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The Japan Foundation is bringing a thematic exploration of justice and morality to U.K. screens, featuring premieres of new Japanese releases alongside retrospective screenings.

Titled “Am I Right? Justice, Justification and Judgement in Japanese Cinema,” the lineup includes “The Moon” (2023), directed by Yuya Ishii, which tackles institutional abuse through the story of a former writer working at a facility for disabled people. Another highlight is Bunji Sotoyama’s “Tea Friends” (2022), examining elderly care and sexuality through the lens of a senior escort service.

Among the contemporary offerings, Kosai Sekine’s “Stay Mum” (2024) follows an estranged daughter’s encounter with a potentially abused child, while Shinji Araki’s “Penalty Loop” (2023) explores revenge through a time-loop narrative.

The program marks notable premieres including Yu Irie’s “A Girl Named Ann” (2024) and Ryosuke Hashiguchi’s “To Mom, With Love” (2024). The animation segment features “Ghost Cat Anzu” (2024), about an 11-year-old girl’s supernatural journey with a talking cat.

Alibaba-owned Svod service Youku is leading a content arms race in China and expects to spend billions of dollars on original programming and international co-productions over the next few years. The digital platform launched in 2006 has already disrupted the country’s staid programming market, but its drive to create content at Hollywood standards should take it to a new level.

The service already has over 500 million unique users, a mixture of paid-for subscribers and free users, and some of its content is already starting to travel. Netflix picked up its critically acclaimed detective drama Day and Night in a landmark global deal last year, while entertainment format service Street Dance of China has attracted interest across Asia.

However, Weidong Yang, President of Youku and Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Group, insists that this is only the start. “Ideally, we can put more than half of our content budget into original production.

“Titan: Fighting Fantasy” has been set as the first project to flow from pioneering U.K.-Chinese film and TV venture Flying Tiger.

The project is a live-action Chinese-language adaptation of the game books written by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. The fantasy works are set in a Dungeons & Dragons world on the continent of Alanasia on the planet Titan, a setting that bears a strong resemblance to China 700 years ago. “Titan: Fighting Fantasy” is to be produced as a 10-hour series for Chinese online and TV consumption.

Flying Tiger is a joint venture among veteran U.K. film financier Paul Brett (“The King’s Speech”), Meredith Brett, Jonny Boston and Al Man, a leading Chinese entertainment data company that counts e-commerce giant Alibaba among its backers. Flying Tiger’s remit spans finance, creation and distribution. It has substantial development funds and more than 20 properties in different stages of development.

Alibaba-owned Chinese Svod service Youku is developing a drama with Sony Pictures Television after revealing that it looking to step up its partnerships with the Hollywood studios.

The Chinese digital broadcaster also lifted the lid on a number of other original projects at the Mip TV market in Cannes, where Weidong Yang, President of Youku, Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group, gave a keynote address.

Speaking to Deadline after his session, Yang revealed that it was working on a variety show with Endemol Shine Group, hours after announcing an overall partnership with the 21st Century Fox-backed business, as well as a documentary with the BBC. While he didn’t go into much detail about the projects, it’s an interesting sign that the Chinese business is actively opening its doors when it comes to international co-productions.

Yang said, “We will reduce the budget for buying finished programmes, I...

Yang Weidong, president of China’s Alibaba Digital Media & Entertainment Group and its streaming service Youku, underscored the importance of producing more original content for Youku, and the need to grow its subscription revenue during a keynote speech on Monday at TV market and conference MipTV in Cannes, France.

The Chinese streaming market is huge, with around 579 million online video users, 8% of the global market, Yang said, but it is intensely competitive, with three players, Youku, Tencent and iQIYI, dominating the market. Innovation was key to growing Youku’s subscriber base with users demanding “new ideas” delivered with “great imagination.” “It creates a fantastic opportunity for our industry. More and more users are willing to pay for high-quality content,” he said.

Yang said each Chinese internet user spent on average 100 minutes a day watching online video and paid subscription revenues in China rose 100% last year on the previous year.

He...