Frater Asia: Last News

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief In a stunning sweep of the main awards, Japanese drama “Teki Cometh” snared three top prizes at the closing night ceremony of the Tokyo International Film Festival on Wednesday. The film was named as the Tokyo Grand Prize, or best film, winner. Its helmer Yoshida Daihachi was named best director.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Reverse engineering a previously English-language script into a bilingual, dual-location thriller is one possible route to giving Taiwanese feature films a better shot in the international marketplace. So too, is adapting a previously successful romantic novel that could be partly filmed in the U.K. Both approaches were spelled out on Wednesday at a panel discussion at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest titled ‘Where is the silver lining for TW film?’ The session involved well-established director Nelson Yeh (“Night Market Hero”), U.S.-based director Weiko Lin and Taiwan female actor and screenwriter Herb Hsu (“Untold Herstory”). Over the course of the session, the trio mentioned various challenges facing the Taiwanese industry.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Thai film director Paween Purijitpanya has directed “Tomorrow and I,” a four-part anthology series for Netflix. It covers topics including cloning, prostitution, religion and global warming. The series expands the streamer’s roster of Thai content and represents its first from the country in the sci-fi register.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Boys Love (‘BL‘) genre is getting bigger. Big enough for producers to organize fan meets similar to those for Asia’s mainstream TV shows or pop music stars. In an event organized at Westar, Taipei, the Taiwan-based LGBTQI-streaming platform GagaOOLala hosted its first fan meet for its original BL musical series “First Note of Love” on Saturday.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Executives at The Taiwan Creative Content Fest were told Tuesday that Thailand will soon increase its location production rebate system to 30% of applicable spending, up from the current 20%. They were also told that $6.7 million of new funding is being made available for the year to next October. Both commitments were made by “Adam” Chalermchatri Yukol as part of a wide-ranging and detailed presentation on Thailand’s long-awaited soft power initiatives.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s largest phones and broadband internet company, unveiled an investment and production slate of two new series and two movies on Tuesday, the first day of the Taiwan Creative Content Fest. The new titles are part of the giant firm’s effort to build out the creative industries ecosystem and follow a year on from a co-financing deal with Taiwan’s ministry of culture. “Chunghwa Telecom is not just a platform and internet service. We need to support the content industry,” said Hu Hsueh-hai, president of consumer products. Asserting that “content is king, and channels are queen,” Hu explained the company’s three goals for 2025 in the content sector.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Tape,” a Hong Kong remake of Richard Linklater’s iconic 2001 psychological thriller film of the same title, is heading for the American Film Market and theatrical release in its adopted territory. In anticipation of those steps, the producers are unreeling a “Tape” trailer. “Tape” explores the fallout from a traumatic event at a high school graduation party, forcing the three former friends to confront their past in a story that delves into themes of power, manipulation, and the subjective nature of truth.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province is to be a prominent fixture at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) this week in Taipei, Taiwan (Nov. 5 to 8). Through its Gyeonggi Content Agency, the province will operate the Gyeonggi Pavilion to introduce the products and services of promising companies and sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) for strategic collaboration.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Luke Hemsworth has joined as a leading cast member in Season 2 of Australian crime comedy-drama series “Deadloch.” The Prime Video series is shooting now in Queensland, Australia. Created and written by Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, the series sees two female detectives in harsh and tropical Darwin investigating the death of Bushy, the former policing partner of one of the women.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Miyagawa Eriko, producer of the Emmy-winning drama series “Shogun” will be on hand to lead a training session at this week’s Taiwan Creative Content Fest that takes place before the TCCF’s centerpiece pitching sessions. Miyagawa is joined by Liu Hsinyi, line producer of the British series “Fleabag,” one of the biggest critical and commercial hit comedies in recent years, and Martin Vandas, CEO of the Czech animation company Maur film. The experts will help improve the content and tune up the presentation of the pitches to increase their chances of entering the global market. The pitching awards will be judged by a panel that includes: Kwon Hojin, senior executive director of the Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS); Banjong Pisanthanakun, director of the Thai classic horror film Shutter; and Srishti Behl, senior producer of Phantom Studios and previous Netflix executive in India. The TCCF Pitching offers an array of prizes – cash and in kind. These include the $30,000 provided by TAICCA for the TAICCA Award: Best Project.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Odin’s Eye Entertainment has come on board as international sales agent to “Stealing Pulp Fiction,” an audacious heist comedy from director Danny Turkiewicz. The company will launch it to overseas buyers at the American Film Market that starts in Las Vegas this week. It had its world premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival on Oct.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Absolute NT has been appointed to distribute cloud-based content aggregator Airtime in Thailand. By working alongside smart TV manufacturers including Sony, Samsung, LG and Philips, the Airtime service facilitates in-room premium entertainment to hotels, hospitality and healthcare companies without hardware or PMS licenses. It accesses content from Hollywood studios including Paramount, Disney, Fox, Marvel, Dreamworks and Universal Studios, as well as news providers NHK-World, Bloomberg and Euronews. Airtime was launched in the U.K.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Venom: The Last Dance” held on for a second weekend win at the South Korea theatrical box office. It fended off a decent challenge from local comedy “Amazon Bullseye.” “Venom” earned $2.21 million in its second full weekend of release, down 48% from (a steeply revised figure of) $4.45 million reported by Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council. Since releasing on Oct 23., “Venom” has built a cumulative total of $9.34 million. Newly released “Amazon Bullseye” shot $1.45 million over the weekend and $2.37 million over its five-day opening run.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Venom: The Last Dance” held top spot at the mainland China box office for the second consecutive weekend. It beat newly released Andy Lau-starring thriller “Cesium Fallout.” “Venom: The Last Dance” earned RMB104 million ($14.6 million) over the weekend, according to data from consultancy service Artisan Gateway. That is more than 50% lower than its debut weekend, but still lifts the film to a $70.8 million cumulative after 12 days on release.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Mainland Chinese film and TV studio Linmon Media says it is expanding its commitment to the costume drama series genre. At this week’s TIFFCOM film and TV rights market, which takes place alongside the Tokyo International Film Festival, gave updates on four costume drama series and other contemporary shows. These will release through 2025 and early 2026. Executives were also in Tokyo for the international launch of “The Unseen Sister,” the company’s Midi Z-directed mystery drama film that played in the Tokyo International Film Festival’s main competition.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Earlier this year, when he was guest of honor at the Asian Film Awards, Kurosawa Kiyoshi was in determined mood as he spoke about his craft, his influences and a need to keep reinventing himself. Six months and several accolades later, he is just as resolute. “I turned 68 last year.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Small Hours of the Night,” by Singapore director Daniel Hui, has been removed from the lineup of the Singapore International Film Festival. The city-state’s authorities have refused the film a release certificate, meaning that it is effectively banned and that the festival cannot go forward with the docu-drama’s planned screening in its Undercurrents section. The festival has made no public statement, but its website shows the film as not available for screening. In the early years of Singapore’s independence (from the British Empire in 1963 and from Malaysia in 1965), Tan Chay Wa had been an armed activist, possibly a Communist, who rejected the two countries’ separation.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Japan’s Agency for Cultural affairs, Friday, announced the first young filmmakers to receive support under its new Film Frontier Global Networking Program. The agency explained that Film Frontier will operate with two cycles, allowing the selected four a chance to brush up their presentation skills before then giving them opportunities to present at overseas film events. It will also connect young film makers with experienced professionals as mentors.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Purin Pictures, a non-profit film fund supporting independent cinema in Southeast Asia, has unveiled $170,000 of grants in its autumn funding round. Its reading committee chose three fiction and two documentary projects for production support and one fiction project for post-production support. The fiction films are “Daughters of the Sea,” a story of three intertwined lives, to be directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar (“Leonor Will Never Die”) and produced by Monster Jimenez and Rajiv Idnani, through Philippines company Arkeo Films; writer-director and editor Daniel Hui’s “Other People’s Dreams,” about two runaways who become invisible thieves in Singapore, produced by Tan Si En at Momo Film; and “Sitora,” by Diffan Sina Norman, a drama about the oldest member of a village community which is about to be consumed by the urban sprawl. The project is to be produced by Tara Ansley, Armen Aghaeian, Zurina Ramli through Malaysian firm Rangka Pictures. The two documentaries receiving production support of $15,000 each are “Black River,” directed by Tran Phuong Thao, and “When a Poet Goes to War,” by Myanmar’s Aung Naing Soe. With production by Swann Dubus through Varan Vietnam, “Black River” follows merchants who use old boats to set up temporary markets in the territories of Vietnam’s ethnic minorities.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Asian Persuasion,” the film directing debut of three-time Tony Award- and Grammy-winning producer Jhett Tolentino, has set North American distribution and will have a sales launch at the imminent American Film Market. Hawaii-based Scatena & Rosner Films has acquired the worldwide rights to the romantic comedy. The film tells the story of a lovable underachiever who hatches an outrageous scheme to avoid paying alimony to his fashion-executive ex-wife. Scatena & Rosner Films will release the film itself in the North American or ‘domestic’ market and has earmarked a Spring 2025 date.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Veteran action movie ace Sammo Hung, Japanese actor Kurata Yasuaki and action choreographer-turned director Tanigaki Kenji had a ball on Thursday in Tokyo as they took a light-hearted trip down memory lane to discuss the state of martial art action movies from Hong Kong. In a panel discussion held in the confines of TIFFCOM, the rights market aligned with the Tokyo International Film Festival, the three were seemingly selected to represent the past, present and future of the genre. “Hong Kong’s place in the film world is well deserved.