News

Busan International Film Festival (Biff) has revealed 30 titles chosen for the 2024 Asian Project Market (Apm), including upcoming features by award-winners Kirsten Tan, Iqbal H. Chowdhury, Woo Ming Jin and Daishi Matsunaga.

The investment and co-production market, which runs as part of Biff’s Asian Contents and Film Market (Acfm), is set to take place from October 5-8 in Busan, South Korea.

Scroll down for full list of titles

This year’s Apm selection features an expanded variety of genres, including crime thrillers, horror, queer cinema, and animated films, alongside the more traditional selections of drama, comedy and romance. Organisers said...

By Sean Barry

With the release of his latest film, “Drive My Car,” filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi continues to solidify himself as one of Japan’s finest filmmakers working today. Hamaguchi’s movies are stories about people experiencing everyday struggles with a raw realism that is not often captured in Japanese cinema as often as once was. Furthermore, the acclaimed artist is also known for pictures with long runtimes. At first glance, this may seem like a detriment, yet every minute of his work is generally utilized to the fullest potential. This is perfectly demonstrated in his intimate five-hour epic “Happy Hour.”

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Development for the movie began in 2013 during his time as an artist-in-residence at the creative arts center Kiito Design and Creative Center Kobe, where he hosted many theater workshops. He would get the project rolling when he held an improvisational acting workshop. Many of...

This review was largely shaped by a discussion with Goh Ming Siu and Earl Jackson regarding the film.

Winner of the Silver Lion for Best Director at this year’s Venice International Film Festival, “Wife of a Spy” is actually a TV-movie produced by and for Nhk, which was screened in theaters, however, with a different aspect ratio and color grading. This review is based on the TV version.

“Wife of a Spy” is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival

The script is set in 1940, after Japan had invaded China and joined Germany and Italy as a member of the Axis. Up to this point, successful silk merchant Yusaku Fukuhara has been a man who seemed to have it all: a successful business, the respect of both employees, collaborators and friends, and a trophy wife in the face of beautiful and equally popular Satoko, who has just finished acting...

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s film won best feature and best screenplay.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car was the big winner at the 14th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa), which took place on the Gold Coast in Australia today (November 11).

Scroll down for the full list of winners

The film – Japan’s entry for the best international feature Oscar and the Cannes 2021 best screenplay winner – won best feature film and best screenplay for Hamaguchi and co-writer Oe Takamasa. It follows a theatre actor and director who is grappling with grief for his lost wife and is based on a novella of...

Leah Purcell is the first Australian to be awarded the Jury Grand Prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) after being recognised for The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson.

A total of ten films from 11 countries triumphed at the 14th Apsa Ceremony tonight, which was presented from Hota (Home of the Arts) on the Gold Coast.

A re-imagining of the Henry Lawson short story, The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson follows a woman and her stubborn determination to protect her family from the harshness of life in the 1893 Snowy Mountains.

Purcell wrote directed, starred in, and co-produced the project, which was adapted from her stageplay of the same name.

The Apsa international jury said the final product represented “not only an artist’s total dedication to her craft but also a spirited act of courage and tenacity”.

“The Drover’s Wife is a film that quickly...

A group of middle-aged, middle-class professionals are once again the focus of a sensitive examination of contemporary Japanese life by Tadashi Nohara, this time with the writer on board as director of his theatrical feature debut, Third Time Lucky. Set in Nohara’s beloved Kobe, the film tracks a group of interconnected friends and family as they fall in and out of love, straddle the lines between being friends and being partners and interrogate their own feelings and desires in the hope of finding some degree of elusive happiness, or at the very least contentment.

Nohara is perhaps best known for his work ...

A group of middle-aged, middle-class professionals are once again the focus of a sensitive examination of contemporary Japanese life by Tadashi Nohara, this time with the writer on board as director of his theatrical feature debut, Third Time Lucky. Set in Nohara’s beloved Kobe, the film tracks a group of interconnected friends and family as they fall in and out of love, straddle the lines between being friends and being partners and interrogate their own feelings and desires in the hope of finding some degree of elusive happiness, or at the very least contentment.

Nohara is perhaps best known for his work ...

World premieres include debut from Happy Hour co-writer Tadashi Nohara and new works from Brillante Mendoza and Mikhail Red.

Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced the full line-up for its 34th edition, including the main competition section of 15 films, among which 10 titles are world premieres. Other sections include Asian Future, Gala Selection, World Focus, Nippon Cinema Now and Japanese Animation.

The competition section includes the world premieres of two Japanese films – Third Time Lucky, the debut feature of Tadashi Nohara, who co-wrote Happy Hour and Wife Of A Spy; and Just Remembering from Daigo Matsui (Ice Cream And The...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of the key figures of the Japanese new auteurs’ wave that emerged around the 1990s. Among many names that found their success at the festival circuit, V-Cinema market or in the less official ways of distributions, Kurosawa was immediately heralded as one of the pioneers of J-horror, with titles such as “Cure” (1997) and “Pulse” (2001) granting him a cult reception across the globe. No matter what genre, dysfunction or timeframe he picks up, there is a consequence in Kurosawa’s body of work – a thrill that comes with a render of the environment, one that struggles with uncertainty and fear, and one that captivates the viewer’s attention throughout the ambiguity of expressions. It’s always a treat to watch a master resorting to his old tricks and leitmotivs, twisting his go-to formula to his needs, re-imagining one’s language for the present needs.

This time around,...

Central to any spy story worth its salt is the tension built around whom the audience should believe. But the memorable ones make just as powerful the theme of what the characters really do believe — as in, why they do what they do, whether they’re handler, agent, target or pawn. And to make matters even more fascinating, when some of those questions are left unanswered, that’s when some spy yarns achieve something profound about the battlefield on which they’re played.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of Japan’s established masters when it comes to a knotty premise wracked with tension and secrets, whether working in horror or contemporary drama (“Tokyo Sonata”). It seems fitting, then, that for his first period film, he’d choose a World War II–era espionage tale, where identity and motive are always in play, and horror is real. The result is “Wife of a Spy,...

Spy Game: Kurosawa Finds Passion & Terror in History’s Gloom

One doesn’t tend to associate period melodrama or espionage with Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a perennial genre auteur who revels in existentialist subtexts. For his first outing in these waters with Wife of a Spy, Kurosawa reveals one of his most invigorating narratives in years, co-written by director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Tadashi Nohara.

Tempestuous romance and horrific manipulations gird the sordid historical subtexts of Japan on the eve of entering WWII, presented through the perspective of its most problematic character, an unhappy, headstrong housewife played with resolute naïveté by Yu Aoi.…...

Japan Cuts 2021 Film Festival:

Enter the World of Japanese Cinema at Home and on the Big Screen

August 20 – September 2

North America’s largest festival of contemporary Japanese cinema returns for its 15th edition as an online and in-person hybrid event! Following last year’s entirely online edition, this summer’s festival offers 14 days of unique access to 38 dynamic new films from Japan for audiences across the United States—including studio films, independent gems, documentaries, shorts, avant-garde works and more—through Japan Society’s virtual cinema.

Additionally, Japan Cuts is thrilled to welcome back New York City festival goers to Japan Society’s historic auditorium, for an exciting and diverse selection of Japanese cinema, perfectly suited for a return to the big screen!

Explore the Lineup →

In-person Screenings:

All in-person screenings will take place in Japan Society’s auditorium, located at 333 E. 47th Street in New York, NY.

Ticket On-Sale Dates (In-Person):

Members: Tuesday,...

This review was largely shaped by a discussion with Goh Ming Siu and Earl Jackson regarding the film.

Winner of the Silver Lion for Best Director at this year’s Venice International Film Festival, “Wife of a Spy” is actually a TV-movie produced by and for Nhk, which was screened in theaters, however, with a different aspect ratio and color grading. This review is based on the TV version.

The script is set in 1940, after Japan had invaded China and joined Germany and Italy as a member of the Axis. Up to this point, successful silk merchant Yusaku Fukuhara has been a man who seemed to have it all: a successful business, the respect of both employees, collaborators and friends, and a trophy wife in the face of beautiful and equally popular Satoko, who has just finished acting in a film Yusaku produced and directed, mainly for her and his friends’ amusement.

European A-list festivals have rolled their red carpets multiple times for Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who started conquering the Old Continent with his graduation film “Passion” in the official selection of San Sebastian in 2008. Three years later, he was in the official selection of Locarno with “Sound of Waves”, and in 2015 – in Locarno again – his film “Happy Hour” won the awards for Best Actress and Special Mention for Script. Cannes welcomed him in the official competition in 2018 with “Asako I & II”, and now he’s in the main competition of Berlinale with his omnibus “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy”, consisting of three short films dealing with the theme of coincidence and imagination.

We had the opportunity to talk to the director about his ideas and inspirations in a generous one-on-one interview, due to this year’s special circumstances – done over a Zoom call.

”Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” is a film...

Japanese period drama film “Wife of a Spy” will get a release in U.S. cinemas early in 2021 through distributor Kino Lorber. The film earned its creator Kurosawa Kiyoshi the silver lion as best director at the Venice festival in September.

The film reteams Kurosawa with actress Aoi Yu, who previously starred in his “Journey To The Shore” and episodic drama “Penance.” It also stars actor Takahashi Issey.

The thriller is set in Kobe, Japan in 1940 and tells the story of a Japanese actress whose wealthy husband witnesses government-approved human experiments while on a business trip to Manchuria. A mysterious woman who returns with him from the trip is murdered and life-changing consequences await them as the couple plot to smuggle evidence of the atrocities out of Japan. Meanwhile, the wife’s childhood friend, now a military policeman, is hot on their heels.

Kurosawa co-wrote the film with two of his former students,...

“We’ve built up a track record by meeting challenges.”

Kino Lorber has picked up US rights to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Venice Silver Lion winner Wife Of A Spy, the latest in a long line of festival gems and prestige titles that has helped the New York distributor further distinguish itself this year.

Richard Lorber and his team plan a spring 2021 release on the pre-Second World War Hitchcockian thriller about a Japanese actress and her wealthy merchant husband who try to smuggle evidence to the US of a human experimentation programme in Japan-controlled Manchuria.

Kurosawa reunites with Japanese actress Yu...

Venice best director winner has gone to Portugal (Midas Filmes), Norway (Fidalgo) and Korea (M&m International), among other territories.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife Of A Spy, which is screening as a Gala Presentation at this week’s Busan International Film Festival, has been sold to several further territories following its best director win at Venice.

Japanese studio Nikkatsu has sold the film to European territories including Portugal (Midas Filmes), Norway (Fidalgo Film Distribution) and Ex-Yugoslavia (Cinemania Group). It was pre-sold to Arthouse for French-speaking Europe and also to A Contracorriente for Spain ahead of its screening at San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa nabbed another career honor Sunday, winning the Venice Film Festival’s best director award for Wife of a Spy, the first period drama of his prolific filmography.

Set in 1940 Kobe, Japan, the film stars Issey Takahashi (Kill Bill, Shin Godzilla) as a debonair silk merchant whose cosmopolitan world view is on a collision course with Japan’s advancing militarism and stifling social conformity. Trapped between the duties of a wife and a citizen is his adoring wife Satoko (Yu Aoi, Birds Without Names), whose desire to truly know her husband sets up the film’s many twists and ambiguities.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s critic described the film as “an absorbing, exotic, well-paced thriller with moments of disconcerting realism and horror.”

Kurosawa, whose previous festival honors include best director wins at Cannes and Rome, connected with THR via Zoom prior to his Venice triumph for a brief...

Variety spoke with Kiyoshi Kurosawa the day after the world premiere of his World War II suspense drama “Wife of a Spy” in competition at the Venice Film Festival. A frequent invitee to Venice, Cannes and other major festivals, Kurosawa did the interview via Zoom from the Tokyo office of his Japanese distributor. “This is the first time I haven’t been able to go to a big festival like that,” says Kurosawa. “I would have liked the three main cast members see the film with the audience. It’s really regrettable that they couldn’t go.”

“Wife of a Spy” may be your first-ever period film, but certain scenes are as disturbing as anything in the horror films that first made your name internationally. Is that one reason why you were attracted to the material?

Yes, I wanted to make the scary parts scary, but this film was not my idea from the start.

“Wife of a Spy” is a debatable title on two fronts. The man in question may or may not be a spy, and while the female protagonist is certainly his wife, that passive, possessive phrasing undersells the degree to which she commands Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s thoroughly involving, old-school slice of wartime cloak and dagger. Powered by Yu Aoi’s bravura performance as a glamorous Kobe starlet thrown into uncertain moral and marital torment by her husband’s covert operations at the outset of the Second World War, the film is a relatively unfamiliar fit for its prolific helmer, given its sharply evoked period milieu and restrained, classical storytelling. He wears it well: After a slowish start, “Wife of a Spy” unmasks itself as one of his most purely enjoyable, internationally accessible entertainments.

Kurosawa’s latest may be his first period piece, but if its tone and outlook feel additionally fresh...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, the Japanese director of “Cure,” “Pulse” and “Bright Future,” is now in post-production on period suspense romance “Wife of a Spy.” The film is being pitched at the European Film Market by sales and production firm Nikkatsu.

The film reteams “Romance Doll” stars Yu Aoi and Issey Takahashi.

The 1940-set plot involves a Japanese merchant who leaves his wife behind in order to travel to Manchuria, where he witnesses an act of barbarism. His subsequent actions cause misunderstanding, jealousy and legal problems for his wife. The screenplay is by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Tadashi Nohara and Kurosawa, who previously penned the script for Kurosawa’s “Happy Hour.”

The film is set for theatrical release later this year, probably after getting some festival play. Rights have already been pre-sold to Arthouse Films for France.

“Wife of a Spy” follows Kurosawa’s coolly received “To the Ends of the Earth,” a drama...

Kurosawa is a Cannes regular with films such as Tokyo Sonata (2008), Journey To The Shore (2015) and Before We Vanish (2017).

Paris-based distributor Art House Films has acquired French rights to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s war epic Wife Of A Spy, which is being sold internationally by Japan’s Nikkatsu.

Art House Films specialises in Japanese cinema and has previously released films including Kurosawa’s Foreboding (Yocho) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Happy Hour and Asako I & II, which played in Cannes competition in 2018. Launched in 2018, the company has also acquired films such as Singaporean filmmaker Eric Khoo’s Ramen Teh and Israeli director Yaron Shani’s Chained.

Includes new films from Ann Hui, Mohamed Diab and Kaouther Ben Hania.Asia

Love After Love (China)

Dir. Ann Hui

Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui revisits the work of Eileen Chang with this adaptation of 1943 novella Aloeswood Incense about a young woman from Shanghai who heads to Hong Kong to continue her studies, but ends up working for her aunt, seducing rich and powerful men. The cast features Eddie Peng, Ma Sichun and Faye Yu. Hui is regularly feted on the Asian festival circuit but has not been selected for an A-list European event since 2011 when A Simple Life played in competition in Venice.

The Japanese filmmaker started shooting in Japan in October.

Japan’s Nikkatsu has picked up international rights to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s next project, an ambitious as-yet-untitled war drama that he will shoot with 8K Super Hi-Vision.

Kurosawa has co-scripted the film with Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose Asako I & II played in Cannes Competition in 2018, and Tadashi Nohara, co-writer of Hamaguchi’s Happy Hour. Yu Aoi (Birds Without Names) will head the cast.

Set in Kobe, Japan in 1940, the film follows a merchant who witnesses a conspiracy whilst travelling and decides to take action to reveal it to the world. His wife...

I Am Not Madame Bovary’s Feng Xiaogang took the best director prize.Scroll down for full list of winners

The jury of the 10th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) has awarded the best film prize to Mustafa Kara’s Turkish drama Cold Of Kalandar. The film won a total of three prizes at the regional film awards, which took place tonight (Nov 24) in Brisbane, Australia.

The best director prize went to Chinese director Feng Xiaogang for his satirical critique of bureaucratic indifference to the populace of mainland China, I Am Not Madame Bovary.

Cold of Kalandar’s Apsa best film win comes after similar honours at the Tokyo Film Festival, and Turkey’s Istanbul and Antalya film festivals.

In September it was selected as Turkey’s candidate for the foreign language Oscar.

The film depicts an impoverished family’s attempt to make a living through farming in Turkey’s mountainous northern region. Tensions between...