News

The 14th New York Asian Film Festival in partnership with Screen International will honour the Japanese youngster with the International Rising Star Award on July 4.

Sometani will attend the event and the New York premiere of Kabukicho Love Hotel with director director Ryuichi Hiroki.

The 22-year-old actor Sometani has made a name for himself in his home country with lead roles in the likes of Himizu, for which he shared the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best new young actor in Venice with Fumi Nikaido.

The latter was the subject of the International Rising Star Award in 2014.

The festival, set to run from June 26-July 11, will showcase more than 50 films, most of which will receive their Us and North American premieres.

Port Of Call, will receive its North American premiere and Hong Kong actor Aaron Kwok will receive the Star Asia Award.

Kwok earned back-to-back Golden Horse best actor awards in 2005 and 2006 for Divergence and After This Our Exile.

Other...

“Christmas Rose” marks the directorial debut of Hong Kong actress Charlie Yeung, who started off her career with roles in Wong Kar Wai’s “Ashes of Time” and “Fallen Angels”, and who recently featured in the thriller “Cold War”. For the highly charged courtroom drama, Yeung enlisted Hk industry lynchpins Tsui Hark and Jacob Cheung as producers, along with an A-list cast including Aaron Kwok (who she worked with previously on the superb “After this our Exile”), Guey Lun Mei (“Flying Swords of Dragon Gate”), Chang Chen (“The Grandmaster”), Xia Yu (“Wind Blast”) and Qin Hailu (“Say Yes!”). Apparently years in preparation, the film sees Yeung tackling controversial material, focusing on a case in which a doctor is said to have molested a disabled patient. The patient in question is Jing (Guey Lun Mei), a wheelchair-bound young woman who works as a piano teacher, tutoring the daughter of rich doctor...

It’s always good to keep an eye on the progressing careers of 1980s Hong Kong New Wave directors, and so “Floating City”, the 13th outing from helmer Yim Ho is likely to be of immediate interest for fans. Having been responsible for a number of highly regarded films, in particular “Homecoming” and “Red Dust”, Yim Ho returns to the kind of personal historical and social drama he became known for with a true life tale of an ethnic minority, mixed race fisherman who rises to the top of the British East India Company in Hong Kong during the end of the colonial period. Taking on the challenging, decade spanning lead role is popular actor Aaron Kwok (“Murderer”), with support from actresses Charlie Young (who worked with Kwok on the award winning “After This Our Exile”), Annie Liu (“Exodus”), Josie Ho (“Dream Home”), and veteran Paw Hee Ching (“The Way...

Chinese director Gao Qunshu continues his bid to be the country’s top genre film maker, following up his hit visceral spy drama “The Message” with the action packed contemporary western “Wind Blast”. A breathless thriller set in the harsh wilderness of the Gobi Desert, the film overflows with stylish shootouts, chase scenes and fist fights, featuring choreography by Hong Kong action director Nicky Li, who recently also worked on the blockbusters “Let the Bullets Fly” and “Shaolin”. The film has an impressive ensemble cast of Mainland and Hong Kong stars, headed by Duan Yihong (“Hot Summer Days”), the legendary Francis Ng (“Turning Point”), Xia Yu (“Electric Shadows”), Ni Dahong (“A Woman, A Gun And A Noodle Shop”), Charlie Yeung (“After this our Exile”), Zhang Li, Yu Nan, and top martial arts star Wu Jing (“Shaolin”). The film gets right down to business, with former underground boxer turned hitman Zhang...

Although probably still best known for their 2002 horror hit, The Eye, the Pang Brothers have never stopped working. In the decade since, they have experienced further success with Recycle and Storm Warriors, as well as burned their fingertips in the Hollywood cauldron with The Messengers and their ill-advised remake of their own Bangkok Dangerous with Nicholas Cage. The twins have also indulged in solo projects, with no greater success than older brother Oxide's 2007 supernatural snooper, The Detective. At the time, star Aaron Kwok was riding a wave of critical praise in the wake of award-winning performances in Divergence and After This Our Exile, while the project gave Oxide the opportunity to work in their beloved Bangkok. The result was a smart, spooky...

It’s another packed week of DVD and Blu-ray releases, here’s the rundown of what’s available to buy from today, April 11th 2011.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (DVD/Blu-ray)

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final adventure in the Harry Potter film series, is a much-anticipated motion picture event to be told in two full-length parts. Part 1 begins as Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on their perilous mission to track down and destroy the secret to Voldemort’s immortality and destruction-the Horcruxes. On their own, without the guidance of their professors or the protection of Professor Dumbledore, the three friends must now rely on one another more than ever. But there are Dark Forces in their midst that threaten to tear them apart. Review.

Rubber (DVD/Blu-ray)

Deep within the desolate landscape of the Californian desert a merciless killer roams the land looking for victims.

Beijing – The Bona Film Group, China's biggest private movie distributor-turned-movie studio, has filed for a Nasdaq initial public offering seeking to raise $80 million through the sale of its shares to U.S. investors, papers filed on Tuesday in New York show.

Founded in 1999, Beijing-based Bona, run by CEO Yu Dong, has, after the state-run China Film Group, dominated the recent boom in China's box office through the co-production and distribution of films from China and Hong Kong, including such hit 2009 titles as director Teddy Chan's Bodyguards and Assassins.

The planned U.S. Ipo, the first in a foreign market for a major Chinese film studio, is expected early next year. B of A Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan in New York, the China Investment Capital Corp. in Beijing, and U.S. backers Piper Jaffray and Cowen and Co. will underwrite Bona's listing.

Though Bona, which was capitalized at $92.3 million as of Sept.

Shanghai -- The Weinstein Co. on Friday bought from Fortissimo Films the North American rights to the forthcoming martial arts epic "Reign of Assassins," starring Michelle Yeoh and co-directed by Su Chao-pin ("Silk") and producer John Woo.

The deal -- announced on the eve of the 13th Shanghai International Film Festival, which runs through June 20 and where Woo is head of the jury -- also includes South African rights.

"I am thrilled to be back in business with Michelle Yeoh and am very excited to be working with John Woo on another one of his brilliant films," Harvey Weinstein said of the deal.

The film also stars Jung Woo-sung ("The Warrior"), Kelly Lin ("After This Our Exile") Barbie Hsu ("Silk") and Wang Xueqi ("Forever Enthralled").

"Reign" was produced by Woo and his long-time business partner Terence Chang through their L.A.-based outfit Lion Rock Prods., together with Beijing-based Galloping Horse Film and TV Prods,...

SHANGHAI -- A screening of Flight of the Red Balloon brought the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival to a gentle landing following the closing Jin Jue awards ceremony at Shanghai's Grand Theater with some of the film's Asian stars making a show of support for their film. The film, written and directed by Hsiao-hsien Hou, has been characterized as an homage to the 1956 Albert Lamorisse classic The Red Balloon. As a sign that the SIFF, held in China's most cosmopolitan city, is trying to meet its aspiration to become a truly world-class festival, the closing ceremony was a well organized and well attended event. There was a host of big name Asian stars including Jackie Chan (Forbidden Kingdom), Gong Li (Curse of the Golden Flower), Aaron Kwok (After This Our Exile) and director Hou.

The top award went to the German film According to the Plan by Franziska Meletzky; the jury Grand Prix was taken by the Swedish film The New Man by Klaus Haro; and Tian Zhuangzhuang garnered best director for China's The Go Master.

Production designer Phillip Vasels said it was a well executed event, especially compared to the previous night's Asian New Talent Award ceremony where he was one of the intrepid guests to brave the monsoon that struck just before the ceremony, flooding streets and making travel difficult.

HONG KONG -- New Wave auteur Patrick Tam's comeback film After This Our Exile was the winner of the night at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards, scooping five trophies, including best film, director and screenplay.

However, the film's lead actor, Aaron Kwok, lost to local favorite Lau Ching-Wan.

In his acceptance speech for best director, Tam thanked the film's investors for the creative freedom they had given him, a lack of which had led him to stop directing after 1989's My Heart Is That Eternal Rose. He also thanked Law Kar, one of the first generation of Hong Kong film scholars, betraying his own roots as a critic.

Exile's young star Gouw Ian Iskandar won supporting actor and new performer. He received supporting actor honors in November at the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan.

The other hot title of the night was Zhang Yimou's $45 million period epic Curse of the Golden Flower. Gong Li, who made her career in Zhang's earliest films and who was working with the director for the eighth time, took best actress.

The film also won art direction and original film song, which was sung by Taiwanese pop sensation Jay Chou.