Chow Yun-fat Bemoans Censorship in China at Busan Asian Filmmaker of the Year Event

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Ichiyama Shozo assumed control of the program of the Tokyo International Film Festival after a long programming career that included Tokyo and the slightly more indie Tokyo Filmex events. He is also a regular producing partner of Chinese art-house darling Jai Zhangke. These influences have shaped his approach to this year’s Tokyo IFF lineup, he told Variety.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Zootopia-themed land at Shanghai Disneyland is now confirmed to open in December. It will be the eighth land within the seven-year-old theme park. Based on the Walt Disney Animation Studios animated film “Zootopia,” which released in 2016, the new land will include a new attraction, Zootopia: Hot Pursuit, where guests can hop on an all-terrain cruiser powered by a trackless ride system in an action-filled chase through Zootopia’s different districts. Other themed entertainment experiences and character moments include the Zootopia Park Apartments, where a lineup of animal residents will interact with each other and guests throughout the day, appearing from time to time, in a show. Guests will also get the chance to spend at Fashions by Fru Fru, a merchandise store owned by Fru Fru, a Zootopia fashionista.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Only the River Flows,” a pitch-black crime noir from auteur Wei Shujun, comfortably topped the mainland China box office on a quietish weekend. The film, ostensibly a murder mystery, but one concerned more with atmosphere than linear plotting, earned $12.6 million (RMB90.8 million) in its opening three days, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway, or close to a third of the market. The film had its premiere in Cannes where Variety gave it a rave review, calling it an “inventive riff on Asian-noir” and making comparisons with films by Park Chan-wook and Diao Yinan. “Only the River Flows” has since played at a succession of festivals ever since, including New Zealand, BFI London, Vancouver, Adelaide and last week’s Pingyao event in China. Falling to second place at the box office after three weeks on top was Zhang Yimou’s “Under the Light,” which earned $6.9 million for a four-weekend cumulative of $176 million. Chen Kaige’s war, propaganda film “The Volunteers: To the War” earned $5.3 million in third place.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” opened with an unconvincing second place debut at the South Korean cinema box office. It earned $406,000 between Friday and Sunday and $499,000 over its full four-day opening period. Its market share was a shade below 9%, according to data from KOBIS, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That left “Love Reset,” a local romantic comedy, at the top of the chart for the third successive weekend.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Along with the expansion of streaming, among the unintended consequences of COVID and the SAG-AFTRA actors strike has been global consumers’ growing consumption of non-English-language films and TV shows. That in turn has elevated familiarity with and acceptance of Asian local shows and Asian performers – not just those riding the Korean wave.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese movie conglomerate Hengdian Films has inked a contract to fit Imax with Laser premium large format screen systems at 20 of its cinema locations. The order is the Imax’s largest recorded during the past four years. Hengdian Films is a pre-existing Imax client and the new deal will expand its Imax screen count to 27 when completed.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Sony Pictures has acquired the English-language remake rights to Chinese comedy drama, “Hi, Mom,” which until recently overtaken by “Barbie” had been the world’s highest grossing film directed by a solo female. The original picture, directed by Jia Ling and released in early 2021, sees a young woman whose mother has been fatally injured in a car accident, travel back to the early 1980s where she becomes best friend to the younger version of her mother. That enables her to work on giving her mother a better life than first time around.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Two titles which debuted at Cannes this year were named as the major prize-winners at the seventh edition of the Pingyao International Film Festival in China. Wei Shujun’s black comedy-thriller “Only the River Flows” won the festival’s Fei Mu prize for best Chinese film.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A dearth of new release films allowed Zhang Yimou’s “Under the Light” to retain a comfortable lead at the China box office over the weekend, in its third week of release. The contemporary crime drama film earned $13.5 million (RMB97.2 million) between Friday and Sunday, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. Since releasing on Sept. 28, it has accumulated gross revenues of $163 million (RMB1.17 billion).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Iqbal H. Choudhury’s “The Wrestler” and Mori Tatsutya’s “September 1923” were announced joint winners of the New Currents competition at the Busan International Film Festival. “The Wrester” “was like a single round match, magically depicting an exciting narrative,” the jury said.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Solids by the Seashore,” “The Berefts” and “House of the Seasons” were all multiple winners of the Vision Awards at the Busan International Film Festival on Thursday evening. Another winner was “Yellow Door: ’90s Lo-fi Film Club,” a documentary celebrating Korea’s early cinephiles, who include “Parasite” director Bong Joon-ho. The Vision Awards precede the main New Currents Competition and the Jiseok Competition prizes which will be presented on Saturday at the festival’s closing ceremony.FIPRESCI Award“That Summer’s Lie” Dir. Sohn Hyun-lok.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Australian TV journalist Cheng Lei has returned to her home country after three years in jail in China, the Australian government said on Wednesday. Born in China, but holding an Australian passport, having grown up in Melbourne, Cheng was a high-profile TV anchor for CGTN, the international broadcast arm of state-owned China Central Television. She fronted the “Global Business” daily show.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Hong Kong-listed shares of Imax China wobbled in reaction to the defeat of a buyout proposal that would have seen the Canadian parent company Imax Corp. take outright control. Imax Corp.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taiwanese actors King Jieh-wen and Hsueh Shih-ling and Indonesia’s Angga Yunanda are set to star in “Malice,” a multinational Asian thriller that will shoot next year. The film’s producers, actors and government backers presented the fully-assembled package to press and industry on Monday at the Busan International Film Festival. The film, pitched as “a road movie at sea,” is a dark tale of three men who put out to sea in search of a particular, large swordfish that had been rumored to have died out.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Zhang Yimou-directed contemporary drama film “Under the Light” retained its top spot at the mainland China box office for a second weekend, but with numbers that dropped steeply, as macro-economic weakening led to a Golden Week of across the board disappointment. Financial media Monday reported that consumers travelled less and spent less on leisure than had been forecast, likely reflecting general economic belt tightening, high unemployment and property sector worries. Before the holidays, cinema ticketing firm Maoyan had forecast that the first three days would throw up box office of RMB1.5 billion (208 million) and that “Under the Light” alone would reach RMB2 billion ($278 million) by the end of the eight-day holiday season (Sept. 29-Oct.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief EST N8, a recently-established finance, production and rights sales company, has added a Hong Kong remake of classic film “Tape” and the LGBT comedy-drama “ASOG” to its bulging sales slate at the AFCM market that accompanies the Busan Intenational Film Festival. “Tape” tells the story of three best friends who, following an event at a graduation party that transforms their lives, reunite 15 years later where a case of blackmail forces them to confront a terrible secret from their past. The original film starred Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Robert Sean Leonard and played at the Sundance, Toronto and Rotterdam festivals.In the Cantonese-language remake directed by Bizhan Tong, Selena Lee, Kenny Kwan, and Adam Pak play the contemporary characters while Mason Fung, Summer Chan, and Angus Yeung portray the characters’ younger versions. The script is written by Stephen Belber, Tong, Lee and Bonnie Lo, and is an adaptation of Belber’s own scripts from both the original film and stage play. The writers and director have significantly modernized the script to reflect advances in technology. Producers on the film include Tong, Lee and Belber.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean sales agency Finecut has struck a raft of rights sales on upcoming fantasy-romance “Secret: Untold Melody.” The film, which will premiere at the upcoming Hawaii International Film Festival, tells the tale of a man whose promising piano career is cut short by a wrist injury. He returns to Korea and falls in love with a mysterious woman at his music college.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Seoul-based sales company Finecut has struck key Asian deals for the vigilante action movie “Brave Citizen.” In Korea, the film is presented by Content Wavve, one of the country’s leading OTT platforms and is headed for a Korean theatrical release on Oct. 25.Finecut has sealed deals with Kadokawa Plus for Japan, with Moviecloud for Taiwan and with Lumix Medi for Vietnam.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The growing media and entertainment connections between Korean Americans and those Koreans living in Korea may be changing both communities, a public discussion at the Busan International Film Festival on Friday heard. “Being in a room full of fans, feels like they accepted me as a member of the family. It feels like, culturally, Korea [may be in] a moment of transition,” said John Cho. He was joined in the debate by actor-director Justin Chon (“Gook”), director Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) and actor Steven Yeun, who are all either first or second generation immigrants to the U.S. They were careful not to speak about their current movies or projects out of respect for SAG strike protocols, but the avoidance of promotional niceties permitted a wider-ranging and more philosophical discussion. It touched on issues of identity, generational change and the development of the post-pandemic, streaming-era global village. “The reception I’ve had [in Busan] feels connective, not foreign, like living in a global reality,” said Yeun.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Leading Korean content firm Showbox Corp. has added “The Killers,” an unusual anthology film, to its Busan rights sales line up. The film takes its title and themes from Ernest Hemingway’s 1927 short story of the same name.