Tokyo Film Festival to Go Ahead With Physical Event

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Tokyo International Film Festival will shine a spotlight on the work of internationally-acclaimed Japanese director Koji Fukada during its 33rd edition. The festival will be held in front of live audiences Oct.

Maggie Lee Chief Asia Film CriticFour days feels like an eternity in “The Eight Hundred,” mainland Chinese writer-director Guan Hu’s monumental, if sometimes unwieldy epic interpretation of the courageous defense of a warehouse by the Chinese Nationalist Army in October 1937. For those with little knowledge of the Sino-Japanese War, the bombardment of facts, action and characters in the 147-minute film can be too much to take in at one go.

The Tokyo International Film Festival, which plans to forge ahead with a physical edition in late October, will showcase the work of rising Japanese arthouse director Koji Fukada. Fukada will be this year's director in focus of the festival's Japan Now section, which will include a gala selection of his films, ranging from his debut feature, Human Comedy in Tokyo(2008), to his much anticipated latest work, The Real Thing (2020).

As we start to look past the nightmare that has been 2020 and look forward to a (slightly) more hopeful 2021, we’ll start hearing of the winter film festivals’ plans soon. First, it was Sundance announcing plans for a shorter edition of the festival, still taking place in person.

The Berlin International Film Festival, the last of the big A-list festivals to be held in Europe before the coronavirus lockdown, has committed to holding a physical event next year. The 2021 Berlinale is set to run February 11-18.

The Venice Film Festival, the first major in-person cinema showcase of the COVID-19 era, is requiring participants to wear face masks during screenings and take a coronavirus test if they are arriving from outside Europe. According to guidelines published Thursday, fans and the general public will be kept away from the red carpet during the Sept.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentFilmination, an online marketplace for Japanese content, is expanding and relaunching. The object is to smooth and speed up the often-cumbersome process of dealing with Japanese rights holders.Pitched as the first of its kind in Japan, the revamped site allows rights holders to present their wares and rights buyers to select films and TV series.

Also Read: Is 'Greyhound' Based on a True Story?The film, which is being released in some theaters (and virtual theaters) on the Aug. 14 anniversary, will also air on the Discovery Channel on Labor Day weekend, which is closer to the Sep.

What do you get lost in? Is it perfectly mundane or something deeper, even darker, than the pursuits of your public persona? The new film “Lost Girls & Love Hotels” explores one woman’s pull towards the latter as an escape. Running from the past and facing an uncertain future in a foreign land it questions the constructs of what we hide from, not to mention how we do it.

Maggie Lee Chief Asia Film CriticWant to impress your date by fighting off her molestor? Wish your stand-up comedy act would bring the house down? Or looking to pack your grumpy grandpa’s funeral with keening mourners? Call “Special Actors,” an agency that supplies performers to help you keep up with the Suzukis — or out-scam your scammers.The third feature by Shinichiro Ueda, director of Japanese cult zombie comedy “One Cut of the Dead,” is a daffy ensemble trickster comedy with a few “gotcha”

was forced to scrub this year’s edition due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Tribeca Film Festival has announced it will return in 2021.

London Marathon have announced the mass running event has now been cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentThe Tokyo International Film Festival  (TIFF) will host physical screenings for its 33rd edition, which is currently scheduled for Oct. 31-Nov.

From “The Kissing Booth” to a “Bullet Train,” it appears that Joey King is on the fast track for box office success. According to Deadline, King is in negotiations to star opposite Brad Pitt in the upcoming action-thriller “Bullet Train,” which is directed by David Leitch and written by Zak Olkewicz.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Pictures Division of Japanese entertainment and tech giant Sony achieved operating profits of $230 million in the April to June quarter.The wider corporation enjoyed a 53% increase in net income, hitting $2.19 billion (JPY233 billion) in the first quarter of its new financial year.

Kristine Kwak Some two weeks after releasing “Map of the Soul: 7 — The Journey,” BTS’s fourth Japanese studio album, the band is set to return with new music, this time in English.Columbia Records gave the BTS ARMY a pleasant surprise on July 28 by posting a countdown and link to the date of the record’s release, Aug.

ARMY was definitely stumped for a second but not completely surprised to see Jin debuting new hair colour (ARMY is a bit confused between orange and light brown) as BTS appeared for a Map of the Soul: 7 - The Journey online event in Japan. Given that the septet will soon kickstart their next comeback, the fandom is used to seeing the members change their hair colour with every comeback.

Christopher Vourlias Throughout the anxious weeks leading up to the opening night of the 19th Transilvania International Film Festival, as the coronavirus pandemic continued to spread across Romania, government officials began to impose a series of increasingly rigorous safety protocols that cast the festival’s viability in doubt.