Japan Society’s Monthly Classics series returns, there’s a box office receipt scandal in China and Smartphone Film Festival is on the rise…
Mark your calendars! Japanese cinema addicts in New York City will be pleased to hear that Japan Society has launched a full season of Classic screenings that will run from September through June 2016. The Monthly Classics series kicked off on 4 September with a special screening of Japanese cinema’s first-ever colour film, Carmen Comes Home (1951), a visual treat that is mostly set outdoors at the foot of Honshu Island’s active volcano Mount Asham. Fittingly, the story heats up when Carmen returns to her village after years of living in Tokyo and causes scandal when it is revealed that she was a stripper during the era of U.S. occupation. If you missed this Fujifilm colour experiment, then there is plenty to celebrate in October at Japan Society. As part of their Okinawan Vibe Series and in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of its cinematic release, there will be a screening of Go Takamine’s first theatrical feature Paradise View (1985) on 2 October. If that’s not enough, the Monthly Classics series will also be celebrating Kon Ichikawa’s centenary by presenting the North American Premiere of new 4k restorations that include Conflagration (1958), Her Brother (1960) and An Actor’s Revenge (1963).
Netflix set for world domination
In Video on Demand (VoD) news, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix have gone head to head by launching their mobile network streaming services this month in Japan. This is an already heavily saturated market that includes local networks and Hulu (which sold its Japan operations to Nippon TV in early 2014). Netflix will continue its global expansion with the announcement of its plans to launch the streaming service in early 2016 to four more Asian countries that include Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. With the addition of Australia and New Zealand earlier this year and Italy, Portugal and Spain next month, Netflix is working feverishly to become the global VoD leader by quadrupling its current service from 50 countries to 200 by the end of 2016.
A box office receipt scandal is making headlines in Mainland China with the success of China Film Group’s latest propaganda film The Hundred Regiments Offensive. Released on 28 August, 6 days before the country’s massive 70th anniversary celebration of China’s victory over Japan, the film depicts a patriotic battle in 1940 that alludes to the Communist Party’s role in the eventual defeat of Japan in 1945. According to official box office numbers, Regiments has made a whopping $39.4 million in its first week while Hollywood’s blockbuster Terminator Genisys has grossed $26.6 million over the same period. All this despite having opened with 99,728 screenings compared to Terminator’s 250, 435 screening total.
In the past, China Film Group has created incentives that encourages local film marketing groups to boost the attraction of the domestic film industry. However, these recent complaints surrounding box office receipt fraud are not coming from Hollywood but from CEOs of China’s largest private film studios. Not only have they called foul play on Regiments suspicious per-screen average performance against Terminator, but these CEOs have also claimed that the box office numbers of their own films, The Dead End (by Bona Film Group) and Tale of Threes Cities (by Huayi Brothers) have been tampered with. Yu Dong, of Bona Film Group, wrote on social media platform WeChat: ‘We never steal others’ box office, so please don’t steal ours’ while Wang Zhonglei, president of Huayi Brothers posted ‘Where’s all the box office gone? Please keep those dirty hands away!’. Rumors are circulating that the sale of tickets to other films were logged in as Regiments. What’s more, some patrons have even posted video footage on social media that reveal ushers changing the name of tickets from Terminator to Regiments. It should be noted here that Terminator grossed a healthy sum of $111.9 million in China out of its $435 million worldwide total. Consequently, it is highly unlikely that Paramount studios, which released Terminator, will make a fuss about these potential revenue losses.
Meanwhile, the much beloved Japanese actor, director, screenwriter, TV host and comedian Takeshi Kitano (otherwise known as Beat Takeshi) is now gearing up to further expand his career with this autumn’s launching of an online magazine. Kitano will be in charge of writing and editing the magazine’s content which will include manga, poems and an ‘agony uncle’ column titled Owarai KGB (Big laughs – expose the wig-wearers). Previously, Kitano has contributed his thoughts and experiences about the celebrity world in the comedic weekly tabloid Asahi Geino that resulted in a book publication.
South Korea’s annual Olleh Smartphone International Film Festival was in full swing this week in which 1,003 entries were submitted. Having received films from less wirelessly connected regions of the planet that include Somalia, Syria, Ethiopia and Nepal, the festival has proven its own motto that anyone can make films using a smartphone. This year’s festival also introduced a feature section which is a first for Smartphone Festivals worldwide. Of the 823 participants in the competition category and 20 scripts, there were 15 winners. Cho Kyu-jun’s The Stranger received the grand prize, while the Best Short under 10 Min went to The Present Future, by Kim Joong-yub. International winners include Philipp Andonie of Switzerland who won Best Director for Nachtschicht, and Paul Trillo of the United States who received the Jury Prize for The Life and Death of an iPhone.
In other news, the North Korean mission in Nigeria has made a formal complaint to Nigeria’s National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) with regards to a film containing provocative material that has somehow managed to surface through illegal distribution channels. According to a statement made by Mike Ekunno, the Head, Corporate Affairs of NFVCB, the unnamed film incites the assassination of North Korean Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-Il. This description bears a striking resemblance to the Hollywood action-comedy The Interview which caused an uproar in North Korea at the time of its theatrical release. In response to North Korea’s dissatisfaction, Director General of NFVCB, Patricia Bala, has stated, ‘The agency has already swung into action against the illegal distribution of the said movie. The monitoring and enforcement operatives of the board are under clear directives to track and bring those involved to face the full weight of the law’.
Hong Kong Action film fans will be delighted to hear that DIFF PIX will be back in Dublin to present a weekend full of classics that include films starring Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li along with a rare screening of Ching Siu-tung’s film Duel to the Death. The event will kick off on Friday 25 September with a martial arts demonstration at Smithfield Square and will continue with screenings throughout the weekend at Lighthouse Cinema.
In other European film festival news, John Woo will be celebrated with a retrospective of his career as a filmmaker at the 9th edition of Poland’s Five Flavours Film Festival. Along with screening six masterpieces directed by Woo, the festival programme showcases both recent and classic Far East cinema. Film festival passes are now available and the festival takes place in various locations in Warsaw from 12-20 November.
Hollywood is attempting to cash in on the recent phenomenal success of China’s Monkey King by converting the mythical Chinese story into an English-language version. The film is based on the children’s storybook legend of Monkey King, a man born from a heavenly stone who brought Buddhism to ancient China. The film which took in $167 million in 2014, was the third-highest-grossing film in China. Its animated remake Monkey King: Hero Is Back which debuted this summer also fared well by grossing nearly $151 million. Los Angeles-based Abstract Entertainment have teamed up with China’s Eracme Entertainment to co-produce the film and have already hired Christopher Yost as its screenwriter. Yost is an American film, animation and comic book writer who is well known for his Marvel animated series The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and his screenwriting credit for the blockbuster film Thor: The Dark World.
On the heels of its international premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, South Korea’s major cop thriller hit Veteran will arrive in North American cinemas on 18 September. Since its national release on 4 August, Veteran has raised $79.2 million thereby making it one of the country’s highest grossing films of all time. The all-star cast includes Hwang Jung-min (Ode to My Father) and Yoo Ah-in (The Throne).
In production news, a Marathi biopic of the late actor-director Bhagwan Dada (née Bhagwan Abhaji Palav) is in the works. After directing the musical hit Albelba in 1951, Dada struggled financially and is known to have experienced poverty later in life. The biopic will focus on the short period of his success in the 1950s and thereafter. Shekhar Sartandel will direct the film while actress Vidya Balan has been signed on to play the role of Geeta Bali who starred in Albeiba’s original production.
The multi-hyphenate film professional Ava DuVernay who is best known for her directorial credit Selma in 2014, has announced plans to re-brand her distribution company African American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM). The company, which will also be relaunched as Array, aims to increase the number of films made by all women and expand its Black female filmmaker focus to Latino, Asian, Native American and Middle Eastern minorities. Array plans to distribute its films through independent film houses and the network streaming service platform Netflix.
For the last bit of news this week, reports confirm that the Japanese monster will be resurrected in its homeland for the production of the working title ‘Shin Gojira’, roughly translated into English as ‘New Godzilla’ or ‘True Godzilla’. Asian filmmakers Hideaki Anno (Neon Genesis Evangelion) and Shinji Higuchi (Gamera Trilogy, Attack of Titan) will co-direct the film. In an interview with Rocket News 24 Higuchi stated that the film aims to be the most terrifying Godzilla kaijiu yet because of its connection with real world events.
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