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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...

Netflix continues to deliver in the action department, with the streaming giant having now set a 2025 release date for what sounds like a truly gripping martial arts epic. The upcoming series, superbly titled Last Samurai Standing and based on the manga “Ikusagami,” promises to deliver an “intriguing tale of survival and honor,” according to Netflix, and centers on 292 warriors who gather at a temple for a battle royale and the allure of a 100-billion-yen prize. So, think Squid Game but with samurai. We're sold.

Amid this mass fight to the death is our hero, set to be portrayed by Jun'ichi Okada, who must survive the slashing of samurai swords to save his wife and child. As per What’s on Netflix, as part of the streamer’s international release announcement, Last Samurai Standing will debut in 2025. While a more specific release date has yet to be announced, you can imagine...

Michihito Fujii’s Netflix drama film, 18×2 Beyond Youthful Days, reminded me of popular rom-com films like Before Sunrise or Past Lives. The Taiwanese Japanese film is about unrequited love—the kind that makes you wonder, “What if?” What if things had turned out differently between you and your lover? 18×2 Beyond Youthful Days isn’t just about that kind of love, though. It’s also a nostalgic look back at our younger days when life seemed simpler and we were carefree. But we tend to forget those silly parts as we grow up.

In Michihito Fujii’s film, the main character, Jimmy, gets fired from his job and decides to travel to Japan. Jimmy heads to Tadami in Fukushima, where his old crush, Ami, lives. Jimmy feels like calling her an “ex-lover” might be a stretch since he thinks his feelings are one-sided. But who knows? Maybe there’s...

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” maintained a narrow win at the South Korea weekend box office in its second week of release. The highest new release was local crime drama “The Plot.”

Total weekend revenues in Korean cinemas were a modest $8.91 million. That figure keeps a post-covid recovery on course, but progress is slow and incomplete.

“Furiosa” earned $2.24 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That gives it a 12-day cumulative total of $7.90 million.

With some thematic resemblance to Soi Cheang’s celebrated Hong Kong film “Accident,” the story of “The Plot” involves a gang who design murders to look like everyday occurrences. The gang takes a job to kill a prosecutor, but its leader is worried that he is being gaslighted.

The film opened on Wednesday, as is the norm for most titles in Korea, and...

Having received a rapturous reception a week earlier in Cannes George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” grabbed a more muted win at the South Korean box office.

“Furiosa” opened with $3.35 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That represented a 39.5% share of the weekend’s total cinema-going market.

The film opened in Korea on Wednesday and topped the daily chart for each of its five days on release. Its cumulative total at the end of its five-day opening period was a solid, but unremarkable, $4.38 million, earned from 564,000 admissions.

The weekend box office total weighed in at $8.48 million, which is close to the median so far this year.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world before the events of “Fury Road,” “Furiosa” stars Anya Taylor-Joy, taking over in the title role from Charlize Theron. Early in the film,...

“The Last Frenzy,” a comedy film about a dying man’s last hurrah, returned to the top spot in mainland Chinese cinemas in its third weekend of release.

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which a week earlier had been the biggest title, slipped to fourth place.

In another China disappointment for Hollywood, “The Fall Guy” opened outside the Chinese top ten. Universal Pictures estimates that it earned $900,000 from 10,000 screens. Another data provider Ent Group provisionally reports that the film took $740,000 over three days.

The broader picture, however, shows that there was little difference in performance among the top four titles and a lowish nation-wide aggregate of just $37.1 million. Theatrical momentum, which has made China the world’s biggest cinema market so far this year, is beginning to slow in the flat spot between the May Day holiday and China’s own summer season.

Consultancy firm, Artisan Gateway calculates...

The feature “Tales of Taipei” is a tribute to the low-pressure, culturally rich city, which has been shaped by its regional neighbors, taken in diverse peoples and distilled the multiple competing influences into a messy, happy-go-lucky morass.

Produced by Bowie Tsang and Amy Ma, the film calls on 10 directors hailing from Malaysia, France, Bhutan and Hong Kong, and Taiwanese locals Yin Cheng-han and Remii Huang to contribute.

“Everything is possible in Taiwan, everything exits side by side,” says Tsang, who was born in Hong Kong. “We have old Chinese myths. We believe in the afterlife. Churches exist side by side with temples. We are still trying to figure out how to tell our stories.”

As in the film, juxtapositions exist throughout the Taiwan film industry. Theatrical B.O. improved last year, but from a low 2022 base. Last year, Taiwan productions increased market share from 10% to nearly 16%, helping to lift the...

75 films from 12 countries, 228 guests of honour and 65 thousand spectators. These are all the numbers of Udine Far East Film Festival 2024. There was an increase of accredited visitors (of 24% over 2023) and the screenings at Udine's 1,200-seat Teatro Nuovo venue were always full, from 9 in the morning to midnight. This says a lot about the growing interest in Asian Cinema.

China and South Korea were the protagonists of the opening Night of Wednesday the 24th of April, with two international premieres: Yolo and Citizen of a Kind, followed by some more South Korean box office sensations, The Roundup: Punishment, 12.12: The Day and horror movie Exhuma. Some very welcome returns of festival friends were Jun Lana, with LGBT comedy of errors Becky & Badette, Norris Wong with the musical The Lyricist Wanna Be, Nick Cheung, in the director's chair, with Peg O'My Heart and Herman Yau with three actioners: Moscow Mission, Raid of...

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...

This year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival will open with the Asian premiere of All Shall Be Well, directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Ray Yeung, which recently won the Teddy Award at Berlin film festival.

Starring Patra Au and Maggie Li, the film tells the story of an older lesbian couple and how the surviving partner struggles to retain her home and her dignity when one of them passes away. The film premiered in the Panorama section at the Berlinale.

Japanese filmmaker Miyake Sho’s All The Long Nights, starring Matsumura Hokuto and Kamishiraishi Mone, which premiered in the Forum section of Berlin, will close the festival on April 8.

Gala screenings also include the world premiere of Hong Kong filmmaker Ho Miu-ki’s Love Lies, starring Sandra Ng, Cheung Tin-fu and Stephy Tang; Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s Gift, a collaboration with composer Eiko Ishibashi, which will be...