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“Faceless” is the film adaptation of the homonymous novel written by Tamehito Somei. The said literary work was also first adapted by Wowow into a four-episode TV series with a different cast. With a focus on Japan’s corrupt justice system and the nature of identity and truth, it is a welcome addition to Fujii’s works available on Netflix such as “The Journalist”, “The Village”, and “A Family”, films that provide commentary on the social issues confronting modern Japan. This crime thriller won the following three major awards in the 48th Japan Academy Film Awards: Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.

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It follows Keiichi Kaburagi (Ryusei Yokohama), a young man convicted for the murder of a family, as attested by the sole witness and survivor– a grandmother afflicted with dementia. The brutal crime happened when he was 18 years old,...

Korean entertainment company Kakao Entertainment is expanding its global footprint through a new partnership with Japanese content studio Babel Label. The alliance aims to co-produce new dramatic content and adapt Kakao’s IP library for international audiences.

The first collaboration under this partnership will be helmed by Babel Label’s director Fujii Michihito, marking his first project with a Korean company. Fujii won six awards at the 43rd Japan Academy Film Prize for “The Journalist” (2019), which starred Korean actor Shim Eun-kyung and later became a Netflix series distributed in 190 countries. His film “Faceless” (2024) won 13 awards across 12 categories at the 48th Japan Academy Film Prize.

The Japanese director’s work ialso ncludes “The Last 10 Years” (2022), which generated approximately $20.4 million in Japanese box office revenue while attracting 560,000 viewers in Korea. His Japan-Taiwan co-production “18×2 Beyond Youthful Days” (2024) drew 2.8 million viewers across Asia with box office receipts of approximately $19.3 million.

Fujii, who...

Acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Michihito Fujii is preparing a crime drama centred on a blind orphan and ex-yakuza, which Toei will introduce to international buyers at the European Film Market (EFM) this week.

A Light In The Harbor marks the latest feature from Fujii, known for 2019 box office hit The Journalist, which won three prizes including best film at Japan’s Academy Awards and was spun-off into a Netflix series of the same name.

The upcoming drama follows an ex-yakuza who steals money from his old gang to pay for an operation to restore the sight of a blind orphan. It...

Netflix has revealed fresh details of its upcoming slate from Japan, including a three features and an epic samurai period drama.

At an event in Tokyo today (February 12), the streaming giant said it would release manga adaptation Demon City this month, action remake Bullet Train Explosion in April and “boys love” (Bl) drama 10Dance in December. All have previously been announced.

Demon City, based on the manga Oni Goroshi and written and directed by Seiji Tanaka (Melancholic), is about a hitman played by Toma Ikuta who awakens from a long coma and embarks on a bloody, revenge-inspired killing spree. The...

With scamming a topic of current news and growing concern across Asia, Netflix’s “Tokyo Swindlers” is a timely addition to its slate of Japanese live-action programming.

Ayano Go and Toyokawa Etsushi head the cast of the seven-episode crime drama series that is an adaptation of a bestselling novel by Shinjo Ko, originally published by Shueisha Bunko.

The protagonists are a group of cunning con artists led by Harrison Yamanaka (Toyokawa) who use forged documents and recruit imposters to pose as landowners and defraud major land developers. Their biggest target is a JPY10-billion plot of land next to a Buddhist temple.

“Real estate prices in Tokyo have once again begun to skyrocket. Takumi Tsujimoto (Ayano) meets Harrison Yamanaka (Toyokawa), the leader of a notorious group of real estate swindlers. Along with informer Takeshita (portrayed by Kitamura Kazuki), impostor recruiter Reiko (Koike Eiko), and legal advisor Goto (Pierre Taki), Takumi...

Netflix is getting deeper into business with hit-making Japanese producer Aki Isoyama. The streamer revealed Thursday that it has signed an exclusive agreement to produce and distribute new series and films from Isoyama over the next five years. The deal continues Netflix’s increasingly bullish investments in the Japanese content space.

Isoyama has been behind some of Netflix’s most successful Japanese drama titles of late. She executive produced the time-traveling comedy Extremely Inappropriate!, which topped Netflix’s most-watched list in Japan for three weeks this spring. The story of a single father who is mysteriously transported from 1986 to the present day, the series became something of a social phenomenon in Japan, tapping into the country’s mixed feelings over its growing embrace of international progressive ideals. The lighthearted show takes its title from the misplaced lead character’s frequently retrograde behavior — crude remarks, spanking kids, cigarette smoking everywhere — which...

Netflix has announced an exclusive partnership with Japanese producer Isoyama Aki. Starting this month, Netflix will exclusively produce and distribute new series and films by Isoyama for the next five years.

Her most recent hit, the time-traveling comedy “Extremely Inappropriate!,” topped Netflix’s most-watched list in Japan for three weeks. Last June, Netflix also premiered her “Let’s Get Divorced.” Isoyama produced the comedy-drama series through TBS Sparkle with a screenplay co-written by Kudo Kankuro and Oishi Shizuka.

Isoyama will team up again with screenwriter Kudo for her first title to be produced under the new Netflix deal. Details were not disclosed though the company described it as being in a “never-before-seen style.”

“Netflix offers many kinds of local stories, and I saw this partnership as an opportunity to add more uplifting works from Japan. I want to share a different side of modern Japan beyond period dramas and traditional imagery often seen in foreign films,...

A real viral travelogue blog by Jimmy Lai is the inspiration behind “18×2 Beyond Youthful Days”, a Japan-Taiwan co-production, directed and co-written by Michihito Fujii of “The Journalist” fame.

18×2 Beyond Youthful Days is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival

36-year-old Jimmy (Hsu Kuang-han) is back at home in Tainan, after leaving it 18 years prior. He is going through a difficult and delicate stage of his life, having been excluded by the successful game developing company he founded and developed. It is certainly time for a break and a reassessment of life priorities and Jimmy starts from his ancestral home, where it all started. Rummaging into his bits and pieces in his teenager bedroom, he finds a postcard from an old crush, a Japanese traveler called Ami he had met the summer before starting University. Remembering how she liked travelling and how important it was for her; Jimmy decides...

Romantic drama 18x2 Beyond Youthful Days by acclaimed Japanese director Michihito Fujii has been sold to a raft of Asian distributors by sales firm Happinet Phantom Studios.

The upcoming feature has been acquired for South Korea (Media Castle), Hong Kong (Golden Scene) and Southeast Asia territories (Purple Plan) as well as for in-flight (Emphasis Video).

The romance is set for release in Taiwan on March 14 through Activator Marketing Company and in Japan on May 3 through Happinet, which will also be speaking to buyers about the feature at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin this month.

The cast is led by Hsu Kuang-han,...

Netflix has revealed that its Japanese slate for the year ahead includes three films and a seven new and returning series.

The features include Drawing Closer by Takahiro Miki, a director well-known for romantic dramas such as Love Me, Love Me Not and Your Eyes Tell. It follows a young man with a terminal illness who falls for a woman who is also living on borrowed time. The cast is led by Ren Nagase and Natsuki Deguchi.

It is based on a best-selling novel by Ao Morita and is scripted by Tomoko Yoshida, whose collaborations with Miki go back to...

The actor is known for Taiwan box office hit ‘Marry My Dead Body’.

Hsu Kuang-han, the star of Taiwan box office hit Marry My Dead Body, will next be seen in romantic drama 18x2 by acclaimed Japanese director Michihito Fujii.

The actor, also known as Greg Han, will play opposite Japanese actress Kaya Kiyohara in the romance, which is in post-production. A first look at the two actors in the film can be seen above.

It is produced by Taiwan’s Jumpboys Films and Japan’s Babel Label, founded by director Fujii.

Happinet Phantom Studios will release the film in...

The actor is known for Taiwanese box office hit ‘Marry My Dead Body’.

Hsu Kuang-han, the star of Taiwanese box office hit Marry My Dead Body, will next be seen in romantic drama 18x2 by acclaimed Japanese director Michihito Fujii.

The actor, also known as Greg Han, will play opposite Japanese actress Kaya Kiyohara in the romance, which is in post-production.

It is produced by Taiwan’s Jumpboys Films and Japan’s Babel Label, founded by director Fujii.

Happinet Phantom Studios will release the film in Japan in May 2024 and is launching sales at the Asian Contents & Film Market (Acfm), which opens in Busan today.

Michihito Fujii has emerged during the recent years as one of the most intriguing voices of Japanese cinema, with movies like “The Journalist”, “Yakuza and the Family” and “Day and Night” setting the tone for an impressive career. In the last few years, he seems to have been employed by Netflix in some way, since a number of his latest works premiere on the streaming platform. Not holding “Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 – Sustainable War” against him, since everyone who has dealt with that mess has left severely “scarred”, it was really interesting to see what his latest work, “Village” would be like, particularly since it seemed to incorporate a number of the genre elements he implemented excellently in his previous works.

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Yu Katayama is a young man who has been living in the Kamon village since childhood, not being able to leave,...

Exclusive: In a competitive situation, Amazon Studios has landed for development Sharps, a half-hour comedy from writer Flint Wainess (In the Dark), John Hamburg (Me Time), Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment and Wendi Trilling’s TrillTV.

Written and executive produced by Wainess, Sharps revolves around 30-year-old Tyler Flynn, a nice guy with a normal job, a great girlfriend, and a secret that’s eating away at him: he’s one of the millions of Americans addicted to sports gambling. After hitting rock bottom and struggling to tell his loved ones about what he’s done, he finds a way to win back everything (and more) when he’s recruited into a sports gambling syndicate run by Buddy Kasper, an eccentric, possibly psychopathic professional sports gambler aka a “sharp.”

Hamburg, who is set to direct, executive produces via his Particular Pictures along with Kaplan and Melanie Frankel for Kapital Entertainment, Trilling...

Starting from his first acting gig, as a car salesman in the feature “Our Town”, which he also scripted, Mo Hong-jin has shown time and time again his affinity for the thriller genre. Even though it has been one of the most popular genre in his home country, it would take him nine years until the first day of shooting began for “Missing You”. Besides offering the kind of entertainment that goes along with this kind of movie, as a writer he was interested in what turns a person into a “monster”, as Mo explains in interviews about his feature. Especially with regards to the character of Hee-jo, played by actress Shim Eun-kyung, he wanted to know whether she decided to go the same path as the killer she had been following or if she would remain human and a “girl”.

on Amazon by clicking on the...

Following the November 2021 announcement of upcoming releases from Yen Audio at Anime NYC, Yen Press, LLC has announced the narrators for these new audiobook adaptations of beloved light novel series.

Spice and Wolf Vol. 1 will be narrated by J. Michael Tatum. J. Michael Tatum is an actor, writer, Adr director, and adaptive scriptwriter. Nurtured by anime classics, Tatum has lent his voice to several popular anime franchises over the years. After being cast as Rikichi in 2005’s Samurai 7, Tatum was able to attain a slew of dream roles, most notably Kyoya Ootori in Ouran High School Host Club, suave, demonic Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler, France in the Hetalia franchise, Tomoe in Kamisama Kiss, and the equal parts maniacal and vulnerable Rintarou Okabe from Steins;Gate. Recently, he can be heard in the epic My Hero Academia as Tenya Iida. Most relevantly, he also played Kraft Lawrence in the 2009 anime adaptation of Spice and Wolf.

Photo: ‘The Journalist’ Watching a foreign film can be exciting and daunting all at once - the possibilities of a whole other world, whole other experience one swipe away. The right foreign film will make you dream of living in that country, interacting with the people or embracing the unique environment of a place that is so different than what you call home. Even so, watching ‘The Journalist’ it is easy to find all the parallels between Japan and the United States, namely in the role our government entities possess. Related article: Exclusive: 'Dune' Full Commentary, Reactions, Making Of - Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac Related article: 'No Time to Die' Full Commentary, Behind the Scenes & Reactions, Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Bond Related article: 'No Time to Die' Royal Premiere & Reactions - Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux & More Related article: 'Halloween Kills' Full Commentary & Reactions,...

Netflix is ringing in the new year in atypical fashion. Throughout 2021, the streaming giant’s original offerings swelled while its library titles shrunk. With its list of new releases for January 2022, however, Netflix is expanding its non-original market quite a bit.

Jan. 1 sees the arrival of a truly stunning amount of impressive non-Netflix movies and TV shows. The big titles available on the first of the month include: 300, Interview with the Vampire, Paranormal Activity, Superman Returns, Terminator 2, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and much more. Later on in the month, Netflix is also set to add Phantom Thread (Jan. 16) to its roster.

Read more TV Interview with the Vampire Series Will Tweak Anne Rice’s Story By Alec Bojalad and 1 other Movies Superman Returns: What Went Wrong? By Mike Cecchini

Though Netflix is lighter on original content in January 2022, there is still plenty of intriguing titles to check out.