Tokyo Olympic film debuts in Japan; headed next to Cannes

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Broker,” the unconventional family drama which appeared in competition at last month’s Cannes Film Festival, topped the box office in South Korea on Wednesday, its opening day.“Broker” grossed $1.10 million, enough to depose crime actioner “The Roundup” from the top spot that it had enjoyed for the past three weeks and which had made it the highest performing film this year.According to data from the Kobis tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council, “Broker” played on 1,590 screens and sold 145,000 tickets for Wednesday screenings. Its cumulative total of $1.15 million includes some $44,000 of previews earned on 14 screens.The feat by a local art-house film gives further support to the notion that cinema attendance is rebounding in Korea.

the 12-minute standing ovation the Broker cast received at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.The actress recently appeared on an episode of SBS Power FM’s Cine Town segment, where she spoke about what it was like to be part of the Broker cast at the annual film festival. “It felt so unreal,” Lee, who plays Detective Lee in the film, said of the experience, per SBS News.“I had a feeling that Song Kang-ho [who plays the character Sang-hyeon in Broker] would be named ‘Best Actor’ for his performance, so I kind of looked forward to that,” she added.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentNaomi Kawase, Japan’s best-known female film director, has been accused of bullying her company staff and assaulting a member of her film crew.In late April, Bunshun Online, the website of a leading weekly tabloid, published an interview with a former male staffer of Kawase’s production company Kumie. He stated that Kawase had punched him in the face in the company office in October of 2015.

Spanish Filmin Buys Lars Von Trier’s ‘The Kingdom’ Trilogy

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentSpanish streaming service Filmin has acquired Lars von Trier’s “The Kingdom” trilogy, along with the full library of films by the director, from TrustNordisk.Von Trier is currently completing the third and final instalment of “The Kingdom,” his cult 1990s TV show about the good, evil and paranormal inside the neurosurgical ward of Denmark’s main hospital.Filmin is also acquiring the restored Seasons 1 and 2 of the show and will launch the complete series in Spain. The trilogy has already been acquired in several territories, including Germany and Austria (Koch Films), Japan (Synca Creations) and South Korea (AtNine).“We are pleased to experience this high level of interest in the series among buyers, who are evidently intrigued and excited about the series’ epic story, director and cast, which of course comes as no surprise,” said Susan Wendt, TrustNordisk’s managing director.

Broker and Decision to Leave have made history at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, marking the first time two Korean works have won at the same ceremony.The upcoming Korean films Broker and Decision To Leave have both taken home one award each at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, marking the first time two Korean films have won an award at the festival in the same year.South Korean actor Song Kang-ho, who rose to international prominence in Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite in 2019, took home the Best Actor award for his role in Broker, which was directed by Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. This makes Song the second Korean, after Jeon Do-yeon for 2007’s Secret Sunshine to win the award, and the first Korean male actor to do so.During his acceptance speech, the 55-year-old actor thanked director Hirokazu Kore-eda, along with his Broker co-stars Gang Dong-won, IU, Lee Joo-young and Bae Doo-na.

Following the sparsely attended media conference for Close at Cannes this morning, journalists packed their way into the press room to hear Broker director Hirokazu Kore-Eda and cast, giving them a standing ovation.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKore-eda Hirokazu, director of the well-received Cannes competition film “Broker” says his diverse and lonely characters constitute a family of choice.“This film tells the story of a family which came together by choice. Each character had been rejected. They set off on a car journey, as if by accident.

Broker, starring singer-actress IU, was given a 12-minute standing ovation at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.Broker, the first-ever Korean-language film by Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda, recently premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on May 27. Once the screening had concluded, the fil received a 12-minute-long standing ovation from those in-attendance, according to a report from Korean news outlet Edaily.The publication also claimed that the standing ovation began with Cannes Film Festival’s executive director, Thierry Frémaux.

In Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters,” a group of small-time thieves forms their own makeshift family, living every day not only through pure survival instinct but a genuine love for each other. For his first film set in Korea, the Japanese filmmaker reflects on similar themes in “Broker,” a road trip odyssey reflecting on the family we choose and the family we tearfully let go of.

The Palme d’Or can be a blessing and curse, a gold-plated sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of filmmakers lucky enough to claim it. After the first waves of shock and joy recede, and their subsequent year-long victory lap reaches the finish line, those same filmmakers are left alone with one troubling thought: What’s next? Director Hirokazu Kore-eda offers a fine case study in how that question might trip someone up.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBerlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal has closed further deals for Jan Gassmann’s “99 Moons” in Italy (Teodora Film), France (La Vingt-Cinquième Heure) and Japan (AT Entertainment), following the film’s world premiere in the Cannes’ ACID sidebar.“99 Moons” follows the passionate and turbulent relationship of Bigna and Frank, two people from different worlds who become entwined in an erotic love story. With raw and intimate cinematography (Yunus Roy Imer, “Systemcrasher”), the film takes an unflinching look at the magnetism and power games of sexual attraction.

Naman Ramachandran The late Govindan Aravindan’s 1978 masterpiece “Thamp̄” (“The Circus Tent”) is one of two Indian films at this year’s Cannes Classics selection, alongside Satyajit Ray’s “Pratidwandi” (“The Adversary”) from 1970.“Thamp̄” was painstakingly restored by India’s Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), an organization founded by filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur (“Celluloid Man,” “CzechMate: In Search of Jirí Menzel”) in 2014. Dungarpur facilitated the restoration of Uday Shankar’s landmark film “Kalpana” (1948) by Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation, the restored version of which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKawase Naomi, the Japanese auteur who won the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and has had films in competition on multiple other occasions, is paying a flying visit to the festival with “Official Film of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Side A,” which screens on Wednesday evening.A feature-length documentary, “Side A” is focused largely on the athletes. “Side B,” Kawase’s next project, casts a wider net and captures what Kawase calls a turning point for Japanese society.The International Olympic Committee hired me to do it. I was elected or nominated by the IOC.

While Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden dealt with a lot of sex and kink in its story of a handmaiden who gets into the good graces of her Japanese heiress, only to defraud her, the Korean filmmaker in his latest Decision to Leave, dotes on a detective Hae-Joon (Park Hae-il) who is head over heels with a very possible murder suspect, Seo-rae (Tang Wei).

South Korea may have made big inroads on American TV recently with “Squid Game” and “Pachinko,” and the country’s intriguing film and television industry also has a stronger-than-usual presence at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae’s political thriller “Hunt” premiered as a midnight screening early in the festival; Davy Chou’s “Return to Seoul” landed a pre-Cannes deal with Sony Pictures Classics and is one of the hits of the Un Certain Regard sidebar; and Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda is in the main competition with “Broker,” his first film shot in South Korea in the Korean language.

Japanese Breakfast made her Saturday Night Live debut last night (May 21) on the show’s season 47 finale – watch her play ‘Be Sweet’ and ‘Paprika’ below.The singer-songwriter, aka Michelle Zauner, released new album ‘Jubilee’ last year, and appeared alongside host Natasha Lyonne, star of Russian Doll and Orange Is The New Black.Zauner played two of the biggest hits from ‘Jubilee’ on the show. For ‘Be Sweet’, she was dressed in deep red and backed by a four-piece band all in white, before she donned a white frock and was joined by a horn section for ‘Paprika’.Watch the two performances below.Last night’s SNL season finale also saw the departure of longtime cast member Pete Davidson.Fellow cast members Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon and Kyle Mooney also announced they were to leave the show after last night’s episode.The news comes after Davidson remarked in 2021 that he was “ready to hang up the jersey” with regards to his stint on SNL.Elsewhere on the 47th season of the show, Post Malone made his Saturday Night Live debut, with Selena Gomez also be making her debut on the NBC programme as host.During his performance, the rapper was joined by Fleet Foxes to premiere ‘Love/Hate Letter to Alcohol’, a song from his forthcoming album ‘Twelve Carat Toothache’.The May 7 episode of SNL, meanwhile, featured Arcade Fire as musical guests, following the release of their latest album ‘WE’ last Friday.

Pete Davidson is set to leave Saturday Night Live at the end of the current season, it has been reported.The show’s 47th season comes to a close tonight (May 21) with musical guest Japanese Breakfast alongside Russian Doll and Orange Is The New Black star Natasha Lyonne as host.According to reports in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, the show will be Davidson’s last on the show after seven seasons in the job.The reports also state that fellow cast members Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon and Kyle Mooney are also set to leave the show after tonight’s episode.The news comes after Davidson remarked in 2021 that he was “ready to hang up the jersey” with regards to his stint on SNL.Representatives for SNL network NBC have not commented on the matter or confirmed the departures.After his apparent SNL exit, Davidson is set to appear alongside Myha’la Herrold (Industry), Lee Pace (Guardians Of The Galaxy), Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby) and Chase Sui Wonders (Generation) in comedy horror film Bodies Bodies Bodies.Directed by Halina Reijn, Bodies Bodies Bodies sees Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) host a house party to introduce her girlfriend Bee (Maria Bakalova) to her group of friends. As they play a murder-in-the-dark game which ends in a real-life murder, the group have to investigate who is responsible.Other forthcoming projects for the star include a role in romantic comedy Meet Cute opposite Kaley Cuoco, while Davidson is also set to play a fictionalised version of himself in the comedy series Bupkis, described as a “raw” and “unflinching” version of Davidson’s real life.

Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney will not return to the long-running sketch series next season, ET has learned. McKinnon and Bryant both joined in 2012, while Mooney was cast on the series the following year. was first to report the news. NBC had no comment when reached by ET.When ET’s Will Marfuggi spoke to Bryant in March, she had yet to decide if she'd return to the series for another season.«It's definitely where I've grown up,» Bryant told ET of .

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentThe Japanese film industry has long been notoriously insular, a tendency the pandemic only exacerbated. As the Hollywood pipeline shut down in 2020, local audiences flocked to local films.