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Dahyun is the first member of Twice to debut as an actress, breaking away from the group's music-related solo projects. Her acting skills were showcased in her past music videos, hinting at the promising talent she will bring to her upcoming roles. With her upcoming debut in the indie sports drama movie "Sprint" and talks for a leading role in "You Are The Apple of My Eye", Dahyun's acting career is poised for success.

It has recently been confirmed that Twice's Dahyun will be making her K-drama acting debut some time next year. Kim Da-hyun, best known as Dahyun, is a singer and rapper for the internationally renowned K-pop girl group, Twice. Dahyun debuted as a singer in October 2015 with the single "Like Ooh-ahh" after being announced as one of the winners of the survival show Sixteen. Now, almost ten years after her debut, Dahyun will be exploring opportunities as an actress.

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...

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,...

Taipei Film Festival is aiming to shine an international spotlight on Taiwanese actors through a new initiative, Top Talents, that will showcase nine actors including major stars Kai Ko and Chen Bolin.

Other actors selected for the initiative include Chen Yi-wen, who won a Golden Horse Award for A Sun; Taipei Film Award winners Hsu Wei-ning and Gingle Wang; Caitlin Fang who won best newcomer awards at both Golden Horse and Taipei Film Awards for American Girl; and Golden Bell Award regulars Hsueh Shih-ling, Esther Liu and Tseng Pei-yu.

Collaborating with Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca), the festival drew up a longlist from more than one hundred actors who had won prizes at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, Golden Bell Awards, which focus on TV production, and Taipei Film Awards.

The final list was selected by a committee of seven filmmakers including Taipei Film Festival director Li Ya-mei, executive producer Lee Lieh,...

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,...

The 18th edition of the Osaka Asian Film Festival (Oaff 2023) will close with “Side by Side”, the second feature film from veteran screenwriter Ito Chihiro.

After a career of writing hit films like “Crying Out Love in the Center of the World”, Ito Chihiro makes her second film as director, “Side by Side”, a drama with a magical realist twist that follows a young man who can sense the thoughts of other people. Produced by award-winning director Yukisada Isao, it features leading star Sakaguchi Kentaro, together with an excellent cast that includes Saito Asuka, Asaka Kodai, Isomura Ameri, and Ichikawa Mikako.

Story

Miyama (Sakaguchi Kentaro) is a mysterious young man with the ability to sense the thoughts of other people. These thoughts sometimes take the form of a spirit that haunts Miyama. With this power, he can detect and heal people suffering from physical ailments and emotional traumas. He does...

Asian Pop-up Cinema Announces

Opening, Centerpiece, And Closing Films

Bright Star Award Recipient And Special Guest For Season 14

Asian Pop-Up Cinema today announces the spotlight Marquee films scheduled for the 14th Season, March 13- April 10. Additionally announced is, Kai Ko as the recipient of the festival’s Bright Star Award, and the first movie director special guest to attend the festival since the pandemic started during Season 10.

Korean star power from Choi Min-sik (Oldboy) and Park Hae-il (War of The Arrows) will open Season 14 with the Midwest Premiere of Heaven: In The Land Of Happiness from Im Sang-soo, director of The Housemaid (2010) and The President’s Last Bang. ‘Heaven’ is about a journey of two terminally ill men making a heart-throbbing finale of their lives.

Director Sung-il Yi will attend his International debut of Sunday League, a sports comedy about a once-rising high school soccer star reduced to coaching children,...

Lionsgate is set to handle the global sales of “Loveboat, Taipei” a U.S.-Taiwanese YA romance film that started production in Taiwan shortly before Christmas.

The picture is based on a best-selling novel by Abigail Hing Wen in which a young American woman is sent by her parents to a cultural immersion program in Taipei. The trip turns into a summer of romance and she has to choose between the attention of two attractive, but significantly different, young men and her true passion of dancing.

“Lionsgate is handling all global sales on the film though it’s too early to discuss specific territories,” a company spokesman told Variety in an emailed statement.

With its blend of Asian-American characters, romantic decisions and dance moves, the story has been pitched as a mix of “Crazy Rich Asians” and “La La Land.”

Taiwanese-American director Arvin Chen (“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow...

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...

Actor Kai Ko, the mournful star of Un Certain Regard film “Moneyboys,” declined to jump the queue for vaccinations in his native Taiwan, and so couldn’t walk the red carpet in person at Cannes this year.

Nevertheless, his performance in first-time director C.B. Yi’s exploration of Chinese hustlers balancing the pressures of love, family and financial stability has cemented him as formidable talent to watch.

The film will likely prove a helpful boost to his now decade-long career, which was derailed despite a rapid rise after an infamous 2014 marijuana bust in Beijing alongside Jackie Chan’s son Jaycee Chan.

Ko points out that he never intended his subsequent break with entertainment world to last. “I never left! I took a break for a while, but I don’t know why people keep using the phrase ‘comeback,’” he said. Taiwan is too small a market for actors to...

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,...

Kai Ko and Vivian Hsu star in romantic drama, which starts shooting later this month in Taipei.

Taipei-based Distribution Workshop has picked up international rights to Taiwanese-American filmmaker Arvin Chen’s latest film Mama Boy.

The romantic drama stars Kai Ko (You Are The Apple Of My Eye) as a shy young man who finds himself attracted to a single mother, played by Vivian Hsu (Little Big Women), at a sex hotel. Filming will start at the end of March in Taipei, with a release targeted for November this year.

The key crew include producer Aileen Li, whose credits include...

HBO Asia is to begin screening its first original romantic comedy series “Adventure of the Ring” from mid-December.

Joining other internationally-targeted shows made in Taiwan, “Adventure of the Ring” is directed by Helmed by Nelson Yeh and Kitamura Tayoharu.

The eight-part show is adapted from mathematician and author Lai I-Wei’s romance novel “Ring of the Day,” which tells the stories of different couples who come in contact with an engagement ring. Production is by Kbro Media’s Good Image Co. with the support of Taiwan Ministry of Culture (Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development) and the Taipei Film Commission.

The first two episodes will be uploaded to HBO and HBO Go from Dec. 13, 2020, with the remaining six instalments premiering one at a time on subsequent Sunday evenings.

The series stars Chris Wang (“Time Traveler,” “Love Family”) as a baseball-loving actuary, and Allison Lin (HBO’s “The World Between Us,...

College movies can have such a diverse and vast audience. We watch these movies as teens, dreaming about college life to happen sooner. We watch them at college, to see people like us represented in the cinema. We watch them later in life whenever we feel nostalgic about those young years. Hence, a good college movie can be a true treasure for many people of different ages and experiences. In our list, we have collected 7 must-watch Asian movies about college life. Get some popcorn, and pick the one that speaks to you tonight.

1. You are the Apple of My Eye (2011)

A classical story of a good girl falling for a bad boy. Somehow these types of stories never get out of style. This time the movie is set back in the 1990s. A bright girl Shen Chia-Yi is the best student at school. Though, a lot is yet to change...

Movies in Asian cinema are usually full of exciting action or artistic drama. One thing that has also always been essential, though not always noticed, in these films is the use of music and song. Music in films is a driving force for telling the story, for creating the feelings of nostalgia, elatement or suspense.

Certain songs sometimes strike us in an unexpected way, and we feel the effects from that song. They stick with us long after the movie is over, and you cannot imagine the film without the music. Here are some fantastic original songs from notable Asian films that if you haven’t heard them yet, be sure to give them a listen.

“Nada Sou Sou (Tears for you)” by Rimi Natsukawa

This theme song comes from the film Tears for You, and the theme song “Nada Sou Sou” literally means “Tears that cannot stop flowing.” It...

Who would have thought a romantic comedy on the pain of being different could become such ironic and timely viewing in a global pandemic? In “I Weirdo,” a kooky and innovative debut by Taiwanese writer-director Liao Ming-yi, Shot and edited by Liao using the iPhone Xs Max, the production looks no less vibrant for it. The movie’s undiluted cuteness sometimes gets on one’s nerves, but the age-old message that love ails without change and tolerance is given such a fresh spin, it attests to the creativity and increased sophistication of Taiwan’s new generation of filmmakers.

Despite international festival setbacks, “I Weirdo” is off to a good start in the world, winning two major prizes at the Udine Far East Film Festival and the Netpac Award at the Bucheon Fantastic Film Festival. It has a busy festival schedule ahead and should easily land on a streaming service given...

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...

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.

International players’ ambitions to turn Taiwan into a center for Mandarin-language productions might have given new hope to the island’s struggling filmmakers, but local observers say there is still a long way to go to reinvigorate its film industry.

Industry practitioners and critics say that although networks such as Fox, HBO and Netflix will give Taiwanese talents more international exposure and raise the standards of production, it is more likely to benefit genre filmmakers only. Arthouse filmmakers will have to look elsewhere.

In the decade since the wild success of “Cape No.7” in 2008, Taiwanese films have yet to find a way to sustain the box office miracle set by the acclaimed romantic drama. There have been occasional hits, such as “You Are the Apple of My Eye” (2011), “Our Times” (2015) and 2018’s box office winner “More Than Blues,” which was among the four Taiwanese films showcased at the recent Far East Film Festival in Udine,...

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...

In the second half of 2018, Australian distributor of Asian cinema Magnum Films will be bringing a number of much anticipated films to our cinemas. These include action films starring Chow Yun Fat, Donnie Yen and Max Zhang, as well as Mainland China’s The Island and the Japanese remake of Taiwanese blockbuster hit You Are The Apple Of My Eye. Check out the gallery below for more details of the lineup....

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