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Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai , an ongoing horror anime with a “paper theater” aesthetic that focuses on uncanny urban legends, is continuing with a fourteenth season that will broadcast in Japan on TV Tokyo beginning on January 4, 2025. Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai began broadcasting in July of 2013. The new season concentrates on the concept of “greed”, and new key art (below) has been published for the series. Crunchyroll currently streams the previous thirteen seasons of the series. Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai Season 14 key art Related: Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai Season 13 Anime Begins on July 14 Akira Funada directs Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai at animation studio Ilca. The series features the voice talents of Kanji Tsuda, Yutaka Shimizu, Ponz, Takaya Yamaguchi, Yuta Hoshino, Seiyuu Yoshida, Tomoko Oishi, Ruri Shiraishi, You Koizomi (of Amemoyou no Solaris), Riko Momonoi (of Sayonara Stay Tuned), Momoko Miyashiro and others. Crunchyroll describes Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai : Each week at dusk,...

Álvaro Díaz’s nominations at the 2024 Latin Grammy Awards are proof that the grind pays off. To celebrate his nods, the Puerto Rican rapper was joined by a 13-piece band for a rendition of his heart-wrenching breakup single “Quien Te Quiere Como El Nene.”

The singer strutted across the stage, clad in a futuristic leather outfit and a new cropped hairstyle, while melancholic visuals of blue skies hovered on the screen behind him.

Díaz then gave it up for Danny Ocean, who added more romance to the performance with his track “Amor.

2-time Oscar winner Marlon Brando had a historic run 70 years ago that has yet to be matched or replicated. Some of Marlon Brando's best movies came out of Hollywood's Golden Age, which took place from the late 1910s until the early 1960s. Although many of Brando's most prolific roles would arise in the 1970s in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, his performances as a leading man were just as impressive at the start of his acting career during the early 1950s.

Brando remains one of the few actors in Oscars history to win the Academy Award for Best Actor twice in his career. He is cemented among other great actors such as Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Sean Penn, and Anthony Hopkins. Daniel Day-Lewis remains the only actor to have ever won the award for three separate performances. He also remains the third youngest...

A decade back, Naoshi Arakawa gave us one of the finest romance series. To this day, his manga continues to tug at the readers’ heartstrings. From friendships to slow-burn romance, Your Lie In April is a masterpiece. This holds especially true with its approach to themes of love and romance. The process behind it though, was less romantic and rather scary.

Kosei Arima in a still from the anime | Credit: A-1 Pictures

It is a known fact that the series is impactful and profound. Little do people know that Arakawa wrote the manga for a special someone. As revealed in an interview, the mangaka planned on making them cry. But what would surprise the readers is the inspiration behind the series. Regardless of that, the series successfully manages to send people on a neverending cryfest.

Naoshi Arakawa reveals his special someone

Naoshi Arakawa is a seasoned manga artist whose career spans over two decades.

Your Lie in April also explores the complexity of human relationships, from the bonds of friendship to the depths of romantic love. The show portrays the intricacies of human emotions and how they shape our relationships with others. There are various themes that surround the story that can touch the human heart in various ways. For some, it’s the wholesome feeling of love. For others, it’s the pain of loss and death.

Tsubaki | Credits: Credits: A1 Pictures

Nevertheless, it has captured the imagination of many anime fans in the world and set a new benchmark for romance, for better or worse. Kosei’s journey towards healing begins when he meets Kaori, who shows him that music can be a source of joy rather than a painful reminder of his past. Similarly, Kaori’s love for Kosei helps her confront her own fears and insecurities. She finds solace in...

Leading up to the Grammy nominations on Nov. 8, Rolling Stone is breaking down 13 different categories. For each, we’re predicting the nominees, as well as who will (and who should) win on Grammy night.

Latin music keeps reaching new heights: This year, it’s already the fastest-growing genre on streaming, and an RIAA report recently showed that it set a record by generating $685 million in the first half of 2024 alone. So much of that success has been because of urbano genres like reggaeton and trap, and mega-stars like Bad Bunny and Feid.

Nathy Peluso and Álvaro Díaz and are tired of each other’s antics — but won’t let their imperfections stop things from getting heated. On Tuesday, the Argentinian vocalist/rapper and the Puerto Rican rap star released their collaboration “Xq Eres Así,” alongside a video filmed in Mexico City.

In it, the musicians play a pair of imperfect lovers in a Nineties-set home in Mexico, and they question their dynamic in the lyrics. The visual jumps between the musicians fighting, and then making up, in different parts of their home.

Álvaro Díaz’s creative vision has felt almost prophetic the last couple of years. In 2021, he released Felicilandia, an album that twisted reggaeton into all kinds of left-leaning directions, playing with pop-punk energy, Eighties synths, and rock guitars. Then, this April, he dropped Sayonara, a continuation of Felicilandia that pushed even deeper into off-kilter, futuristic beats and styles. All along, he’s been able to find sounds that have propelled the genre forward and introduced listeners to a new alternative lane in reggaeton.

Díaz got his start as a rapper in Puerto Rico’s underground.

FX’s Shogun extended its reign over the 2024 Emmys on Sunday night. Going into the evening, the hit samurai series already held the record for the most wins by any show in a single year, having bagged 14 trophies at the Creative Arts Emmys a week ago. But the show further cemented its rule inside the Peacock Theater at the Primetime Emmys, winning an additional four awards, including the top categories of best drama series, best actress in a drama series for Anna Sawai, best actor in a drama series for Hiroyuki Sanada and best drama directing for Frederick E.O. Toye.

Shogun’s triumph is momentous on several fronts. The historic awards haul represents a huge win for FX and parent company Disney for a pricey series that took nearly 10 years to bring to fruition and once looked like a very uncertain bet. It’s also a major moment for Asian representation and non-English-language television.

“The Piano Lesson” is a showcase for Samuel L. Jackson and Danielle Deadwyler. This upcoming Netflix flick is adapted from August Wilson’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize winner. The story is centered on the Charles family, who have to decide what to do with a great family heirloom — a piano. Jackson plays the patriarch, Doaker Charle, who acts as a storyteller in the play and recounts detailed stories about the piano’s history. And Deadwyler plays his niece Berniece, who is a strong advocate for keeping the piano.

Jackson has a long history with this piece. He originated the role of Boy Willie at the Yale Repertory Theater in 1987 and reaped a Tony bid for his performance as Doaker in the acclaimed 2022 Broadway revival directed by his wife, Latanya Richardson Jackson. John David Washington, who played Boy Willie in that production, reprises his role here, with his brother Malcolm Washington handling helming.

The site of Hollywood’s iconic Yamashiro restaurant and its surrounding 7.3 acre property, dubbed “Hollywood Mountain,” are being put on the market with a $100 million asking price.

The Japanese restaurant, owned by a company run by producers Elie Samaha and Steven Markoff, has appeared in dozens of movies including “Sayonara,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Kill Bill,” “Gone in 60 Seconds,” “Blind Date” and “Teahouse of the August Moon” as well as in numerous TV shows.

Avison Young is the broker for the property, which is included on the National Register of Historic Places.

Peter Sherman, Avison Young principal and U.S. Capital Markets leader, said the site could be developed in a variety of ways, likely at a low density — with possible uses including a museum, a foundation, a private family compound or a resort. “Everybody’s familiar with the Japanese villa. But this site is not just the villa but the seven-plus acres,...

Back in 2022, Álvaro Díaz released Felicilandia, an album named and inspired by a fictional amusement park he dreamed up that represented a safe, euphoric world. Earlier this year, when he shared the artwork for his latest LP Sayonara, fans were surprised to see that the cover illustration pictured Felicilandia, with all its rides and cheerful mascots, completely destroyed.

Both albums – and the two universes on them – are intrinsically linked, showing that Díaz methodically planned Sayonara with the release of Felicilandia. While Feliclandia was a story rooted in finding happiness and...

The Korean War inspired some of the greatest movies of all time, focusing on the atrocities and bravery of soldiers and civilians involved. M*A*S*H is often considered one of the greatest films ever made, winning five Academy Awards and spawning a successful television series. Sayonara is notable for tackling issues of race and prejudice during a time when few other films dared to do so.

While not as well represented on the big screen as World War II or the Vietnam War, there are still a number of great movies depicting the Korean War. The Korean War was a conflict that took place in the years following the conclusion of WW II, and as with many global conflicts, it inspired some of the greatest movies of all time. While not as large in scale as either of the World Wars, the Korean War was just as violent...

Marlon Brando – the man whom Time magazine crowned the greatest actor of the 20th century back in 1998 – would be celebrating his 100th birthday today had he not died 20 years ago. Born on April 3, 1924, Brando was a fascinating if divisive character, a perpetually enigmatic figure whose impact not only on the acting profession but on American popular culture itself can’t be overstated. He starred in numerous iconic roles, from Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire” to Terry Malloy in “On the Waterfront” to Julius Caesar in “Julius Caesar” to Vito Corleone in “The Godfather.”

While he wound up nominated for eight Academy Awards and six Golden Globes and won two of each, it was the one honor Brando rejected, of course, that came to define his awards legacy: his Best Actor win for “The Godfather” in 1973 in which he sent actress and purported Native American representative Sacheen Littlefeather (a.

Rather than fulfilling general expectations by becoming the first film since “Slumdog Millionaire” (2009) to win eight Oscars, “Oppenheimer” left the 2024 Academy Awards with seven, including the coveted Best Picture prize. Although its eventual haul was far from the most impressive ever, it still comfortably ranked as the biggest winner of the night and officially joined a stellar, eight-decade-spanning roster of 12 movies that each merited a lucky seven competitive academy honors.

In addition to the top award, “Oppenheimer” racked up victories for Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score. Of the dozen films that preceded it in winning seven Oscars, the one that comes closest to matching its exact haul is “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1958), which took Best Adapted Screenplay rather than Best Supporting Actor (Sessue Hayakawa).

“The Bridge on the River Kwai...

Among the various distinctions “Everything Everywhere All at Once” incurred by winning seven awards at the 95th Oscars was becoming the first film in a dozen years (and ninth overall) to conquer both supporting acting categories. This rare occurrence involved Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis preventing their respective “The Banshees of Inisherin” competitors from accomplishing the same goal, as the sets of featured nominees from “Belfast” and “The Power of the Dog” had both failed to do one year earlier. Now, two more pairs of cast mates – who happen to hail from the two highest-grossing live action movies of 2023 – are gunning for entry into this exclusive club.

The concurrent nominations of Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera (“Barbie”) and Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”) bring the total number of films that have ever vied for both Best Supporting Actor and Actress to 110. Although this marks the third...

In our Q&a feature series Tell Me Más, we ask some of our favorite Latine artists to answer the questions only their BFFs know about them, revealing everything from their most recent read to the songs that get them hyped. This month, we sit down with Puerto Rican alternative reggaetón artist Álvaro Díaz.

Álvaro Díaz has a secret ingredient that makes his musical recipe superb. The Puerto Rican artist, known by family and fans as Alvarito, is simply being himself. As fans anticipate the release of his sophomore album, "Sayonara," Díaz confirms the sound may be different from his first album, but his authenticity will always be his main sabor.

Related: Tell Me Más

"If you took my last album 'Felicilandia' and said 'this is a reggaetón album,' when they listen to it, it's not what they expect from a reggaetón album," he tells Popsugar Juntos. "If you...

Arthur Schmidt, the two-time Oscar-winning film editor who collaborated with director Robert Zemeckis on 10 films, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump and the Back to the Future trilogy, has died. He was 86.

Schmidt died Saturday of an unknown cause at his home in Santa Barbara, his brother Ron Schmidt told The Hollywood Reporter.

The second-generation film editor also cut three Mike Nichols features — The Fortune (1975), The Birdcage (1996) and Primary Colors (1998) — and two helmed by Michael Apted — Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), for which he received his first Oscar nom, and Firstborn (1984).

His résumé over four decades included work on Marathon Man (1976), Jaws 2 (1978), Ruthless People (1986), Beaches (1988), The Rocketeer (1991), The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and Congo (1995), and he was brought in for three months to help tidy up the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie in 2003.

Schmidt received his Academy Awards in 1989 for Who Framed Roger Rabbit and in 1995 for Forrest Gump,...

Michelle Yeoh's Best Actress win at the 95th Academy Awards made Oscars history, but it also proved that the Academy must do more. Yeoh's performance in the multiverse-hopping comedy-drama Everything Everywhere All at Once triumphed over a group of equally talented women: Cate Blanchett for Tár, Ana de Armas for Blonde, Michelle Williams for The Fabelmans, and Andrea Riseborough for To Leslie. Yeoh's win is highly notable not just because of the quality of her performance but also for the historical precedent it set. Michelle Yeoh winning Best Actress was extremely important, and hopefully, this is the start of the Academy doing more.

Yeoh has had an impressive career, acquiring fame in the 1990s after starring in a series of Hong Kong films where she performed her own stunt work. After moving to the United States, Yeoh portrayed Bond girl Wai Lin, a fan-favorite, in the 1997 film Tomorrow Never Dies.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” was exactly that at Sunday’s Academy Awards. The multiverse-hopping smash won seven Oscars and set a whole bunch of records in the process. Here are seven of them, all at once.

1. It has won the most above-the-line Oscars ever

We said this could happen, and it did. “Everything Everywhere” is the first movie to win six above-the-line Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Best Actress for Michelle Yeoh, Best Supporting Actor for Ke Huy Quan, Best Supporting Actress for Jamie Lee Curtis, and Best Original Screenplay for the Daniels. The previous record was five, held by the three films who’ve swept the Big Five, “It Happened One Night” (1934), “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1976) and “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991).

2. It’s the first film to win three acting awards, Best Picture and Best Director

Two films have...

Michelle Yeoh cemented Oscars history on Sunday night as she became the first Asian person to win for lead actress.

Yeoh took home the first Academy Award of her celebrated career, for best actress in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The honor came after a long career in martial arts and action movies like “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” and “Yes, Madam.”

Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the zany sci-fi adventure centers on Yeoh’s Evelyn Wang, a middle-aged laundromat owner who, while being audited by the IRS, discovers she has to connect with versions of herself from parallel universes to prevent cataclysmic destruction.

“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities,” Yeoh said from the stage. “This is proof that dreams do come true. And ladies, don’t let anybody tell you that you are ever past your prime.

The 2023 Oscar nominees for Best Supporting Actress are Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”), Hong Chau (“The Whale”), Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), and Stephanie Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”). Our odds currently indicate that Bassett (18/5) will emerge victorious, followed in order of likelihood by Condon (37/10), Curtis (19/5), Hsu (9/2), and Chau (9/2).

For the first time since 2012, all five of the women in this lineup are new to the category. The last instance involved winner Octavia Spencer (“The Help”) and nominees Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist”), Jessica Chastain (“The Help”), Melissa McCarthy (“Bridesmaids”), and Janet McTeer (“Albert Nobbs”). The current group’s complete Oscars newcomer rate of 80% has become common in recent years, with the same percentage also having applied to the nominees of 2022, 2018, and 2016.

The only past Oscar nominee in this bunch is Bassett, who was previously recognized for her lead performance...

For the second year in a row, multiple films have the potential to win Oscars for both Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Of course, the nominees from “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” are looking to fare better than those from “Belfast” and “The Power of the Dog,” who all went home empty-handed last year. At this point, only eight of the previous 106 films that were nominated for both Oscars have pulled off dual wins. Based on their impressive precursor runs, the current hopefuls are uniquely well-positioned to join the club, but they do face a great challenge in overcoming one another.

Like “The Power of the Dog,” each of these two new films has a three-way stake in the supporting races. Those representing “The Banshees of Inisherin” are actress Kerry Condon and actors Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan, while those on the “Everything Everywhere All at Once...

Having already won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in “Elvis,” Austin Butler is on a solid path to triumphing on his first Oscar nomination. His film, which covers the entirety of the titular rock star’s two-decade career, boasts a talented cast that includes past Oscar winner Tom Hanks, who collected back-to-back Best Actor trophies for “Philadelphia” (1994) and “Forrest Gump” (1995). He missed out on a supporting bid for “Elvis,” but if Butler clinches the lead award, Hanks will become the 15th man to have acted in a film that won the same Oscar he previously received.

Hanks has a total of five Best Actor nominations to his name, with the three unsuccessful ones having come for his work in “Big” (1989), “Saving Private Ryan” (1999), and “Cast Away” (2001). Until Butler was recognized for “Elvis,” Hanks had never appeared in a film for which someone...

When a couple of Hollywood awards veterans (read: Medicare recipients) get together to slug it out on Zoom about their issues with some past Oscar decisions in advance of the 95th Academy Awards next Sunday. well, let’s just say the dust tends to fly. That’s what happened a few days ago when Gold Derby editor, president and founder Tom O’Neil and news and features editor Ray Richmond met up to weigh in on some of the things that have stuck in their craw during the first 94 years of the ceremony. Watch the video slugfest above.

What did they talk about? Well, O’Neil tossed out the opening salvo in asking if there’s ever been a worse decision and bigger outrage than the one in 1942 that found “Citizen Kane” – “The greatest movie ever made according to every AFI survey,” he noted – losing out for Best Picture to “How Green Was My Valley.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” star Michelle Yeoh has made history with her win for best performance by a female actor in a leading role at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, becoming the first Asian woman to win a leading film acting award.

“I think if I speak my heart will explode,” an emotional Yeoh said on stage while accepting her award. “SAG- AFTRA, to get this from you who understand what it is to get here… everyone of you know the journey, the roller coaster ride, the ups and downs. But most importantly we never give up. I thank you… This is not just for me, this is for every little girl who looks like me.”

The actress then paused, turning away from the podium to compose herself but eventually relenting with an excited litany of curses screaming “shit” and “fuck” to an elated crowd. “Thank you for giving...

Mike Flanagan threw viewers a bit of a curveball with the second entry in his "Haunting" anthology series, 2020's "The Haunting of Bly Manor." Where the show's revered first outing, 2018's "The Haunting of Hill House," is horror through and through, its mostly well-received but slightly more divisive second entry is really a gothic romance that just happens to include literal ghosts. Yes, I'm using what you might call the "Crimson Peak" defense, but it applies here all the same.

Perhaps even more than "Hill House," "Bly Manor" plays fast and loose with its source material. Mainly a retelling of Henry James' classic 1898 gothic horror novella "The Turn of the Screw," the series adds elements from James' other works while also filling in the gaps in the romance between doomed lovers Peter Quint and Miss Jessel prior to the story's events. Interestingly, though, it wasn't the first off-shoot of James' novella to do this.

The titles of Fukada Koji’s films almost drip with bitter irony. “Sayonara” seemed to be a farewell to human actors. Instead of being harmonious, Cannes Un Certain Regard jury prize-winner “Harmonium” was pitch black and steeped in quiet violence.

Fukada’s latest, Venice Film Festival competition title carries the moniker “Love Life.” But its subject matter is loneliness.

The story starts out on familiar lines, involving a married couple where suddenly the ex-husband of the wife appears, potentially setting up the melodrama of a triangular relationship. But in Fukada’s hands things are colder and more painful. The newcomer is burdensome, deaf and homeless. His arrival triggers, not love, but fragmentation, individualism and loneliness.

“We come into life alone and we die alone. Along the way, we try to forget about this loneliness by having families, taking lovers or sometimes even having religion. But loneliness is at the core of humanity,...

The best movie involving a boat since “Titanic” with the best vomiting sequence since “Team America: World Police,” Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness” is an energetic and wacky examination of class, gender norms and culture, woven into a dynamite script. After debuting at Cannes, Östlund’s English-language debut will finally introduce the Swedish writer and director to more mainstream American audiences, and possibly even Oscar voters.

The film tells the story of Carl (Harris Dickenson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), two fashion models and a celebrity couple who in three narrative chapters explore their roles in each other’s lives — following a dinner date, a luxury cruise and a shocking x-factor that presents an interesting turn of events.

There are two noteworthy aspects to the dark comedy that are low-hanging fruit for Academy Awards attention. The original script by Östlund, with its whimsical premise, harnesses the type of engaging qualities...

Seven decades ago, “A Streetcar Named Desire” not only became the first film to win three acting Oscars, but also the first to take both supporting prizes. These featured victories were achieved by Kim Hunter and Karl Malden, whose film was preceded by 13 others that received nominations for both awards. That total is now up to 103, but there have only been seven more cases of double supporting wins. Now, for the first time in five years, multiple films have shots at being added to the exclusive list.

This year, Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds both earned bids for their supporting performances in “Belfast,” while featured players Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee were all recognized for their work in “The Power of the Dog.”

Dench and Hinds or either possible “Power of the Dog” pair would be the first dual supporting Oscar winners since 2011, when the prizes went to...

If we could summarize Koji Fukada’s cinematic style in four terms, these would definitely include his love for French cinema, his knack for experimentation, theatricality, and the concept of the stranger who appears suddenly and turns everything upside down. “Sayonara” seems to embody all of the four, with the last one having a meta hypostasis here, since the ‘stranger’ is not part of the story, but of the actual production, with Geminoid F, a female android created by Hiroshi Ishiguro, having a protagonist role. The story is based on a play by Oriza Hirata, and was promoted as “the first movie to feature a Gynoid performing opposite a human actor”

“Sayonara” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema

The story takes place in a not so distant future, when Japan has experienced another nuclear incident and is gradually becoming uninhabitable. The whole population has to evacuate to avoid radiation poisoning,...

Love Life

Just a couple of weeks back we saw Japan’s Koji Fukada name attached to a market project going by the title of Love on Trial. Is this project and Love Life one of the same? After a 2020 that saw the helmer work in the short form with a three film output, production on Love Life (inspired by a song by Japanese artist Akiko Yano and the consequences of the pandemic) would have began in September of 2021 with some French production money. We know Fukada best from a string of popular film fest items in Sayonara (2015), Harmonium (2016), The Man from the Sea (2018), A Girl Missing (read the review) and finally The Real Thing (2020).…...

Yuh-Jung Youn, a legendary actress in her native Korea, made history in the U.S. on Sunday when she became the third oldest Best Supporting Actress winner in Oscars history, winning for her performance as Soon-ja, the scene-stealing grandmother in the six-time Academy Award-nominated film “Minari,” which tells the story of a Korean immigrant family as they attempt to start a farm in rural Arkansas in the 1980s.

At 73 years and 310 days old, Youn, who’s made headlines in recent months for her candid but always delightful acceptance speeches, now sits behind Josephine Hull, who was 74 years and 85 days old when she won for “Harvey” (1950). Both women trail Peggy Ashcroft by a few years; she was 77 years and 93 days old when she won for “A Passage to India” (1984), making her the oldest supporting actress winner. Of course, the oldest nominee in the category remains “Titanic” (1997) star Gloria Stuart, who was...

Yuh-Jung Youn took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “Minari” on Sunday, making history in multiple ways — most notably becoming just the second Asian actress to win an Oscar.

The Korean legend follows in the footsteps of Japanese actress Miyoshi Umeki, who won the same category for her performance in “Sayonara” (1957). Youn was the first supporting actress nominee of Asian descent since Hailee Steinfeld, who is of Filipino descent, contested for 2010’s “True Grit.”

No woman of Asian descent has won Best Actress and only one has been nominated: Merle Oberon, who was of Indian descent and hid her background during her career, for “The Dark Angel” (1935). Including the men, Best Supporting Actor winner Haing S. Ngor (1984’s “The Killing Fields”) is the last man of Asian descent to win either male category; Ben Kingsley (1982’s “Gandhi”) was the last in Best Actor.

See Full list of Oscar winners...

Yuh-Jung Youn has emerged as the very likely candidate to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her hilarious and moving performance as Soon-ja in “Minari.” After prevailing at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and BAFTA, she is in a great position to become the first-ever Korean actor to win an Oscar in the academy’s 93-year history. She also would be only the second Asian woman ever to win Best Supporting Actress, following Miyoshi Umeki for “Sayonara” (1957).

Youn’s competition at the Oscars includes Maria Bakalova (“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”), Glenn Close (“Hillbilly Elegy”), Olivia Colman (“The Father”) and Amanda Seyfried (“Mank”). These are the first Oscar nominations for Youn, Bakalova and Seyfried, while Colman earns her second nomination following her win two years ago for “The Favourite” and Close has now racked up eight bids.

Youn makes an impression from her very first scene in “Minari.” Visiting her Korean-American family,...

There is no doubt about it: Yuh-Jung Youn is having a great year. The legendary Korean actress has already received a Screen Actors Guild Award and the corresponding BAFTA Award for her supporting role as Soon-ja, the scene-stealing grandmother in the six-time Academy Award-nominated film “Minari,” which tells the story of a Korean immigrant family as they attempt to start a farm in rural Arkansas in the 1980s. Should she win the supporting actress Oscar on April 25, she’ll become the third oldest winner in the category.

Youn will be 73 years and 310 days old on the date of the Oscars. This would put her behind Josephine Hull, who was 74 years and 85 days old when she won for “Harvey” (1950). Both women would then trail Peggy Ashcroft, who won for “A Passage to India” (1984) at the age of 77 years and 93 days old, making her the oldest supporting actress winner. (The oldest nominee...

Yuh-Jung Youn made history at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, winning Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the scene-stealing grandmother Soon-ja in “Minari.” This made Youn the first Asian actor of any gender to win an individual SAG Award for film, and now it launches her to frontrunner status at the Academy Awards. Should she win the Oscar, the legendary Korean actress would become only the second Asian woman to win an Oscar for acting, following Miyoshi Umeki for “Sayonara” (1957), and only the sixth person in history to win for a performance spoken primarily in a non-English language.

The first three actors to pull off an Oscar win for non-English performances — Sophia Loren for “Two Women” (1961), Robert De Niro for “The Godfather Part II” (1974) and Roberto Benigni for “Life Is Beautiful” (1998) — all primarily spoke Italian in their respective films. The next was Benicio del Toro for “Traffic” (2000), who spoke Spanish,...

In 1958, Sessue Hayakawa (“The Bridge on the River Kwai”) and Miyoshi Umeki (“Sayonara”) jointly blazed a new trail by becoming the first performers of East Asian descent to be nominated at the Academy Awards. Umeki made further Oscar history by winning the Best Supporting Actress award. In the six decades since, only a handful of East Asian actors have been recognized, and, until now, none had been honored with a Best Actor bid. That path has finally been forged by Steven Yeun (“Minari”), who is also the first Oscar-nominated male actor of Korean descent.

At the upcoming Academy Awards, Yeun faces off against Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”) and Gary Oldman (“Mank”) in the race for Best Actor. Like Yeun, Ahmed and the late Boseman are also first-time nominees, while Hopkins and Oldman have each triumphed in this category once before,...

The SAG Awards have weighed in with their winners and have set in motion on what could be the most diverse slate of major Oscar winners in the 93-year history of the Academy Awards.

The celebration of the 27th annual ceremony, which is voted on by the approximate 160,000-person membership of actors, was revealed during the one-hour pre-taped show via Zoom on Sunday night.

Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” took the top prize of the evening for cast ensemble, marking its first major win of the awards season. In the acting categories, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” stars Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis won the leading male and female actor categories. Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) and Yuh-Jung Youn (“Minari”) landed the male and female supporting statues.

It marked the first time in SAG history that all four film acting categories went to actors of color.

A year after the academy snubbed multiple Asian actors in contention, including the entire cast of eventual Best Picture champ “Parasite,” three Asian performers earned Oscar nominations on Monday. “Minari” stars Steven Yeun and Yuh-Jung Youn are up for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively, and Riz Ahmed is nominated alongside Yeun in Best Actor for “Sound of Metal.”

Their bids are historic collectively and individually. Yeun and Youn are the first actors of Korean descent to be nominated in any acting category, while the London-born Ahmed is the first acting nominee of Pakistani descent (reminder: this year is the 93rd Oscars). Yeun is the first Asian-American and first East Asian Best Actor nominee. Ahmed is also the first Muslim Best Actor nominee and would be the second Muslim actor to win an Oscar following two-time supporting actor champ Mahershala Ali (2016’s “Moonlight” and 2018’s “Green Book”). This is...

by Nathaniel R

Despite all the amazing advances in diversity in film over the past few years one group that remains extremely underrepresented in American cinema is people of Asian descent. Even when an Asian-centered film breaks through to major success, awards are compartmentalized. You've probably noticed that even if said film wins Best Picture no actors are nominated in the acting categories. Only three actors of Asian descent have ever won Oscars: Miyoshi Umeki for Sayonara (1957), Ben Kingsley for Gandhi (1982), and Dr Haing S Ngor for The Killing Fields (1984). We hope Parasite's Oscar win at the start of 2020 was a fine omen of changes to come considering that the year that followed was actually a strong one for Asians in movies.

Cape (Coalitions of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) and Gold House have teamed up for a first, we hope annual, group of awards called the "Gold List" honoring...

The Oscars best actor race has continued to fill up with an abundance of talent as A24 has confirmed that Steven Yeun will campaign as a lead actor for his performance in “Minari.”

Along with Yeun, co-star Yeri Han will also campaign for best actress, while his cast mates Alan S. Kim, Will Patton and Yuh-Jung Youn will look for consideration in the supporting categories.

Asian representation in the acting categories has been one of the ugliest stains in the Academy’s long history. If nominated for best actor, Yeun would be the first Asian American to ever be recognized in the category. Yul Brynner, of Mongol descent, won best actor for 1956’s “The King and I,” while Ben Kingsley, who is half Indian, won best actor for 1982’s “Gandhi,” which took home best picture. Kingsley was also nominated for 2003’s “House of Sand and Fog.”

Yeun’s performance as Jacob,...

The first official trailer for Lee Isaac Chung’s critically lauded Sundance hit, “Minari,” has landed.

Chung, who also wrote the script inspired by his own childhood, tells the story of a Korean-American family that moves to a tiny farm in Arkansas in search of better opportunities.

Split between the Korean and English language, the trailer highlights and emphasizes the beautiful ensemble of actors that Chung assembles. The cast, which includes Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Alan Kim, Noel Kate Cho, Yuh-Jung Youn and Will Patton, is one of the year’s finest. A possible contender for the SAG cast ensemble prize, the A24 film started its run from Park City, Utah very strong.

Variety‘s Peter Debruge gave “Minari” high praise back in January saying, “As written — but even more importantly, as performed by an all-around terrific ensemble — the characters are easy to admire, and even easier to love. So,...

Festival will screen Fukada’s The Real Thing, selected for Cannes’ 2020 Official Selection, as well as his earlier films.

This year’s Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) will highlight the work of Japanese filmmaker Koji Fukada, who has been selected as the Director in Focus in the festival’s Japan Now section.

Fukada has been gaining increasing international attention, with his 2016 Harmonium winning the Jury Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section in 2016, and his latest film, The Real Thing, being selected for Cannes’ 2020 Official Selection.

He also recently launched the Mini Theater Aid initiative with fellow directors, including Ryusuke Hamaguchi,...

Nothing is as it seems in A Girl Missing, the latest feature from writer and director Kôji Fukada. Mariko Tsutsui stars as Ichiko, a visiting nurse who becomes a suspect in the kidnapping of Saki (Miyu Ozawa), a young student she had been helping study for school exams. Flashbacks follow Ichiko before and after the incident as she discards her past and her fiancé for a solitary life in a new neighborhood. What happens to Saki and her older sister Motoko (Mikako Ichikawa) unfolds simultaneously through two timelines.

Tsutsui also appeared in Fukada’s Harmonium, which won Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes. Fukada has been a member of the Seinendan theater group, founded by Oriza Hirata, since 2005. Seinendan actors, as well as Hirata’s theories about “quiet drama,” have figured significantly in Fukada’s work. (His 2015 sci-fi drama Sayonara was based on a Hirata play.)

We spoke with...

by Nathaniel R

The next Smackdown will be posted on Sunday July 7th. But first let's have a little context on the year that was: Dwight Eisenhower began his second term as President, an influenza epidemic that killed 1 million people worldwide began, Elvis Presley made his final appearance on the Ed Sullivan show (shot waist up only), and the Frisbee was introduced. here's more context for that year in a pop culture sense.

Great Big Box Office Hits: Bridge on the River Kwai, Sayonara, and Peyton Place were the top grossers (and competed for the Oscars). Other hits included Old Yeller, Raintree County, and Gunfight at the Ok Corral...

by Nathaniel R

We hope you loved listening to the Smackdown Podcast and discussing various 1947 movies this month. It means a lot when you watch, vote, listen, and share these events. Another round of applause to our returning guests Dana Delany (she previously guest-starred on "1973"), Angelica Jade Bastién (she previously guest-starred on "1941"), and the newbies, actor Patrick Vaill (Netflix's upcoming Dash & Lily) and lyricist Tom Mizer (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel S3). Dana wanted to send a note to listeners that she was sorry for accrediting the direction of To Kill a Mockingbird to Richard Brooks rather than Robert Mulligan... the names just got jumbled because it was Richard Brooks who wrote "The Brick Foxhole" which she was also discussing.

I was so into this conversation that now I have ordered a copy of "The Brick Foxhole" to understand Crossfire in a fully homosexual way. I didn't know...

Marlon Brando would’ve celebrated his 96th birthday on April 3, 2020. The Oscar-winning thespian both delighted and perplexed his fans with his Method-inspired performances and disdain for his profession, marked by increasingly bizarre behavior on and off set. Yet several of his movies remain classics despite his many career ups-and-downs. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 20 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1924, Brando studied the Stanislavski system under acting coach Stella Adler, who encouraged her students to explore inner and external turmoil within their characters. He shot to stardom on both the stage and screen with his performance in Tennessee Williams‘ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” in which he brought a startling naturalism and reality mixed with vulnerability, machismo, and humor to the character of Stanley Kowalski. The 1951 film version brought him his first Oscar nomination as Best Actor.

He picked up...

Awkwafina made Golden Globes history, but she didn’t make Oscar history on Monday. A week after becoming the first Asian winner of the Best Comedy/Musical Actress Golden Globe, the star missed out on Best Actress Oscar nomination for “The Farewell” — and thus the chance to be the first Asian-American nominee in the category.

The rapper-turned-actress, who was in fifth place in our odds, would’ve also been the first performer of East Asian descent to be nominated in the category and the first Asian Best Actress nominee since Merle Oberon for 1935’s “The Dark Angel.” Oberon was of Indian descent.

Awkwafina’s co-star Zhao Shuzhen, sixth in our odds, was also Mia in the supporting category (“The Farewell” was blanked altogether). Meanwhile, six-time nominee “Parasite” failed to score an acting nomination despite a valiant campaign for supporting actor Song Kang Ho, who was also in fifth in our odds,...

Deft rapper and fierce funny lady Awkwafina scored some major screen time in big-screen ensemble pieces in last year’s all-female “Ocean’s 8” crime-caper flick as well as the romantic “Crazy Rich Asians.” She even became the second East Asian female celebrity after Lucy Liu to host an episode of “Saturday Night Live.”

But the comic formerly known as Nora Lum, a child of a Chinese-American father and South Korean mother, made a bold move this year by taking on a more dramatic role in filmmaker Lulu Wang‘s “The Farewell.” She plays Billi, a semi-adrift 30-year-old in New York City, who joins her Chinese family on a trip to their homeland to see her beloved grandmother who has received a terminal cancer diagnosis and only has a short time to live. But as the opening credits say, the film is “based on an actual lie” — drawn from Wang’s...