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The last film by writer, director, and editor Tetsuichirô Tsuta, 2013’s “The Tale of Iya” didn’t get to make a big splash in the UK or US. But perhaps the association with names such as Lee Kang-sheng and Ryuichi Sakamoto will help move things along for “Black Ox,” a standout from the Tokyo International Film Festival’s fascinating and varied “Asian Futures” program, which showcases a variety of critical perspectives from across the continent.

“A certain island country is on the path to civilization.” That wry prelude is all the introduction we get before Tsuta plunges us into the story of a mountain man (Lee) whose life is framed by the assimilation of all peoples under one unified umbrella of “Japanese” identity during the latter half of the 19th century (starting around the time of the Meiji Restoration). If the festival’s opening film, the samurai epic “11 Rebels,...

Featuring music by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, “Black Ox” is the the first feature-length movie in Japan to use in part 70mm film. It is also inspired by “The Oxherding Pictures”, which depicts the path to enlightenment using ten poems and drawings of cows, while stars Lee Kang-sheng, who has had a quite prolific year in 2024.

Black Ox is screening at Tokyo International Film Festival

Starting with a rather impressive scene of a fire, the movie then settles in a sharp monochrome 4:3, introducing the main character in the nude. As the intertitles highlight, In Japan’s era of Civilization and Enlightenment, villages who opposed the nationalization of the mountains set fire to the trees and burned the forests. Mountain nomads who lost their homes trekked down to the village and began to live among the people. The protagonist however, as a dialogue with a woman of his tribe highlights,...

Neo Sora makes his feature directorial debut with Happyend, transporting us to a speculative vision of Tokyo’s near future. As the son of renowned musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sora carries an artistic sensibility shaped by Japan’s social-political currents. His film explores these themes through an intimate focus on a group of high school friends.

Our characters are Yuta and Kou, who’ve been close since childhood. Life remains much as it ever was for Tokyo’s graduating seniors, even with impending catastrophe looming. Daily earthquake drills are just background noise to games and music in their makeshift clubroom sanctuary. Beneath surface calm, however, tensions are rising both in their tightknit circle and the outside world.

When a prank on a rigid principal backfires, it brings harsh new surveillance measures to the school. Freedoms once taken for granted face removal. Divisions emerge as friends discover their stances on rebellion versus obedience diverge.

Christopher Nolan has been attracting the eyes of critics throughout his entire career. Although it was working with a minuscule budget of $6,000 and only played in a few theaters in the United States, his 1998 debut feature "Following" was praised for its tight storytelling and terse psychological underpinnings. Nolan then rose to international fame with his 2000 film "Memento," a neo-noir about a man unable to form new memories. Its backward-chronological-order plot was cleverly conceived and impeccably laid out, somehow coming to a traditional narrative climax even while running in reverse.

From there it was off to the races, so to speak. Nolan became a power player in Hollywood, directing gigantic movie stars like Al Pacino and Robin Williams in a remake of "Insomnia" and making a gigantic, zeitgeist-shifting hit with 2005's "Batman Begins." Nolan's three Batman movies are still spoken of with enthusiasm to this day. Their success also allowed him...

Yeah, yeah, the memes about the terrifying carousel horse on the poster are really funny, but We Live In Time is a whole movie that you can actually go see too. Today, A24 announced that the upcoming Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield-led romance film is being scored by Bryce Dessner,...

Neo Sora’s narrative debut “Happyend,” a dystopian portrait of rebellious youth fighting for a better future that first bowed in Venice’s Horizons section, has sold to multiple territories for Magnify, the international sales arm of Magnolia Pictures.

In addition to Metrograph Pictures, which grabbed North American rights last month and will be releasing theatrically in 2025, Magnify has secured deals in France (Eurozoom), South Korea (Jinjin), Taiwan (Hooray), Hong Kong (Edko), China (Wiseup), Indonesia (Falcon), Turkey (Filmarti), Ex-Yugoslavia (Five Star), Cee (HBO), with many other territories under negotiation. Giraffe Pictures will be releasing in Singapore and Bitters End is releasing theatrically in Japan on Oct. 4.

Following Venice, the film had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (Centerpiece) and its Asian premiere in the Pingyao International Film Festival, where it won the Jury Award. The film recently screened at the New York Film Festival and next...

Taiwan-based sales agent Distribution Workshop is launching pre-sales on Juno Mak’s long-gestating Sons Of The Neon Night at the upcoming Asian Contents and Film Market (Acfm) during Busan International Film Festival.

The highly-stylized crime thriller stars Takeshi Kaneshiro (House Of Flying Daggers), Tony Leung Ka-fai (Cold War), Sean Lau (Life Without Principle), Louis Koo and Richie Jen, with the the latter two actors also appearing in Hong Kong’s Oscars submission Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In.

The film, which is set in a deconstructed and reimagined Hong Kong, also features original scores composed by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.

The story begins with a gigantic explosion and shootout in a snow struck downtown Hong Kong, which turn out to be planned by the heir to a global pharmaceutical conglomerate (Kaneshiro), who is attempting to wipe out the global drugs trade.

Mak made his feature debut with Rigor Mortis in...

Taiwan-based Distribution Workshop is set to introduce Hong Kong director Juno Mak’s Sons Of The Neon Night, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Sean Lau, to international buyers at Busan’s Acfm, along with a trio of Taiwanese titles.

It has been over a decade since Mak – who was a singer and actor before moving into directing – premiered directorial feature debut and vampire horror film Rigor Mortis at Venice and Toronto in 2013. His second feature, Sons Of The Neon Night, began filming in 2017 and has gone through a long gestation period including the Covid pandemic.

The $50m cop action thriller marks...

Japanese director Neo Sora is no catastrophist: the vision of dystopia he puts forth in his coolly compelling first fiction feature “Happyend” is chilling precisely because it won’t take some thunderous armageddon to bring it about. Instead, in a near future that’s barely a stone’s throw from now, beset by many of our present predicaments and a sense of impending but not quite imminent apocalypse, his teenage heroes come of age as kids have always done. It’s just that here, there is the added poignancy of experiencing the end of the beginning of life amid what might just be the beginning of the end of the world.

In tomorrow’s Tokyo, where the concrete curves and high-rise skylines have a slightly denatured air (perhaps because the film was largely shot in Kobe) a high-school principal (Shiro Sano) is distressed to discover his beloved sports car has...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSNo Other Land.Politically engaged documentaries—including some of the most lauded films of the festival season, like No Other Land (2024)—are struggling to find buyers, with many filmmakers resorting to self-distribution or service deals (in which a distributor is paid to release the film while filmmakers retain the rights).After the ignominious resignation of Italian Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano, many in the nation’s film industry are calling upon his replacement, Alessandro Giuli, to abandon plans for new legislation that would curtail government subsidies for film production.With drastically expanded tax incentives and brand-new soundstages, New Jersey hopes to again become a major hub for motion pictures. First Lady Tammy Snyder Murphy emphasizes the importance of every community,...

Plot: A suburban dad (Tim Robinson) becomes hellbent on being BFFs with his charismatic new neighbour (Paul Rudd).

Review: Confession time – this movie is my introduction to Tim Robinson. Sure, I’ve had folks name-drop his show I Think You Should Leave, and it’s always been on my list of stuff to check out. But, I walked into this more-or-less fresh, not knowing what to expect. What I got was one of the most cringe-inducing comedies I’ve ever seen – and I loved every second of it.

To be sure, this kind of humour isn’t for everyone. There were times while I was watching Friendship in the (jam-packed) TIFF screening that I’m sure I annoyed the people sitting next to me by how many times I sunk in my seat, covering my face with my hands and repeating “no, no, no” louder than I should. That’s...

Metrograph Pictures has snapped up North American distribution rights to Japanese director Neo Sora’s fictional feature debut Happyend, a high school delinquent drama with shades of political dystopia. The film has proved a hit with critics at the Venice Film Festival, where it premiered earlier this week in the event’s Horizons section.

Following its debut in Venice, Happyend is next headed to the Toronto International Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, and New York Film Festival. Monograph says it will release the film in U.S. cinemas sometime next year. The title is represented globally by sales outfit Magnify.

Happyend is Sora’s first fictional feature but he was in Venice last year with the documentary, Opus, which captured the final performance of his late father, Japanese musical icon Ryuichi Sakamoto.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s lead critic David Rooney reviewed Happyend earlier this week, writing: “Sora strikes an...

Speculative fiction as cautionary sociopolitical commentary, Happyend marks a confident first step into narrative features for Neo Sora, who made last year’s stirring documentary tribute to his late father, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus. The Japanese writer-director offsets the film’s depth of feeling with understatement and gentle humor, working with an appealing young cast as graduation-year high school classmates facing — or refusing to face — a bleak outlook for their future. Capturing that transitional moment when seemingly permanent adolescent ties suddenly appear uncertain, this is a melancholy drama laced with notes of anger and disquiet, but also resilience.

Sora opens with onscreen text about the traditional enforcers of crumbling systems growing weary in the near future, ushering in a time of change. That change is represented by youthful rebellion.

Keeping his focus tight on five inseparable friends plus one influential outsider to the group, the filmmaker effectively views their acts of individual and collective resistance,...

"If we're going to die, let's have fun." NYFF has revealed the first look teaser for a Japanese film arriving soon called Happyend, the first feature film directed by filmmaker Neo Sora, best known for his many Ryuichi Sakamoto docs. Happyend is premiering at the 2024 Venice Film Festival this weekend, before it goes on to play at both TIFF and NYFF later this fall, with an October release in Japan. Set in near-future Tokyo, the threat of a catastrophic earthquake looms. Two friends prank their principal before graduation, leading to school surveillance installation, which eventually leads to a rift between the high schooler boys. Happyend "amplifies the sociopolitical dynamics already present in Japan today." It's another fascinating surveillance thriller, with commentary on contemporary society, much like the other one Stranger Eyes also premiering in Venice. With Hayato Kurihara, Yukito Hidaka, Yuta Hayashi, Shina Peng, Arazi, Kilala Inori, Pushim, and Makiko Watanabe.

BTS’ Suga, a beloved figure in the K-pop industry, has recently faced challenges due to a DUI incident that occurred on August 6. Despite the controversy, Suga has received overwhelming support from both fans and fellow celebrities, who have publicly expressed their solidarity during this difficult time.

One of the most notable expressions of support came from Psy, the legendary South Korean singer-songwriter. Psy, who collaborated with Suga on the hit track “That That,” took a moment during his “Summer Swag” concert on August 25 to acknowledge Suga’s contribution to the song. Before performing the track at the Suwon World Cup Stadium, Psy addressed the crowd, expressing his gratitude to Suga for creating and singing the song with him. His shoutout led to an outpouring of cheers from the audience, and the phrase “We Support Min Yoongi” quickly began trending among fans.

On his latest show Psy before performing “that that...

Across a nearly 20-year career, Flying Lotus has built up quite the resume: six albums, dozens of film scores, high profile collaborations, and apparently, two iPhone ringtones that have been on devices since the 2019 launch of iOS 13.

The contributions were confirmed by the Apple podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz, which takes a deep dive into recognizable and ubiquitous sounds and breaks them down note by note. Their latest episode focuses on “The Sounds of Apple” and follows the origins of several ringtones. Two of them, “Daybreak” and “Chalet,” were credited to Steve Ellison — A.K.A. Flying Lotus.

Apple promoted the new podcast this week and tagged Flying Lotus in their social copy — FlyLo then retweeted the promo, confirming his once-secret work for the company. “Apple leaked it so I can say it,” Flying Lotus wrote on Twitter. “I wrote some ringtones that have been in ur iPhone since ios13. ‘Daybreak’ +‘Chalet.

During their set at Japan’s Fuji Rock festival this weekend, Kraftwerk carved out time to honor the late, great composer and producer Ryuichi Sakamoto. After delivering classic tracks like “Autobahn” and “Computer World,” the band performed a cover of Sakamoto’s theme from the 1993 film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Watch it below.

Before beginning the song, Kraftwerk’s Ralf Hütter introduced the cover by saying, “The next composition is by my friend, Ryuichi Sakamoto.” The backdrop then transitioned to a photo of Hütter and Sakamoto. “We are friends forever since our first concert in Tokyo in 1981,” he continued. “For the No Nuke Festival in 2012, Ryuichi wrote new Japanese lyrics for me for ‘Radioactivity,’ which we will play.”

Sakamoto’s estate recently confirmed a posthumous album from the legendary composer titled Opus. The project will arrive on August 9th and is set to include reimagined versions of songs from throughout his career.

The estate of Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Oscar-winning Japanese composer and Yellow Magic Orchestra member who died in 2023, has announced the posthumous album Opus, a document of Sakamoto’s final performances.

The recording was filmed over a series of private studio sessions at Tokyo’s legendary Nhk 509 Studio in the fall of 2022, as he was too ill to perform the entire set at once; Sakamoto died in March 2023 at the age of 71 following a battle with cancer.

Opus, recorded on solo piano and captured on film by Sakamoto’s son Neo Sora,...

It’s been over a year since the passing of Ryuichi Sakamoto, but new music from the legendary composer is on the way. Today, his estate and Milan Records have announced a posthumous album titled Opus (due on August 9th), and released the lead single, a meditative new rendition of “Tong Poo.”

Taken from a “final, private piano concert” Sakamoto performed in 2022 at his Nhk 509 Studio in Tokyo, Opus features reimaginings of songs from throughout his career, including film scores, Yellow Magic Orchestra hits, and more. Due to his ailing health, the performance was completed across multiple sessions, which were all filmed by Sakamoto’s son Neo Sora; the resulting concert film/documentary will premiere on June 30th on The Criterion Channel with the title Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus.

In a statement written before his death, Sakamoto explained that Opus was “conceived as a way to record my performances — while I...

“Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus,” director Neo Sora’s posthumous documentary about Japanese musical luminary Ryuichi Sakamoto, will premiere online as a live event on The Criterion Channel.

On Sunday, June 30 at 5 p.m. Pt/ 8 p.m. Est, Criterion will broadcast the film live via its streaming service. Following the premiere, the concert doc will stream exclusively on the Criterion Channel beginning July 1.

Featuring Sakamoto’s final recorded concert before his death in March 2023, “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus” first premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2023. Sora, Sakamoto’s son, shot the film in black and white, capturing 20 selections personally selected by his father from across his 45-year musical career, from “Tong Poo” (from Yellow Magic Orchestra’s 1978 debut album) to his themes for the films “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” and “The Last Emperor” to “20220302 – Sarabande” from his final solo studio album “12.”

“A document of Sakamoto’s final performance before his death from cancer last March,...

Illustrations by Zoé Maghamès Peters.The Nagano prefecture is a snowy, mountainous region of Japan where Tokyo residents like to ski and wander through the forests, away from the pressures of the city. Some even have country houses there. This is the area where composer Eiko Ishibashi lives with her partner, musician Jim O’Rourke. In 2022, Ishibashi received a request from promoter Florian Felix to present a combination of brand-new music and images in concert. Ishibashi asked Ryusuke Hamaguchi if he was interested in helping put together the visual part. The two had gotten to know each other when they collaborated on his Oscar-winning film Drive My Car (2021). “He came out here to Nagano to see what he could shoot,” O’Rourke recalled when we spoke earlier this year, “and he also shot Eiko and a few other people playing.” O’Rourke performed with the group, too. He compared the setup...

Exclusive: In his final project before concluding his headline-snatching, decades-long tenure as creative director at Valentino, Pier Paolo Piccioli dipped back into film production to produce the costumes for Things And Other Things, the latest feature from Italian filmmaker Riccardo Vannuccini.

The indie UK-Italian co-production stars Greta Bellamacina. The costumes for Bellamacina’s character were designed by Pierre Paolo for Valentino, including a custom blue dress with a 6-metre train made for the film. You can check out a first look at the film and Pierre Paolo’s costumes below.

Paolo Piccioli left Valentino in March after more than 20 years at the house. The designer joined Valentino in 1999 with Maria Grazia Chiuri, his former collaborator. The pair were appointed co-creative directors in 2008. In 2016, Piccioli took on the role of sole creative director, following Chiuri’s departure for Dior. Things And Other Things isn’t Paolo Piccioli’s first foray into cinema.

The last decade has seen the success of Asian titles conquering not only the hearts of millions of viewers around the world, but also the streaming charts and international awards. These include such impeccable thrillers as Burning (2018), Parasite (2019) and Decision to Leave (2022), with all of them making noise at the Cannes Film Festival.

Despite the fact that most of the acclaimed Asian thrillers are South Korean, last year’s movie broke this Cannes’ tendency, as it was created by the Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. His recent work is now climbing Netflix’s chart, and here’s why.

Its plot revolves around a mother who notices her son behaving strangely: all of a sudden, he cuts his hair or comes home with only one shoe on. Then she decides to meet his teacher, assuming he’s responsible for it, however, as they confront and as the story gradually unfolds through their eyes,...

The Anne Hathaway- and Jessica Chastain-starring psychological thriller “Mothers’ Instinct” is set for release in Chinese theaters.

Directed by cinematographer-turned-helmer Benoît Delhomme, the 1960s film depicts a pair of model homemakers and next-door neighbors whose close friendship is severely undone by sudden tragedy. The film is an English-language remake of the 2108 French-language effort by Belgium’s Olivier Masset-Depasse’s film, which was an adaptation of the 2012 novel “Derriere La Haine” by Barbara Abel.

The film will release in China on May 24 on 2,500 screens. That likely sets it in competition with “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” as another English-language title releasing on that date, Variety has confirmed.

The film has had a handful of international releases and is also set for a North American outing at an unspecified date through Neon. The China release follows an agreement between sales firm Anton Corp and Chinese distributor Jl Film.

Jl Film...

Concert documentary, “Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus,” directed by Neo Sora, will open in mainland Chinese cinemas on May 31.

The film had its world premiere in official selection at the Venice festival last year. That was followed by an acclaimed run at the New York, London and Camerimage festivals.

Japanese composer Sakamoto, who was awarded an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy and two Golden Globes, had a four-decade career that stretched from techno-pop to Oscar winning scores on films including “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” “The Last Emperor,” and “The Revenant.”

Sakamoto died in March last year after a lengthy struggle with cancer. Before his demise, he curated and performed piano at a final concert, comprising 20 pieces of music that he chose and ordered himself.

The concert film includes his popstar Yellow Magic Orchestra period to his iconic “Emperor” film score and meditative final album, “12.” Variety‘s review of the film called it a “glorious final performance.

Clockwise from left: Mica Levi (Dimitrios Vellis/Wikimedia Commons), David Byrne (Shutterstock), Jonny Greenwood (Shutterstock), Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Shutterstock)Graphic: The A.V. Club

If you plan to see Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers this weekend, be prepared to be knocked on your ass by its propulsive score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Among the actors, around whom there is not so much hype, Colin Farrell obviously stands out, as he’s a jack of all trades. It’s proven by his brilliant performances in the dark comedies Seven Psychopaths (2012) and The Lobster (2015), thriller series True Detective (2015) and the 2022 drama hit, The Banshees of Inisherin.

There is a movie, however, that even better demonstrates how great the actor’s dramatical talent is. Its plot revolves around a loving husband and father Jake, played by Farrell, who all of a sudden finds his son becoming weak and unresponsive.

However, it turns out it’s not their real son, but rather an android, who assists the family’s adoptive Chinese daughter Mika. Jake does all he ever can to repair the android, playing such a significant role in Mika’s growing up and exploring the world around her.

This movie is definitely a science fiction feature,...

Franchise animation Kung Fu Panda 4 and creature clash Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire lead a bumper weekend of 16 new films at the UK-Ireland box office.

Universal’s Kung Fu Panda 4 has the biggest opening of the weekend in 715 sites – a significant jump for the series, after 2008’s Kung Fu Panda (448) and sequels in 2011 (514) and 2016 (585), all through Paramount.

Conversely, the total grosses of each film have dropped, with the first title making £20.4m, followed by £17m and £14.2m for the sequels. All of these were pre-pandemic; number four will look to cross the £10m mark before challenging any of those totals.

In his last weeks of life, the Oscar-winning composer is filmed at the piano by his son. It is an almost wordless paean to a remarkable career

Short of presenting nothing more than music and a blank screen, this documentary about the late Japanese composer-performer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s last appearances is as stark and minimal as a concert film can get. And yet it’s a work suffused with emotional tones and shades, surprisingly not all of them sad even though the subject knew at the time of filming he had mere weeks left before he’d die of cancer.

There are moments when director Neo Sora, Sakamoto’s son, turns up the lighting for the more upbeat songs and we can see the master smile, pleased with his own performance, or the composition, or … we know not what, as there is almost no dialogue, no nattering about the life.

Sony’s “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £4 million ($5.1 million), according to numbers from Comscore.

In the process, the band of ectoplasm hunters ended the three-week reign of Warner Bros.’ “Dune: Part II” in pole position. The Timothée Chalamet-starring film collected £2.6 million in its fourth weekend in second place for a total of £30.7 million.

Black Bear’s “Immaculate,” starring Sydney Sweeney, scared up £522,583 in a third place debut. In fourth place, in its fifth weekend, Studiocanal’s “Wicked Little Letters” earned £373,505 and now has a total of £8.1 million.

Rounding off the top five was Universal’s “Migration” that collected £370,464 in its eighth weekend for a total of £19.5 million.

There were two more debuts in the top 10 – Vertigo’s “Late Night With The Devil” in seventh place with £220,436 and Trafalgar’s “Romeo Et Juliette – Met Opera 2023/24” in 10th with £81,880.

With the Easter holidays imminent,...

Since the beginning of his career, Hirokazu Koreeda became recognized for his films representing the family cinema genre—intrinsically linked with the favorite of Western critics among Japanese filmmakers: Yasujiro Ozu. This was already the case with Koreeda's 1995 debut film, “Maboroshi no hikari”, a visual meditation on loss and the passing of time, told through the eyes of a single mother who has just lost her beloved husband. Since the early 1960s and the death of Yasujiro Ozu, Western critics seemed to be engaged in an excruciating quest to find a new ancestor to Ozu's poetics of cinema—and finally, there was one; Koreeda became the new Ozu.

The similarity is there—a contemplative approach towards the mundane which translates to something more transcendental; a patient gaze onto the bonds of the family set against the backdrop of a modernizing world and changing traditions; or a talent to put...

Rihanna‘s “Take a Bow” is one of her most underrated songs, which is pretty shocking considering how popular it was back in the 2000s. The track was co-written by an R&b star and it originally had an Asian flavor. The tune shares its title and some of its other attributes with a Madonna song from the 1990s.

Rihanna’s ‘Take a Bow’ was originally inspired by an Asian musician

Stargate is a production duo that gave us hits by Beyoncé, Ne-Yo, Fifth Harmony, Katy Perry, and Rihanna. Oh boy, have they written numerous hits for the “Rude Boy” singer. During a 2010 interview with Sound on Sound, Stargate’s Mikkel S. Eriksen discussed the origin of one of Rihanna’s most popular ballads. “We might change the beat, or the chords, or completely rearrange the song,” he said.

“Like in the song ‘Take a Bow,’ our original track had an almost Asian feel,...

Indies in moderate-wide release claimed the nos. 6, 8 and 9 spots at the domestic box office led by Love Lies Bleeding. Kristin Steward toplines the Berlin-premiering film by Rose Glass that expanded nationwide, grossing $2.5 million for the weekend on 1,362 screens (up from five theaters opening week). The steamy crime thriller from A24 also stars Katy O’Brian with an ensemble featuring Ed Harris, Anna Baryshnikov Dave Franco and Jenna Malone. It’s 88% Certified Fresh with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes (92% critics score).

Stewart plays a reclusive gym manager who falls hard for an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Vegas in pursuit of her dream as the pair is pulled into the web of Lou’s criminal family. Weekend breakdown: Friday, $1.1 million; Saturday, $790k; Sunday; $592k.

One Life by James Hawes pulled in a $1.7+ million debut 983 screens. The Bleecker Street film, starring Anthony Hopkins as a British stockbroker who helped rescued hundreds of Jewish children from Czechoslovakia,...

To call Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus a concert film would be correct and also drastically inadequate. What unfolds onscreen is no mere performance, no mere gesture, but a face-to-face between presence and absence. Beginning its theatrical run just before the one-year anniversary of Sakamoto’s death from cancer, at 71, the handsome film is a testament to the artistic spirit and, above all, an act of love — by the performer, who was facing mortality and thinking of legacy, and by the director, Neo Sora, who is Ryuichi Sakamoto’s son.

The performances captured in Opus were filmed over a week in September 2022, at a studio in Tokyo’s Nhk Broadcasting Center that Sakamoto believed offers the finest acoustics in Japan. He and Sora embarked on this project while Sakamoto was still well enough to perform. Other than the unseen filmmakers, there is no audience. Alone at a Yamaha grand, a bright...

A trio of moderate releases – One Life, The American Society Of Magical Negroes and Knox Goes Away join Janus Films’ celebration of master musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, and César award winning The Animal Kingdom as the next wave of 2024 indie films rolls out post-Oscars.

Focus Features’ American Society Of Magical Negroes, the feature directorial debut of Kobi Libii opens at 1,146 theaters across the North America. Premiered at Sundance, see Deadline review. A satirical comedy about a young man, Aren (Justice Smith) who is recruited by Roger (David Alan Grier) into a secret society of magical Black people who dedicate their lives to a cause of utmost importance: making sure white people never feel bad about themselves or get stressed out — because bad things happen when they do. Also stars Rupert Friend, Michaela Watkins, An-Li Bogan, Drew Tarver and Nicole Byer. Libii originally developed the project as an alumnus of both the Sundance Writers and Directors Labs.

The Independent Iranian Filmmakers Association (Iifma) has written to AMPAS to protest the omission of murdered director Dariush Mehrjui from the In Memoriam segment of the Academy Award on Sunday night.

As per Oscar tradition, the Academy paid tribute to a select group of 51 film and entertainment figures who had died over the previous year, including actor Matthew Perry, director William Friedkin, actor-performer Jane Birkin and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto in a short In Memoriam segment.

Mehrjui was named instead on the Academy’s In Memoriam page on its website, alongside 279 recently deceased figures related to the film world, including the 51 people feted at the ceremony.

The director was stabbed to death alongside his screenwriter wife Vahideh Moahmmadifar in their home outside Tehran last October.

The unsolved killing came just months after he posted an online video blasting the Iranian government’s suppression of the film industry, raising suspicions that his...

The Japan Academy Film Prize Association held the 47th edition of its awards ceremony on March 8, 2024. The nominees are selected by the Nippon Academy-Sho Association of industry professionals from the pool of film releases between January 1 and December 31, 2023 which must have screened in Tokyo cinemas.

Following its success at the recent Blue Ribbon Awards and leading with 12 nominations, Toho Studios' and Takashi Yamazaki's kaiju cinema masterpiece “Godzilla Minus One” takes top honours winning Picture of the Year and a slew of technical awards. Sakura Ando cements her place as one of Japan's top actresses securing both awards for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (for “Monster”) as well as Supporting Role (for “Godzilla Minus One”).

The full list of winners is described below.

Picture of the Year

Monster

Godzilla Minus One

Mom, Is That You?!

September 1923

Perfect Days

Animation of the Year

Kitaro Tanjo – GeGeGe no...

Since 1994, paying tribute to the artists and filmmakers who died in the past year has become an annual segment at the Oscars. Arguably the most emotional segment of the Night, the In Memoriam section of 2024 kicked off with the remembrance of Alexei Navalny. Other notable names that were honored in the Award ceremony included Matthew Perry, Richard Lewis, Glenda Jackson, Tina Turner, Robbie Robertson, and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

However, like each year, several deceased figures were left out of the montage, which involved many prominent figures, including John Wick Star Lance Reddick, which has caused fans to outburst.

In Memoriam | Oscars

Fans Furious Over Lance Reddick and Other Notable Figures’ Snub From In Memoriam

The Academy is no stranger to leaving out beloved figures from the segment, with Anne Heche and Charlbi Dean being left out in 2023, and 2024 was no different. 2023 saw many notable figures leaving the world behind, which was hard to grasp for fans,...

Andrea Bocelli performed a rendition of the song “Time to Say Goodbye” with his son Matteo Bocelli to accompany the Academy’s annual obituary section. Perhaps mindful of previous years, in which eagle-eyed viewers have jumped on omissions, this year’s “In Memoriam” — which began with footage of the recently deceased Russian opposition leader and subject of last year’s winning documentary Navalny — seemed comprehensive but at the same time not enough.

Related: ‘Oppenheimer’ Wins Best Picture Oscar & Six Others; Emma Stone & Cillian Murphy Take Lead Acting Prizes – Full List

Beloved actors Lance Reddick, Treat Williams, Apocalypse Now’s Frederic Forrest, Rocky’s Burt Young all relegated to a fine print reference at the end, along with such writers as Norman Lear and No Country for Old Men’s Cormac McCarthy. Also given afterthought treatment were Kenneth Anger, Terence Davies, Carl Davis, David McCallum, Sinead O’Connor and Paolo Taviani in...

The In Memoriam section of the Academy Awards is always one of the most emotional moments of the show. This year was no exception, as the 96th Oscars celebrate the performers, filmmakers and artisan talents who died in the past year. The In Memoriam segment kicked off with a remembrance of Alexei Navalny, the political prisoner who died Feb. 16 and was profiled in last year’s documentary feature winner “Navalny.”

The names unfurled onscreen was Andrea Boccelli and his son, Matteo, sang “Time to Say Goodbye.”

Every year, the Academy leaves a few beloved names out of the montage, causing anger among some viewers. Though a much longer list is presented on the Oscars.org website, outrage over who makes it onscreen is part of the Oscar-watching tradition.

Read more: All the 2024 Oscar winners

This year several beloved late performers and filmmakers didn’t make the main segment, including Treat Williams,...

Oscar-nominated Mexican sound designer Martin Hernandez has given new details about his latest project, Netflix documentary series The Master Of Monarchs [working title], which will launch on the platform later this year.

The series takes flight with the story of the Monarch butterfly and its journey from Canada to El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Preserve, a nature reserve in Mexico. The keeper of the reserve, environmental activist Homero Gomez, was murdered in 2020. It is believed he was killed because he stood up against organised crime groups.

The Master Of Monarchs will feature interviews with Gomez’s wife and children.

“It’s a great documentary.

Prior to making headlines the next day after a short-lived health scare that required a brief stay in hospital, Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins arrived at Dublin’s Complex arts center last Wednesday to present the Dublin film festival’s highest honor to Steve McQueen. Introduced in 2007 and named the Volta Award, after the first commercial cinema set up in Dublin in 1909 by writer James Joyce, its previous recipients include Daniel Day Lewis, Claudia Cardinale and Al Pacino. The famously serious director was in high spirits, enthusing that “festivals are about passion, a passion for film.” “There’s always a buzz, isn’t there?” he continued. “[As you] go to the next picture, the next film, you tend to give people tips and say, ‘Oh, you’ve got to see this, you’ve got to see that…’”

McQueen was in and out of the festival, flying home the same night, fueling...

Janus Films has revealed an official trailer for the wonderful documentary performance film titled Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus. This is the final performance of the master Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who passed away in early 2023 at the age of 71. The film premiered at the 2023 Venice Film Festival last year as a special screening. A celebration of an artist's life in the purest sense, Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus is the definitive swan song of one of the world’s greatest musicians. In late 2022, as a parting gift, Sakamoto mustered all of his energy to leave us with one final performance: a concert film featuring just him and his piano. Curated and sequenced by Sakamoto himself, the twenty pieces featured in the doc film wordlessly narrate his life through his wide-ranging oeuvre. The selection spans his entire career – from his pop-star period with Yellow Magic Orchestra and his magnificent scores for filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci to his meditative final album,...

Legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away after a bout with cancer in 2023, but his legacy and presence are still being felt and celebrated. The new concert film, “Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus,” which features his final Performance, is directed by his son, Neo Sora, and is coming out in March. The movie was executive produced by Jeremy Thomas, who worked on arguably two of the most important films in Sakmoto’s film-scoring career.

Continue reading ‘Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus’ Trailer: The Legendary Composer’s Final Performance Film Opens In March at The Playlist.

There’s last will and testaments, and then there’s Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus, for which the musician and composer (for whom adjectives are sometimes adequate) enlisted his son, Neo Sora, to put on film one final performance: a 20-song symposium that would “wordlessly narrate his life through his music.” Ahead of its March 15 release from Janus Films, we have the first trailer.

As Jordan Raup said in our rundown of the best 2024 films we’ve already seen, “In a heartbreaking work that feels like a private personal home movie that the world is being graced with, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s son, filmmaker Neo Sora, captured one of his father’s final performances. Shot in beautifully austere black-and-white, Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus focuses solely on the music, capturing a man contending with his physical limitations in what amounts to one of the final offerings of his astounding talent. It’s a treasure.”

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Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto gave his final performance in Japan knowing he was about to pass away. Now, the iconic composer’s legacy is captured in documentary “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus,” directed by his son Neo Sora.

Sakamoto collaborated with auteurs like Luca Guadagnino and also scored Leonardo DiCaprio’s Oscar-winning turn in “The Revenant.” On March 28, 2023, Sakamoto died after a years-long battle with cancer. Despite retiring from live performances, Sakamoto returned to the stage one final time in late 2022 to play 20 pieces presented in a curated order. The first footage of the film includes Sakamoto performing the score of Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Sheltering Sky,” among other pieces.

“Opus” was filmed at the Nhk Broadcast Center’s 509 Studio, which Sakamoto said had the “finest acoustics in Japan.” Cinematographer Bill Kirstein shot the film using three 4K cameras, with Sakamoto first recording his pieces on an iPhone from his home to...

Pj Harvey is a big Elvis Presley fan and meditates on his songs. She even created a fictional character inspired by Elvis’ “Love Me Tender.” In the same vein, she is a huge Bob Dylan fan and discussed her feelings about one of his more recent songs.

Pj Harvey said she could lose herself in Elvis Presley’s songs

During a 2022 interview with Rolling Stone, Harvey discussed her book-length poem Orlam. She was asked why the poem features a character named Wyman-Elvis who performs “Love Me Tender.”

“Well, I loved Elvis, as a lot of children of my era did, and I still love Elvis,” he said. “I love everything about him. I could lose myself in that voice, but not only that, the way he looked as well. He is almost a godlike figure in Orlam.“

The interviewer was surprised by Harvey’s statements, as she had never recorded...

The Recording Academy recognized many of the musicians and people who worked behind the scenes in the music industry who have died in the past year during the Grammy Awards on Sunday night. Tony Bennett, Sinead O’Connor, Clarence Avant, Jimmy Buffet, and Tina Turner were among those celebrated.

Stevie Wonder, who on Thursday presented Mariah Carey with the Global Impact Award at the Black Music Collective Ceremony, performed a touching piano-backed rendition of Bennett’s “For Once in My Life,” reviving a duet together as a video of Bennett played in the background,...

As Martin Scorsese once said, “Music and cinema fit together naturally. Because there’s a kind of intrinsic musicality to the way moving images work when they’re put together. It’s been said that cinema and music are very close as art forms, and I think that’s true.” Indeed, the right piece of music––whether it’s an original score or a carefully selected song––can do wonders for a sequence, and today we’re looking at the 20 films that best expressed that notion in 2023.

From seasoned composers to accomplished musicians, as well as a smattering of soundtracks, each perfectly transported us. Check out our rundown of the top 20, which includes streams to each soundtrack in full where available.

20. Infinity Pool (Tim Hecker)

19. Knock at the Cabin (Herdís Stefánsdóttir)

18. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Lorne Balfe)

17. Passages (Various Artists)

16. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Daniel Pemberton)

15. Master Gardener...

Postmodern attempts at genre defiance have become de rigueur for pop artists today. In a streaming-dominated world where we can type away on our laptops to ambient hip-hop in the morning, sing along to old yacht-rock hits on our afternoon commute, and dance to Edm at night, what other way is there to keep our attention than to try to give us everything everywhere all at once? We’ve gotten a few attempts to do just that in 2023, from Kara Jackson’s quietly rebellious blending of folk and R&b, to Yves Tumor’s kitchen-sink instrumentation, to 100 gecs’s audacious and absurd hyperpop assaults.

Many of the artists who appear on this list, though, no longer seem content to just break down old barriers, as they also seek to shatter interpersonal and emotional ones as well. The oft-cited isolation of modern living, heavily exacerbated by the pandemic, has compelled some...