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With the unfortunate pausing of Metrograph Pictures, a few of their releases were in limbo. Thankfully, Film Movement has come to the rescue for one, Neo Sora’s narrative debut Happyend. Now set for a September 12 release, the new trailer has arrived for the Venice, TIFF, and NYFF selection.

Here’s the synopsis: “Best friends Yuta and Kou are about to graduate high school in a near-future Tokyo where the threat of a catastrophic earthquake pervades daily life. One night, they pull a consequential prank on their principal, which leads to a surveillance system being installed in the school. Between the oppressive security system and a darkening national political situation, Kou feels increasingly frustrated with the world while Yuta seems completely unaware. Finding an empathetic ear in a passionate student activist, Kou’s political consciousness blossoms. Assuming that Yuta would never understand his newfound interests, Kou begins to avoid his friend.

“Happyend,” Neo Sora’s sophisticated Japanese drama about teenagers fighting against techno-fascism in a not-too-far-from-our-own dystopian world, has found its own happy end.

Metrograph Pictures was originally meant to release the film, a 2024 Venice premiere that IndieWire raved about, until the company paused distribution operations as IndieWire exclusively reported last week. Metrograph reverted distribution rights back to “Happyend’s” original sales company, Magnify, and now, Film Movement has picked up the film for release starting September 12. IndieWire also debuts the exclusive trailer for the film below.

Here’s the synopsis: “In a near-future Tokyo where the threat of a catastrophic earthquake pervades daily life, two rabble-rousing best friends are about to graduate high school. One night, they pull a consequential prank on their Principal, which leads to a surveillance system being installed in their school. Stuck between the oppressive security system and a darkening national political situation, the two respond in contrasting ways,...

The Busan International Film Festival has selected Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi as its 2025 Asian Filmmaker of the Year, honoring the director’s uncompromising contributions to Asian and world cinema.

Panahi will receive the award during the opening ceremony of Biff’s 30th edition, which runs Sept. 17–26 in the South Korean port city. The accolade, one of the festival’s highest honors, is presented annually to an individual or organization that has made a significant impact on the development of Asian cinema. Past recipients include an elite roster of artists and autuers, such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung, Ann Hui, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, among others.

A central figure in Iran’s New Wave cinema, Panahi came to prominence with his debut The White Balloon (1995), winner of Cannes’ Camera d’Or. He has since built a career defined by formal rigor and fearless political critique,...

The Witch of Eastwick was a box-office success that received a pretty lukewarm reaction from critics. However, the film’s Oscar loss to The Last Emperor was nothing short of being a sham. The Witch of Eastwick had a pretty fresh premise and actually managed to make its budget back and then some.

However, the film ended up losing to Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, which chronicled the life of the last emperor of China, Puyi. While The Witch of Eastwick was nominated for Best Original Score and Best Sound, both these awards would end up going to Bertolucci’s film instead.

The Witches of Eastwick had fewer nominations than The Last Emperor The Witches of Eastview || Credit: Warner Bros.

The Witches of Eastwick was a film that was made on a minuscule budget of $22 million, starring the likes of Jack Nicholson, Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Susan Sarandon. These...

Any film that’s been sitting on the shelf for seven years deserves to see the light of day, but Juno Mak’s “Sons of the Neon Night” — which wrapped filming in 2018 — could’ve used more time in the oven. It’s hard to say what’s strangest about the gloomy action flick: that it’s overwrought and convoluted to the point of confusion, or that it somehow manages to feel incomplete despite this.

Set in an alternate, snow-covered Hong Kong in the mid-1990s, the movie’s opening images speak to an intriguing setting that’s seldom explored. Moreton Li (Takeshi Kaneshiro), CEO and heir to a pharma conglomerate, wakes up in a lush bed in his sprawling penthouse carved from the remains of an enormous cross-harbor tunnel. It’s the kind of imaginative flourish that both raises questions about this world and immediately establishes character, but it’s...

Music Awards Japan 2025 , one of the largest international music awards in Japan, announced the best works and artists in all 62 categories at the Premiere Ceremony held on May 21 and the Grand Ceremony on May 22. The award was established this year by five major Japanese music industry organizations to promote Japanese and other Asian music to the world, to make Japanese music a culture to be proud of globally, and to encourage overseas artists to enter the Japanese market. The two-member unit Yoasobi 's third single song, "Idol," which was featured as the opening theme song for the Oshi no Ko TV anime, won the Best Anime Song award. The song also won the Top Global Hit from Japan award and the Best Music Video award. Additionally, the unit's composer Ayase received the Song of the Year for Creators powered by Jasrac award for creating "Idol." Yoasobi's official X (formerly Twitter) wrote,...

Yoasobi’s “Idol” and Creepy Nuts’ “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” were among the top winners at the Premiere Ceremony of the inaugural Music Awards Japan, held on May 21, 2025, by the Japan Culture and Entertainment Industry Promotion Association (Ceipa).

The Music Awards Japan was launched by Ceipa to recognize excellence in Japanese and pan-Asian music. The awards cover over 60 categories, including anime, idol culture, Vocaloid, and more.

Yoasobi’s “Idol,” the opening theme for the anime Oshi No Ko, won Best Anime Song and Best Music Video.

Creepy Nuts’ “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” the second-season opening theme for Mashle: Magic And Muscles, earned a total of seven awards.

These include Best Japanese Song, Best Viral Song, Best Japanese Hip-Hop/Rap Song, Best Japanese Dance Pop Song, and regional titles for Top Japanese Song in Europe, North America, and Latin America.

It was also nominated for Best Anime Song alongside 10-feet’s “Dai Zero Kan” from The First Slam Dunk and Mrs.

In a reimagined 1994 Hong Kong scarred by snow and fallout, Sons of the Neon Night throws us into a world where pharmaceutical heirs become warlords. We meet Moreton Li (Takeshi Kaneshiro) on the brink of reforming his family’s empire just moments after a hospital bombing shatters the city’s fragile order.

Across town, an anonymous shoot-out signals that no one is safe—be they corporate scion or street-level informant. This stark prologue sets up a power struggle between two brothers: one driven by conscience, the other by profit.

What follows is less a straightforward crime saga and more a tense clash of ideals in neon shadows. The film’s opening gambit—blood-soaked streets, a shattered ambulance plowing through chaos—pulls you in with visceral immediacy.

As someone who grew up devouring Hong Kong thrillers on late-night VHS, I couldn’t help but recall that rush of discovering a city both familiar and alien.

After a marathon 10-year production journey, Hong Kong dystopian thriller Sons of the Neon Night finally hit the red carpet yesterday, premiering in the Midnight Screenings section of the Cannes Film Festival.

Starring veteran actors Takeshi Kaneshiro (Chungking Express), Sean Lau (Papa), Tony Leung Ka-fai (Double Vision), Louis Koo (Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In), and Gao Yuanyuan (Blind Detective), Sons of the Neon Night is written and directed by Juno Mak, who is also a record producer and musician.

Leung and Mak sat down with Deadline to talk about shooting in a “wintry” Hong Kong, a “magical” six-hour music session with the late Ryuichi Sakamoto — and they also call on audiences to keep coming back to cinemas.

Sons of the Neon Night is set in an alternative, snow-covered Hong Kong. The death of a pharmaceutical company chairman unleashes a wave of chaos and power struggles in the underworld, while...

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 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 the effect this had on me.

European film and TV studio Vuelta Group’s international sales division Playtime has announced the full acquisition of subsidiary sales arm Film Constellation and merged it with Global Screen into a single entity called Global Constellation.

Fabien Westerhoff will take on the executive role of Managing Director of the theatrical film division bringing together the complementary strengths of both companies, with a strategic market focus on animation, family entertainment, and genre cinema. Ulrike Schroder, Managing Director of the TV division will head the exclusive hub for international TV distribution within Vuelta.

Global Constellation will collaborate closely with Vuelta Germany, the German film distribution arm born from the merger of SquareOne and Telepool. Vuelta said the operation positioned Global Constellation as the ‘go-to’ partner for German and International filmmakers seeking pan-European collaborations and international

First joint projects will be unveiled at the upcoming Cannes Market.

The current feature film slate includes...

Did Timothée Chalamet wear an earpiece in Call Me By Your Name’s last scene? (Photo Credit – YouTube)

Timothée Chalamet actually wore a hidden earpiece during the now-iconic fireplace moment. And what was playing in his ear? The same track that crushed audiences on cue: Visions of Gideon by Sufjan Stevens.

Yep, while Elio sat in front of that fireplace, quietly mourning a love that slipped away, Chalamet was feeding off the exact same emotions as viewers – live. The music wasn’t added in post-production for dramatic effect. He felt it in real time. Talk about syncing your soul with the scene.

The revelation came straight from Chalamet himself in the film’s DVD commentary. According to BuzzFeed’s “Bizarre Movie Facts” roundup, Chalamet confirmed that he “actually wore a wireless earpiece with Visions of Gideon synced up with the film so that Elio could portray complimentary emotions to the tone of the song.

In a sweeping move to champion Asian cinema, Chanel’s Culture Fund is making waves across Hong Kong and Thailand, uniting Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton and Palme d’Or recipient Apichatpong Weerasethakul for a landmark collaboration.

In Hong Kong, the initiative includes Chanel’s partnership with M+ museum is spearheading a restoration program under the guidance of Silke Schmickl, Chanel lead curator of moving image, who will oversee the M+ Moving Image Centre’s collections, commissions and curatorial programs. The project will restore nine Hong Kong New Wave films, with three premiering at major international festivals in 2025: T’ang Shushuen’s “The Arch” (1968), Peter Yung’s “The System” (1979) and Patrick Tam’s “Love Massacre” (1981).

“It always occurs to me that there’s no such thing as an old film, because what cinema is, is the present, so you can look at a film that was created in 1923, and you are right there,...

The Japanese Film Festival, Philippines (Jff), previously known as Eigasai, returns on January 30, 2025 until February 9 at Shangri-La Plaza’s Red Carpet Cinema, Ortigas City. Like in recent years, Jff will also have regional screenings.

For North Luzon, the festival will be at Sm City Baguio from February 7 to 16, while for Visayas, it will be at Sm City Iloilo and Sm Cebu from February 14 to 23, 2025. The final round of screenings is scheduled at Sm City Davao in Mindanao and Sm North Edsa, Metro Manila from February 21 to March 2, 2025.

This year’s 12- film lineup consists of award-winning titles, fan favorites, crowd pleasers, and those highly anticipated by Japanese cinema enthusiasts.

Among the critically-acclaimed films is Monster, a coming-of age drama directed by Hirokazu Koreeda and written by Yuji Sakamoto. It won Best Screenplay in the 76th Cannes International Film Festival and was the last movie scored by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.

After just three brutal weeks of 2025, some of us may already feel like we could use a break. With its dazzling stop-motion animation and eclectic, engaging plot, Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs makes a fantastic candidate for some much-needed escapism — and it's headed to Hulu on February 1.

Tackling heavy-handed themes like nationalism, xenophobia, and systemic power, Isle of Dogs may seem no different from the bleak landscape of everyday life. But only Anderson is capable of translating such grim and complex topics into a charming and heartfelt story that can only be described as "the chicken soup of movies." Isle of Dogs takes place in the futuristic Japanese city of Megasaki, where all dogs have been banished to a place called Trash Island due to a cruel decree from the tyrant Mayor Kobayashi. But the mayor's ward, Atari, sympathizes with the dogs' plight, and subsequently hijacks a plane and crash-lands on Trash Island,...

An amusing bridal switcheroo, “Laapataa Ladies” (or “Lost Ladies” in some territories) makes effective use of Bollywood’s broad social messaging. This mode of storytelling can be heavy-handed for the sake of mass appeal, but director Kiran Rao deftly combines the literal and symbolic, resulting in a crowd-pleaser filled — for better or worse — with innate goodness.

Rao returns to the director’s chair for the first time since 2011’s “Dhobi Ghat,” the somber Mumbai diary with heartrending music by Gustavo Santaolalla and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Among the most notable departures from her debut film is that the score for “Laapataa Ladies,” composed by Ram Sampath, has a bouncy and propulsive quality, keeping the movie’s comedic musings on track.

A passenger train plays host to a case of mistaken identity when young, lovelorn newlyweds Deepak Kumar (Sparsh Shrivastava) and Phool Kumari (Nitanshi Goel) are separated in an accidental spouse swap en...

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,...

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. Metrograph 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 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.

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...

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,...