Hong Kong Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Veteran Chinese director Zhang Yimou will be presented with a lifetime achievement award at the upcoming edition of the Festival of Far East Film in Italy’s Udine (April 24 – May 2). The lineup will include three films by Zhang: his 2023 political thriller “Under the Light” in its competition section; as well as “To Live” and “Raise the Red Lantern” in its restored classics section. The festival’s total lineup includes 74 films in total – 47 in competition and 28 out of competition) from 11 countries.

EXO singer D.O. – real name Doh Kyung-soo – has announced his upcoming 2024 ‘Bloom’ fan concert tour of Asia.Today (March 25), EXO’s D.O.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Thailand’s Nation Group news media conglomerate is investing in a forthcoming feature film “Nak Ruk Mak Makk Mak,” the company said. The film is a romantic comedy inspired by Thai ghost tale “Mae Nak Phra Khanong.” Buoyed by a string of recent successes and a government initiative to bolster national soft power and the creative industries, Thai film is attracting new investors.

Hong Kong’s lawmakers have unanimously passed a national security legislation, which will come into effect on March 23.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Net profits at Tencent Music Entertainment, China’s largest digital music company, climbed 36% to reach $735 million (RMB5.22 billion) in 2023 – despite revenues declining by 2% to $3.91 billion. Fourth quarter profits were worth $198 million (RMB1.41 billion), earned from revenues 7% down at $971 million (RMB6.89 billion). The final figures cap a year in which the New York and Hong Kong listed subsidiary of Tencent saw monthly active user (MAU) numbers fall as it successfully organized the transition of a growing number of free users into paying subscribers. In the full year, revenues from music streaming subscriptions grew by 39% to $1.70 billion. That resulted from a 21% growth in the number of paying subscribers (from 88.5 million to 107 million) and a 20% increase in the average revenue per subscriber to RMB10.7 or $1.49.

BOYNEXTDOOR, TWS, ZEROBASEONE, NCT Wish and TEMPEST, girl group Red Velvet, and singers Jung Yong-hwa and Choi Yena. They will be joined by Japanese groups INI, JO1 and ME:1.

With a solid offshore hold, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two is closing in on $500M globally. The overseas weekend brought in $51.2M across 73 markets, a 40% drop versus last session (-37% excluding China). The international box office cume through Sunday is $289.4M, and worldwide the running total is $494.7M. The latter figure means the film has already surpassed Villeneuve’s 2021 Dune worldwide.

Faye Bradley Actor Louis Koo is a household name in Hong Kong but off-screen, he’s an influential entertainment industry investor, producer and entrepreneur. Rising to prominence during the “golden age” of Hong Kong cinema, Koo built a respected career over the decades but less flashy are his businesses and investments. One Cool Group is one such revenue stream.

Variety Lounge at the 2024 Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FILMART) emerged as a dynamic hub of creativity and insight. The studio played host to a series of illuminating interviews featuring prominent figures in the global film industry including European filmmaker Cristiano Bortone, producer and co-founder of boutique studio S11 Partners Ltd.

Mad Max films, has died in a car crash at the age of 85.The stunt performer’s death was announced by his son Leroy, who revealed that his father hit a tree while driving alone near his home on the coast of New South Wales, Australia.Leroy described his father as a “legend”, adding that he died “very happy”. He told the Daily Mail Australia: “He died in very high spirits and he was very motivated.”Page had a long career in the world of stunt performing, and regularly worked with Mad Max director George Miller.Having performed memorable stunts in the original Mad Max (1979) and third movie Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Page reunited with Miller for forthcoming film Furiosa, the Anya Taylor-Joy-led prequel which focuses on a younger version of Charlize Theron’s character from Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).Some of Page’s other notable credits include The Stuntmen, Kung Fu Killers, and The Man From Hong Kong, in which he served as a double for James Bond star George Lazenby.One of Page’s frequent collaborators Trenchard-Smith paid tribute to the stuntman on his blog, praising him for being able to “deliver Hollywood-level action and mayhem”.

Grant Page, the Australian stunt icon who performed in and coordinating stunts for the original Mad Max, sequel Beyond Thunderdome, the upcoming prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and more than 100 other films and TV series, died Thursday in a car crash. He was 85.

We’re back again, Insiders. Jesse Whittock with you this week, as Netflix showcased its latest wares, Hong Kong welcomed the entertainment world and Argentinian film was plunged into crisis. Here we go. Sign up to the newsletter here. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Linmon Pictures, one of the most outward-looking mainland Chinese entertainment firms, is preparing premium series “Hate Coin.” The show is being produced in association with Jonathan Wong and Justina Shih’s production company Octagon Metatainment, a Hong Kong-based multimedia studio. “Hate Coin” is based on international best-selling novel “Second Sister,” by successful Hong Kong novelist Chan Ho Kei, whose previous book “The Borrowed” was a crime story that panned five-decades. The story follows the activities of a young woman whose school-age sister appeared to have committed suicide. Suspecting foul play, the woman trams up with a manipulative hacker and cybersecurity expert to try to dig deeper. “What follows is a cat and mouse game through the city of Hong Kong and its digital underground, especially an online gossip platform, where someone has been slandering Siu-Man.

A memorial service for former Dumfries Tory councillor, Lieutenant Colonel John Charteris MBE, is to be held tomorrow at 2pm at the Crichton Memorial Church in Dumfries.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hollywood producer and financier Joseph Cohen (“Brokeback Mountain,” “12 Years A Slave,” “Sicario,” “La La Land”) is launching a new company in Hong Kong called MediaRealm Advisors Asia. It will provide consulting services to Asia-based institutional and professional investors looking to invest in American Entertainment Investors mainstream Hollywood movie projects. He is joined in the venture by Hong Kong and Tokyo based Adam Guy Orlebar Garrett.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Orange Sky Golden Harvest, the multi-territory cinema operator, Wednesday warned that it would return to losses when it reports its 2023 losses. The announcement, made in a regulatory filing, came just days after the company denied that it was preparing to sell off its cinemas in Singapore, which represent the biggest component of its business.

This year’s Filmart was definitely bigger and busier than last year, which was the first physical edition following the reopening of Hong Kong and mainland China’s borders after the pandemic. According to Filmart organizers, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), more than 750 exhibitors and 7,500 visitors attended this year’s Filmart, compared to around 700 exhibitors and 7,300 visitors in 2023. But despite frenetic meeting activity, the market did little to dispel fears that international sales business in the region, already in decline before the pandemic, is not yet recovering. International sales agents under the IFTA and European Film Promotion (EFP) umbrellas had packed meeting schedules.

The fact that both Asia and Europe are finding it more difficult to finance movies following the pandemic may drive the two regions to start working together more closely, despite the huge differences in their funding systems, said a group of leading producers on a two-session Filmart panel.

HCG AwardPresented by CAA ChinaTwo cash awards of $20,000 value each. CAA China may board the winning projects later by entering into script development agreements. “Call of Lobster” (Taiwan) Dir.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong’s Film Development Council has unveiled the first shortlisted projects under its new scheme to develop content for streaming platforms. The Content Development Scheme for Streaming Platforms was announced last year. It aims to nurture cross-sectoral production teams and expand new distribution market and takes the form of a competition to recruit participating teams that develop a mini-series for streaming platforms.

Faye Bradley Chinese creatives are refining a new trend in entertainment: the super-short streaming series. Each episode in the series typically lasts less than two minutes, making them easily consumable on mobile devices. Each series consists of 20 to 100 episodes in total, and covers a wide range of genres such as comedy and romance. “The mini-drama series is the industry’s response to the new mode of viewing enabled by portable devices such as mobile phones,” said Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh, dean of arts and director of the Centre for Film and Creative Industries at Lingnan University.

Faye Bradley Faye Bradley Hong Kong Design Institute has announced the opening of a new virtual production studio at Shaw Studios, one of the biggest and most comprehensive film facilities in the Greater Bay Area. It is intended to support professional education in the sector and enhance filming facilities in the city.

Naman Ramachandran Dubai-based sales agency Cercamon has acquired worldwide rights for Indonesian film “Crocodile Tears,” it was revealed at Hong Kong rights market FilMart. The film is a co-production between Indonesia’s Talamedia (producer Mandy Marahimin), Singapore’s Giraffe Pictures (producers Anthony Chen and Teoh Yi Peng), France’s Acrobates Films (producer Claire Lajoumard) and Poetik Film (producer Christophe Lafont) and Germany’s 2Pilots Filmproduction (producers Harry Flöter and Jörg Siepmann). The deal was negotiated by Sebastien Chesneau at Cercamon, Chen at Giraffe Pictures and Marahimin at Talamedia.

Naman Ramachandran Korean action drama “A Shop For Killers” has become the most viewed local original on Disney+ in the Asia Pacific region (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Philippines) so far in 2024, the streamer has revealed. Set in contemporary Korea, the eight-part series follows college student Jeong Jian who dives for cover in her childhood home after a series of highly skilled assassins come after her.

Naman Ramachandran Shreyom Ghosh’s “The Vampire of Sheung Shui” is unique in that it is a Hong Kong-set horror-comedy with a protagonist of Indian origin. It has been selected for the 22nd Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the project market that operates concurrently with FilMart. Written by D.F.W.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Escaping Man,” a Chinese drama feature about a man dragged into a kidnap plot, heads the FilMart slate of Hong Kong-based sales agency Autumn Sun Company. The protagonist is a man who spent 20 years in jail after being falsely accused of rape. After his release, he intends to confront the woman, but instead falls for her again — to the point that she is able to manipulate him into kidnapping the child for which she is the nanny.

Naman Ramachandran Taiwan-based anime distribution and licensing company Muse Communication has acquired Asian distribution rights for anime “Dan Da Dan,” it was revealed at Hong Kong rights market FilMart on Monday. Written and illustrated by Yukinobu Tatsu, Japanese manga series “Dan Da Dan” was serialized in Shueisha’s Shonen Jump+ app and website from 2021. The anime series based on it is due to bow in October.

Naman Ramachandran Celebrated Philippines filmmaker Lav Diaz‘s examination of the human condition continues with “Kawalan.” The work-in-progress has been selected for the 22nd Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the project market that operates concurrently with FilMart. In the film, Tomas, the old venerable mayor of the remote town of Kawalan, learns that the invading Japanese will set up a garrison there. He organizes willing members in his community to set up a hidden settlement in the middle of the forest, where they can live unaffected by the horrors of war.

Naman Ramachandran Acclaimed filmmaker Hong Khaou‘s “Walled City” has been selected for the 22nd Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), the project market that operates concurrently with FilMart. Khaou’s debut, “Lilting” (2014), starring Ben Whishaw and Cheng Pei-pei, premiered in the world cinema dramatic competition at Sundance, winning best cinematography. “Monsoon” (2019), his second feature, starred Henry Golding and premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief China’s unprecedented economic and social transformation in the latter part of the 20th century has been picked over in dozens of movies by filmmakers ranging from Jia Zhangke to Wang Xiaoshuai. But with more than one billion people affected by China’s transformation, there is no shortage of personal stories and no end of ways to tell the tale. Sophomore filmmaker Huo Meng trains his eye on one of those stories in his second film, “The Wind Is Unstoppable,” which he is just finishing off.