It's described as "a brilliant mix of black comedy, travelogue, drama, and adventure-imbued showbiz satire, To the Ends of the Earth—commissioned to mark the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and the central Asian republic of Uzbekistan—chronicles the journey of a young woman from displacement to self-discovery." Starring Atsuko Maeda as Yoko, Shôta Sometani, Tokio Emoto, Adiz Rajabov,...
- 11/16/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
“To the Ends of the Earth,” the story of a young Japanese journalist’s experiences in Uzbekistan filming a report for a Japanese TV travel show, was originally commissioned to celebrate 25 years of cordial diplomatic relations between director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s hyper-developed island homeland and the less affluent, landlocked Central Asian nation. As such we might have expected a straightforwardly celebratory, mildly quirky travelogue, but Kurosawa’s discreetly offbeat approach makes it much more rewarding and, in its way, revealing than that: an insightful and ambivalent interrogation of the strange and often compromised experience that is cultural tourism in the mass media age.
A great deal of Kurosawa’s recent output has been disappointingly wan, blending thinly plotted sci-fi or melodrama with stock elements of the J-horror genre he quietly, creepily revolutionized in the late ’90s and early aughts in films like “Pulse” and “Cure.” But in the most surprising...
A great deal of Kurosawa’s recent output has been disappointingly wan, blending thinly plotted sci-fi or melodrama with stock elements of the J-horror genre he quietly, creepily revolutionized in the late ’90s and early aughts in films like “Pulse” and “Cure.” But in the most surprising...
- 10/15/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
“To the Ends of the Earth,” directed by Japan’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa has added a handful of international distribution deals. The Uzbekistan-set drama had festival premieres in recent weeks in Locarno and Toronto.
Rights were licensed by sales agent Free Stone Productions to mainland China’s Hugoeast, and by Av Jet for Taiwan. For Brazil, rights were acquired by Zeta Film. Trigon Films took the rights for Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein.
The license deals are in addition to the sale of French rights to Eurozoom that was announced in May. Eurozoom, which previously handled other Kurosawa titles including “Before We Vanish,” and “Creepy,” is set to release the film on Oct. 23.
Starring Atsuko Maeda, Ryo Kase, and Shota Sometani, the film is a rare example of a Japanese-Uzbekistan co-production. Production is by Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Jason Gray of Tokyo-based Loaded Films and Toshikazu Nishigaya of Tokyo Theatres. Uzbekistan’s...
Rights were licensed by sales agent Free Stone Productions to mainland China’s Hugoeast, and by Av Jet for Taiwan. For Brazil, rights were acquired by Zeta Film. Trigon Films took the rights for Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein.
The license deals are in addition to the sale of French rights to Eurozoom that was announced in May. Eurozoom, which previously handled other Kurosawa titles including “Before We Vanish,” and “Creepy,” is set to release the film on Oct. 23.
Starring Atsuko Maeda, Ryo Kase, and Shota Sometani, the film is a rare example of a Japanese-Uzbekistan co-production. Production is by Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Jason Gray of Tokyo-based Loaded Films and Toshikazu Nishigaya of Tokyo Theatres. Uzbekistan’s...
- 9/12/2019
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
TV reporter Yoko sits with a member of her crew in the breakfast room of Tashkent’s Uzbekistan Hotel. She’s miles away from her native Tokyo turf, on an assignment that shipped her all the way to the central Asian republic, ostensibly to film a “bramul,” a gigantic fish said to reach up to two meters in length. Except the fish is a most elusive creature, and the trip is turning into a disaster of epic proportions. The look on Yoko’s face has little to do with the failed quest though; her eyes are going grim, her face sending out less light. She tells the cameraman she fears her job is steering her away from what she truly wants to do: sing. The man consoles her (“singing and reporting to an audience aren’t much different”), but she won’t have it. “I feel different. Singing needs emotion,...
- 8/22/2019
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
It is always a joyful event whenever a new film by director Shûichi Okita is released; you can count on it, you know you will get a gift of beauty and laugh. His latest work, “Mori, the Artist’s Habitat” is no exception. Based on a day in the real life of the eccentric artist Kumagai Morikazu, the film is a loving portrait of a content man.
“Mori, The Artist’s Habitat” screened at Japan Cuts 2018
It’s a summer day of 1974 and 94-year old artist Morikazu Kumagai (Tsutomu Yamazaki) lives with his wife Hideko (Kirin Kiki) and jolly housemaid Mie-chan (Nobuke Iketani) in an old-fashion house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, surrounded by a lush and rather overgrown garden. He is well known for his reclusive life – not having left the house for decades – and for his routine explorations of nature in the yard. Every day after breakfast, he gets ready...
“Mori, The Artist’s Habitat” screened at Japan Cuts 2018
It’s a summer day of 1974 and 94-year old artist Morikazu Kumagai (Tsutomu Yamazaki) lives with his wife Hideko (Kirin Kiki) and jolly housemaid Mie-chan (Nobuke Iketani) in an old-fashion house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, surrounded by a lush and rather overgrown garden. He is well known for his reclusive life – not having left the house for decades – and for his routine explorations of nature in the yard. Every day after breakfast, he gets ready...
- 7/1/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
A death by suicide is one of the hardest things to process as it sums the excruciating pain of losing someone dear, to the guilt and regret of not having done enough to stop it. Someone may think a lie is a temporary patch. Some would express their feelings in a film. Director Katsumi Nojiri has scripted and directed “Lying to Mom”, a film sadly based on the experience of his own brother’s suicide and he has bravely injected it with a gentle humour.
“Lying to Mom” is screening at Nippon Connection
Shockingly, the film opens straight with the suicide of Koichi (Ryo Kase). After a last gaze from his window to the suburban Tokyo landscape, he hangs himself in his room. Even more disturbing is that his mother Yuko (Hideko Hara) is cheerfully cooking while watching a comedy show just a floor below. But Koichi was a hikikomori...
“Lying to Mom” is screening at Nippon Connection
Shockingly, the film opens straight with the suicide of Koichi (Ryo Kase). After a last gaze from his window to the suburban Tokyo landscape, he hangs himself in his room. Even more disturbing is that his mother Yuko (Hideko Hara) is cheerfully cooking while watching a comedy show just a floor below. But Koichi was a hikikomori...
- 5/30/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
French distributor Eurozoom has acquired local rights for “To The Ends Of The Earth,” the new film by Japanese directing icon Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Following a deal struck on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival, international sales duties were picked up by Japanese indie sales firm Free Stone Productions.
Starring Atsuko Maeda, Ryo Kase, and Shota Sometani, the film is a rare example of a Japanese-Uzbekistan co-production. Production is by Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Jason Gray of Tokyo-based Loaded Films and Toshikazu Nishigaya of Tokyo Theatres. Uzbekistan’s national cinema agency Uzbekkino serves as co-producer, with backing from the Ministry of Tourism, through the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development.
The story involves the host of a popular travel show who is in fact insular and shy on a trip to Central Asia, where her assignment calls for the filming of a mythical fish. As things go wrong,...
Starring Atsuko Maeda, Ryo Kase, and Shota Sometani, the film is a rare example of a Japanese-Uzbekistan co-production. Production is by Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Jason Gray of Tokyo-based Loaded Films and Toshikazu Nishigaya of Tokyo Theatres. Uzbekistan’s national cinema agency Uzbekkino serves as co-producer, with backing from the Ministry of Tourism, through the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development.
The story involves the host of a popular travel show who is in fact insular and shy on a trip to Central Asia, where her assignment calls for the filming of a mythical fish. As things go wrong,...
- 5/16/2019
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Johnny Depp is joined by Japanese actress Minami (Battle Royale) in this exclusive still from Minamata.
The drama – being directed by Andrew Levitas – sees Depp as acclaimed war photographer W. Eugene Smith. Levitas directs from a screenplay by David K. Kessler, who adapted the book by Smith and his wife, Aileen Mioko Smith.
Bill Nighy, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ryo Kase and Jun Kunimura also star.
The redemptive thriller sees Smith (Depp) take on a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan, in 1971. With the glory days of World War II far ...
The drama – being directed by Andrew Levitas – sees Depp as acclaimed war photographer W. Eugene Smith. Levitas directs from a screenplay by David K. Kessler, who adapted the book by Smith and his wife, Aileen Mioko Smith.
Bill Nighy, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ryo Kase and Jun Kunimura also star.
The redemptive thriller sees Smith (Depp) take on a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan, in 1971. With the glory days of World War II far ...
- 5/14/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Johnny Depp is joined by Japanese actress Minami (Battle Royale) in this exclusive still from Minamata.
The drama – being directed by Andrew Levitas – sees Depp as acclaimed war photographer W. Eugene Smith. Levitas directs from a screenplay by David K. Kessler, who adapted the book by Smith and his wife, Aileen Mioko Smith.
Bill Nighy, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ryo Kase and Jun Kunimura also star.
The redemptive thriller sees Smith (Depp) take on a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan, in 1971. With the glory days of World War II far ...
The drama – being directed by Andrew Levitas – sees Depp as acclaimed war photographer W. Eugene Smith. Levitas directs from a screenplay by David K. Kessler, who adapted the book by Smith and his wife, Aileen Mioko Smith.
Bill Nighy, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ryo Kase and Jun Kunimura also star.
The redemptive thriller sees Smith (Depp) take on a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan, in 1971. With the glory days of World War II far ...
- 5/14/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Indie sales house, Free Stone Productions has picked up sales rights on “To The Ends Of The Earth,” the new film by Japanese directing icon Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Starring Atsuko Maeda, Ryo Kase, and Shota Sometani, the film is a rare example of a Japanese-Uzbekistan co-production. Production is by Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Jason Gray of Tokyo-based Loaded Films and Toshikazu Nishigaya of Tokyo Theatres. Uzbekistan’s national cinema agency Uzbekkino serves as co-producer, with backing from the Ministry of Tourism, through the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development.
The story involves the host of a popular travel show who is in fact insular and shy on a trip to Central Asia, where her assignment calls for the filming of a mythical fish. As things go wrong, and team members return to Tokyo, she discovers a new freedom in the mountains.
“The once-great Timurid Empire has fascinated me for decades.
Starring Atsuko Maeda, Ryo Kase, and Shota Sometani, the film is a rare example of a Japanese-Uzbekistan co-production. Production is by Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Jason Gray of Tokyo-based Loaded Films and Toshikazu Nishigaya of Tokyo Theatres. Uzbekistan’s national cinema agency Uzbekkino serves as co-producer, with backing from the Ministry of Tourism, through the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development.
The story involves the host of a popular travel show who is in fact insular and shy on a trip to Central Asia, where her assignment calls for the filming of a mythical fish. As things go wrong, and team members return to Tokyo, she discovers a new freedom in the mountains.
“The once-great Timurid Empire has fascinated me for decades.
- 5/9/2019
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
“I’ve always had lots of dreams when I sleep. The dreams have always been about the future.”
In 2002, the hype for Japanese horror films was declining rapidly, as the sequels to series like “Ring” or “The Grudge” were commercially and critically unsuccessful. Even though directors such as Hideo Nakata and Takashi Shimizu came to Hollywood to helm the remakes to their films or their sequels, Hollywood had already adapted J-horror tropes to its own productions. As Jerry White points out, one of the perhaps most disappointing entries in the J-horror remakes was Jim Sonzero’s version of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Pulse” (2001). Perhaps it was this particular experience which made Kurosawa change genres with his next project “Bright Future”.
In general, Kurosawa is best known for his unique horror films such as “Pulse” or “Cure”, films which years after their release now unfold their true impact. At the same time,...
In 2002, the hype for Japanese horror films was declining rapidly, as the sequels to series like “Ring” or “The Grudge” were commercially and critically unsuccessful. Even though directors such as Hideo Nakata and Takashi Shimizu came to Hollywood to helm the remakes to their films or their sequels, Hollywood had already adapted J-horror tropes to its own productions. As Jerry White points out, one of the perhaps most disappointing entries in the J-horror remakes was Jim Sonzero’s version of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Pulse” (2001). Perhaps it was this particular experience which made Kurosawa change genres with his next project “Bright Future”.
In general, Kurosawa is best known for his unique horror films such as “Pulse” or “Cure”, films which years after their release now unfold their true impact. At the same time,...
- 4/14/2019
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
The new trailer for Paul Weitz’s ‘Bel Canto’ has been released. The film is based on Ann Patchett’s award-winning, best-selling novel.
Based on the Japanese embassy hostage crisis of 1996–1997 in Lima, Peru, the novel followed the relationships among a group of young terrorists and their hostages, who are mostly high-profile executives and politicians, over several months. Many of the characters form unbreakable bonds of friendship, while some fall in love.
Directed by Weitz, Ken Watanabe stars as Julianne Moore’s love interest. Sebastian Koch, Christopher Lambert, Ryo Kase, Tenoch Huerta, and María Mercedes Coroy also star. The world-renowned opera singer Renee Fleming provides Moore’s singing voice.
Also in trailers – New teaser trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ will send shivers down your spine
The film is released in the UK April 26th
Bel Canto Synopsis
Based on the best-selling novel.
Based on the Japanese embassy hostage crisis of 1996–1997 in Lima, Peru, the novel followed the relationships among a group of young terrorists and their hostages, who are mostly high-profile executives and politicians, over several months. Many of the characters form unbreakable bonds of friendship, while some fall in love.
Directed by Weitz, Ken Watanabe stars as Julianne Moore’s love interest. Sebastian Koch, Christopher Lambert, Ryo Kase, Tenoch Huerta, and María Mercedes Coroy also star. The world-renowned opera singer Renee Fleming provides Moore’s singing voice.
Also in trailers – New teaser trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ will send shivers down your spine
The film is released in the UK April 26th
Bel Canto Synopsis
Based on the best-selling novel.
- 3/29/2019
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The sleepy Japanese town of Minamata was the scene of one of the world’s greatest environmental disasters when it was poisoned by mercury in the 1970s. It was also the setting for a groundbreaking international treaty designed to control use of the deadly metal.
U.K. sales agent HanWay Films will use its platform at FilMart to unveil updates on “Minamata,” its drama-thriller about the celebrated photographer W. Eugene Smith. His images from the toxic town gave the eco-disaster a heartbreaking human dimension, and put reckless big business on front pages around the world.
Johnny Depp stars as Smith, a colorful character who was a celebrated WWII photographer and later became close to jazz great Thelonious Monk. Smith ventured to Minamata near the end of his life, accompanied by his Japanese wife Aileen Mioko Smith.
“At that point, Gene [Smith] was about to give up. He wasn’t sure it was worth it,...
U.K. sales agent HanWay Films will use its platform at FilMart to unveil updates on “Minamata,” its drama-thriller about the celebrated photographer W. Eugene Smith. His images from the toxic town gave the eco-disaster a heartbreaking human dimension, and put reckless big business on front pages around the world.
Johnny Depp stars as Smith, a colorful character who was a celebrated WWII photographer and later became close to jazz great Thelonious Monk. Smith ventured to Minamata near the end of his life, accompanied by his Japanese wife Aileen Mioko Smith.
“At that point, Gene [Smith] was about to give up. He wasn’t sure it was worth it,...
- 3/19/2019
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
It is always a joyful event whenever a new film by director Shûichi Okita is released; you can count on it, you know you will get a gift of beauty and laugh. His latest work, “Mori, the Artist’s Habitat” is no exception. Based on a day in the real life of the eccentric artist Kumagai Morikazu, the film is a loving portrait of a content man.
“Mori, The Artist’s Habitat” is screening at Helsinki Cine Aasia 2019
It’s a summer day of 1974 and 94-year old artist Morikazu Kumagai (Tsutomu Yamazaki) lives with his wife Hideko (Kirin Kiki) and jolly housemaid Mie-chan (Nobuke Iketani) in an old-fashion house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, surrounded by a lush and rather overgrown garden. He is well known for his reclusive life – not having left the house for decades – and for his routine explorations of nature in the yard. Every day after breakfast, he...
“Mori, The Artist’s Habitat” is screening at Helsinki Cine Aasia 2019
It’s a summer day of 1974 and 94-year old artist Morikazu Kumagai (Tsutomu Yamazaki) lives with his wife Hideko (Kirin Kiki) and jolly housemaid Mie-chan (Nobuke Iketani) in an old-fashion house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, surrounded by a lush and rather overgrown garden. He is well known for his reclusive life – not having left the house for decades – and for his routine explorations of nature in the yard. Every day after breakfast, he...
- 3/14/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Principal Photography has begun on Minamata, directed by filmmaker, writer, and acclaimed artist Andrew Levitas and starring three-time Academy Award® nominee and Golden Globe winner Johnny Depp as celebrated war photographer W. Eugene Smith.
Bill Nighy has joined the cast of Minamata which will co-star Minami (Vision), acclaimed actor Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ryo Kase, and Jun Kunimura. The famed Yôko Narahashi is the casting director on the film which is currently underway in locations in Japan, Serbia, and Montenegro.
Developed by Depp’s production entity Infinitum Nihil, Depp will also produce along with Infinitum Nihil’s Sam Sarkar, Levitas under his Metalwork Pictures banner and Academy Award® nominee Gabrielle Tana. Jason Forman, Stephen Deuters, Peter Watson, Phil Hunt, Compton Ross, Gabrielle Stewart, Stephen Spence, Peter Touche, Norman Merry and Peter Hampden will executive produce. Heads of department include César Award nominated cinematographer Benoit Delhomme, production designer Tom Foden and...
Bill Nighy has joined the cast of Minamata which will co-star Minami (Vision), acclaimed actor Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ryo Kase, and Jun Kunimura. The famed Yôko Narahashi is the casting director on the film which is currently underway in locations in Japan, Serbia, and Montenegro.
Developed by Depp’s production entity Infinitum Nihil, Depp will also produce along with Infinitum Nihil’s Sam Sarkar, Levitas under his Metalwork Pictures banner and Academy Award® nominee Gabrielle Tana. Jason Forman, Stephen Deuters, Peter Watson, Phil Hunt, Compton Ross, Gabrielle Stewart, Stephen Spence, Peter Touche, Norman Merry and Peter Hampden will executive produce. Heads of department include César Award nominated cinematographer Benoit Delhomme, production designer Tom Foden and...
- 1/31/2019
- by Michelle Hannett
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Bill Nighy has joined the cast of “Minamata,” Andrew Levitas’ movie about W. Eugene Smith and the first image of Johnny Depp as the celebrated war photographer has been released.
Minami Hinase (“Vision), Hiroyuki Sanada (“Westworld”), Tadanobu Asano (“Midway”), Ryo Kase (“Letters from Iwo Jima”) and Jun Kunimura (“ Midway”) have also all joined the cast as production gets underway. The shoot will take in Japan, Serbia, and Montenegro.
The film is based on Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith’s book, “Minamata,” which has been adapted by David K. Kessler (“A Hard Day’s Day”). Billed as a redemptive thriller, it follows Smith as he takes on a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan, in 1971.
“I am thrilled to be working with such a talented and dedicated team on the story behind one of the most devastating and relatively unknown catastrophes of the past 100 years,...
Minami Hinase (“Vision), Hiroyuki Sanada (“Westworld”), Tadanobu Asano (“Midway”), Ryo Kase (“Letters from Iwo Jima”) and Jun Kunimura (“ Midway”) have also all joined the cast as production gets underway. The shoot will take in Japan, Serbia, and Montenegro.
The film is based on Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith’s book, “Minamata,” which has been adapted by David K. Kessler (“A Hard Day’s Day”). Billed as a redemptive thriller, it follows Smith as he takes on a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan, in 1971.
“I am thrilled to be working with such a talented and dedicated team on the story behind one of the most devastating and relatively unknown catastrophes of the past 100 years,...
- 1/31/2019
- by Stewart Clarke
- Variety Film + TV
Bill Nighy joins film’s cast.
Principal photography is underway on Minamata, which stars Johnny Depp as celebrated war photographer W. Eugene Smith.
Bill Nighy has joined the cast of the film, which is being directed by Andrew Levitas. Minami, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ryo Kase and Jun Kunimura co-star.
The project will shoot in Japan, Serbia, and Montenegro. It was developed by Depp’s production entity Infinitum Nihil and the actor is also producing alongside Infinitum Nihil’s Sam Sarkar, Levitas under his Metalwork Pictures banner and Gabrielle Tana.
David K. Kessler adapted the story from Aileen Mioko Smith and W.
Principal photography is underway on Minamata, which stars Johnny Depp as celebrated war photographer W. Eugene Smith.
Bill Nighy has joined the cast of the film, which is being directed by Andrew Levitas. Minami, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ryo Kase and Jun Kunimura co-star.
The project will shoot in Japan, Serbia, and Montenegro. It was developed by Depp’s production entity Infinitum Nihil and the actor is also producing alongside Infinitum Nihil’s Sam Sarkar, Levitas under his Metalwork Pictures banner and Gabrielle Tana.
David K. Kessler adapted the story from Aileen Mioko Smith and W.
- 1/31/2019
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Principal photography has begun on Andrew Levitas-directed feature Minamata starring Johnny Depp as celebrated U.S. photographer W. Eugene Smith. The production has released a first look at Depp.
Bill Nighy (Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest) has joined cast alongside Minami (Vision), Hiroyuki Sanada (Avengers: Endgame), Tadanobu Asano (Silence), Ryo Kase (Letters From Iwo Jima), and Jun Kunimura (Kill Bill: Vol 1 and 2). Yôko Narahashi is casting director on the film which is currently underway in locations in Japan, Serbia, and Montenegro.
Based on the book by Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith and adapted by David K. Kessler (A Hard Day’s Day), the true-story thriller pits Smith against a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people in Minamata, Japan in 1971.
Developed by Depp’s production entity Infinitum Nihil, Depp is producing with Infinitum Nihil’s Sam Sarkar, Levitas under his Metalwork Pictures banner and...
Bill Nighy (Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest) has joined cast alongside Minami (Vision), Hiroyuki Sanada (Avengers: Endgame), Tadanobu Asano (Silence), Ryo Kase (Letters From Iwo Jima), and Jun Kunimura (Kill Bill: Vol 1 and 2). Yôko Narahashi is casting director on the film which is currently underway in locations in Japan, Serbia, and Montenegro.
Based on the book by Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith and adapted by David K. Kessler (A Hard Day’s Day), the true-story thriller pits Smith against a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people in Minamata, Japan in 1971.
Developed by Depp’s production entity Infinitum Nihil, Depp is producing with Infinitum Nihil’s Sam Sarkar, Levitas under his Metalwork Pictures banner and...
- 1/31/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
In a first-look image for Minamata, Johnny Depp is featured as war photographer W. Eugene Smith.
Andrew Levitas is directing from a screenplay by David K. Kessler, who adapted the book by Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith.
As production commences, Bill Nighy has also joined the cast, which also includes Minami, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ryo Kase and Jun Kunimura.
The redemptive thriller sees Smith (Depp) take on a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan, in 1971. With the glory days of World War II far behind him, Smith has become a recluse, disconnected from ...
Andrew Levitas is directing from a screenplay by David K. Kessler, who adapted the book by Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith.
As production commences, Bill Nighy has also joined the cast, which also includes Minami, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ryo Kase and Jun Kunimura.
The redemptive thriller sees Smith (Depp) take on a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan, in 1971. With the glory days of World War II far behind him, Smith has become a recluse, disconnected from ...
- 1/31/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
In a first-look image for Minamata, Johnny Depp is featured as war photographer W. Eugene Smith.
Andrew Levitas is directing from a screenplay by David K. Kessler, who adapted the book by Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith.
As production commences, Bill Nighy has also joined the cast, which also includes Minami, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ryo Kase and Jun Kunimura.
The redemptive thriller sees Smith (Depp) take on a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan, in 1971. With the glory days of World War II far behind him, Smith has become a recluse, disconnected from ...
Andrew Levitas is directing from a screenplay by David K. Kessler, who adapted the book by Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith.
As production commences, Bill Nighy has also joined the cast, which also includes Minami, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Ryo Kase and Jun Kunimura.
The redemptive thriller sees Smith (Depp) take on a powerful corporation responsible for poisoning the people of Minamata, Japan, in 1971. With the glory days of World War II far behind him, Smith has become a recluse, disconnected from ...
- 1/31/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The musical term bel canto refers to a lighter, smoother style of operatic singing, as opposed to the florid coloratura style for which Maria Callas was famous. From the Italian for “beautiful voice,” bel canto strips away ornamental staccato runs and trills in favor of a simpler, more graceful soprano. True to its name, the film “Bel Canto” strikes a delicate balance between forbidden romance and hostage thriller, eschewing clichés to reveal a tender love story that is as much about the human condition as the power of music.
Julianne Moore (with Renée Fleming’s voice) is cast against type as an opera singer named Roxane Coss, who has begrudgingly traveled to an unnamed South American country to give a private concert for the president and a group of elites. Among the crowd is Katsumi Hosokawa (Ken Watanabe), a Japanese businessman whose love of opera (and Ms. Coss) is so...
Julianne Moore (with Renée Fleming’s voice) is cast against type as an opera singer named Roxane Coss, who has begrudgingly traveled to an unnamed South American country to give a private concert for the president and a group of elites. Among the crowd is Katsumi Hosokawa (Ken Watanabe), a Japanese businessman whose love of opera (and Ms. Coss) is so...
- 9/14/2018
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
A brilliant, celebrated performer accepts a low-profile gig in unfamiliar environs, only to be trapped as the situation falls apart around her. But enough about Julianne Moore agreeing to star in “Bel Canto,” and let’s keep the focus on Paul Weitz’s po-faced hostage melodrama itself, which strands a world-renowned American soprano in the crossfire between an oppressive government and desperate insurgents in an unspecified South American nation. Ann Patchett’s much-lauded 2001 novel was optioned upon publication for its seemingly surefire cinematic fusion of high romantic and political stakes, yet until a sudden, bloody climax, this belated adaptation remains a blandly perfumed, low-peril affair.
With an enviable international ensemble — including Moore, Ken Watanabe and Sebastian Koch — all looking variously out of sorts, only an unseen Renee Fleming, who lends her gorgeously shaded vocals to the leading lady’s lips, emerges on song. Moore’s name will draw some interest...
With an enviable international ensemble — including Moore, Ken Watanabe and Sebastian Koch — all looking variously out of sorts, only an unseen Renee Fleming, who lends her gorgeously shaded vocals to the leading lady’s lips, emerges on song. Moore’s name will draw some interest...
- 9/13/2018
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The first trailer for Paul Weitz’s Bel Canto has been released. The film is based on the Ann Patchett’s award-winning, best-selling novel.
Based on the Japanese embassy hostage crisis of 1996–1997 in Lima, Peru, the novel followed the relationships among a group of young terrorists and their hostages, who are mostly high-profile executives and politicians, over several months. Many of the characters form unbreakable bonds of friendship, while some fall in love.
Directed by Weitz, Ken Watanabe stars as Moore’s love interest. Sebastian Koch, Christopher Lambert, Ryo Kase, Tenoch Huerta, and María Mercedes Coroy also star. The world-renowned opera singer Renee Fleming provides Moore’s singing voice.
Also in trailers – First full length trailer for Disney’s The Nutcracker And The Four Realms waltzes in
The film is released in Us cinemas on September 14th and is On Demand a week later.
Bel Canto Official Synopsis
Based on the best-selling novel.
Based on the Japanese embassy hostage crisis of 1996–1997 in Lima, Peru, the novel followed the relationships among a group of young terrorists and their hostages, who are mostly high-profile executives and politicians, over several months. Many of the characters form unbreakable bonds of friendship, while some fall in love.
Directed by Weitz, Ken Watanabe stars as Moore’s love interest. Sebastian Koch, Christopher Lambert, Ryo Kase, Tenoch Huerta, and María Mercedes Coroy also star. The world-renowned opera singer Renee Fleming provides Moore’s singing voice.
Also in trailers – First full length trailer for Disney’s The Nutcracker And The Four Realms waltzes in
The film is released in Us cinemas on September 14th and is On Demand a week later.
Bel Canto Official Synopsis
Based on the best-selling novel.
- 8/8/2018
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
"For him, your voice is opera." Screen Media Films has debuted the official trailer for an intense romantic drama titled Bel Canto, based on the best-selling novel of the same name written by Ann Patchett. Inspired by the events of the Japanese embassy hostage crisis (also called the Lima hostage crisis) of 1996-1997 in Lima, Peru, the novel has received several awards including the Orange Prize for Fiction and Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The intimate, tense love story is about a famous soprano, played by Julianne Moore, who gets entangled with a wealthy Japanese industrialist, played by Ken Watanabe. She travels down to the embassy in South America, and falls for him while being held hostage. Also starring Sebastian Koch, Christopher Lambert, Ryo Kase, Tenoch Huerta, and María Mercedes Coroy. Take a look below. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Paul Weitz's Bel Canto, direct from YouTube...
- 8/7/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
In the Paul Weitz-directed Bel Canto, Julianne Moore plays a famous soprano who heads to South America to perform at a swanky birthday party for a wealthy Japanese industrialist (Ken Watanabe). But the fancy gathering is rudely interrupted when the house is taken over by a guerrilla rebel group demanding the release of their imprisoned comrades. Needless to say, they ruin the party and things take a turn for the worse.
Based on the novel by Ann Patchett, the story follows the lengthy standoff and as seen in the trailer above, hostages and captors form unlikely bonds as they overcome their differences and find their shared humanity. And of course, we get some singing from Moore. Actually, it’s not Moore doing the singing — it’s international opera star Renee Fleming. Either way, it’s beautiful.
The film , which was adapted by Weitz and Anthony Weintraub, also stars Sebastian Koch,...
Based on the novel by Ann Patchett, the story follows the lengthy standoff and as seen in the trailer above, hostages and captors form unlikely bonds as they overcome their differences and find their shared humanity. And of course, we get some singing from Moore. Actually, it’s not Moore doing the singing — it’s international opera star Renee Fleming. Either way, it’s beautiful.
The film , which was adapted by Weitz and Anthony Weintraub, also stars Sebastian Koch,...
- 8/7/2018
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
In an undisclosed country, a party unfolds. It’s a big, splashy affair, thrown at the home of the vice president of an unnamed military dictatorship, with one major marquee star set to perform: world-famous soprano Roxane Coss (Julianne Moore). The vice president is not actually in attendance, but a beloved guest is, one who just so happens to adore Roxanne’s voice. He’s wealthy Japanese industrialist Katsumi Hosokawa (Ken Watanabe), brought to the palace in hopes that he’ll be so charmed by Roxane’s performance that he’ll fork over millions to a struggling country. That’s not what happens.
Based on Ann Patchett’s bestselling novel of the same name, Paul Weitz’s “Bel Canto” opens with a party that soon turns into a terrifying situation, when a guerrilla rebel group arrive and take hostages, in hopes that their bold plan will lead to the freeing of their compatriots.
Based on Ann Patchett’s bestselling novel of the same name, Paul Weitz’s “Bel Canto” opens with a party that soon turns into a terrifying situation, when a guerrilla rebel group arrive and take hostages, in hopes that their bold plan will lead to the freeing of their compatriots.
- 8/7/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
It is always a joyful event whenever a new film by director Shûichi Okita is released; you can count on it, you know you will get a gift of beauty and laugh. His latest work, “Mori, the Artist’s Habitat” is no exception. Based on a day in the real life of the eccentric artist Kumagai Morikazu, the film is a loving portrait of a content man.
“Mori, The Artist’s Habitat” is screening at Japan Cuts 2018
It’s a summer day of 1974 and 94-year old artist Morikazu Kumagai (Tsutomu Yamazaki) lives with his wife Hideko (Kirin Kiki) and jolly housemaid Mie-chan (Nobuke Iketani) in an old-fashion house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, surrounded by a lush and rather overgrown garden. He is well known for his reclusive life – not having left the house for decades – and for his routine explorations of nature in the yard. Every day after breakfast, he gets...
“Mori, The Artist’s Habitat” is screening at Japan Cuts 2018
It’s a summer day of 1974 and 94-year old artist Morikazu Kumagai (Tsutomu Yamazaki) lives with his wife Hideko (Kirin Kiki) and jolly housemaid Mie-chan (Nobuke Iketani) in an old-fashion house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, surrounded by a lush and rather overgrown garden. He is well known for his reclusive life – not having left the house for decades – and for his routine explorations of nature in the yard. Every day after breakfast, he gets...
- 7/28/2018
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Screen Media picked up the North American rights to Paul Weitz’s “Bel Canto,” the company announced Tuesday.
The film, which Weitz and Anthony Weintraub adapted from the best-selling 2001 novel by Ann Patchett, stars Julianne Moore as a famous American soprano who travels to South America in the 1990s to give a private concert at the birthday party of a wealthy Japanese industrialist (Ken Watanabe) — and then gets caught in a hostage situation.
The cast also includes Sebastian Koch, Christopher Lambert, Ryo Kase, Tenoch Huerta, and María Mercedes Coroy.
Also Read: Why Cannes Film Market May Move at an Escargot's Pace This Year
Opera star Renée Fleming contributes vocals to the film — whose story is based on the real-life hostage crisis at the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru in 1996-97. Patchett’s book also inspired Jimmy López’ 2015 opera “Bel Canto” as well as a parody in the second season of the FX animated comedy “Archer.”
A national theatrical release is planned for September 2018.
Also Read: Julianne Moore Says Filmmaker James Toback Targeted Her
The film is produced by Caroline Baron and Anthony Weintraub of A-Line Pictures; Paul Weitz and Andrew Miano of Depth of Field; and Lizzie Friedman, Karen Lauder, and Greg Little, who are producing and financing through their company Priority Pictures.
Seth Needle of Screen Media negotiated the deal with Endeavor Content on behalf of the filmmakers.
“I’m so happy with Screen Media’s passion for the movie,” Weitz said in a statement. “It was a joy filming it, and working with actors from such disparate backgrounds.”
Read original story Screen Media Sings for Julianne Moore’s ‘Bel Canto’ At TheWrap...
The film, which Weitz and Anthony Weintraub adapted from the best-selling 2001 novel by Ann Patchett, stars Julianne Moore as a famous American soprano who travels to South America in the 1990s to give a private concert at the birthday party of a wealthy Japanese industrialist (Ken Watanabe) — and then gets caught in a hostage situation.
The cast also includes Sebastian Koch, Christopher Lambert, Ryo Kase, Tenoch Huerta, and María Mercedes Coroy.
Also Read: Why Cannes Film Market May Move at an Escargot's Pace This Year
Opera star Renée Fleming contributes vocals to the film — whose story is based on the real-life hostage crisis at the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru in 1996-97. Patchett’s book also inspired Jimmy López’ 2015 opera “Bel Canto” as well as a parody in the second season of the FX animated comedy “Archer.”
A national theatrical release is planned for September 2018.
Also Read: Julianne Moore Says Filmmaker James Toback Targeted Her
The film is produced by Caroline Baron and Anthony Weintraub of A-Line Pictures; Paul Weitz and Andrew Miano of Depth of Field; and Lizzie Friedman, Karen Lauder, and Greg Little, who are producing and financing through their company Priority Pictures.
Seth Needle of Screen Media negotiated the deal with Endeavor Content on behalf of the filmmakers.
“I’m so happy with Screen Media’s passion for the movie,” Weitz said in a statement. “It was a joy filming it, and working with actors from such disparate backgrounds.”
Read original story Screen Media Sings for Julianne Moore’s ‘Bel Canto’ At TheWrap...
- 5/8/2018
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
Screen Media has acquired North American rights to Paul Weitz’s Bel Canto, a romantic drama starring Julianne Moore, Ken Watanabe, Sebastian Koch, Christopher Lambert, Ryo Kase, Tenoch Huerta, and María Mercedes Coroy.
Adapted by screenwriters Anthony Weintraub and Weitz from Ann Patchett’s novel, the film revolves around a disparate group of people in a hostage situation in South America in the 1990s.
The distributor is planning a September national release.
The film is produced by Caroline Baron and Anthony Weintraub of A-Line Pictures; Weitz and Andrew Miano of Depth of Field; and Lizzie Friedman, Karen Lauder, and Greg Little, who are producing and financing through their company Priority Pictures.
In the feature, Moore plays a famous American soprano, who travels to...
Adapted by screenwriters Anthony Weintraub and Weitz from Ann Patchett’s novel, the film revolves around a disparate group of people in a hostage situation in South America in the 1990s.
The distributor is planning a September national release.
The film is produced by Caroline Baron and Anthony Weintraub of A-Line Pictures; Weitz and Andrew Miano of Depth of Field; and Lizzie Friedman, Karen Lauder, and Greg Little, who are producing and financing through their company Priority Pictures.
In the feature, Moore plays a famous American soprano, who travels to...
- 5/8/2018
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screen Media has acquired North American rights to Paul Weitz’s <em>Bel Canto,</em> a romantic drama starring Julianne Moore, Ken Watanabe, Sebastian Koch, Christopher Lambert, Ryo Kase, Tenoch Huerta, and María Mercedes Coroy.
Adapted by screenwriter Anthony Weintraub and Weitz from Ann Patchett’s novel, the film revolves around a disparate group of people in a hostage situation in South America in the 1990s.
The distributor is planning a September national release.
<em>Bel Canto</em> was produced by Caroline Baron and Anthony Weintraub of A-Line Pictures; Weitz and Andrew Miano of Depth of Field;...
Adapted by screenwriter Anthony Weintraub and Weitz from Ann Patchett’s novel, the film revolves around a disparate group of people in a hostage situation in South America in the 1990s.
The distributor is planning a September national release.
<em>Bel Canto</em> was produced by Caroline Baron and Anthony Weintraub of A-Line Pictures; Weitz and Andrew Miano of Depth of Field;...
Screen Media has acquired North American rights to “Bel Canto,” Paul Weitz’s adaptation of the acclaimed Ann Patchett novel. The drama about a hostage crisis stars Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe. Opera legend Renée Fleming contributes vocals to the film. A national theatrical release is planned for September.
“Bel Canto” centers on Roxane Coss (Moore), a famous American soprano, who travels to South America to give a private concert at the birthday party of a Japanese mogul (Watanabe). The festivities are interrupted by guerrillas demanding the release of their imprisoned comrades. A lengthy standoff ensues, and as talks drag on bonds are formed between hostages and captors.
Sebastian Koch, Christopher Lambert, Ryo Kase, Tenoch Huerta and María Mercedes Coroy round out the cast. The film was written by Anthony Weintraub and Weitz. It is produced by Caroline Baron and Anthony Weintraub of A-Line Pictures; Weitz and Andrew Miano of...
“Bel Canto” centers on Roxane Coss (Moore), a famous American soprano, who travels to South America to give a private concert at the birthday party of a Japanese mogul (Watanabe). The festivities are interrupted by guerrillas demanding the release of their imprisoned comrades. A lengthy standoff ensues, and as talks drag on bonds are formed between hostages and captors.
Sebastian Koch, Christopher Lambert, Ryo Kase, Tenoch Huerta and María Mercedes Coroy round out the cast. The film was written by Anthony Weintraub and Weitz. It is produced by Caroline Baron and Anthony Weintraub of A-Line Pictures; Weitz and Andrew Miano of...
- 5/8/2018
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Early last week, white British actor Ed Skrein joined the cast of Neil Marshall’s upcoming “Hellboy” reboot, a casting choice that was immediately derided for its whitewashing of Skrein’s character, a Japanese-American Marine named Ben Daimio (whose family tree includes no less than a famous Japanese spy and war criminal, who also appears in the John Arcudi and Mike Mignola comic book series). In short order, Skrein did something wholly remarkable: he dropped out of the project after learning about Daimio’s heritage.
Read More:‘Hellboy’ Whitewashing: Ed Skrein Steps Down From Playing Japanese-American Comic Character
In an official statement, the actor made it clear that he believed the choice was what was “right,” noting that portraying the part in “a culturally accurate way” was clearly important for audiences (Skrein also pointed to his own “mixed heritage” family in the statement, which you can read here). In a...
Read More:‘Hellboy’ Whitewashing: Ed Skrein Steps Down From Playing Japanese-American Comic Character
In an official statement, the actor made it clear that he believed the choice was what was “right,” noting that portraying the part in “a culturally accurate way” was clearly important for audiences (Skrein also pointed to his own “mixed heritage” family in the statement, which you can read here). In a...
- 8/29/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Silence Paramount Pictures Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: A- Director: Martin Scorsese Written by: Jay Cocks, Martin Scorsese, from Sh?saku End?’s novel Cast: Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, Adam Driver, Ciarán Hinds, Tadanobu Asano, Ryô Kase, Sin’ya Tsukamoto, Nana Komatsu, Michié Screened at: Paramount, NYC, 12/19/16 Opens: December 23, 2016 If you’re “up” with trends […]
The post Silence Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Silence Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 1/1/2017
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
★★★☆☆At just over an hour in length, the compunction to describe Hong Sang-soo's latest offering as slight would be understandable, but for those that have seen Hill of Freedom (Jayuui Eondeok, 2014) it's also an accurate one-word review. Hong is known for his light, whimsical, and meandering narratives, but even in comparison to other such films this one feels especially fluffy. That is not to say that it is bad, however, as while the direction is fairly casual, there are a lot of laughs to be had during this gently awkward romantic quest of a Japanese teacher to seek out his lost love in Korea. That teacher is Mori (Ryô Kase) who arrives back in the country two years after a spell working at a foreign language institute.
- 11/13/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Hill of Freedom
Written and directed by Sang-soo Hong
South Korea, 2014
For those unfamiliar with the work of South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, his movies typically go something like this: some demotic people get together and drink a lot, and they talk about their menial lives and discuss the profundities of nothing in particular, and in between those moments nothing happens. Sometimes there’s a dog. And it’s hysterical.
Hill of Freedom (which is not, as its title might suggest, a war film, should you make that false assumption) offers a 66-minute distillation of the essence of Sang-soo. It prominently features his masterfully static, unshowy shots of people talking, and his frequent, (purportedly) arbitrary zoom interruptions to capture the malaise and euphoria of everyday relationships. Here, he’s flensed the fat (not that there’s ever much fat in his films) and left us a dauntless display of virtuoso banality.
Written and directed by Sang-soo Hong
South Korea, 2014
For those unfamiliar with the work of South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, his movies typically go something like this: some demotic people get together and drink a lot, and they talk about their menial lives and discuss the profundities of nothing in particular, and in between those moments nothing happens. Sometimes there’s a dog. And it’s hysterical.
Hill of Freedom (which is not, as its title might suggest, a war film, should you make that false assumption) offers a 66-minute distillation of the essence of Sang-soo. It prominently features his masterfully static, unshowy shots of people talking, and his frequent, (purportedly) arbitrary zoom interruptions to capture the malaise and euphoria of everyday relationships. Here, he’s flensed the fat (not that there’s ever much fat in his films) and left us a dauntless display of virtuoso banality.
- 9/21/2014
- by Greg Cwik
- SoundOnSight
The 71st Venice Film Festival announced its lineup this morning, highlighted by films from American directors, including David Gordon Green, Barry Levinson, Peter Bogdanovich, Lisa Cholodenko, Andrew Niccol, and James Franco. As had been previously announced, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, starring Michael Keaton and many others, will be the opening film when the festival begins on Aug. 27.
Click below for the entire list of 55 films playing in Venice.
Competition
The Cut, directed by Fatih Akin
Starring Tahar Rahim, Akin Gazi, Simon Abkarian, George Georgiou
A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence, directed by Roy Andersson
Starring Holger Andersson,...
Click below for the entire list of 55 films playing in Venice.
Competition
The Cut, directed by Fatih Akin
Starring Tahar Rahim, Akin Gazi, Simon Abkarian, George Georgiou
A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence, directed by Roy Andersson
Starring Holger Andersson,...
- 7/24/2014
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
World War Z | Before Midnight | Spike Island | Fire In The Night | Like Someone In Love | Snitch | I Am Nasrine | The Seasoning House | Shun Li and The Poet | Black Rock | I Am Breathing | A Haunted House
World War Z (15)
(Marc Forster, 2013, Us/Mal) Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale. 116 mins
In the end, the much-reported delays, reshoots and overspend have at least resulted in a watchable disaster epic, even if this brings little to the zombie apocalypse party save for a huge guest list. Forster's film finds Pitt pitted against insect-like hordes of the sprinting dead, as his Un agent trots round the globe trying to trace the source of the epidemic, save his family and avoid getting chomped. Mild spoiler alert: blame Wales.
Before Midnight (15)
(Richard Linklater, 2013, Us) Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Walter Lassally. 109 mins
A satisfying return for the comfortable screen couple, now together but burdened by history,...
World War Z (15)
(Marc Forster, 2013, Us/Mal) Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale. 116 mins
In the end, the much-reported delays, reshoots and overspend have at least resulted in a watchable disaster epic, even if this brings little to the zombie apocalypse party save for a huge guest list. Forster's film finds Pitt pitted against insect-like hordes of the sprinting dead, as his Un agent trots round the globe trying to trace the source of the epidemic, save his family and avoid getting chomped. Mild spoiler alert: blame Wales.
Before Midnight (15)
(Richard Linklater, 2013, Us) Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Walter Lassally. 109 mins
A satisfying return for the comfortable screen couple, now together but burdened by history,...
- 6/22/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★☆ Acclaimed Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's latest film, Like Someone in Love (2012), may be set and shot in Japan but it contains many of the auteur's trademarks: long, single takes, conversational scenes in cars and images reflected in glass and mirrors. Most of Tokyo's cityscape is framed through a car's windscreen. Akiko (Rin Takanashi) is a young, high-class escort studying sociology at a local university. The film opens in a bar where she is trying to convince her boss not to make her work that night - her grandmother has come to visit her, she tells him. But he insists pointing out that the client is an important man.
Akiko sets off on an hour-long journey across Tokyo, the city's vibrant streets reflected in the car's windscreen, passing by the station where her grandmother has arranged to meet her. Akiko can see her patiently waiting beside the designated statue and,...
Akiko sets off on an hour-long journey across Tokyo, the city's vibrant streets reflected in the car's windscreen, passing by the station where her grandmother has arranged to meet her. Akiko can see her patiently waiting beside the designated statue and,...
- 6/18/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
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