News

The New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff) has revealed the features that will compete for this year’s Uncaged Award and that Hong Kong actor Nicholas Tse will receive the Screen International Star Asia Award.

The eight-strong competition for best feature film at the festival, running July 12-28, will include the North American premiere of Thai hit How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, directed by Pat Boonnitipat.

The film, which ranks as this year’s biggest film at the Thai box office to date, is a family drama that stars popular Thai singer Putthipong Assaratanakul (aka Billkin) as a...

Akihiro Toda is a Japanese playwright and director. In 2014 he founded his production company Chese Film, followed 2017 by the foundation of Cheese Theater, a theater group. His features as director, such as “Tangerines on Cat”, “The Name” and “We Have the Same Morning”, have been screened in many international festivals, Nippon Connection being one of them. At the same time, he also worked tirelessly for the stage, writing plays and directing them too. His new feature “Ichiko” is an adaptation of his own play of the same title and blends psychological drama and mystery.

In our interview with Akihiro Toda, he talks about the genesis of the story and its characters, its unique narrative structure and the collaboration with actors Hana Sugisaki and Yuki Morinaga.

“Ichiko” deals with the question whether you can truly know a person. Generally speaking, do you think we can truly know a person?

No. I think that is impossible.

A good mystery thriller contains suspense and an interesting premise, but above all the investigation into the riddle at its core must be both enjoyable and gripping to follow. However, it seems obvious many stories of the genre neglect this integral part, resulting in a somewhat flat and often disappointing narrative. When done right, though, the feature or novel may provide an inventive and quite fascinating portrayal of humanity, its good and also its dark aspects. Director Akihiro Toda has had some experiences in the mystery genre with his feature “The Name” and in “Ichiko” he goes even further, experimenting with different time layers to create the portrayal of the central character, her troubled past and her problems in keeping relationships.

Ichiko is screening at Nippon Connection

Based on Toda's play, the story begins in 2015 with Ichiko (Hana Sugisaki) being proposed to by her boyfriend Yoshinori (Ryuya Wakaba). The two could not be happier,...

Romantic drama 18x2 Beyond Youthful Days by acclaimed Japanese director Michihito Fujii has been sold to a raft of Asian distributors by sales firm Happinet Phantom Studios.

The upcoming feature has been acquired for South Korea (Media Castle), Hong Kong (Golden Scene) and Southeast Asia territories (Purple Plan) as well as for in-flight (Emphasis Video).

The romance is set for release in Taiwan on March 14 through Activator Marketing Company and in Japan on May 3 through Happinet, which will also be speaking to buyers about the feature at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin this month.

The cast is led by Hsu Kuang-han,...