Frater Asia: Last News

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Iqbal H. Choudhury’s “The Wrestler” and Mori Tatsutya’s “September 1923” were announced joint winners of the New Currents competition at the Busan International Film Festival. “The Wrester” “was like a single round match, magically depicting an exciting narrative,” the jury said.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Solids by the Seashore,” “The Berefts” and “House of the Seasons” were all multiple winners of the Vision Awards at the Busan International Film Festival on Thursday evening. Another winner was “Yellow Door: ’90s Lo-fi Film Club,” a documentary celebrating Korea’s early cinephiles, who include “Parasite” director Bong Joon-ho. The Vision Awards precede the main New Currents Competition and the Jiseok Competition prizes which will be presented on Saturday at the festival’s closing ceremony.FIPRESCI Award“That Summer’s Lie” Dir. Sohn Hyun-lok.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Tiger Stripes,” the Malaysian coming-of-age, body horror film that debuted in Cannes’ Critics Week section has been set as the opening title for this year’s Singapore International Film Festival (Nov. 30 – Dec.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Australian TV journalist Cheng Lei has returned to her home country after three years in jail in China, the Australian government said on Wednesday. Born in China, but holding an Australian passport, having grown up in Melbourne, Cheng was a high-profile TV anchor for CGTN, the international broadcast arm of state-owned China Central Television. She fronted the “Global Business” daily show.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Hong Kong-listed shares of Imax China wobbled in reaction to the defeat of a buyout proposal that would have seen the Canadian parent company Imax Corp. take outright control. Imax Corp.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Top Japanese star Yagira Yuga (“Nobody Knows,” “Asakusa Kid”) was front and center of streamer Disney+’s plans when it gave a green light to a second season of drama-horror series “Gannibal.” The creepy show, in which Yagira portrays a damaged police detective on the heels of a gangster-like family in a troubled village, has been a ratings winner in terms of minutes watched for the streamer. And, on Sunday, it earned Yagira win an Asian excellence prize at the Busan International Film Festival’s Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Awards. He spoke to Variety about the newly-started production of the second season.Where does Season Two kick off? In Season One, we saw the surfacing of many secrets including those of the village and the villagers.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Some twenty aspiring film projects have been selected to participate in the inaugural edition of the Qcinema Project Market (Nov. 18-19) that this year represents and expansion of the QCinema Film Festival in The Philippines’ Quezon City. The selected titles include development projects by several of East Asia’s better known independent and art-house directors and projects.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Leading Chinese film director Zhang Yimou is to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Tokyo International Film Festival later this month. The award will be presented to him during the festival’s opening ceremony on Oct. 23. Later, Zhang will take part in a special talk session at the TIFF Loungeco-hosted by the Japan Foundation. Additionally, his “Full River Red,” which was a box office sensation in China at the beginning of the year, will play as a gala selection during the Tokyo festival. Zhang, consider to be among China’s “fifth generation” of filmmakers, has had an extraordinary career that he has sustained for over three decades.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Taiwanese actors King Jieh-wen and Hsueh Shih-ling and Indonesia’s Angga Yunanda are set to star in “Malice,” a multinational Asian thriller that will shoot next year. The film’s producers, actors and government backers presented the fully-assembled package to press and industry on Monday at the Busan International Film Festival. The film, pitched as “a road movie at sea,” is a dark tale of three men who put out to sea in search of a particular, large swordfish that had been rumored to have died out.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Zhang Yimou-directed contemporary drama film “Under the Light” retained its top spot at the mainland China box office for a second weekend, but with numbers that dropped steeply, as macro-economic weakening led to a Golden Week of across the board disappointment. Financial media Monday reported that consumers travelled less and spent less on leisure than had been forecast, likely reflecting general economic belt tightening, high unemployment and property sector worries. Before the holidays, cinema ticketing firm Maoyan had forecast that the first three days would throw up box office of RMB1.5 billion (208 million) and that “Under the Light” alone would reach RMB2 billion ($278 million) by the end of the eight-day holiday season (Sept. 29-Oct.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Romantic comedy “Love Reset” grabbed the box office crown in South Korea on the weekend following the Chuseok holiday period. But numbers reverted to the pre-festival downtrend. Directed by Nam Dae-joong, “Love Reset” is the story of a young couple in the midst of divorce who are involved in a car accident and lose their memories.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Big-budget, Korean-language fantasy-crime-action series “Moving” emerged as the big winner on Sunday at the Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Awards, claiming six prizes, including the ‘best creative’ prize. The Disney+ original, which debuted in August, also received the best visual effects award and the best writer award, which was presented at the Busan Cinema Centre’s main stage to webtoon artist turned filmmaker Kang Full. Actor Ryu Seung Ryong, who portrayed a father with a superpower attempting to save his family, was awarded the best lead actor prize, while the show’s Lee Jung Ha was named best newcomer and Go Youn Jung was named best actress. The 20-episode series has received critical acclaim for its narrative structure, dynamic action sequences and breathtaking storytelling.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief EST N8, a recently-established finance, production and rights sales company, has added a Hong Kong remake of classic film “Tape” and the LGBT comedy-drama “ASOG” to its bulging sales slate at the AFCM market that accompanies the Busan Intenational Film Festival. “Tape” tells the story of three best friends who, following an event at a graduation party that transforms their lives, reunite 15 years later where a case of blackmail forces them to confront a terrible secret from their past. The original film starred Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Robert Sean Leonard and played at the Sundance, Toronto and Rotterdam festivals.In the Cantonese-language remake directed by Bizhan Tong, Selena Lee, Kenny Kwan, and Adam Pak play the contemporary characters while Mason Fung, Summer Chan, and Angus Yeung portray the characters’ younger versions. The script is written by Stephen Belber, Tong, Lee and Bonnie Lo, and is an adaptation of Belber’s own scripts from both the original film and stage play. The writers and director have significantly modernized the script to reflect advances in technology. Producers on the film include Tong, Lee and Belber.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief After making four documentary features about border conflicts, ethnicity, prostitution and human rights, Thai director Nontawat Numbenchapol picks up many of the same themes in his first fiction feature “Doi Boi.” The film, which premieres this week in the Jiseok competition section of the Busan International Film Festival, is the story of three young men living on the margins of society in Thailand and their common quest for justice. The characters are an illegal immigrant from Myanmar working, despite his own heterosexuality, as a gay prostitute in Chiang Main, a customer and an on-the-run political activist he is trying to help. The narrative takes in a large number of the social and political problems that have beset seemingly idyllic Thailand in recent years – undocumented workers, illegal immigrants fleeing the civil war in Myanmar, an oppressive political power structure, enforced ‘disappearance’ of those who the government’s political opponents and critics, police brutality – and traffic jams. “I was surprised to find so many immigrant men [from Myanmar’s Shan region] as sex workers in Chiang Mai.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Vietnam-based sales agent Skyline Media has unveiled five new titles for sales and distribution at the ACFN market that accompanies the Busan International Film Festival. They range from horror films to gay rom com series. “The Soul Reaper” is adapted from director-producer Thao Trang’s best-selling horror novel “Lunar New Year in Hell Village” (Tet O Lang Dia Nguc), and involves the happy occasion of a wedding turn darker after the arrival of a creepy stranger.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Seoul-based sales company Finecut has struck key Asian deals for the vigilante action movie “Brave Citizen.” In Korea, the film is presented by Content Wavve, one of the country’s leading OTT platforms and is headed for a Korean theatrical release on Oct. 25.Finecut has sealed deals with Kadokawa Plus for Japan, with Moviecloud for Taiwan and with Lumix Medi for Vietnam.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Anthony Shim, the Canadian Korean director behind Toronto festival hit “Riceboy Sleeps,” is attached as writer and director of a film adaptation of “Offerings” an acclaimed Korean coming-of-age novel. Anonymous Content and Anthology Studios are to produce. “Offerings” tells the story of Dae, a young Korean American investment banker who finds himself back in his native Seoul as part of an international team brought in to rescue the country from sovereign default during the 1990s Asian Financial Crisi.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The growing media and entertainment connections between Korean Americans and those Koreans living in Korea may be changing both communities, a public discussion at the Busan International Film Festival on Friday heard. “Being in a room full of fans, feels like they accepted me as a member of the family. It feels like, culturally, Korea [may be in] a moment of transition,” said John Cho. He was joined in the debate by actor-director Justin Chon (“Gook”), director Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) and actor Steven Yeun, who are all either first or second generation immigrants to the U.S. They were careful not to speak about their current movies or projects out of respect for SAG strike protocols, but the avoidance of promotional niceties permitted a wider-ranging and more philosophical discussion. It touched on issues of identity, generational change and the development of the post-pandemic, streaming-era global village. “The reception I’ve had [in Busan] feels connective, not foreign, like living in a global reality,” said Yeun.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Leading Korean content firm Showbox Corp. has added “The Killers,” an unusual anthology film, to its Busan rights sales line up. The film takes its title and themes from Ernest Hemingway’s 1927 short story of the same name.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean sales agency, Finecut has picked up international sales rights to dance drama film “Victory,” which it will launch during the Asian Contents & Film Market that sits alongside the Busan Film Festival. The film, currently in post-production, is an upcoming title by Park Beom-su, a director known for a promising debut film “Red Carpet” in 2014. The story of “Victory” is centered around a high-school dance duo and an underdog school soccer team on a remote island. Two girls initially create a cheerleading club to pursue their love for dance, but they soon find themselves passionately cheering for the soccer team, eventually becoming a source of support for the entire island. The film stars Lee Hye-ri, a member of K-pop girl group Girl’s Day, who has become a popular actor with roles in “Monstrum” and TV’s “Reply 1998,” and Park Se-wan (“Life Is Beautiful,” “6/45,” “Collectors”) as the two protagonists.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Issues of cultural diversity, different Asian diaspora populations and the quest for the Asian cinematic identity came up for discussion on Thursday as the New Currents competition jury at the Busan International Film Festival prepared to get down to work. Filmmaker and academic Jung Sung-il, who is set as the jury president, appeared to invite a degree of dispute that might get the blood racing. “I have high hopes, hope for controversies and good conversations among the jurors,” he said in opening remarks.