More from Gavin J Blair
Ryuichi Sakamoto, Oscar-Winning Composer, Dies at 71
The prolific and eclectic Japanese musician and composer produced dozens of film scores and albums, collaborating with artists across borders and genres.
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Sony Pictures’ Quarterly Profit Falls to $179M, Group CFO Promoted to President
Sony Pictures’ operating income for its fiscal third quarter ending December fell to $179 million, down 86 percent from $1.31 billion in the same period the previous year, hit by the lack of major theatrical hits and lower revenue from television licensing. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile was the Sony unit’s biggest earner with $96 million, followed […]
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Anime, Hollywood Films Help Japan’s Box Office to Rebound in 2022
Japan’s box office sales in 2022 grew 32 percent to $1.64 billion (213 billion yen) over the previous year, with admissions rising to 152 million, driven by anime and a rebound in market share for Hollywood. Revenues are still well below the pre-pandemic 2019 box office of ¥261 billion ($2 billion at current exchange rates), […]
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Tokyo: Milcho Manchevski On His Competition Film, Artistic Compromise and an Iconic Hip-Hop Video
New-York based director, writer, photographer and artist Milcho Manchevski burst into filmmaking in 1994 with his acclaimed debut Before the Rain, which was nominated for a foreign language and Oscar and won a Golden Lion at Venice. Prior to that, his iconic 1991 music video for hip-hop unit Arrested Development’s Tennessee had pointed to a […]
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Tokyo: How Softcore Erotica Sustained Japan’s Film Industry and Nurtured Some Leading Directors
Safe to say there isn’t another country bar Japan where a handful of top directors, including celebrated auteurs and an Oscar winner, learned their craft in adult films. Or perhaps even anywhere else in the world where that is imaginable. But when cinemagoing plunged in parallel with the penetration of television sets into homes in […]
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Tokyo: Producer Genki Kawamura Talks Directorial Debut, ‘Your Name’ Hollywood Remake
Producer, scriptwriter, best-selling author and now award-winning director Genki Kawamura is best known for his work on Makoto Shinkai’s 2016 anime megahit Your Name. Beginning his career at Toho, his talented was spotted early and he was trusted with producer duties on major projects at Japan’s biggest studio. In 2010, he worked on the Confessions, […]
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Tokyo: Programmer Shozo Ichiyama on Making Festival Bridge Between Japanese and Global Film Worlds
In his second year as programming director, industry veteran Shozo Ichiyama believes he has taken another step closer to realizing his vision for the Tokyo International Film Festival. A producer known for working with China’s Jia Zhangke, Japan’s Takeshi Kitano and Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-hsien, Ichiyama is striving to make TIFF a gateway between the Japanese […]
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Tokyo: Director Takahisa Zeze Talks Historical Importance of Fest Opening Movie, Freedom of Low-Budget Filmmaking
Opening this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival is Takahisa Zeze’s war drama Fragments of the Last Will, a tragic but hopeful story from a little-known chapter of Russo-Japanese history. Based on the true story of Hatao Yamamoto (Kazunari Ninomiya), one of more than half a million Japanese soldiers taken to the Soviet Union after World […]
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Tokyo: Director Takeshi Fukunaga on His Competition Film, Straddling Cultures and Delving Deep Into Japan
With his atmospheric period feature Mountain Woman (Yama Onna) in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival, and the only Japanese director helming an episode of FX’s upcoming Shōgun remake, Takeshi Fukunaga looks well on the way to fulfilling the promise suggested by his feature debut, Out of My Hand. Released in 2015, Out of […]
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Tokyo: Fest Chairman Hiroyasu Ando Aims Big as International Guests Return
Former diplomat Ando Hiroyasu has lofty goals as chairman of Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) and a vision of how to raise the profile of Japan’s premiere celebration of cinema. But with a realpolitik perspective perhaps partly forged in his four-decade diplomatic career, he is under no illusions as to the scale of the challenges […]
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Tokyo Film Fest Kicks Off With Return of Overseas Guests, Celebration of Local Talent and Ultraman
In a welcome return to normalcy, the Tokyo International Film Festival rolled out the full red carpet, all 541 feet of it, for the first time since 2019, once again welcoming guests from around the globe to a new venue for its opening ceremony on a brisk autumn evening in the Japanese capital. The COVID-19 […]
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Japanese Director Naomi Kawase Accused of Violence Towards Staff
Japanese auteur and Cannes favorite Naomi Kawase has been accused of violent behavior towards her staff and crew, including an assault that left an employee’s face swollen.
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