Frater Asia: Last News

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Production firm Movierock and rights sales outfit Hive Filmworks are in advanced production on “Hear Me: Our Summer,” a Korean remake of hit 2009 romance film “Hear Me” from Taiwan. The story involves a motorbike delivery man who falls in love with a hearing-impaired younger woman. Comparing themselves with water birds and trees the pair slowly try to break through the barriers in their relationship, pursue their dreams and take things to the next level. The retread stars Hong Kyung, who has a recent string of appearances including Netflix’s “D.P,” “TV’s Revenant” and “Hero,” and the upcoming “Troll Factory.” Co-star Roh Yoon-seo has credits in “Crash Course in Romance” and “Our Blues” and is currently one of the most ubiquitous faces in Korea thanks to her position as the face of the Paris Baguette bakery and café chain. Stylistically, the adaptation aims for the feel of Iwai Shunji’s pan-Asian hit “Love Letter,” and is directed by Jo Seon-ho, who previously made “A Day.” Movierock previously produced a 2018 Korean remake of 2004 Japanese hit “Be With You.” The film is already being pre-sold to multiple territories in Asia.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Hong Kong-Europe-Asian Film Collaboration Funding Scheme being launched this week in Berlin is intended as a major component of an exercise in rehabilitating and internationalizing the Hong Kong film industry. In unprecedented fashion, the territory’s Film Development Council is getting ready to start giving cash grants to movie projects that don’t necessarily have to shoot in the city or even use one of its three official languages.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief On Saturday, audiences in Berlin will see the world premiere of “Above the Dust,” a Chinese-made drama that plays somewhat incongruously in the Generation Kplus section, which screens films for or about children. Whether the film plays again, and where, is moot.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taiwan-based auteur Tsai Ming-liang, who has two films in the Berlinale this year, is a contrarian who would be almost at home working with art-galleries and museums as cinemas and film festivals. Indeed, his new “Abiding Nowhere” is part financed by the Smithsonian Institute. “Abiding Nowhere,” which premieres on Monday in the Encounters section and consists of lonely wanderings through Washington DC by a barefoot monk, is, by Tsai’s own admission, “not a normal film.” “It does not have a story or a plot.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief In January, when Netflix unveiled its slate of Chinese-language original productions for 2024, all of them turned out to be Taiwanese. Not Chinese. And not from Hong Kong, a territory that once produced over 300 movies a year in multiple Chinese dialects.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Culturally pluralistic and gender-diverse Taiwan is the backdrop for “The Chronicles of Libidoists,” a new film by Gilles Yang, a director whose three previous films have also explored the erotic. The story is inspired by “The Little Mermaid,” the traditional fairy tale in which a mermaid princess falls in love with a human prince. But in Yang’s hands there is a twist in that the mermaid turns out to be a boy.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Asia Argento (“xXx,” “Land of the Dead”) and Melvil Poupaud (“Speed Racer,” “Laurence Anyways”) will star in French crime thriller “Stronger Than the Devil.” The project will be pitched for the first time at the European Film Market, attached to the Berlin Film Festival, by All Rights Entertainment, the Hong Kong, Paris and Los Angeles-based film sales agency which has picked up the rights. The picture, which heads into production later this month, is written and directed by Graham Guit (“Les Kidnappeurs,” “Hello, Goodbye”). The finished film is expected to be completed by the autumn.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taipei and Los Angeles-based Organic Media Group has picked up rights to U.S.-produced classical music documentary title “Crescendo” and will be launching it at the European Film Market, which accompanies the Berlin Film Festival. The picture had its first commercial release in South Korea in December and became the highest grossing foreign documentary in the last three years.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief U.S-Asian sales company EST N8 has picked up the international rights for “30 Minutes,” a Korean sci-fi thriller film that is currently in production. The story revolves around a middle-aged man trapped in a time loop, repeatedly reliving the Christmas Eve of his murder.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A three-year run of poor box office performances is sure to hurt the South Korean sales companies touting their new titles at the European Film Market — but not by that much. Certainly, the box office malaise undermines the ability to market some titles on the strength of their theatrical earnings back home. But the Korean film industry still has numerous other calling cards.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Acemaker Movieworks, the young Korean studio behind 2023 hit “Noryang: The Sea” and “A Man of Reason,” is using the Berlin Film Festival‘s European Film Market to launch crime drama “Troll Factory,” its next big budget movie. Film’s plot revolves around an investigative journalist who, while probing a story about the manipulation of public sentiment, uncovers the existence of a so-called “troll factory” and is confronted with an unbelievable truth. The movie is in post-production and recently set March 27 for its theatrical release in Korea.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Iconic German film and TV executive Jan Mojto is launching a partnership with longstanding friend and UFA head Nico Hofmann that will produce German and European series and films for the international market. They are joined in the unnamed venture by Beta producer Jan Wünschmann. The partnership was announced Wednesday, on the eve of the annual Berlin Film Festival.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Cinema box office in Hong Kong failed to live up to expectations over the Lunar New Year holidays, even as local films led the chart. Movie theatre takings between Feb. 9-13 in Hong Kong weighed in at just HK$48.6 million ($6.23 million), according to data provided by Hong Kong Box Office Limited, a joint venture between Motion Picture Industry Association (MPIA) and the Hong Kong Theatres Association.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong will offer more than $1 million per project to film coproductions with Europe under a new grant scheme to be launched this week at the European Film Market in Berlin. The territory’s government is also sponsoring a visit to Berlin by a select group of producers and directors. The Hong Kong-Europe-Asian Film Collaboration Funding Scheme is an extension of the Hong Kong-Asian program that was launched in January last year.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The New Zealand International Film Festival has appointed veteran programmer Paolo Bertolin as its new artistic director. The festival, which travels around the country, will return in July and August, but stop in just four places.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Operating income at the ‘Pictures Division’ of Sony Group Corporation climbed by 56% to hit $281 million in the October to December 2023 quarter, the Japanese company reported on Wednesday. Sales increased from $2.35 billion to $2.47 billion in the latest period. The division spans movie production and distribution, television networks and TV content production.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Choi Yoonhee has been named as the new CEO of Barunson E&A, the Korean sales and production firm that is making a splash at the European Film Market in Berlin this week. Choi, who joined the firm in 2021 from CJ ENM, takes over from Gene Hong (Brian) Park and Kwak Sin Ae.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Australia-based indie sales firm Odin’s Eye Entertainment has picked up international rights to adult-skewing animation film “The Weird Kidz.” The film, which has a 1980s vibe and sense of humor, debuted last year in festivals and Odin’s Eye will be using Berlin’s European Film Market to launch an expanded version. A weekend camping trip becomes a disarming and unexpected rite of passage for three adventurous boys and one big brother looking to score with his girlfriend.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Indian director and cinematographer Jatla Siddhartha has assembled several of the biggest names in world cinema in service of “In the Belly of a Tiger.” The film has its premiere next week at the Berlin Film Festival. Pitched as a blend of surreal horror and selfless love, the film is a fictionalization of reportedly real events in rural India, in which a couple arranges to be eaten by a tiger in order to ensure their family’s financial security.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Four Chinese films dominated the global box office charts over the weekend, with combined takings of $350 million earned over just two days. And, as North America watched the Super Bowl instead, the weekend’s top Hollywood title, “Argylle” earned just $15.9 million worldwide. Chinese titles eschewed their usual Friday release pattern and opened on Saturday, the first official day of the Lunar New Year holiday period in China and much of Asia. Female-directed comedy drama “YOLO,” earned $113 million (RMB802 million), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was narrowly ahead of car-racing comedy “Pegasus 2,” which earned RMB758 million or $107 million and was the bigger title on Saturday.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hollywood fantasy film “Wonka” held strongly at the top of the South Korean box office on a weekend boosted by the Lunar New Year holidays. But Hollywood spy comedy “Argylle” opened disappointingly in seventh position. Korea allocates three days of public holiday to the Lunar New Year and took them this time from Friday to Sunday.