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The global television scene offered up an embarrassment of riches this year, with a seemingly endless supply of phenomenal dramas, comedies and crime procedurals as good as, or often better, than the best on offer Stateside.

The international expansion of Netflix, Amazon, AppleTV+ and others has meant many global talents now have the financial means to make their dream originals, while series from more traditional local broadcasters have access to global platforms, and a worldwide audience, on a scale never seen before.

Ahead of the winter break, The Hollywood Reporter continues its holiday tradition in picking out the best international series to binge-watch over the holiday season. Our favorite 2022 series stocking stuffers include a feminist spy thriller from Germany, a Korean take on a British romantic classic and a deep dive into the French hip-hop scene of the 1980s. (Check out our list...

In an unusual move, the Philippines’ Oscar entry “On the Job: The

Missing 8” was a nominee for the Intl. Emmys this year. It’s a sequel to Erik Matti’s 2013 “On the Job,” which took place in Manila and was reformatted into an eponymous miniseries that combines scenes from both films and is streaming on HBO Max.

Nominated for television movie/miniseries, “Missing 8” was conceived as a film but due to the pandemic the filmmakers pivoted to the small screen.

The six-part miniseries didn’t win at the I-Emmys but has garnered other prizes since its premiere as a film at Venice. “On the Job: The Missing 8” won the Volpi Cup for actor for its lead, John Arcilla, making him the first Filipino thespian to win such a prestigious award.

“We knew it was a mountain to climb, but we wanted to be present at the International Emmy Awards, win or lose,...

The Filipino thriller master Erik Matti is in Venice with “On The Job: The Missing 8”, the sequel to his action flick “On The Job” from Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2013. As for the previous film, the script was penned by Matti’s spouse Michiko Yamamoto, whose feeling for fine tuning and presenting many things happening at the same time leaves no confusion about who- and whydunnit, although the backside challenging 208′ of the film’s runtime will probably prove more fitting for the broader audience in the format in which is shown now – as a six episode HBO Asia mini-series.

“On The Job: The Missing 8” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival

The story is, unlike the first film which was set in Manilla, based in the municipality of La Paz, in the seemingly safest community of the Philippines, ruled over and controlled by Pedring Eusebio (Dante Rivero), an...

Apart from being a brilliant filmmaker, Erik Matti has proven time and again that he is also a great businessman, and coming up with the sequel of his most famous work, “On the Job”, eight years after the original was released, just proves both facts in the most eloquent fashion. “The Missing 8”, as the sequel is titled, premiered to high acclaim at the 78th Venice International Festival as part of the main competition, eventually netting the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for John Arcilla. Furthermore, and in another rather smart idea, the film is now screening in HBO Asia as a six episode mini series, with the first two episodes essentially being the first movie (re-edited and remastered) split into two parts, and the connection between the old and the new being the general concept of the prison murderers-for-hire and a number of individuals that appear in both.

(This review...

The Filippino thriller master Erik Matti is in Venice with “On The Job: The Missing 8”, the sequel to his action flick “On The Job” from Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2013. As for the previous film, the script was penned by Matti’s spouse Michiko Yamamoto, whose feeling for fine tuning and presenting many things happening at the same time leaves no confusion about who- and whydunnit, although the backside challenging 208′ of the film’s runtime will probably prove more fitting for the broader audience in the format in which is shown now – as a six episode HBO Asia mini-series.

The longest Venice main selection contender was screened towards the end of the festival to an already tired viewership that had previously sat through a huge chunk of films, and yet it managed to stand out as one of the more accomplished competition titles due to its interesting narrative, balanced tempo and...

When Erik Matti’s “On the Job” premiered in 2013, it shortly became an important title for many of the Filipinos. With the image of the corrupted landscape of Manila captured in a gritty, dark lens of noir-like thriller; with cops being paid off, prisoners used as hired guns, and politicians as gangsters, the film encapsulated the energy of the real events on which it was loosely based on. Once again, Manila became a violent and hostile place, a depiction that Filipino filmmakers lean towards with an obvious motivation in mind. The blood is there and it deserves representation.

Several years later, Matti comes back with the informal sequel to his story. Premiered in the 78th Venice Competition as a sole representative of Asian Cinema, his “On the Job: Missing 8” became a 208 minutes-long take on the current state of corruption, journalism and politics in the Philippines. This time around, it is set not in Manila,...

Scrappy filmmaking can sometimes deliver superb storytelling, as is proven by Erik Matti’s initially wobbly but increasingly gripping, increasingly thoughtful, increasingly increasing three-and-a-half-hour “On the Job: The Missing 8,” the prolific Filipino director’s Venice-competing sequel to the 2013 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title “On the Job.” While the film unfolds more like the TV show it’s about to become, that’s hardly a diss these days. And in its current shape — due largely to screenwriter Michiko Yamamoto’s uncanny ability to keep multiple narrative balls in the air at once — it combines the immersive, occasionally spectacular pleasures of genre cinema with the greedy moreishness of longform TV models. It’s a sprawling, satisfying big-screen binge.

It also plays somewhat like a 209-minute dolly zoom: As the aperture widens on the intensely corrupt landscape of a society under strongman leadership, the focus also narrows onto one man’s painful ethical reawakening.

Cinema genre specialist Erik Matti and his screenwriter spouse, Michiko Yamamoto, return to the world of 2013’s On the Job with this ambitious three-hour-and-twenty-eight-minute sequel, which will soon be re-edited, along with its predecessor, into a six-episode limited miniseries for HBO Asia. Even at near-Irishman length, it works pretty darn well as a feature, widening the cops-‘n’-crooks scope of the Manila-set first film to focus on the role of journalism in holding politicians to account.

The setting this time is the municipality of La Paz, ruled over by Mayor Pedring Eusebio (Dante Rivero), the outwardly beloved head of ...

Cinema genre specialist Erik Matti and his screenwriter spouse, Michiko Yamamoto, return to the world of 2013’s On the Job with this ambitious three-hour-and-twenty-eight-minute sequel, which will soon be re-edited, along with its predecessor, into a six-episode limited miniseries for HBO Asia. Even at near-Irishman length, it works pretty darn well as a feature, widening the cops-‘n’-crooks scope of the Manila-set first film to focus on the role of journalism in holding politicians to account.

The setting this time is the municipality of La Paz, ruled over by Mayor Pedring Eusebio (Dante Rivero), the outwardly beloved head of ...

Erik Matti is one of the Philippines’ most celebrated filmmakers, working across genres. “On The Job” bowed at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2013, where it was nominated for the Sacd Prize, and went on to global and domestic acclaim.

The film was inspired by a real-life scandal in which prison inmates were temporarily released from prison to work as contract killers on behalf of politicians and high ranking military officials.

Matti returns to the subject, which he has expanded as a franchise, in “On The Job: The Missing 8,” which is playing in competition at the Venice Film Festival. Again inspired by true events, the film follows a corrupt journalist seeking justice for his colleagues, and a convict who is frequently brought out of prison to perform assassinations.

The difference this time is that the franchise expansion is as a series for HBO, with the events of the 2013 film treated as the first two episodes.

The film is based on a series of actual events that shocked the public in the Philippines, where prison inmates were contracted by politicians to temporarily leave jail and conduct a number of assassinations before they returned to prison.

“On the Job” is screening at the 17th New York Asian Film Festival

The story revolves around two axes, which collide at times, based on the aforementioned story. The first one concerns two inmates-assassins, veteran Tatang and his trainee, Daniel. The first one actually has a family, and uses the money he receives to support them and to pay for his daughter’s intuition, who is studying law. Daniel, on the other hand, is a cocky, naive, and a bit too eager young man who lies to his mother about what he is actually doing. When the two of them murder a drug lord, veteran Sergeant Acosta is tasked with the investigation,...

Fantastic Fest kicked off its eight-day celebration of genre fare last night in style in Austin, Texas. This year’s festival has a new venue, the Alamo Drafthouse Lakeline, partly to show off the new digs and partly because the old ones at South Lamar are currently under a whole ton of construction. The opening night festivities were mostly centered around the marquee film playing at three of the Drafthouse screens: Robert Rodriguez’s new film Machete Kills, with Rodriguez, Danny Trejo, and Alexa Vega in attendance. Now, here’s the thing (and where this report, like the forthcoming ones, will diverge slightly from SoS fare): I didn’t get to see Machete Kills, in no small part because my desire to see it wasn’t exactly high. Yes, it’s one of the bigger events here, but I think an advantage to a festival like this one, as...

Well Go USA Entertainment acquired all North American rights to Erik Matti’s On The Job, a Filipino crime action-thriller, ahead of its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight on Friday. The film is set for a fall 2013 theatrical release. Written by Matti and Michiko Yamamoto, On The Job was inspired by a real-life corruption scandal involving the temporary release of inmates so they could work as contract killers for crooked politicians. It stars many of the Philippines’ mainstream actors including Piolo Pascual, Gerald Anderson, Rayver Cruz, Shaina Magdayao, Empress Schuck, alongside vets such as Joel Torre, Angel Aquino, Vivian Velez, Joey Marquez, Leo Martinez, Michael de Mesa, Al Tantay and Niño Muhlach. “On The Job reiterates that it is an exciting time for Filipino cinema,” said Doris Pfardrescher, President of Well Go USA Entertainment. Said Matti: “All the hard work and patience has paid off. After almost four years, we...

• This year Ioncinema.com is covering the 2006 edition of the Sundance Film Festival Live from Park City, Utah. Weâ€.ll be on hand to cover the festival, and while we wonâ€.t be able to cover everything from A to Z: here is a comprehensive beforehand look at the selections in each of the festivalâ€.s sections. (Note: To access individual preview pages, simply click on the links below) January 19th to the 28th, 2006Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('January 19, 2006'); World Cinema - Dramatic Competition         "13 (Tzameti)" (France), writer-director Gela Babluani's intense drama about the dire consequences suffered by a man who follows instructions left for someone else. "Allegro,"(Denmark), directed by Christoffer Boe and written by Boe and Mikael Wulff, a look at an amnesiac pianist who reconnects with his forgotten past upon returning to Copenhagen. "The Aura," (Argentina), writer-director Fabian Bielinsky's twisty drama about a taxidermist's dream of pulling off the perfect robbery.

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