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“Strange Frequencies: Taiwan Killer Hospital,” an adaptation of the South Korean box office hit “Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum” is headed for a world premiere in December at the Metro Manila Film Festival.

The 2018 Korean original was a found footage type supernatural horror film directed by Jung Bum-shik. Based on an actual psychiatric hospital located in Gwangju-si, it starred actors Wi Ha-joon (“Squid Game”), Park Ji-hyun (“The Divine Fury”), Oh Ah-yeon (“Mr. Sunshine”), Moon Ye-won (“Legal High”), Park Sung-hoon, Yoo Je-yoon (“Extreme Job”) and Lee Seung-wook (“Joseon Fist”) in the leading roles.

The new version is directed by Kerwin Go and produced by acclaimed director Erik Matti and veteran producer Dondon Monteverde in partnership with actor Enrique Gil. Production is through Reality Mm Studios.

Following the format of the Korean original, the group of Filipino amateur ghosthunters will explore the notorious Xinglin Hospital, an abandoned building located in Taiwan’s West Central District.

There are very few films that touch your heart, even if there are some obvious flaws in them. Every story about music prodigies is effective, and Keys to the Heart is indeed one of them. This Filipino Netflix original, directed by Kerwin Go, is a remake of the 2018 Korean film of the same name, in which a has-been boxer tries hard to reconnect with his estranged family. Keys to the Heart was released on the platform on October 4, 2023.

Keys to the Heart follows the story of Joma, a aspiring boxer, his estranged mother Sylvia, and her other son Jayjay, who is autistic but a gifted pianist. Sylvia is diagnosed with cancer, and she wants to look for her older son, who she believes can take up the responsibility of taking care of his half-brother once she is gone. Joma has had a troubled history with his mother and is unwilling to make amends.

Call for project submission opens 2 July 2018

Slated to make its fourth appearance later this year, the Southeast Asian Film Financing (Saff) Project Market will soon begin calling for new feature film concepts to be submitted. Brainchild of ScreenSingapore and the Southeast Asian Audio-Visual Association (Saava), Saff Project Market could just be the golden ticket to making your filmmaking dreams come true.

Conceived in 2015 to promote opportunities for the meeting and matching up of film creatives with their investor counterparts, the Saff Project Market has since acquired a reputation among the international film industry for generating regional and international collaborations. It is increasingly attended by a thriving network of global buyers, distributors, commissioners, collaborators, and media financiers; and is where writers, directors and producers are given a chance to present their shortlisted projects to prospective backers.

Despite Saff’s relatively new emergence in the international film financing circuit, more than a...

The action film, a genre that was synonymous with the Philippines a few decades back where the country was producing countless films with heroes waging battles with iconic villains with their pistols or sometimes with only their deep knowledge in street fighting, is near-extinct in the present cinematic climate that fosters repetitive romances and horrific horrors.

 

It's not that the country has lost action heroes (Monsour del Rosario, taekwondo champion turned action star, and Ronnie Rickets, action star who also directs, have moved on to politics) or directors adept with action filmmaking (there's Rico Maria Ilarde who embellishes his horror films with lovingly staged action sequences). I'd wager that the lack of interest has more to do with the proliferation of big-budgeted Hollywood movies in the market. Where entire buildings burst into flames and characters dodge bullets and blows in eye-popping slow motion, the typical fisticuffs and car chases, no matter how adeptly staged,...