Kore-eda Hirokazu Set as Star of Los Angeles’ Emerging Japanese Films Screening Series

pic.twitter.com/zCtmuSUB0oWills was called up to the Dodgers from the minor leagues mid-season in 1959, playing all six games in their World Series victory that year. The following year, he hit .295 and led the league with 50 stolen bases in his first full season.

Snoop Dogg, which will include a brick-and-mortar store in Inglewood, California.As reported by AllHipHop, Tha Dogg House will feature a mural of the rapper as well as life-sized Funko Pop! figures.The Funko store will be located next to Snoop Dogg’s clothing store near SoFi Stadium and will offer exclusive collectibles along with other Funko products.“This new store stays true to who I am as an entrepreneur and rapper,” the rapper said in a press release. “I can’t wait for my fans to experience it, to touch it, to feel it.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Veteran film, theater and opera director Julie Taymor has been set as the president of the competition jury at next month’s Tokyo International Film Festival. Taymor (“The Lion King”) will head a small group that selects the winners from the 15 competition titles that unspool in Tokyo between Oct. 24 and Nov. 2, 2022. The other four members of the jury will be announced later. Taymor is the second woman to head the jury in as many years and follows Isabelle Huppert in 2021. There was no competition in 2020 due to COVID. And in 2019, the jury was headed by China’s Zhang Ziyi.

Michaela Zee editor The American Film Institute has announced that the world premiere of “Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me” is set to open the 36th edition of AFI Fest on Nov. 2. “AFI is proud to launch AFI Fest 2022 with ‘Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me,’ a film as profoundly powerful as it is personal,” AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale said in a statement. “Selena is a global force in art and entertainment, and we are honored to partner with her, Alek and Apple to shine a light upon her journey in this beautifully crafted celebration of optimism, vulnerability and hopefulness.” Directed by Alek Keshishian (“Madonna: Truth or Dare”), the documentary explores Gomez’s rise to stardom as an actress and singer, along with the personal crises she’s endured throughout her life.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Fragments of the Last Will,” a post-WWII prisoner of war drama, has been set as the opening title of next month’s Tokyo International Film Festival. It is directed by Zeze Takahisa. The festival, which runs Oct. 24-Nov. 2, 2022, will close with “Living,” directed by Oliver Hermanus and starring Bill Nighy. The film is a reworking of Kurosawa Akira’s 1952 classic “Ikiru,” with a revised screenplay by Ishiguro Kazuo. “Fragments” is based on the true story of Yamamoto Hatao, a Japanese prisoner of war detained in a Siberian gulag. He believed that he would be able to reunite with his wife and children in Japan and for eleven years fought to keep the light of hope alive for his fellow POWs.

Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, the director’s semi-autobiographical movie based on his own family and upbringing, has released its official trailer.

“The Fabelmans” made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, and a new trailer offers a glimpse of the latest film from acclaimed director Steven Spielberg.

The Fabelmans is coming!

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards, Features Editor It was near impossible not to fall in love with Kenny Payne from the moment he appeared on Season 4 of “Cobra Kai,” the wildly popular Netflix series set in the universe of “The Karate Kid” movies. On his first day at a new school, he is caught dancing exuberantly as the school bus picks him up — and instantly becomes the target of Anthony LaRusso, the son of Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso. And it’s a testament to actor Dallas Dupree Young that as Kenny changed in Season 4 to the point where he turns the tables on his bully, that audiences are still rooting for him. The 15-year-old Young never intended on becoming an actor — his father is Eric Young Sr., a former Major League Baseball player and current first base coach for the Atlanta Braves, and Young thought he would follow in his father’s footsteps. But he went to an open call on a whim and ended up being advanced to a showcase in Los Angeles, where he met his manager. He was soon booking roles in shows like “The Good Place” and “Mixed-ish,” and even working with Steven Spielberg in the film “Ready Player One.” Says Young, “It did fall into my lap, but I felt a love and a passion for the craft instantly.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Netflix announces production of upcoming Japanese series “House of Ninjas,” set for release in 2024. Ninjas are the legendary Japanese heroes of the shadows, known for their ambush attacks and ferocious fighting style. But they remain figures of mythology or, at least, the past. Set in modern-day Japan, “House of Ninjas,” tells the story of the Tawara family, the last ninja clan. It had abandoned its roots after an incident in the past, but now the family must take on the greatest crisis in Japanese history, one that threatens to shake the nation to its core.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief

Thania Garcia Surprise! BTS’ “Permission to Dance on Stage” Los Angeles concert is now available to stream on Disney+ worldwide. The streaming service is kicking off their annual Disney+ Day by unveiling the BTS concert film, which showcases the boy band’s string of shows at SoFi Stadium in late 2021, where the group took over for a four-night run. The concert film, produced by HYBE and directed by Sam Wrench and Junsoo Park, is said to be “stage-focused” and includes performances of the group’s biggest hits like “Dynamite,” “Butter” and “Permission to Dance.” Tickets for BTS’ mini-residency at SoFi Stadium sold out immediately for all four nights and notched a historic boxscore total that, according to the Billboard Boxscore, was the largest gross for a run of shows at a single venue since 2012.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Make no mistake: CJ ENM is on the move. The South Korean conglomerate that has done as much as any company to build out the nation’s entertainment ecosystem is actively looking to expand its “production capability and competency.” That’s the word from Kang Ho-sung, CEO of the cluster of film, TV and music companies that now share the CJ ENM banner. Kang gave a rare, extensive interview to Variety on Aug. 21 in downtown Los Angeles on the sidelines of CJ ENM’s KCON LA pop culture convention, which brought in close to 100,000 fans from across the U.S.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Prolific Japanese film director Miike Takashi and Indonesian genre specialist Kimo Stamboel will be among the star names in the ‘On Screen’ section of the Busan International Film Festival given over to TV series. Miike has made “Connect,” a Korean-language crime fantasy thriller about a man who is kidnapped and has one of his eyes removed by a gang of organ harvesters and transplanted into the body of a notorious serial killer. The unwilling donor now has terrible visions as he witnesses terrifying attacks on the residents of Seoul. The show was written by Nakamura Masaru and Heo Dam (“Monstrum”). It features Korean talent including Jung Haein (“Snowdrop,” “Start-Up,” “Tune in for Love”) in the lead role and Ko Kyungpyo (“Decision to Leave,” “Seoul Vibe,”) as the serial killer, and Kim Hyejun (“Inspector Koo,” “Kingdom,” “Sinkhole”) as the mysterious Irang.

Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” will close out the 2022 AFI Fest, the American Film Institute announced Tuesday. “The Fabelmans,” which has been touted as Spielberg’s most personal film to date, stars Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle and Judd Hirsch in a story inspired by Spielberg’s own childhood. The film follows the formative years of a young man as he discovers a shattering family secret, causing him to use movies as a means to help him see the truth about others and himself. The ensemble cast for “The Fabelmans” includes Jeannie Berlin, Julia Butters, Robin Bartlett and Keeley Karsten, with music by John Williams. Janusz Kaminski serves as cinematographer, and the film is edited by Michael Kahn and Sarah Broshar. Production design is helmed by Rick Carter, and the costume design is overseen by Mark Bridges.

Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans will make its U.S. premiere at AFI Fest 2022 — closing out the festival at the TCL Chinese Theatre on November 6. The latest film from the AFI Life Achievement Award recipient is set to make its world premiere this month at the Toronto Film Festival, arriving in theaters beginning November 11.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A weekend concert by Hong Kong acting and singing superstar Andy Lau Tak-wah attracted a record-breaking 350 million viewers on Douyin, the mainland Chinese sister company of TikTok. The concert ran for two hours and attracted 100 million viewers in the first 30 minutes, with tens of millions more joining by the end. The figures beat Lau’s own previous record on the platform, which he set in July last year at a concert to celebrate his 40 years in the business. The South China Morning Post said the record numbers were swelled by a recent wave of nostalgia for Canto-pop or Cantonese-language contemporary music, though the paper also noted that Lau also performed a couple of Mandarin-language classics.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Two Korean and two Indian movies make the cut in the Busan International Film Festival’s New Currents main competition section. Thet are joined by one each from Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Germany. The section has a track record of making significant discoveries among new Asian films and directors.The selected titles are eligible for multiple awards, including the New Currents Award, the FIPRESCI Award, the NETPAC Award, and the KB New Currents Audience Award. The selection comprises: “Ajooma,” directed by Hu Shuming (Singapore-Korea); “Blue Again” from Thailand’s Thapanee Loosuwan; “Hail to Hell,” by Korea’s Lim Oh-jeong; “Memento Mori: Earth,” by Vietnam’s Marcus Vu Manh Cuong; “No End,” directed by Nader Saeivar and flying the flags of Germany, Iran and Turkey; “A Place Called Silence,” by Malaysia’s Sam Quah; “Shivamma,” fromIndia’s Jaishankar Aryar; Japanese director Kubota Nao’s “One Thousand and One Nights”; “A Wild Roomer,” from Korea’s Lee Jeong-hong; and The Winter Within,” directed by Aamir Bashir, and structured as a co-production between India, France and Qatar.

A somewhat vague emergency broadcast system alert interrupted television viewing around 5:35 Pacific time today, ordering an immediate mandatory evacuation for a strange assortment of unspecified locations.