“Godzilla vs. Kong” was once again muscled out of the top China box office slot by local drama “Sister” thanks to a $13.2 million third weekend cume that was no match for the latter’s $21 million.
Its China tally was a touch less than its $13.4 million second weekend sales in North America. Though “Godzilla” is being hailed Stateside as the highest grossing film domestically since the pandemic began for its $69.5 million cume to date, that figure is less than half its earnings in China thus far.
The Legendary and Warner Bros. title has now grossed a total of $165 million in China since its March 26 release, with data from the Maoyan platform predicting that it will bow out with a final cume of $188 million. But whatever its final tally, China will certainly far and away end up its top market worldwide.
Even so, the monster movie was smacked down by “Sister,” the...
Its China tally was a touch less than its $13.4 million second weekend sales in North America. Though “Godzilla” is being hailed Stateside as the highest grossing film domestically since the pandemic began for its $69.5 million cume to date, that figure is less than half its earnings in China thus far.
The Legendary and Warner Bros. title has now grossed a total of $165 million in China since its March 26 release, with data from the Maoyan platform predicting that it will bow out with a final cume of $188 million. But whatever its final tally, China will certainly far and away end up its top market worldwide.
Even so, the monster movie was smacked down by “Sister,” the...
- 4/11/2021
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
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...
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...
- 3/15/2021
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
Chinese director Guan Hu is riding high right now: Despite languishing in government censorship purgatory for over a year, his patriotic war epic “The Eight Hundred” has risen to become the highest grossing film in the world in 2020, with sales of $461 million. His next confirmed move? More jingoistic propaganda.
Guan is executive producer and “supervisor” — a sort of on-set mentor figure — for the new production “The Revolutionary,” which has just begun shooting this week. The project will be a family affair — his wife, the actress Liang Jing, is also set to executive produce alongside him. Backed by Enlight Media, it is scheduled for a high-profile July 1 debut.
The date holds a special significance this year, as it marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of China’s ruling Communist Party (Ccp) — a time when Beijing will seek to celebrate the regime through positive media portrayals and go out of its...
Guan is executive producer and “supervisor” — a sort of on-set mentor figure — for the new production “The Revolutionary,” which has just begun shooting this week. The project will be a family affair — his wife, the actress Liang Jing, is also set to executive produce alongside him. Backed by Enlight Media, it is scheduled for a high-profile July 1 debut.
The date holds a special significance this year, as it marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of China’s ruling Communist Party (Ccp) — a time when Beijing will seek to celebrate the regime through positive media portrayals and go out of its...
- 12/29/2020
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Li’s third film premiered in competition at this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival.
Beijing-based sales agent Rediance has picked up international rights to Li Xiaofeng’s Back To The Wharf, which premiered in competition at this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival.
Executive produced by leading actor/producer Huang Bo, the film revolves around a former top high school student returning to the hometown he left 15 years ago following an accident. After meeting an old classmate, he decides to face the wounds of the past and take back control of his life.
Starring Zhang Yu (An Elephant Sitting Still...
Beijing-based sales agent Rediance has picked up international rights to Li Xiaofeng’s Back To The Wharf, which premiered in competition at this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival.
Executive produced by leading actor/producer Huang Bo, the film revolves around a former top high school student returning to the hometown he left 15 years ago following an accident. After meeting an old classmate, he decides to face the wounds of the past and take back control of his life.
Starring Zhang Yu (An Elephant Sitting Still...
- 9/28/2020
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
Strand Releasing has scooped all North American rights to Lou Ye’s Second World War-set spy thriller “Saturday Fiction” from Wild Bunch. The film world premiered in competition at Venice last year and played at the New York Film Festival.
“Saturday Fiction” stars Gong Li as a famous actress who has returned to Japanese-occupied Shanghai to act in a play directed by and co-starring her old flame. But it turns out she has ulterior motives, functioning as a double agent gathering intelligence for the Allies leading up to Japan’s upcoming attack on Pearl Harbor.
Written by Ma Yingli (“Summer Palace”), the lavishly shot black-and-white movie also stars Mark Chao, Pascal Greggory and Tom Wlaschiha.
Strand Releasing, one of the key purveyors of upscale foreign-language cinema in the U.S., previously distributed Ye’s critically-acclaimed 2000 drama “Suzhou River,” as well as “Spring Fever,” which had won the screenplay award at...
“Saturday Fiction” stars Gong Li as a famous actress who has returned to Japanese-occupied Shanghai to act in a play directed by and co-starring her old flame. But it turns out she has ulterior motives, functioning as a double agent gathering intelligence for the Allies leading up to Japan’s upcoming attack on Pearl Harbor.
Written by Ma Yingli (“Summer Palace”), the lavishly shot black-and-white movie also stars Mark Chao, Pascal Greggory and Tom Wlaschiha.
Strand Releasing, one of the key purveyors of upscale foreign-language cinema in the U.S., previously distributed Ye’s critically-acclaimed 2000 drama “Suzhou River,” as well as “Spring Fever,” which had won the screenplay award at...
- 5/5/2020
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Francois Ozon’s By The Grace Of God will close the festival, which runs March 18-April 1.
Renny Harlin’s Chinese-language crime thriller Bodies At Rest will open this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff), while Francois Ozon’s By The Grace Of God will close the 15-day event (March 18-April 1).
Starring Nick Cheung and Richie Jen, Bodies At Restis co-produced by Hong Kong’s Media Asia and Beijing-based Wanda Pictures and is scheduled for release in April. Ozon’s By The Grace Of Godrecently won the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
Hkiff also announced that...
Renny Harlin’s Chinese-language crime thriller Bodies At Rest will open this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff), while Francois Ozon’s By The Grace Of God will close the 15-day event (March 18-April 1).
Starring Nick Cheung and Richie Jen, Bodies At Restis co-produced by Hong Kong’s Media Asia and Beijing-based Wanda Pictures and is scheduled for release in April. Ozon’s By The Grace Of Godrecently won the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
Hkiff also announced that...
- 2/26/2019
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
“Bodies at Rest,” a Chinese-language crime thriller directed by Beijing-resident Renny Harlin (“Die Hard 2”) has been set as the opening title of the Hong Kong International Film Festival. The festival will close with Francois Ozon’s “By the Grace of God,” which recently claimed the grand prize in Berlin.
Between the two events, the festival will unspool 230 titles from 63 countries and regions, of which 64 are world, international and Asian premieres. The festival, under the new leadership of Albert Lee, will run March 18-April 1.
Other highlights include gala screenings of: “Synonyms,” the winner of the Berlinale’s Golden Bear for best film, by Israeli director Nadav Lapid; Peter Jackson’s restored footage Wwi documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old”; and “First Night Nerves,” by Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan.
Chinese director Lou Ye’s “The Shadow Play” will receive a special screening after Lou, Jiang Wen, Tony Leung Ka-fai, actress...
Between the two events, the festival will unspool 230 titles from 63 countries and regions, of which 64 are world, international and Asian premieres. The festival, under the new leadership of Albert Lee, will run March 18-April 1.
Other highlights include gala screenings of: “Synonyms,” the winner of the Berlinale’s Golden Bear for best film, by Israeli director Nadav Lapid; Peter Jackson’s restored footage Wwi documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old”; and “First Night Nerves,” by Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan.
Chinese director Lou Ye’s “The Shadow Play” will receive a special screening after Lou, Jiang Wen, Tony Leung Ka-fai, actress...
- 2/26/2019
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
There is a lot of controversy about the Chinese films being pulled out of this year´s Berlinale. Having in mind that Generation title “Better World” was yanked out just before the festival and Zhang Yimou´s “One Second” was canceled and replaced by his old title “Hero” just days before its scheduled premiere, some might say that the sensitive situation with Ye Lou´s “The Shadow Play” (it got its permission from the national board shortly before the festival) got resolved without much fuss. The film was screened at Panorama and faced immediate positive reactions from the international press.
It is a crime story in a noir-like mystery key set in the ever-growing city of Guangzhou and amongst its real estate tycoon elite. In the midst of the turmoil about an urban development project that would leave a number of poor people homeless, the supposed leading man behind it...
It is a crime story in a noir-like mystery key set in the ever-growing city of Guangzhou and amongst its real estate tycoon elite. In the midst of the turmoil about an urban development project that would leave a number of poor people homeless, the supposed leading man behind it...
- 2/15/2019
- by Marko Stojiljković
- AsianMoviePulse
There’s more to the art of the thriller than exciting cutting and dizzying camerawork, as evidenced in the misguided police actioner The Shadow Play (a.k.a. Cloud in the Wind) directed by art house auteur Lou Ye. The story of a young cop investigating a wealthy family of real estate developers is grotesquely complicated and practically indecipherable, at least for foreigners reading the English subtitles. It certainly looks stylish — not in the clean, we-know-what-we’re-doing fashion of fast-moving Hong Kong shoot-'em-ups, but in an arty way that puts atmosphere above making sense. The Berlin Panorama title, no ...
- 2/13/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There’s more to the art of the thriller than exciting cutting and dizzying camerawork, as evidenced in the misguided police actioner The Shadow Play (a.k.a. Cloud in the Wind) directed by art house auteur Lou Ye. The story of a young cop investigating a wealthy family of real estate developers is grotesquely complicated and practically indecipherable, at least for foreigners reading the English subtitles. It certainly looks stylish — not in the clean, we-know-what-we’re-doing fashion of fast-moving Hong Kong shoot-'em-ups, but in an arty way that puts atmosphere above making sense. The Berlin Panorama title, no ...
- 2/13/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Chinese executives and international film festival programmers are scratching their heads to understand why Zhang Yimou’s “One Second” was withdrawn from the Berlin Film Festival’s main competition just days before its premiere.
The Berlinale echoed the film’s official social media site Monday in saying that the highly anticipated film was being withdrawn for “technical reasons.” Zhang’s color-drenched martial arts film “Hero” from 2002 will takes its slot on Friday evening, but will play out of competition.
The phrase “technical reasons” is both a euphemism and a reality for Chinese filmmakers, none of whom can ever be said to have completed their movie until regulators sign off on every detail. No Chinese director or producer, however skilled, acclaimed or wealthy, has final say over his or her movie. That rests with the Chinese government.
In the case of “One Second,” it is possible that the subject matter, rooted...
The Berlinale echoed the film’s official social media site Monday in saying that the highly anticipated film was being withdrawn for “technical reasons.” Zhang’s color-drenched martial arts film “Hero” from 2002 will takes its slot on Friday evening, but will play out of competition.
The phrase “technical reasons” is both a euphemism and a reality for Chinese filmmakers, none of whom can ever be said to have completed their movie until regulators sign off on every detail. No Chinese director or producer, however skilled, acclaimed or wealthy, has final say over his or her movie. That rests with the Chinese government.
In the case of “One Second,” it is possible that the subject matter, rooted...
- 2/12/2019
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Zhang Yimou’s “One Second,” set during China’s 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, has been withdrawn from the Berlin Film Festival, where it was to premiere in competition.
A post Monday on the film’s official Weibo social media site announced that the film had been yanked, saying that it was for “technical reasons.” The festival confirmed the information, and explained that the film had not been completed.
The move means that Berlin’s competition section will drop from 17 to 16 films. However, Berlin expects to play another, older, film by Zhang in the same time slot on Friday, albeit out of competition. Sources close to the festival said that Zhang’s 2002 art-house actioner “Hero” will fill the slot.
Though Zhang had positioned “One Second” as his personal tribute to cinema, speculation immediately arose that the film was withdrawn for political reasons. “One Second” is set during China’s 1966-76 Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong,...
A post Monday on the film’s official Weibo social media site announced that the film had been yanked, saying that it was for “technical reasons.” The festival confirmed the information, and explained that the film had not been completed.
The move means that Berlin’s competition section will drop from 17 to 16 films. However, Berlin expects to play another, older, film by Zhang in the same time slot on Friday, albeit out of competition. Sources close to the festival said that Zhang’s 2002 art-house actioner “Hero” will fill the slot.
Though Zhang had positioned “One Second” as his personal tribute to cinema, speculation immediately arose that the film was withdrawn for political reasons. “One Second” is set during China’s 1966-76 Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong,...
- 2/11/2019
- by Patrick Frater and Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Chinese film “Better Days,” about disaffected youth and a mysterious death, has been yanked from the Berlin Film Festival. Sources say that the movie failed to receive the necessary permits from authorities in China, where censorship and cultural control has tightened considerably in recent months.
The picture, by director by Derek Kwok-cheung Tsang, was due to receive its world premiere in Berlin’s youth strand, the Generation 14Plus section. But on Monday, the festival announced without explanation that all four screenings of “Better Days” had been canceled.
Sources with knowledge of the situation told Variety that the film had not obtained the official permits needed from mainland Chinese authorities. While Tsang hails from Hong Kong, which is under separate jurisdiction from the mainland on many matters, the film was made as a China-Hong Kong co-production, which means that mainland Chinese rules apply. Tsang is the son of well-known Hong Kong actor Eric Tsang,...
The picture, by director by Derek Kwok-cheung Tsang, was due to receive its world premiere in Berlin’s youth strand, the Generation 14Plus section. But on Monday, the festival announced without explanation that all four screenings of “Better Days” had been canceled.
Sources with knowledge of the situation told Variety that the film had not obtained the official permits needed from mainland Chinese authorities. While Tsang hails from Hong Kong, which is under separate jurisdiction from the mainland on many matters, the film was made as a China-Hong Kong co-production, which means that mainland Chinese rules apply. Tsang is the son of well-known Hong Kong actor Eric Tsang,...
- 2/4/2019
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Casey Affleck has been relatively quiet since winning an Oscar for his leading role in “Manchester by the Sea,” but he’s about to break his silence in a big way. The actor is making his narrative directorial debut with “Light of My Life,” which was just added to the Panorama section of next month’s Berlin Film Festival. Affleck stars alongside Elisabeth Moss and newcomer Anna Pniowsky in the post-apocalyptic drama, which tells of a “society without women” where “gender roles have to be renegotiated.”
The full list of new additions to the Panorama section:
“La Arrancada (On the Starting Line)” — France / Cuba / Brazil
by Aldemar Matias
Aldemar Matias delivers this delicate, sensitively filmed family portrait from Cuba. The life of competitive athlete Jenniffer is on the brink of change, just like the whole country. She is poised on the starting blocks – and not just in the 100-meter dash.
The full list of new additions to the Panorama section:
“La Arrancada (On the Starting Line)” — France / Cuba / Brazil
by Aldemar Matias
Aldemar Matias delivers this delicate, sensitively filmed family portrait from Cuba. The life of competitive athlete Jenniffer is on the brink of change, just like the whole country. She is poised on the starting blocks – and not just in the 100-meter dash.
- 1/21/2019
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
The final Panorama selection includes 45 films from 38 countries, including 34 world premieres.
The final titles for the 2019 Berlin Film Festival (Feb 7-17) Panorama programme have been revealed.
Among the new additions is Light Of My Life, directed by and starring Casey Affleck and co-starring Elisabeth Moss.
Titles revealed back in December include Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir, Seamus Murphy’s Pj Harvey documentary A Dog Called Money and Rob Garver’s documentary What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael.
The final Panorama selection includes 45 films from 38 countries, including 34 world premieres. There are 29 features, 16 documentaries and 19 directorial debuts.
The full list...
The final titles for the 2019 Berlin Film Festival (Feb 7-17) Panorama programme have been revealed.
Among the new additions is Light Of My Life, directed by and starring Casey Affleck and co-starring Elisabeth Moss.
Titles revealed back in December include Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir, Seamus Murphy’s Pj Harvey documentary A Dog Called Money and Rob Garver’s documentary What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael.
The final Panorama selection includes 45 films from 38 countries, including 34 world premieres. There are 29 features, 16 documentaries and 19 directorial debuts.
The full list...
- 1/21/2019
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Casey Affleck-directed drama Light Of My Life, starring Affleck, Elisabeth Moss and newcomer Anna Pniowsky, will get its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama section. The dystopian drama, about a father and his young daughter who are trapped in the woods, is one of a raft of additions to the Panorama lineup. Scroll down for the lineup in full.
A total of 45 films from 38 countries, including 34 world premieres, will screen in the section. Panorama’s opening film will be Flatland by Jenna Bass, in which a bride and her pregnant friend make a liberating getaway across South Africa.
Among the strand’s highlights are Affleck’s first narrative feature as director, which is produced by The Imitation Game outfit Black Bear Pictures; Jayro Bustamante’s Ixcanul follow-up Tremblores (Tremors), about a father who tries to break free from his past after breaking the silence about...
A total of 45 films from 38 countries, including 34 world premieres, will screen in the section. Panorama’s opening film will be Flatland by Jenna Bass, in which a bride and her pregnant friend make a liberating getaway across South Africa.
Among the strand’s highlights are Affleck’s first narrative feature as director, which is produced by The Imitation Game outfit Black Bear Pictures; Jayro Bustamante’s Ixcanul follow-up Tremblores (Tremors), about a father who tries to break free from his past after breaking the silence about...
- 1/21/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
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