TikTok Partners With Japan’s Toho to Launch Film Festival

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefMusic, games and pictures all contributed to a doubling of full year net profits at Sony, the Japanese electronics and entertainment group, despite disruptions caused by the coronavirus.Reporting its financial results for the January-to March fourth quarter and 12-month results from April 2020 to March 2021, Sony said that annual sales increased by 9% to JPY9.00 trillion.

Vivienne Chow Retrospectives tributes to German director Volker Koepp and Takamine Go from Japan are featured in the upcoming Taiwan International Documentary Festival, which will kick off on Friday and run until May 9, 2021.The Filmmaker in Focus section will include 11 films by Koepp and the festival claims that the program is one of the most comprehensive showcases of the director’s work in Asia.

Logan Paul is preparing to take on a legend.

Japan is calling for strict restrictions just ahead of the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

In the early morning hours of April 23, NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center was aglow, as the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off into outer space for a six-month stay. Aboard the rocket was NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, who was also joined by fellow NASA team member Shane Kimbrough, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, and Akihiko Hoshide from Japan.

Benoit Paire will not be going to the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentNational-holiday-studded Golden Week, which runs from April 29 to May 5, has long been a peak movie-going period, especially for vacationing schoolkids and their families.

ViacomCBS is joining hands with Tokyo-based internet giant Rakuten to launch the Nick+ kids streaming service in Japan. The partnership was unveiled Tuesday at APOS, the Asia's leading media and entertainment summit.

BAFTA Names TV Awards Hosts Richard Ayoade is returning to host the BAFTA Television Awards for the second year, while actor, writer, and director Gbemisola Ikumelo (Famalam) has been named as the host of the British Television Craft Awards. The main TV awards have been scheduled for June 6 on BBC One, while the craft ceremony will take place on May 24. Nominations will be announced on April 28 at 7:30AM local time in the UK.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefViacomCBS International has partnered with the Rakuten Group to launch the Nick Plus streaming service on RakutenTV in Japan. The deal is explained as an example of the U.S.

After breaking all-time box office records in Japan late last year, the anime adaptation Demon Slayer – Kimetsu No Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train hits North American cinemas on Friday via Aniplex of America and Funimation. Based on the Shonen Jump manga and Ufotable/Aniplex 2019 anime TV series, it picks up where the first season left off and takes place chiefly on a train — although an Inception-flavored plotline gives added dream action. 

Netflix is so famously data-driven that understanding its growth strategy tends to be ruthlessly straightforward: "Follow the money." Recently, a growing share of the streamer's cash pile has been pouring into two key content categories in East Asia: South Korean drama and Japanese anime. In February, Netflix held a star-studded event in Seoul, where it pledged to spend $500 million on South Korean film and series in 2021 alone.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFilm Movement has acquired North American rights to “They Say Nothing Stays The Same,” the feature film debut of Joe Odagiri, a popular Japanese actor and musician.The lushly lensed Japanese drama premiered at Venice and went on to play at Busan. Among its many accolades, the pic won best feature film at Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in Turkey and was nominated for the Golden Star at El Gouana.

Maggie Lee Chief Asia Film CriticIn the spirit of “Thelma and Louise,” a lesbian fugitive and the woman she’d kill for hit the road with three stilettos and a blood-red BMW in “Ride or Die.” A glammed up, erotically-charged cocktail of amour fou and true romance directed by Ryuichi Hiroki and written by Nami Kikkawa, the Netflix production gives agency to full-blooded female protagonists.

cruise around Japan with Good Housekeeping. FIND OUT MORE The 15-day Japan cruise will take you on a journey far and wide through the fascinating land.

Japan's Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (TBS) and Indian media conglomerate Zee Entertainment said Tuesday that they have entered into a multifaceted co-production agreement. Under the deal, which was unveiled during MIPTV, the new partners will develop formats across genres to cater both to their respective domestic markets and for global sales and overseas distribution.

Japanese in 2019.“On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer.

In a somewhat improbable pairing, Chinese-owned video app TikTok has partnered with Japanese film studio Toho, the home of Godzilla and Kurosawa, to launch an online shortform video competition. The partners are calling the event the "TikTok Toho Film Festival 2021," although it appears much more like a marketing exercise designed to win TikTok Japanese users than anything like a traditional film festival.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBBC Studios, the commercial arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation, has appointed Phil Hardman as senior VP and GM of its operations in India, South East Asia, Japan and Korea.The move is a streamlining of operations under Jon Penn, executive VP for the APAC region.