Category: Asian film industry

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

“Dune” was unable to surpass the Chinese propaganda war movie “The Battle at Lake Changjin”. To take the top spot on its China opening day Friday, coming in second with just $6.45 million (RMB41.2 million). According to Maoyan data, despite a protracted charm offensive to raise awareness about the film in the increasingly sci-fi-hungry country.

As of the early hours of Saturday local time, the Maoyan platform now estimates. It will mine a total of just $30.9 million (RMB197 million) out of the world’s largest film. Market — down more than $4 million from its prediction midday Friday.

The result is lackluster at a time when the Chinese market is capable of delivering opening days of hundreds of millions for popular titles, and where the heavy-handed “Battle” opened to a $32 million first-day late last month — more than “Dune”’s entire predicted haul.

“Dune” was allocated a reasonably strong 36.5% of screening sessions nationwide on day one Friday, but is currently set to occupy a lesser 29.4% of screenings on Saturday. Imax estimated Friday that some 21% of the nationwide “Dune” box office came from its fleet of screens.

“The Battle at Lake Changjin,” co-directed by heavyweights Chen Kaige, Dante Lam, and Tsui Hark, has grossed $808 million so far in 23 days.

The opening ceremony of the upcoming Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) is on October 6. South Korean stars Song Joong-ki and Park So-dam, host this. The organizers announced Thursday. The 26th edition of Asia’s leading movie gala will held in Busan, South Korea, and will run through October 15.

According to the official website of the BIFF. The socially distanced opening ceremony will take place at the Busan Cinema Center on the night of October 6. Song, best known internationally for hit Korean dramas.  Most recently played the titular role in Netflix’s legal crime series Vincenzo.

The BIFF will screen 223 films from 70 countries, of which 92 will be world premieres and four will be international premieres. The festival will open with the world premiere of Im Sang-soo’s Heaven: To The Land Of Happiness.

This year, the BIFF has introduced a new section “On Screen”, which will showcase highly anticipated drama series that will be streamed over online video streaming platforms

PHOTO CREDIT: 20TH CENTURY FOX

Ryan Reynolds dominated China’s theatrical box office for a third consecutive weekend. The film added $12.3 million, taking its China total to $75.8 million.

Free Guy already is Hollywood’s third-biggest release in the country this year, trailing only Universal’s F9: The Fast Saga ($203.8 million) and Legendary/Warner Bros.’ Godzilla vs. Kong ($188.7 million). Ticketing service and film data company Maoyan currently projects Free Guy to finish its run with approximately $88 million.

Altogether, it was another downbeat weekend at China’s theatrical box office. However, with few appealing new releases and tepid overall sales.

Donnie Yen’s late summer box office champ Raging Fire, meanwhile, continued to smolder amid the dearth of new content. The film added $5.7 million in its seventh weekend on screens, scoring third place. At $185.4 million and counting, the Benny Chan action flick ranks as the eighth biggest title at China’s box office this year.

Skydance Media’s The Tomorrow War, starring Chris Pratt, slipped to fourth place, earning $3.5 million and totaling $14.4 million. China is the only major market where the action film screened theatrically after Amazon Prime Video acquired it for most of the world over the summer.

Japan’s latest animated Pokemon installment, Pokemon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, opened in fifth with $3.4 million. It earned $16 million in Japan following its local release late last year.

Masato Hara made “The First Emperor” on 8mm and 16mm films in 1973 and made a major impact on the Japanese film industry. Even today he impresses numerous filmmakers with his creations. Unfortunately, the fire burned his house and filmography including the legendary film “The First Emperor” ….

But, with the help of crowdfunding and Kyoto City, his team reprinted and remastered “The First Emperor”! Witness the resurrected remastered version and the film left unburned by the fire.

Masato Hara’s comment
When I was in high school, I made a film with my friends because I loved movies and wanted to make a film. The film won the Grand Prix at the Film Art Festival Tokyo. But I felt it was a bit like a movie made by an honored student.

A few years later, I explored the kind of film I wanted to make and made “The First Emperor”. I wandered from Kyoto, Hokkaido, and Kyushu in search of the emperor who created the country.

Japan appeared gradually in the process of shooting. Finally, in Kagoshima, I met a girl who committed suicide after making her first film. I mourned the girl, believed in the power of the film, and ended my film there.

“The First Emperor” is a film that contains all of my encounters in film and my passion for film. It was a very painful experience when my films had burned out in a fire. I am really happy to be able to reprint“The First Emperor”.

“The First Emperor” will be streaming in January and March with ENGLISH SUBTITLES.

koreanamericanstory.org produced, “Happy Cleaners” will be released on February 5, 2021, in theatres and VOD. The film is the first feature one of the Kim & Lee duo, although they both worked on the “Flushing” web series. It’s an NGO that promotes the visibility of Korean American stories.

The story revolves around a Spanish family who migrated to South Africa.

“Happy Cleaners,” tells the story of a Korean American family living in Flushing, New York. The Choi parents run a dry-cleaning shop. Business is hard, but it gets even more complicated when the new landlord refuses to renew their lease.

The couple has two children. The older sister, Hyunny is working at the hospital, supporting the family and navigating through her relationship with long-time boyfriend Danny. Her brother, Kevin, wants to put college behind – very much to his parents’ despair – and move to Los Angeles.

In terms of representation, the feature is interesting: it gives voices to a screen minority. It is also noteworthy that a lot of the cast and crew, and people working in post-production were Asian Americans.

However, by wishing to be broad and cover as many themes as possible (blue collars, the American dream, racism, complex relationship to one’s roots, parental pressure, parental sacrifice, etc.) the story sometimes loses itself, loses the nuances of characters, and can become a bit cliché.

Some dialogues are very explanatory of how characters feel when it is also nice for the viewers to understand it by themselves. The long dialogues in the movie are meant to be a tribute to 90’s K-dramas. This would also have added a bit of humor to the film.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Parasite director Bong Joon Ho has been chosen as jury chairman of the 78th Venice International Film Festival, organizers said on Friday.

The Oscar winner will chair seven juries to award the best prizes of the festival, including the prestigious Leone d’Oro. He will be the first South Korean to hold this post.

In a statement, the director said he was “honored to be integrated into his beautiful cinematographic tradition.

As president of the jury and, above all, as a cinephile, I am ready to admire and applaud all the great films selected by the festival. I am full of genuine hope and enthusiasm. ”

Festival director Alberto Barberá underlined the historical character of the selection. Barbera praised the South Korean filmmaker as one of the most authentic and original voices in world cinema.

“We are extremely grateful to him for agreeing to put his passion as an attentive, curious, and non-judgmental spectator at the service of our festival,” said Barbera.

The decision to hand the jury over to a Korean filmmaker, for the first time in the history of the festival, is also a confirmation that the Venetian event encompasses cinemas around the world and that directors in every country know they can consider Venice as your second. House. ”

In 2020, Bong made history after his film Parasite became the first non-English and South Korean film to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

The film, which examines the class division in Korean society through a poor family breaking into a rich man’s house with disastrous results, won best international film, best director for Bong, and best screenplay. original for Bong and Jin. -Won.

The Venice Film Festival was one of the few major film festivals to take place in person last year amid the pandemic. The 78th edition will take place from September 1 to 11.

(Photograph credit: Wikimedia Commons)

South Korean cinema has produced some of the boldest and unique filmmakers; including the recent Oscar winner Bong Joon Ho but probably not any Korean filmmaker, name is more familiar to arthouse lovers than Kim Ki-Duk.

His idiosyncratic art-house cinematic works made him a popular name around the world and he was very popular with film festivals. While his films never could reach an Oscar nom, his reputation in Cannes, Berlin, and Venice film festivals was undeniable.

His “Pieta” won the major prize in Venice, while “3 Iron” and “Samaria” earned him Best Director prizes respectively at Cannes and Berlin. Kim’s films also include “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring”, one of the most acclaimed Korean films of all time.

We’re – as Filmiere.com – sadly sharing the news of his death with you. The first news came from Latvian media as apparently Kim has caught COVID-19 in Latvia and passed away there.

While his legacy is complicated, due to sexual harassment allegations as well as for few other things like killing real animals for filmmaking but his films had been an important part of world cinema and his cinematic achievements were huge for Asian cinema and probably the world in cinema in general.

His most recent film “Dissolve” was in co-production with Kazakhstan and he tried to give political messages like the so wanted peace between South and Northern Koreas in “The Net.”. His cinematic voice will be missed by many cinephiles around the world.

Credit: Mensur Zeinal