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The official YouTube channel for voice actor Miho Okasaki , best known as Rimuru Tempest in the That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime anime series, has started streaming a music video for her latest fifth CD single song "Joy!!" The pop tune is now featured as the ending theme for the winter 2025 TV anime I'm a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic . In the video, which is based on the theme of “magic” that appears in the anime and in the lyrics, Okasaki wears two outfits, and shows off her dance performance during the chorus part of the song. Miho Okasaki "Joy!!" Music Video While working as a popular anime voice actor, Okasaki made her solo singer debut from King Amusement Creative with her first single "Happiness" in September 2021, releasing five CD singles, four digital single songs, and two full albums to date.

Audiences familiar with K-dramas know that several series are led by incredible women. Many popular K-dramas are filled with cheesy but lovable clichés or action plots that are led by men or women lacking depth, which doesn't always make way for strong and inspiring female leads. Still, there are a great number of series led by women, and the number of such shows seems to increase more and more as the years go by.

Though many of the K-drama's protagonists do find themselves in a romantic relationship, they aren't defined by their male counterparts and are just as complex characters as individuals. The women leading these series are entertaining and amazing for a variety of reasons. The women in The Glory, Happiness, and Strong Girl Bong-soon are physically tough and find themselves taking down others for drastically different reasons. In Agency and Memorials, the leading women are ambitious and career-driven.

While on stage in Lagos, Nigeria for the first time, Gunna surprised fans with a guest appearance from Tyla, who joined the Atlanta rapper for a performance of their collaboration “Jump.” Gunna headlined the first night of Lagos’ Flytime Fest, a four-day music festival celebrating the African Diaspora that has previously hosted Megan Thee Stallion, Wizkid, Burna Boy, and more.

Gunna hit the stage at nearly 3 a.m. for a crowd of roughly 5,000 people (per festival representatives) packing out Lagos’s Eko Convention Center, a premier entertainment venue in the bustling West African metropolis.

The official YouTube channel for voice actor/singer Momo Asakura has started streaming a music video for her forthcoming 12th single song "Sweet Essence!" Sony Music's official artist site for her introduces the song as — "The title track 'Sweet Essence,' to be released on Valentine's Day, is a straight pop song, the first in a long time for Momo Asakura, that expresses her wish to 'always love me.'" The CD single is set to release in Japan on February 14, 2024. The single also includes "Shiawasette Kaite" ( When you write "happiness"... ), the theme song for the first live-action TV drama in which she starred, Onegai Meshigamisama . Momo Asakura "Sweet Essence" music video First press limited edition CD jacket Regular edition CD jacket Momo Asakura latest profile photo for the single After started voice acting activities in 2012, she formed voice actress unit TrySail in 2015, alongside Sora Amamiya and Shiina Natsukawa,...

Paris and Los Angeles-based sales agency has boarded films by Nicolas Benamou, Artus and Christophe Duthuron

Paris and Los Angeles-based Other Angle Pictures has boarded three French comedy dramas: Nicolas Benamou’s We Should Have Gone to Greece, Artus’ A Little Something Extra and Christophe Duthuron’s Happiness Therapy.

The company will launch sales for all three films at this week’s Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous in Paris in the French capital.

We Should Have Gone to Greece is the latest feature from Benamou, known for co-directing local and international hit comedies Babysitting and Babysitting 2 with Philippe Lacheau, 2020’s Mystery in St. Tropez,...

The Black Crowes have announced their first new album of original material in 15 years. The LP, titled Happiness Bastards, will arrive on March 15th via the band’s own Silver Arrow Records. In advance of the set, they’ve released a new song “Wanting and Waiting” (listen below).

Happiness Bastards marks The Black Crowes’ first album of completely original material since 2009’s Before the Frost…Until the Freeze. Between studio albums, the band released 1972 in 2022, a collection of cover songs.

Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson reunited The Black Crowes in 2019, and 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the band’s start.

“The Robinson Brothers are claiming this momentous year as their own,” a press release states. “Following decades marked by sex, drugs, fights, breakups, and divorce, they are leaving their bulls**t behind. While they have dealt with their share of differences over the years, they are now two happy bastards,...

Chicago – The world was rocked on December 27th, 2023, when the report came through that South Korean (Sk) actor Lee Sun-kyun – who had a prominent role in the 2019 Oscar Best Picture “Parasite’ – had died from an apparent suicide in Seoul (Sk), months after his appearance during Closing Night at Chicago’s Asian Pop-Up Cinema (Apuc), where he represented his outrageous new comedy, “Killing Romance.” His apparent suicide was on the heels of government pressure due to his alleged drug consumption. Lee Sun-kyun was 48.

After beginning his career in musical theatre, Lee was relegated to minor and supporting roles onscreen as he began in TV and film. His breakthrough was in Sk TV’s “Coffee Prince” and the medical drama “Behind the White Tower,” both in 2007. He gained more popularity with “My Mister,” (2018) which is currently on Netflix.

Lee Sun-kyun Accepts Apuc’s Excellent Achievement in Film Award

Photo credit: AsianPopUpCinema.org...

With rare exception, the Nc-17 rating has always been the kiss of death for most movies at the box office. By legally restricting who can see the film to anyone over the age of 17 only, most theaters won't even bother showing such controversial films.

However, a few films have cracked through and managed to make a small fortune despite their restrictive rating from the MPAA. From classics such as The Last Tango in Paris to underrated gems such as Happiness, Box Office Mojo has reported major gains for a selective few Nc-17 hits.

Directors James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte discuss the movies that inspired them while making The Big Conn.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Boogie Nights (1997)

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Happiness (1998)

World’s Greatest Dad (2009)

Windy City Heat (2003)

Ocean’s 11 (1960)

Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Bad Boys (1995)

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)

Munich (2005)

Fargo (1996)

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Delicatessen (1991)

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013)

The Hole (2009) – Joe Dante’s U.S. trailer commentary, Joe Dante’s Italian trailer commentary, Joe Dante’s British trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s review

Dial M For Murder (1954) – Mark Pellington’s trailer commentary

Jaws 3D (1983)

Cave Of Forgotten Dreams (2010)

Katy Perry: Part of Me (2012)

U2 3D (2008)

The Pink Panther (1963) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary

Goodfellas (1990) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Children of Men (2006)

The Imposter (2012)

Other Notable Items

The Big Conn podcast (2022)

The Big Conn docuseries (2022)

Bronzeville...

After the Black Keys wrapped up Dropout Boogie, their forthcoming 11th record, something unlikely happened. “Dan [Auerbach] called me and said, ‘It’s really good,’ which is unusual for him,” says drummer Patrick Carney from his Nashville home. “I don’t think he’s ever called and said that. He doesn’t go back and listen to his stuff.” Auerbach agrees: “Pat’s always the one who says, after each record, ‘This is the best record we’ve ever done.’ Literally. Every single one. I listened to it again for the...

Kazakh filmmaker Askar Uzabayev’s domestic violence drama “Happiness” snagged the Audience Award in the Berlin Film Festival’s prestigious Panorama sidebar, a good sign of its potential appeal in cinemas and festivals worldwide. Whether it will secure distribution in its native Kazakhstan is another matter, however.

Based on actual events, “Happiness” centers on a lovely influencer who promotes a product line called Happiness, which she pitches as a surefire path to happiness, beauty and success.

But her home life reflects the opposite where her abusive husband grows ever more violent. Even her newlywed daughter suffers the same fate in a country where inadequate laws protect the rights and safety of women.

The film is produced by Bayan Maxatkyzy, a renowned TV anchor, producer, actress and blogger in Kazakhstan, with millions of followers on social media. But her celebrity offered no protection from her then husband of 22 years who beat...

The Panorama prizes have been handed out at the Berlin International Film Festival, with top honours going to Baqyt (Happiness) and Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm (Love, Deutschmarks and Death).

Askar Uzabayev picked up the 24th Panorama Audience Award for best feature film for Baqyt, while Cem Kaya collected the Panorama Dokumente award for Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm.

The prizes were awarded by the Berlinale section Panorama, in partnership with radioeins and rbb television (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg). In all, 8000 cinema-goers’ votes were cast over the course of the Panorama section of the festival. The complete winners’ list is below.

In the film Baqyt, the main character is an orange-clothed influencer, whose brand is ‘Happiness’, contrasting with her dark and brutal home life. Judges said, “This film shows us what it costs to escape the trap of misogyny.”

Cem Kaya’s documentary essay celebrates 60 years of Turkish music in Germany, offering an alternative...

Let the Sunshine In: Uzabayev Drags Us Through the Wretched Realities of Violence Against Women

The knee-jerk response to the agonizing experience of watching a film like Happiness (Baqyt), the fifth feature of Kazakhstan director Askar Uzabayev, is to question for whom this is intended? For what purpose does it serve to emotionally traumatize its audience so harshly? An easy answer would be because we need to see it, collectively, as humans. In more complex terms, it’s mere existence is the key, a product of the inherent infection of globalized misogyny, to varying degrees unchecked, accepted as endemic to our archaically understood, binary conditioned behaviors.…...

International sales, distribution and production company Axxon Media has picked up a troika of films ahead of Berlinale. Leading the pack is Askar Uzabayev’s “Happiness” (“Bakhyt”) from Kazakhstan, which world premieres in the festival’s Panorama section.

Making its market debut at the EFM is Algeria-set “Soula,” written and directed by Salah Issaad, a contender at the Red Sea Festival in Jeddah last December.

The third film is Amalric Gérard’s French burlesque comedy “Public Enemy No. 0,” currently in post and to be presented as a work in progress.

“Axxon Media has a policy of acquiring films with a social, human or artistic cause,” said Brussels-based Axxon Media CEO, Gilles Duffaut, adding: “Festivals and distributors must work on films that awaken consciences, that unite people, make them participate in a film, rather than remaining passive and just watching it.” “People now want to participate in a story, pay for a cause,...

Peacock has set the cast for The Resort, a true-crime love story from Palm Springs writer Andy Siara, Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail and UCP. Luis Gerardo Méndez, Nina Bloomgarden and Gabriela Cartol are set as series regulars, and Debby Ryan (Insatiable), Dylan Baker (Happiness), Michael Hitchcock and Becky Ann Baker will recur in the ensemble series.

Written by Siara, The Resort is a multi-generational, coming-of-age love story disguised as a fast-paced mystery about the disappointment of time. An anniversary trip puts a marriage to the test when the couple finds themselves embroiled in one of the Mayan Riviera’s most bizarre unsolved mysteries that took place fifteen years prior.

Méndez will play Baltasar Frías, the head of security at the Oceana Vista Resort in 2007. He’s always in detective mode,...

Peacock has set seven cast members for the upcoming comedy thriller series “The Resort,” Variety has learned.

Luis Gerardo Méndez, Nina Bloomgarden, and Gabriela Cartol will all appear in series regular roles, while Debby Ryan, Dylan Baker, Michael Hitchcock and Becky Ann Baker will recur. The show is described as a multi-generational, coming-of-age love story disguised as a fast-paced mystery about the disappointment of time. An anniversary trip puts a marriage to the test when the couple finds themselves embroiled in one of the Mayan Riviera’s most bizarre unsolved mysteries that took place fifteen years prior.

Méndez will play Baltasar Frías, the head of security at the Oceana Vista Resort in 2007. He’s always in detective mode, quietly suspicious of all activity, and somehow connected to all of the unusual events in 2007. Bloomgarden will play Violet Thompson, who is vacationing with her father and his girlfriend at the Oceana Visa Resort.

Berlinale Series Market, Co-Production Market name selections.

The world premiere of French filmmaker Alain Guiraudie’s Nobody’s Hero will open the Panorama section at next month’s Berlin International Film Festival, marking the first time the director has screened at the event.

Nobody’s Hero is one of 16 world premiere additions to the Panorama strand, joining the 13 titles confirmed last month for a complete list of 29 films.

Scroll down for the full list of new titles

The film takes place after a terrorist attack in Clermont-Ferrand in France, and centres on a likeable man in his mid-thirties, an older...

French auteur Alain Guiraudie’s political drama “Nobody’s Hero” has been set as the opener of the 2022 Berlin Film Festival’s multifaceted Panorama strand, which has announced its full lineup.

The latest feature from Guiraudie, who is best known for his 2016 “Staying Vertical,” takes place in Clermont-Ferrand, central France, where a terrorist attack triggers some paranoid dynamics involving a young homeless man, a middle-aged sex worker and her married lover who have taken refuge in a building. The film’s cast comprises actor-director Noémie Lvovsky, Jean-Charles Clichet and Doria Tillier.

The ten-title Panorama Dokumente strand, which runs concurrently with the feature films, comprises previously announced transgender-themed doc “Nel Mio Nome” (“Into My Name”) by Italian director and producer Nicolò Bassetti. Elliot Page has come on board as executive producer to support the doc which observes gender transition from a female to a male identity of four characters within a...