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For three successive years, the Taipei Film Festival has collaborated with Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca) on “Top Talents” to present Taiwan’s best and brightest film and TV actors on the international stage. Today, we unveil the nine actors of “Top Talents” 2025, including Lee Kang-sheng, Audrey Lin, Mo Tzu-yi, Sandrine Pinna, Tseng Jing-hua, Regina Lei, Kent Tsai, Eugenie Liu and Chung Hsin-ling. The Taipei Film Festival and Taicca present video portraits of these top talents based on the concept of an audition tape that showcases their unique styles and versatility. The videos are set to premiere exclusively on TaiwanPlus Arts and Culture, a new YouTube channel run by TaiwanPlus, the first English-speaking public broadcaster in Taiwan. In addition, billboards of the nine actors will be displayed outside Taipei’s Zhongshan Hall, offering audiences a first look at the star-studded film festival that opens later this month.

“Top Talents,” a...

The Cannes Film Festival—one of the world’s most prestigious film gathering and cultural events—alongside Marché du Film, will kick off on May 13.

Left-Handed Girl, a co-production between Taiwan, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom, has been selected for competition in Cannes parallel section “Critics’ Week”. Among over 1,000 films from 102 countries, Left-Handed Girl stands out as a remarkable achievement, drawing global attention.

Left-Handed Girl is the first solo-directed feature film by Taiwanese director Shih-Ching Tsou, co-produced by Academy Award-winning director Sean Baker. Starring Janel Tsai, Brando Huang, Shih-Yuan Ma and Nina Ye, Left-Handed Girl tells the story of a single mother and her two daughters returning from the countryside to their new life in a Taipei night market. The narrative explores the struggles and daily life under a patriarchal society.

Aside from the world premiere of the selected film at Cannes, this year also sees the...

Hsu Fu-Hsiang’s campus romance drama Lovesick opened strongly as the first local film to cross $302,000 (Nt$10m) this year at Taiwan’s box office and scored a rare near day-and-date release with mainland China.

The coming-of-age film follows a high school troublemaker who finds it convenient to be sick and goes to great lengths to fake it, only to realise that a fellow classmate suffers from a terminal illness. It explores first love, teenage confusion and mental health though the lens of high school life. The cast is led by Zhan Huai-Yun, Chiang Chi, Liu Hsiu-Fu and Huang Guan-Zhi.

Kung Fu from Taiwanese hitmaker Giddens Ko has been scheduled to open for the major Lunar New Year holiday in February 2026.

The film has been 10 years in the making and is billed as the biggest Taiwanese production in a decade, with a budget of nearly $9.1m (Nt$300m). The action fantasy adventure is based on a novel by Ko about two high-school losers who, along with a homeless old man with unparalleled martial-arts skills, fight to restore justice to their city and unravel a 500-year-old grudge.

Compared to the original novel, which was published online in 2001, Ko said: “The film...

The Golden Horse Film Festival, which operates the premier awards in the Chinese-language film industry, has teamed up with Cannes’ Marché du Film to showcase a handful of new films and projects under the banner Golden Horse Goes to Cannes.

To be presented May 16, the five films comprise new works from directors Chen Yu-hsun, Yang Ya-che, Huang Xi, Giddens Ko and John Hsu, with such high-profile producers as Lee Lieh, Sylvia Chang, Aileen Li, Jeffrey Chan and Hou Hsiao-hsien.

Yang Ya-che, known for Golden Horse-winning “The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful,” and for shaping the careers of several actors, returns behind the camera with “The Chronicles of Libidoists.”

It was a standout at the Golden Horse project market, while at the production stage, the scandalous nature of its erotic take on “The Little Mermaid” tale meant that the names of the cast had to be kept secret.

They are...

“Golden Horse Goes to Cannes” is looking to make a splash on the Croisette, marking a collaboration with the festival’s Marché du Film that aims to showcase the “diversity, vigor and bold competence of Taiwan cinema, ranging from epic, romance, comedy, fantasy and gender awareness.”

The reality of that promise, for those on the ground in France, will be the presentation on May 16 of five projects featuring the leading lights of contemporary Taiwanese cinema. They’ve been selected by the Golden Horse organization, the people behind Taiwan’s famed annual festival and awards night, to showcase the strength in depth boasted by a market that has always punched above its weight in terms of talent.

New works from directors Chen Yu-hsun, Yang Ya-che, Huang Xi, Giddens Ko, and John Hsu will be on show, and they feature some of the island’s biggest stars, among them Sylvia Chang, who...

A Korean adaptation of Taiwanese hit You Are The Apple Of My Eye is in the works and is being introduced to buyers at the Cannes market by K-Movie Entertainment.

The remake will mark the feature directorial debut of Cho Young-myoung, with a cast led by Jung Jin-young and Dahyun. Jung is known as a singer and former leader of boy group B1A4 but has also gained recognition for acting in TV series Love In The Moonlight and Police University. Dahyun is a member of girl group Twice and is set to make her acting debut in sports drama Sprint.

Taiwan’s major awards body Golden Horse will have a consolidated presence at Cannes’ Marché du Film for the first time, under the umbrella ‘Golden Horse Goes to Cannes’.

With support from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture under the ‘1plus4’ Taiwanese content plan, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee and the Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development have collaborated to organize “Golden Horse Goes to Cannes” at the premier festival’s film market.

On May 16, the collaboration will present five upcoming projects, helmed by directors Chen Yu-hsun, Yang Ya-che, Huang Xi, Giddens Ko and John Hsu.

Paranormal comedy Dead Talents Society by John Hsu has already secured major investment from Sony Pictures International Productions alongside Taiwan’s Activator, with the former also acquiring worldwide distribution rights and global remake rights.

Hsu’s debut feature Detention topped the domestic box office with over $8 million and also won the Best...

The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival is to showcase five upcoming Taiwanese projects at Cannes including features from Chen Yu-hsun, Yang Ya-che, Huang Xi, Giddens Ko and John Hsu with stars such as Wu Kang-ren, Gingle Wang, Kai Ko, Caitlin Fang and Karena Lam.

The new programme, titled Golden Horse Goes To Cannes, comprises works-in-progress projects and will be presented to industry professionals on May 16 at Palais K during the Cannes Film Festival. It marks Golden Horse’s first collaboration with the Marche du Film.

See below for full project list

The collaboration was initiated by Taipei Golden Horse Film...

Patriot Games

The Hong Kong government has licensed the broadcast rights to the Summer Olympic Games in Paris. It intends to relicense the rights to four TV broadcasters in the city – Tvb, ViuTV, Hoy TV and government-owned Rthk. While in most territories, broadcasters negotiate directly with the International Olympic Committee or its agents, the Hong Kong government previously intervened in bidding for rights to the Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021. It also organized large public screenings in shopping malls.

“By procuring the broadcasting rights for these two games in Hong Kong, members of the public will be able to enjoy the Paris Og and PG [Paralympic Games] on television free of charge, and to cheer for Mainland and Hong Kong athletes,” said Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Kevin Yeung.

While the cost of the rights was not disclosed, Yeung said that the fee was lower than the rights for Tokyo. If correct,...

Even though described by its director as semi-autobiographical, “You Are the Apple of My Eye” is probably one of the most biographical films in history. For starters, the movie is based on the semi-autobiographical, homonymous novel by the director, who used his entire savings and mortgaged his house to raise money, saying that he did it to impress his ex-girlfriend, who provided the inspiration for this film's female protagonist. Furthermore, the movie was filmed almost entirely on location in Changhua County, including the high school which Giddens attended. The result was a crowning success, with the film receiving positive reviews, a number of awards and was a huge success in the box office, both locally and in other Asian countries.

on Amazon by clicking on the image below

The film begins in 1994 and focuses on Ko Ching-teng, a mischievous and poor student who frequently gets in trouble...

Parasite producer Barunson E&a has a new CEO.

Yoonhee Choi has stepped in to take over from Gene Hong (Brian) Park and Kwak Sin Ae. She has been with Barunson E&a since 2021, when she was hired as Managing Director and was upped to COO in April last year.

Choi was previously at Cj Enm, serving as head of international sales for films such as the Barunson E&a-produced Oscar winner Parasite and The Spy Gone North and producer of titles such as Seobok, Hard Hit and Nothing Serious.

Barunson E&a’s upcoming slate also includes the next two features from Parasite director Bong Joon-ho and as well as projects from directors Kim Sung-hoon and Um Tae-hwa.

Since October 2022, it has been expanding its global footprint by launching International sales and production / financing arms, securing sales rights to its first non-Korean film, Giddens Ko’s Miss Shampoo, and investing in Indonesian thriller 13 Bombs,...

Yoonhee Choi has been named CEO at Barunson E&a, the South Korean sales and production outfit that is heading to this week’s European Film Market with major international expansion ambitions.

Choi joined the company in 2021 as managing director, overseeing domestic and international operations, and was promoted to COO in April 2023. She was previously head of international sales at Cj Enm, where she worked for eight years, leading overseas distribution of films such as Parasite, The Handmaiden and The Spy Gone North.

She takes over the role from Gene Hong (Brian) Park and Kwak Sin Ae.

Barunson E&a is...

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. She joined as MD, overseeing domestic and international operations, and in April 2023 was upped to COO.

Barunson E&a has been in operation since 1996, though was not involved in international sales all that duration. Notable past titles include Bong Joon-ho’s “Mother” and Oscar-winner “Parasite,” on which Cj and Choi headed international distribution. Barunson E&a has also been behind Kim Jee-woon’s “The Good, the Bad, the Weird” and his more recent “Cobweb.”

The company’s upcoming slate also includes the next two features from director Bong Joon-ho, as well as projects from directors Kim Sung-hoon and...

Despite a series of issues the whole Chinese language movie world is experiencing, it seems, and as we also mentioned last year, the local industries are also moving intensely forward, with the productions of quality from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong increasing significantly. In that fashion, Hong Kong seems to have made a rather successful turn towards social/family dramas, Taiwan continues on the rather high level it has established for some years now, while China's local blockbusters and international, diaspora movies continue to lead the way, both locally and beyond the borders of the country.

Without further ado, here are 20 movies that highlighted all the aforementioned in 2023, in reverse order, although the difference of quality is so small here, that the order could be completely different. Some films may have premiered in 2022, but since they mostly circulated in 2023, we decided to include them.

20. Who'll Stop the Rain by Su...

The full lineup has been unveiled for the festival’s 36th edition.

The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) today revealed the lineup for its 36th edition, including 20 world premieres across its two competition strands.

The festival, set to run October 23 to November 1, will feature 15 titles in its main Competition section led by Japan and China, which each have three films in the selection.

Scroll down for full list

From China are crime drama A Long Shot from debut feature director Gao Peng; Snow Leopard by late Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden, which premiered at Venice; and Dwelling By The West Lake by Gu Xiaogang,...

Equal numbers of Chinese and Japanese titles adorn the main competition section of the Toyo International Film Festival, which was announced on Wednesday – three each.

Among the Chinese films is “Snow Leopard,” the last feature by the late Pema Tseden, and “Dwelling by the West Lake,” directed by Gu Xiaogang, the surprisingly inexperienced joint recipient of this year’s Kurosawa Award.

The full competition with 15 titles, set to play between Oct. 23 and Nov. 1, includes the world premiere of Russian director Alexei German Jr.’s “Air” and Filipino director Sheron Dayoc’s “The Gospel of the Beast.”

The trio from Japan are: “(Ab)Normal Desire,” by Kishi Yoshiyuki; “A Foggy Paradise,” by Kotsijui Yohei; and “Who Were We,” by Tomina Tetsuya.

The festival’s gala selection appears designed for entertainment pleasure. In addition to the previously-announced “Perfect Days” and “Godzilla Minus One,” set as the festival’s opening and closing films,...

Giddens Ko is responsible for some of the best works we have seen coming out from Taiwan during the last decade, with “You are the Apple of My Eye”, “Mon Mon Mon Monsters” and “The Tenants Downstairs” being the most prominent samples. For his latest work, “Miss Shampoo”, he tries his hand in an intense genre mashup that includes elements of crime, comedy, romance and drama.

Miss Shampoo is screening at New York Asian Film Festival

East Asian humor frequently has to do with hair, and so having an (assistant) hairdresser as the protagonist seems a good idea for the comedy aspect. This is Fen, who apprentices in a hair salon when, one stormy night, Tai, a wounded gang underboss, rushes into the shop, stabbed, in order to avoid his pursuers. Fen does not give him away, and Tai, who has become the boss of his gang after the former one was murdered,...

Giddens Ko directs the Taiwanese gangster comedy romance.

South Korean outfit Barunson E&a has secured international sales rights to its first non-Korean film – Miss Shampoo, a Taiwanese gangster comedy romance directed by Giddens Ko – and will launch sales at the Cannes market.

Barunson E&a, which also has Kim Jee-woon’s Cobweb playing Out of Competition at Cannes, has international sales rights to Miss Shampoo excluding theatrical rights for Taiwan, which remain with production company Machi Xcelsior Studios, Southeast Asia (Clover Films) and Hong Kong.

The film stars Daniel Hong of Bad Education alongside Vivian Sung and Kai Ko, who...

Debuting as an actor back in 2011 with Giddens Ko's “You Are the Apple of My Eye”, Kai Ko has since gone on to become a formidable name in modern Taiwanese cinema, even winning a Golden Horse Award for Best New Performer and a Taipei Film Award for Best Actor over the years. In 2022, he took over the directorial chair from Giddens Ko for “Bad Education”, a script written by Giddens that he was supposed to direct but ended up being Kai Ko's debut behind the camera. In addition to the support of his first director, Kai Ko also had the support of Midi Z, who he worked with on “The Road to Mandalay” and who acts as a producer on “Bad Education”.

Bad Education is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival

On the night of their graduation from high school, three drunk best friends Chang, Wang and Han decide that,...

Bad Education

Director: Kai Ko

Producers: Ko Yao-zong, Lu Wei-chun, Giddens Ko, Midi Z, Molly Fang

Key cast: Berant Zhu, Kent Tsai, Edison Song

Actor Kai Ko’s directorial debut revolves around three young men who decide to bond with each other as sworn brothers as they graduate from high school by sharing dark secrets. The film’s Berant Zhu won the supporting actor prize at the 2022 Golden Horse Awards.

Sales: Harvest 9 Road Entertainment

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Director: Chan Ching-Lin

Producers: Lin I-ling, Lin Shih-ken

Key cast: Yu An-Shun, Hu Jhih-Ciang, Yang Li-Yin, Rimong Ihwar

Haunting family drama set against the world of pigeon racing in Taiwan. Winner of 59th Golden Horse Awards’ narrative feature in 2022 and the Golden Horse Film Festival’s Fipresci prize.

Sales: Distribution Workshop

In The Morning Of LA Petite Morte

Director: Wang Yu-lin

Producers: Patrick Mao Huang, Jan Yi-ting

Key cast: Fukuchi Yusuke, Wang Yun-zhi, Ivy Yin,...

Author-director Giddens Ko (“You Are the Apple of My Eye”) returned to Golden Horse Award-winning form in 2021 with “Till We Meet Again”, a movie adaptation of his best-selling novel “God of Love”. Ko cleverly refreshes the run-of-the-mill romance genre with an infusion of local mythology about life and death. Ko reimagines his underworld as a chaotic dystopian realm, more frightening for its bureaucratic red tape and glitchy It when dealing with an overpopulation of human souls awaiting either reincarnation or eternal damnation. Traditional deities like Yama the King of Hell, his ghostbuster sidekicks Ox-Head and Horse-Face as well as the usual host of demons (including cameos by Sadako and Toshio) are not who they seem.

Kai Ko turns in an endearing performance as the happy-go-lucky Ah Lun. He suffers an untimely death, has amnesia and faces a choice to either reincarnate as a snail or join the underworld’s matchmaking...

High school student drama has received four nominations at the Golden Horse Awards.

Taiwanese actor Kai Ko’s directorial debut Bad Education, which has received four nominations at the upcoming Golden Horse Awards, is being launched by Harvest 9 Road Entertainment at Busan’s Asian Contents & Film Market (Acfm).

Ko, who shot to fame through his role in You’re The Apple Of My Eye, which earned him the best new performer prize at the Golden Horse Awards in 2011, was most recently seen in last year’s Till We Meet Again. Both hit films were directed by novelist-turned-director Giddens Ko...

Indie titles ‘Foscadh’, ‘A Banquet’, ‘Great Freedom’ also out.

Universal Pictures’ US indie drama Red Rocket opens in a busy weekend at the UK-Ireland box office, with 12 new films arriving in cinemas but none on wide release as Warner Bros’ The Batman moves into its second week on screens.

Opening in 171 sites, Sean Baker’s Red Rocket is the biggest release of the weekend. It is about a washed-up porn star who returns to his small Texas hometown where no-one really wants him back. The film premiered in Competition at Cannes 2021, and has since played festivals including Telluride, New York,...

Singapore-based distributor and producer Clover Films has partnered with Taiwan’s Machi Xcelsior Studios for the worldwide theatrical rights (except Taiwan and South Korea) to Giddens Ko’s “Till We Meet Again.”

The film is a fantasy romance starring Kai Ko (“You Are The Apple Of My Eye”), Gingle Wang (“Detention”) and Vivian Sung (“Our Times”) that recently garnered eleven nominations at the Golden Horse Film Awards.

The producers will retain the rights in Taiwan. Hive Filmworks will be handling the theatrical rights in Korea. The movie, produced for a budget of $3.5 million, has been dated for release on 24 November in Taiwan.

Clover has long been a leading distributor of commercial Asian movies in both Singapore and Malaysia. It has also produced several titles in the same two territories. Taking the vastly wider package of rights outside the producer territory (and Korea) is a new step.

“We are not aiming...

Recently released horror film “The Medium” won the top prize at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan), which wrapped in South Korea on Sunday. The event, which ran July 8-18, 2021 was the festival’s second year as a hybrid, with both in-person and online components.

Gyeonggi Province, where the festival is held raised its disease status to Level 4 on the fifth day of the eleven-day festival. But festival organizers said that they were able to work through the mass of disease-prevention restrictions and regulations and achieve the result that they had aimed for.

“BiFan could not avoid having visitors who turned out to be positive for Covid-19. However, thanks to thorough prevention and follow-up measures, no transmission of the virus at any of the festival venues has been reported as of July 20,” organizers said.

Festival staff, including volunteers, were subject to daily Covid testing. All gatherings, including the opening and closing ceremonies,...

The Korean fantastic film festival will run July 8-18.

Asia’s largest genre film festival, the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan) in South Korea is celebrating its 25th edition this year running from July 8-18.

Presenting envelope-pushing films to local audiences as well as providing a window on Asian genre films to the rest of the world, the festival is normally frequented by programmers and other industry professionals from around the global film festival circuit.

But this is Bifan’s second year operating in the Covid-19 pandemic as a hybrid event. International guests and all delegates participating in the festival’s industry platform,...

Asia’s largest genre film festival to take place both on-and-offline.

South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan) has unveiled the line-up for its 2021 edition, which will open with the world premiere of Giddens Ko’s Taiwanese film Till We Meet Again.

The 25th edition of Asia’s largest genre film festival will take place as a hybrid event of physical and online screenings for the second time as a result of the ongoing pandemic.

The festival will run from July 8-18 in venues around Bucheon and online through local streaming platform wavve. A total of 146 films, comprising 61 features and 85 shorts,...

Fantasy adventure, which also stars Vivian Sung and Gingle Wang, is adapted from the director’s novel God Of Love.

Taiwanese director Giddens Ko is reuniting with actor Kai Ko in a new whimsical romance, Till We Meet Again, which is being positioned as a summer blockbuster by producer-distributor Machi Xcelsior Studios.

The film also stars popular actresses Vivian Sung (Our Times) and Gingle Wang (Detention). Kai Ko starred in Giddens Ko’s You Are The Apple Of My Eye, which was a huge hit in Taiwan and across the region in 2011.

Till We Meet Again is adapted by Ko,...

The turn towards the horror genre with exploitation elements that Giddens Ko begun with “The Tenants Downstairs” proved a great choice, with “Mon Mon Mon Monsters” cementing his prowess in the genre, by highlighting his vivid imagination in script-writing and his directorial abilities in the best fashion.

Lin Shu-wei is the definition of the nerd. He is shy, weak, a permanent victim of the class’s bullies, has no friends, and always gets the best grades. The story begins with him being accused of stealing the class’s register money, and the leader of the bullies, Tuan Ren-hao, humiliating him even more, to the joy of the rest of his gang, Liao Kuo-feng, Yeh Wei-chu, and Wu Si-hua, Tuan’s girlfriend, who where the actual perpetrators. Lin, having no alternative, turns to Mrs Lee, their homeroom teacher, who, however, does not show any particular care for his plight,...

Hong Kong, 20 January 2020 – The Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf) today announces 33 projects shortlisted for its 18th edition, featuring a host of top Asian filmmakers as well as 11 first-feature directors.

HAF18 will take place this year from 25 to 27 March at the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre alongside the 24th Hong Kong Filmart.

HAF18 received a total of 338 submissions from 17 countries and regions – including, for the first time, a documentary project from Mexico. Some of the project highlights are as follow: Hong Kong: Hong Kong offers a strong lineup of seven locally-flavoured projects, including works by Pang Ho-cheung, Derek Chiu and Ng Kai-chung. Best known for his Love in a Puff trilogy, Pang presents The End, which recounts the story of a psychic medium who seeks help from a dead director for the ending of his unfinished script; Derek Chiu returns after winning the Osaka Asian Film Festival’s Grand Prize with No.

Rlje Films, a business unit of AMC Networks, has picked up select rights to Mon Mon Mon Monsters from Shudder, AMC Networks’ streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural. Mon Mon Mon Monsters will release DVD and Blu-ray on February 4, 2020. Written and directed by Giddens Ko (You Are the Apple of My Eye),the horror / comedy stars Eugenie Liu(“Behind Your Smile”), Pei-Hsin Lin, Carolyn Chen(Attention, Love!), Yu-Kai Deng(Tree in the River), and Kent Tsai (All Because of Love). Rlje Films will release Mon Mon Mon Monsters on DVD for $27.97 and on Blu-ray for $28.97.

Now you can win the Win the DVD of Mon Mon Mon Monsters . We Are Movie Geeks has two copies to give away. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling us what your favorite movie with the word ‘Monster’ in the title is. (mine’s Mad Monster Party). It’s so easy!

Lin Cheng-sheng (“Betlnut Beauty”), Giddens Ko (“You Are The Apple of My Eye”), Pang Ho-cheung (“Love in a Puff”) and Yeo Siew-hua (“A Land Imagined”) are among the big name Asian directors lining up to participate in the 18th edition of the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum.

The powerhouse project market will run for three days, alongside FilMart, traditionally Asia’s biggest film and TV rights market. With an unusual Wednesday start date for both, Haf will operate March 25-27, and FilMart 25-28 March.

In addition to the traditional one-on-one matching operation between producers and those distributors sales agents and financiers looking to invest at a film’s early stages, Haf also offers numerous cash and in-kind prizes. This year the 33 selected projects vie for 18 prizes and sponsorship packages.

The stellar lineup of directors is matched by equally established producers – and directors turned producer. These include: Hong Kong’s...

The 18th edition of the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum will run alongside Filmart from March 25-27.

The Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum has announced the 33 projects shortlisted for this year’s edition of the co-production and financing market, including 24 fictional features and nine documentaries.

The selection includes leading Asian filmmakers such as Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Taiwan’s Giddens Ko, Japan’s Naoko Ogigami and Singapore’s Yeo Siew Hua, as well as 11 first-time feature directors.

Seven Hong Kong projects have been selected, including Pang Ho-cheung’s The End, the story of a psychic medium who seeks help from...

Rlj Entertainment will release the horror comedy Mon Mon Mon Monsters to U.S. audiences. The release date is scheduled for this February. In this Taiwan shot feature, a bullied boy discovers a creature, which he hides and uses for his own revenge. This film was shot by director Giddens Ko (You Are the Apple of My Eye). And, the film centrally stars: Eugenie Liu (“Behind Your Smile”), Carolyn Chen, Pei-Hsin Lin, Yu-Kai Deng and Kent Tsai. To release on home entertainment formats, a preview of Mon Mon Mon Monster's upcoming launch is hosted here. Director Ko has talked about the film, recently. With David Pountain, Ko talks about the motivations behind the making of the film. Ko also talks about the protagonist and his struggles: "so Lin, although he wants to be a good person, lacks guts and courage. It’s really because of peer pressure that he lowers his standards of morality.

The official Japanese box office numbers for 2018 are not yet in –the Motion Picture Producers’ Association of Japan (Eiren) will announce them in late January – but preliminary figures don’t look great for the home team.

“Code Blue: The Movie,” a medical thriller based on a Fuji TV series, was the year’s highest-earning film at $83 million, according to the Private Life entertainment data and ranking site, but only three of the box office top ten were Japanese. The other two, “Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer,” at $82 million, and “Doraemon the Movie: Nobita’s Treasure Island,” at $48 million, were entries in long-running anime series.

A total of 29 Japanese films made JPY1 billion ($9.0 million) or more. This compares with 38 that passed the same milestone in 2017.

Faced with the prospect of more decline at home, as Japan’s aging population continues to trend down, the Japanese film industry is increasingly looking abroad...

1. One Cut of the Dead.

Uedo’s directorial debut, which cost approximately $27,000 to make, hit the 2 million admissions mark on 20th October 2018 and is still playing to packed houses both nationally and internationally. An inventive take on the zombie genre, “One Cut of the Dead” is also a self reflexive on the process of low-budget filmmaking offering the viewer an insight into independent cinema: directing (the making of the film); production, and exhibition (live broadcasting). The film begins with a 37-minute single take of a low-budget zombie film which is being screened live on national television before segueing into something unexpected. And it is these narrative and formal deviations that situate “One Cut of the Dead” as one of the most original contemporary zombie films refreshing a genre which has become largely cliché-ridden and derivative.

2. Mon Mon Mon Monsters

Taiwanese horror cinema has very much been in the ascendancy in...

Giddens Ko is definitely one of the most brilliantly creative minds of Taiwan (to say the least) and this movie, which is based on his homonymous novel, proves just that.

The film begins in a police interrogation room, where a man with a crazy haircut, begins to confess a story that could only be characterized as paranoid. The Landlord claims he has inherited a building with studio apartments from a distant relative, so he became the proprietor of the building, renting the apartments out to tenants. In very “Sliver” fashion, his penthouse came with a room full of screens, receiving feedback from hidden cameras placed in every apartment. The Landlord begins by watching his tenants almost constantly. Mr. Wang Ming-kai and his fourth-grade daughter; Ms. Chen Min-hui, an office worker who uses her body for financial gain and advantages in the workplace; Mr. Chang Kuo-sheng, a physical...

The fifth annual Horrorant Film Festival in Greece wrapped up last week. With completion of the genre festival comes the announement of the competition winners.      Giddens Ko's Mon Mon Mon Monsters won best film at the fest. The Taiwanese vampire flick has been impressing festival audiences around the world and this is its third award.      Spreading out the love, no singular film won more than one award. Argentinian director Marcelo Schapces won the best director award for his film Necronomicon and German screenwriter Arend Remmers won the best screenplay award for his work on Adolfo Kolmerer and William James' Snowflake.     Other winners from Iberoamerican countries included our friends with What the Waters Left Behind for best special effects and...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Taiwanese filmmaker Giddens Ko returns to high school for his follow up to the massively entertaining and successful You Are the Apple of My Eye, but things take a much darker turn in Mon Mon Mon Monsters, a mile-a-minute horror-comedy combo that delights and shocks in equal measure. Lin is mercilessly bullied by all his classmates in high school while his callous homeroom teacher looks on, happy to add to his misery. After a session of community service helping the elderly, he finds himself bonding with his worst bullies when they capture a flesh-eating monster. The group relentlessly torture the creature while its older sister tries to track it down. Lin grapples with his desire to help to poor beast and his newfound social rank...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

After eight days of screenings and round-the-clock BBQ, the 21st edition of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) held its closing ceremony at Bucheon's City Hall on Friday, July 21st. Topping the awards during the night was The Endless, the third feature from Screen Anarchy favorites Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. The winner in the Korean section was the debut film Behind the Dark Night by Shim Chan-yang. In Bucheon Choice, Sadrac González-Perellón's Black Hollow Cage was awarded the Jury prize while Giddens Ko's Mon Mon Mon Monsters took home the Nh Audience Award. A special mention was reserved for Hentaida (I Am a Pervert) by Anzai Hajime. Looking at the Korean Fantastic section, Park Ji-soo earned the Best Actress accolade for her role...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Sci-fi by Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson debuted at Tribeca Film Festival.

Asia’s largest genre film event, the 21st Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan), awarded its Best Of Bucheon prize to The Endless.

Directors Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson receive a cash prize of $17,900 (KW20m).

The Us sci-fi horror thriller follows two brothers who return to visit what they believe to be a UFO death cult that they escaped at a younger age.

Benson and Moorhead also star and the innovative team has previously been noted for co-directing genre favorites Resolution and Spring.

The Endless made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and has been snapping up distribution deals since. Read about those here and here.

The Bucheon Choice: Features jury was made up of Train To Busan actor Kim Eui Sung, Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival director Angel Sala, Korean producer Shin Chul (My Sassy Girl), programme director of the Hong...

Line-up also includes Chan vehicle Bleeding Steel and Cannes title The Villainess.

Singapore’s Clover Films has unveiled a slate of 18 mostly Asian releases for 2017, including Stx Entertainment’s The Foreigner and six Korean movies.

The Foreigner, starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan, is scheduled for Singapore release on September 28. Clover also has Singapore rights for Jackie Chan vehicle Bleeding Steel, which it will release on December 22.

Buoyed by its success with Train To Busan, which grossed $3.9m in Singapore last year, Clover has also been stocking up on Korean titles. The Villainess, which recently premiered in Cannes Midnight screenings, is scheduled for July 13 and will be followed by war drama The Battleship Island (August 17), horror thriller The Mimic (August 31), supernatural drama Soul Mate (September 21), action film The Fortress (October) and thriller Golden Slumber (December).

Other Hong Kong-Chinese titles on Clover’s slate include Wilson Yip’s Paradox, starring Tony Jaa, Louis Koo and [link...

Who are the real monsters among us? That’s the question lurking at the heart of writer and director Giddens Ko’s sophomore effort, mon mon mon Monsters, which closes this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival. Taking a radical departure from his 2011 romantic high school dramedy You Are the Apple of My Eye (a, ahem, monster hit), mon mon mon Monsters is as dark, violent and nihilistic as Apple was bright, fluffy and bittersweet. Inspired by Mikael Hafstrom’s Evil, Monsters is far more literal in its horror aspirations, replacing Hafstrom’s victimized younger students with a supernatural creature, and the ineffective...

Taiwanese director Giddens Ko's black comedy mon mon mon Monsters will close the 41st Hong Kong International Film Festival, which is set to run April 11-25.

The festival will host gala premieres for The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue by Ishii Yuya from Japan, Spoor by Agnieszka Holland from Poland, On Body and Soul by Ildiko Enyedi from Hungary and Personal Shopper by Olivier Assayas from France. Holland, Enyedi and Assayas will visit Hong Kong to give master classes.

A retrospective of Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang, who died in 2007, will showcase the restored version...

Event will programme a section of Hong Kong films from the last 20 years, including Infernal Affairs, Election and Shaolin Soccer.

This year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff) will mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China with a special focus on major Hong Kong movies of the past 20 years.

The section, ‘Paradigm Shift: Post-97 Hong Kong Cinema’, kicks off with films such as Fruit Chan’s Made In Hong Kong and Ringo Lam’s Full Alert from the period immediately after the handover, when local cinema was under pressure with box office declining and the mainland market starting to grow.

It then moves on to landmark titles such as Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer (2001), Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs [pictured] (2002) and Johnnie To’s Election (2005), which all defined Hong Kong cinema in their own way.

The series of 20 titles ends with Pang Ho-cheung’s Love In A Puff...

Event will programme a section of Hong Kong films from the last 20 years, including Infernal Affairs, Election and Shaolin Soccer.

This year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff) will mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China with a special focus on major Hong Kong movies of the past 20 years.

The section, ‘Paradigm Shift: Post-97 Hong Kong Cinema’, kicks off with films such as Fruit Chan’s Made In Hong Kong and Ringo Lam’s Full Alert from the period immediately after the handover, when local cinema was under pressure with box office declining and the mainland market starting to grow.

It then moves on to landmark titles such as Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer (2001), Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Infernal Affairs [pictured] (2002) and Johnnie To’s Election (2005), which all defined Hong Kong cinema in their own way.

The series of 20 titles ends with Pang Ho-cheung’s Love In A Puff...

At the beginning of October, Hong Kong actor and international star Chow Yun-fat became one of the few high-profile local celebrities to speak out on the pro-democracy protests in his native country. Over the past week, a backlash has started to brew against Chow and others who have lent their support to the demonstrators. The stars, of whom Chow is arguably the most famous outside Asia, are the latest this year to take potentially risky positions on global political issues. This summer, Spanish and Korean filmmakers including Pedro Almodovar and Park Chan-wook, denounced Israel’s involvement in the violence in Gaza, sparking ire from onlookers around the world, but no visible impact on their careers. In this case, the Hong Kong bold-faced names are speaking out about a situation that is right in their own backyard — and that backyard belongs to an increasingly disgruntled China where much of their money is made.

ChinaVision Media Group, which will soon be renamed Alibaba Pictures Group, has signed production deals with Wong Kar Wai’s Block 2 Pictures, Angie Chai and Giddens Ko’s Star Ritz International Entertainment and Peter Ho-sun Chan’s We Pictures.

The deals emerged in a profit warning filed by ChinaVision on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday. ChinaVision is being rebranded as Alibaba Pictures Group, following ecommerce giant Alibaba’s acquisition of a controlling stake in the company in April.

Alibaba has also reportedly hired China Film Group vice president Zhang Qiang to head Alibaba Pictures Group. However the company has not confirmed or responded to the reports.

ChinaVision reported expected losses of $12.5m (Hk$97m) to $23m (Hk$180m) for the six months to June 30, 2014. However it added that losses were due to a lack of films released during this period, and that business was expected to pick up in the second half of the...

Fox International Productions (Fip) president Sanford Panitch and the jury of the Haf/Fox Chinese Film Development Award discussed how filmmaking across the Greater China region has become more local at a round table yesterday.

Although mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan share language and culture, audiences in the three markets have different tastes.

“Each of us should focus on making our own movies – it’s impossible for filmmakers to merge the three markets,” said Wanda Media head of development Abe Kwong.

“It’s a conundrum because often the very thing that makes a film successful locally is the thing that prevents it from being international,” said Panitch.

Taiwanese filmmaker Giddens Ko (You Are The Apple Of My Eye) agreed that the priority should be to focus on making a good movie: “We first need to understand what we like ourselves rather than guessing what other markets will like.”

Ko, who recently...