Patrick Frater

Korean comedy action film “The Roundup: Punishment” destroyed all competition in local theaters on its Wednesday opening day. The film earned $4.92 million from 821,000 ticket sales, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That represented a crushing 97% share of the day’s theatrical market. Including a […]

Stephen Chow, the once iconic Hong Kong comedian, actor and director who had a string of hit films in the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century, is to produce a variety show in mainland China. The show, to be called “The King of Comedy Stand-up Season,” is to be aired by iQiyi, one […]

Epic war-time survival tale “The Guns of Muschu” has already assembled a weighty cast ahead of a production start in the first quarter of 2025. The film is an adaptation of the non-fiction book “The Guns of Muschu,” written by Don Dennis, with an adapted screenplay by Tom Broadhurst and Jack Brislee (“Danger Close: The […]

PARK LIFE Paramount’s Pluto TV is to launch a “South Park” category, dedicated to the long-running satirical cartoon series, within its free ad-supported streaming television service.  The “South Park” category will include a “South Park” main channel, available across all international markets where Pluto TV is present, as well as a series of “South Park” themed […]

Mckenna Grace, the in-demand actor who appeared in “I, Tonya” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” and recently starred in “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” is set to lead the upcoming film “Everything I Never Did.” The young adult-targeted picture is written by screenwriters D.J. McPherson and Scott Taylor and will be directed by Australia’s Jeremy Sims (“Last Cab […]

Disney has confirmed that Korean webtoon-to-screen adaptation “Low Life” is poised to begin production. When valuable treasure is discovered off the coast of Korea, the country’s biggest degenerates come crawling out of the woodwork in the hope of striking it big. Word spreads after a fisherman got lucky and kept a piece of the booty […]

Crime drama “The Goldfinger” was the numerical winner at the Hong Kong Film Awards, where it won six prizes on Sunday. But it missed out on the best film prize, which went to box office record breaker “A Guilty Conscience.” “The Goldfinger,” a retro financial thriller starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Andy Lau Tak-wah, earned […]

Oscar-winning Japanese animated fantasy “The Boy and the Heron” held on to top spot at the mainland China box office to record a second weekend win. The film, which opened triumphantly on April 3, in time for a family-oriented long weekend, fell steeply in its second, non-holiday, frame. It earned $12.8 million (RMB90.6 million), according […]

JEONJU JAUNT Korea’s second largest generalist film event the Jeonju International Film Festival has set eight fiction films by first or second-time feature directors, for its main competition. They are “Cu Li Never Cries,” by Pham Ngoc Lan; “Junkyard Dog,” by Jean-Baptiste Durand, “La Palisiada,” by Philip Sotnychenko; “My Endless Numbered Days,” by Shaun Neo; […]

Passed over by France’s Oscar-nominating committee, but finding Academy favor nevertheless, Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or-winning “Anatomy of a Fall” has also become an indie champion in mainland China. Its success may hold lessons in a market that has become increasingly impenetrable to content from outside the mainstream. It is increasingly rare for Western arthouse films […]