city Tokyo: Last News

Netflix has revealed the list of films and TV series that will be removed from the streaming service beginning on February 1, 2025, and continuing throughout the month.

We hear that it’s true — the Barbie superstar is in talks to join Shawn Levy’s Star Wars movie.

first playoff game of the season.On January 17, was photographed in the Big Apple wearing black & gold mere hours before she is to don Chiefs red & gold at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. On January 18, the Kansas City Chiefs face the Houston Texans in hopes of moving one step closer to this year's Super Bowl.

Sideshow and Janus Films have picked up all North American rights to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest flick Cloud. 

Webtoon Entertainment‘s Japanese subsidiary, LINE Digital Frontier, unveiled its strategic investment in Japanese webcomic and manga studio No. 9.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Marco Dutra’s “Bury Your Dead” has been acquired by Dark Star Pictures for North American distribution. The deal was closed by Berlin-based sales agent M-Appeal. A teaser is debuted below.

The Hong Kong Film Development Council (HKFDC) has revamped its film financing program with the launch of a new scheme to support the local industry through a bumpy post-pandemic market. 

Jamie Lang Spain’s Canary Islands video game industry got a major shot in the arm this week as local developer Quantum Box Games, a studio based in Gran Canaria, secured a significant Japanese investment. The deal, worth 300 million yen (approximately $1.9 million), was forged with Route24, a Japanese game development company led by industry veterans who have worked on some of gaming’s biggest franchises, such as “Final Fantasy,” “Chrono Trigger” and “Super Mario RPG.” Route24 boss Kenichi Nishi, a former Square Enix developer, is teaming up with Keita Eto, another Square Enix veteran, and Quantum Box Games to develop a new JRPG titled “Kiriko the Mystic.” The partnership marks a significant milestone for the islands’ local gaming ecosystem as it will see home-grown artistic talent collaborate with some of Japan’s most renowned video game creators.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Neo Sora, the filmmaker and artist behind “Happyend,” has signed with Cinetic Media. The move comes after “Happyend,” which Sora wrote as well as directed, premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. It went on to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival and Busan International Film Festival, earning positive reviews at each stop.

K-pop agency SM Entertainment has announced the upcoming release of a compilation album to celebrate its 30th anniversaryOn January 13, SM Entertainment unveiled a teaser clip announcing the release of its upcoming compilation album. Titled ‘2025 SMTown: The Culture, The Future’, the album, which celebrates the agency’s 30th anniversary, arrives on February 14.“Through this album, we will once again prove the power of SM music that transcends generations,” said SM Entertainment per Yonhap News Agency.The record will include a total of 17 tracks, including lead single ‘Thank You’, which will be performed by all artists under the agency.

TV presenter Nicki Shields says the secret to her work-life balance is having a supportive husband. Nicki is the face of ITV’s newly-acquired coverage of Formula E motorsport, having worked with the series for over 10 years. But working in international motorsport - which takes place in glamorous locations such as Miami, Tokyo and Monaco worldwide - has a clear toil on home life.

Squid have shared their latest single ‘Building 650’ and announced a string of UK headline shows for 2025.The art-rock band are preparing to release their third studio album ‘Cowards’ via Warp Records on February 7 (pre-order here) and have already shared the lead single ‘Crispy Skin’.Now, they have released a second single, the bright and colourful ‘Building 650’, which frontman Ollie Judge has said was inspired “by our first ever trip to Japan”. Check out the video, directed by Felix Geen, Daisuke Hasegawa and Kuya Tatsujo, here:“We played the Summersonic festival in 2022, luckily we were booked to play 2 days after the COVID travel ban had been lifted, because of this we felt like some of the only tourists in Tokyo,” Judge explained.“On the plane I read In The Miso Soup by Ryu Murikami and watched Lost in Translation out of excitement and later decided to write lyrics about being an outsider visiting Japan, including a very particular type of loneliness one can feel visiting a country that is so different from their own.

Naman Ramachandran The Asian Film Awards Academy (AFAA) has tapped actor Dean Fujioka as Ambassador for its upcoming 18th edition, along with four Youth Ambassadors who are fellow actors – Aokbab Chutimon (Thailand), Austin Lin (Taiwan), Lo Chun Yip (Hong Kong) and Okada Masaki (Japan). Fujioka, known for “Fullmetal Alchemist” and winner of Best Actor at the 12th Confidence Drama Awards for “Monte Cristo: A Beautiful Revenge,” started his career in Hong Kong before gaining recognition across Asia in Taiwanese dramas. The Youth Ambassadors bring diverse experience to their roles.

EXCLUSIVE: Fox has a new global TV distribution boss.

Naman Ramachandran The final weekend of 2024 witnessed a significant upswing in China’s box office, with Gengxi Pictures’ “Big World” leading the charge by grossing $28.2 million (RMB200 million), according to data from consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. Directed by Yang Lina, the film stars Jackson Yee as Chunhu, a young man with cerebral palsy who assists his grandmother, portrayed by Diana Lin, with a stage play while preparing for college exams. It won the audience award at the Tokyo International Film Festival earlier this year.

M.T. Vasudevan Nair, legendary Indian author, screenwriter and director, died Wednesday, Dec. 25 at a hospital in Kerala’s Kozhikode district, days after suffering cardiac arrest, the Times of India reports. He was 91.

Solo Leveling is coming back soon!

EXCLUSIVE: Ansel Elgort (Tokyo Vice) has signed on to star in If You Could See Me Now, an adaptation of the 2005 novel from Cecelia Ahern, to be directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Prisoner’s Daughter).

Naman Ramachandran Theater play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child“ is expanding its global footprint with two new international productions slated for Brazil in 2025 and the Netherlands in 2026. The Brazilian production, marking the play’s Latin American debut, will be performed in Portuguese under VME‘s banner. Stage Entertainment will mount the Dutch-language version in the Netherlands.

Chappell Roan, Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa have appeared in Apple TV’s A Carpool Karaoke Christmas.The festive special aired last night (December 15), with an hour-long instalment of the show put out on Apple’s platforms in a surprise release.Taking over from James Corden, Zane Lowe took on the role of guest driver and part-time backing singer as he shuttled the three artists around Missouri, Tokyo and Los Angeles, with Roan and Lipa covering Christmas classics as well as their own hits.The ‘Good Luck, Babe’ singer took on Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’ – which she recently performed alongside Sabrina Carpenter on A Nonsense Christmas With Sabrina Carpenter -while Lipa tackled the Ronettes’ ‘Sleigh Ride’.Gaga, true to form, elected to sing an original, joking to Lowe she prefers “a song that the whole family can get together and sing,” before breaking into 2008’s ‘Christmas Tree, in which she sings: “Underneath the mistletoe, everybody knows we will take off our clothes.”Throughout her segment, Gaga discussed her “crazy” collaboration with Bruno Mars and her upcoming album, ‘LG7’. After showing a clip of her late grandmother singing ‘Highway to Hell’, Lowe also surprised her and made a pit-stop to pick up AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, prompting the ‘Born This Way’ singer to recall being an extra in one of their videos when she was a teenager.Lipa also reflected on her teenage years while out Christmas shopping with Lowe in Tokyo, telling him she once got up on stage at a Katy Perry gig to perform a Whitney Houston cover alongside other audience members.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic All they want for Christmas is to ride shotgun. Superstar pop divas Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa and Chappell Roan go a-SUV-caroling in “A Very Carpool Karaoke Christmas,” a holiday special that was unwrapped as a surprise release Sunday night on Apple TV+ and Apple Music. The hour-long installment of the Emmy-winning “Carpool Karaoke: The Series” was put up on Apple’s platforms in a surprise release Sunday night at 9 p.m.