With four TV and film projects in as many years, few filmmakers right now are more prolific than Hirokazu Kore-eda.
The veteran Japanese filmmaker behind titles like the Palme d’Or-winning Shoplifters and Still Walking continued his hot streak after landing his third directing honor from the Asian Academy Sunday night for his last feature, Monster. Last night’s win was Kore-eda’s second consecutive Best Director win at the Asian Film Awards after nabbing the gong with the Korean-language Broker in 2023.
“I’m in a really good spot right now,” Kore-eda told Deadline shortly before picking up the award on Sunday. “I’m not forcing myself at all. I’m constantly working. I have good stamina.” The filmmaker told us that he has no intentions of slowing down.
“I’m currently working on a streaming drama I shot last autumn. I’m in the editing phase for that now,...
The veteran Japanese filmmaker behind titles like the Palme d’Or-winning Shoplifters and Still Walking continued his hot streak after landing his third directing honor from the Asian Academy Sunday night for his last feature, Monster. Last night’s win was Kore-eda’s second consecutive Best Director win at the Asian Film Awards after nabbing the gong with the Korean-language Broker in 2023.
“I’m in a really good spot right now,” Kore-eda told Deadline shortly before picking up the award on Sunday. “I’m not forcing myself at all. I’m constantly working. I have good stamina.” The filmmaker told us that he has no intentions of slowing down.
“I’m currently working on a streaming drama I shot last autumn. I’m in the editing phase for that now,...
- 3/11/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Netflix has revealed that its Japanese slate for the year ahead includes three films and a seven new and returning series.
The features include Drawing Closer by Takahiro Miki, a director well-known for romantic dramas such as Love Me, Love Me Not and Your Eyes Tell. It follows a young man with a terminal illness who falls for a woman who is also living on borrowed time. The cast is led by Ren Nagase and Natsuki Deguchi.
It is based on a best-selling novel by Ao Morita and is scripted by Tomoko Yoshida, whose collaborations with Miki go back to...
The features include Drawing Closer by Takahiro Miki, a director well-known for romantic dramas such as Love Me, Love Me Not and Your Eyes Tell. It follows a young man with a terminal illness who falls for a woman who is also living on borrowed time. The cast is led by Ren Nagase and Natsuki Deguchi.
It is based on a best-selling novel by Ao Morita and is scripted by Tomoko Yoshida, whose collaborations with Miki go back to...
- 2/8/2024
- ScreenDaily
Following what happened in the US during the last decade or so, the quality of Asian dramas has skyrocketed during the last few years, with a significant surge of talent from cinema towards streaming platforms, with Korea definitely paving the way in the regard, and Japan following. The result is quite impressive to watch, since, frequently, the level of these titles is equal to the one of movies.
Without further ado, here are 20 Asian dramas in random order proving the fact in the most eloquent fashion.
1. Cigarette Girl by Kamila Andini
“Cigarette Girl” is not a typical story of two broken hearts crushed by unfortunate circumstances, a trope over-used in the soap opera format. It also has a bit of history to offer alongside a basic insight into the women's hardships in Indonesia not such long time ago. “Your duty is to clean the house and find yourself a husband...
Without further ado, here are 20 Asian dramas in random order proving the fact in the most eloquent fashion.
1. Cigarette Girl by Kamila Andini
“Cigarette Girl” is not a typical story of two broken hearts crushed by unfortunate circumstances, a trope over-used in the soap opera format. It also has a bit of history to offer alongside a basic insight into the women's hardships in Indonesia not such long time ago. “Your duty is to clean the house and find yourself a husband...
- 1/18/2024
- by AMP Group
- AsianMoviePulse
It's not the first time that internationally acclaimed maestro Hirokazu Koreeda put his effort on a serial drama. In 2019 he directed the first episode and coordinated the collective show “A Day-Off of Kasumi Arimura” and before that, in 2012, he directed the lovely (a personal favourite) “Going My Home”, starring Hiroshi Abe as a clumsy father struggling with his roles as son and as father too. However, his recent “The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House” has been propelled to global audience by the intervention of giant platform Netflix. The show is co-written, co-produced and co-directed by Koreeda, alongside a handful of Japanese filmmakers and is based on a famous manga of the same title that has sold more than 1.8 million copies in Japan.
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After seeing maiko (apprentice geishas) walking the street of Kyoto on a school trip, 16-year-old inseparable best...
Click the image below to follow our Tribute to Netflix
After seeing maiko (apprentice geishas) walking the street of Kyoto on a school trip, 16-year-old inseparable best...
- 12/31/2023
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Exclusive: UTA has signed Hirokazu Kore-eda, the internationally celebrated Japanese filmmaker known for titles like Monster and Shoplifters, for representation in all areas.
The deal is particularly significant, Deadline hears, as the agency continues to expand its presence in Japan, and throughout Asia more broadly. Kore-eda will work closely going forward with UTA’s Asia Business Development division, which looks to amplify Asian and Asian-American voices by creating and curating a diverse array of opportunities, between Hollywood and Asia, for clients, partner companies, and brands.
Kore-eda’s most recent feature, Monster, had its North American premiere at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival after world premiering in Cannes, where it was awarded the Queer Palm and the prize for Best Screenplay. The film penned by Yuji Sakamoto watches as a mother confronts her young son’s teacher after she notices him acting strangely. Sakura Andō, Eita Nagayama, and Sōya Kurokawa star.
Kore-eda...
The deal is particularly significant, Deadline hears, as the agency continues to expand its presence in Japan, and throughout Asia more broadly. Kore-eda will work closely going forward with UTA’s Asia Business Development division, which looks to amplify Asian and Asian-American voices by creating and curating a diverse array of opportunities, between Hollywood and Asia, for clients, partner companies, and brands.
Kore-eda’s most recent feature, Monster, had its North American premiere at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival after world premiering in Cannes, where it was awarded the Queer Palm and the prize for Best Screenplay. The film penned by Yuji Sakamoto watches as a mother confronts her young son’s teacher after she notices him acting strangely. Sakura Andō, Eita Nagayama, and Sōya Kurokawa star.
Kore-eda...
- 10/24/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Zhang Series Debut
Zhang Yimou, China’s most enduring filmmaker, is joining the worldwide shift by feature film directors into the streaming arena.
Zhang, who directed “Full River Red,” the most successful film of 2023 in China, is to be involved with his first TV series. He will executive produce “The First Shot,” his representatives confirmed to Variety.
The show is to be directed by Xing Lu and is backed by Tencent Video. It is currently in development, with a tentative air date in 2025. That’s because Zhang has a film directing project with an anticipated Chinese New Year release date, due to begin shooting this summer.
Sakamoto Deal
Award-winning Japanese screenwriter Sakamoto Yuji will partner with Netflix over the next five years to develop a range of titles to premiere only on the streaming platform. “In Love and Deep Water,” set to be released later this year, promises to be...
Zhang Yimou, China’s most enduring filmmaker, is joining the worldwide shift by feature film directors into the streaming arena.
Zhang, who directed “Full River Red,” the most successful film of 2023 in China, is to be involved with his first TV series. He will executive produce “The First Shot,” his representatives confirmed to Variety.
The show is to be directed by Xing Lu and is backed by Tencent Video. It is currently in development, with a tentative air date in 2025. That’s because Zhang has a film directing project with an anticipated Chinese New Year release date, due to begin shooting this summer.
Sakamoto Deal
Award-winning Japanese screenwriter Sakamoto Yuji will partner with Netflix over the next five years to develop a range of titles to premiere only on the streaming platform. “In Love and Deep Water,” set to be released later this year, promises to be...
- 6/29/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Netflix has signed a five-year deal with Japanese screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto, winner of the Best Screenplay award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for Hirokazu Kore-eda’s competition title Monster.
Sakamoto has already scripted his first Netflix project, previously announced romantic murder mystery film In Love And Deep Water, set to be released later this year.
Netflix is now entering into a broader collaboration with Sakamoto through which he will develop a range of titles to premiere exclusively on the streamer’s platform worldwide.
Directed by Taki Yusuke, In Love And Deep Water takes place on board a luxury cruise ship where a devoted ship butler encounters a female passenger, who claims their respective partners are on the verge of cheating on them. Ryo Yoshizawa (Gintama franchise) and Aoi Miyazaki head the cast.
Monster marked the first time that Korea-eda has directed a film...
Sakamoto has already scripted his first Netflix project, previously announced romantic murder mystery film In Love And Deep Water, set to be released later this year.
Netflix is now entering into a broader collaboration with Sakamoto through which he will develop a range of titles to premiere exclusively on the streamer’s platform worldwide.
Directed by Taki Yusuke, In Love And Deep Water takes place on board a luxury cruise ship where a devoted ship butler encounters a female passenger, who claims their respective partners are on the verge of cheating on them. Ryo Yoshizawa (Gintama franchise) and Aoi Miyazaki head the cast.
Monster marked the first time that Korea-eda has directed a film...
- 6/28/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
Cannes Film Festival head honcho Thierry Frémaux often likes to speak of the “Cannes family,” meaning the extended stable of international auteurs whom the festival helped discover, nurtured and has made regulars on the famed red-carpet steps of the Palais des Festivals. Today’s standard-bearer for Japan’s great tradition of humanist filmmaking in Cannes is undoubtedly Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose features have been included in the festival’s official selection seven times, a record for his home country. Incidentally, the leitmotif of Kore-eda’s work is also family — families broken, families in turmoil and families found. His most celebrated films at Cannes have all centered on the theme, albeit in various and inventive ways.
Like Father, Like Son, winner of the 2013 Cannes jury prize, told the story of two boys mistakenly switched at birth, the discovery of which — years later — confronts the parents with the agonizing decision of whether to...
Like Father, Like Son, winner of the 2013 Cannes jury prize, told the story of two boys mistakenly switched at birth, the discovery of which — years later — confronts the parents with the agonizing decision of whether to...
- 5/18/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Upcoming feature is tipped for Cannes selection.
Japan’s Gaga Corporation has teamed with Paris-based Wild Bunch International to handle sales of Monster, the upcoming film by Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda.
Wbi will handle worldwide sales excluding Asia, which will be handled by Gaga.
A promo will be shown to buyers at the upcoming European Film Market (EFM), which runs February 16-22 alongside the Berlinale. Gaga and Wbi began collaborating on Kore-eda’s titles in 2011 with I Wish, which played Toronto and San Sebastian film festivals.
As previously announced, Monster will be released in Japan on June 2, suggesting a possible return to Cannes for Kore-eda,...
Japan’s Gaga Corporation has teamed with Paris-based Wild Bunch International to handle sales of Monster, the upcoming film by Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda.
Wbi will handle worldwide sales excluding Asia, which will be handled by Gaga.
A promo will be shown to buyers at the upcoming European Film Market (EFM), which runs February 16-22 alongside the Berlinale. Gaga and Wbi began collaborating on Kore-eda’s titles in 2011 with I Wish, which played Toronto and San Sebastian film festivals.
As previously announced, Monster will be released in Japan on June 2, suggesting a possible return to Cannes for Kore-eda,...
- 2/2/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Japan’s Gaga Corporation and Wild Bunch International will collaborate again for international sales of “Monster,” the upcoming film directed by Japanese auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu.
Gaga will handle Asian territories. Wild Bunch will handle worldwide excluding Asia. A promo reel for buyers will be available at the upcoming European Film Market that operates alongside the Berlin Film Festival.
The two companies previously collaborated on Kore-eda’s 2011 title “I Wish,” which played at the Toronto and San Sebastian film festivals.
“Monster” seems more likely to debut at Cannes. Its theatrical release in Japan, through Toho and Gaga, is scheduled for June 2, shortly after the festival.
The film is scripted by Sakamoto Yuji (“We Made a Beautiful Bouquet”) and has a music score by Sakamoto Ryuichi. Production is by Kawamura Genki and Yamada Kenji, with corporate credits going to Toho, Gaga, Fuji Television Network, Aoi Pro and Bun-Buku.
It stars Ando Sakura (“Shoplifters”), Nagayama Eita,...
Gaga will handle Asian territories. Wild Bunch will handle worldwide excluding Asia. A promo reel for buyers will be available at the upcoming European Film Market that operates alongside the Berlin Film Festival.
The two companies previously collaborated on Kore-eda’s 2011 title “I Wish,” which played at the Toronto and San Sebastian film festivals.
“Monster” seems more likely to debut at Cannes. Its theatrical release in Japan, through Toho and Gaga, is scheduled for June 2, shortly after the festival.
The film is scripted by Sakamoto Yuji (“We Made a Beautiful Bouquet”) and has a music score by Sakamoto Ryuichi. Production is by Kawamura Genki and Yamada Kenji, with corporate credits going to Toho, Gaga, Fuji Television Network, Aoi Pro and Bun-Buku.
It stars Ando Sakura (“Shoplifters”), Nagayama Eita,...
- 2/2/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix is further boosting its Japanese live-action content slate with a multi-picture deal with Tokyo-based studio Babel Label. The partnership gives Netflix exclusive access to multiple titles produced and created by Babel Label for the next five years.
The studio, a subsidiary launched in 2013 by Japanese media company CyberAgent, is home to creators such as writer-director Michihito Fujii, winner of best director and best film at the 2020 Japan Academy Awards for The Journalist. The film was later adapted by Netflix as a series in 2022.
Netflix has grown increasingly bullish on Japanese live-action content over the past few years. The second season of the streamer’s Japanese sci-fi thriller series Alice in Borderland set a new record as the company’s most-watched Japanese show ever, taking the top spot on Netflix’s global non-English TV list with 61.2 million viewing hours over its premiere weekend in late December 2022. Last week, the company...
The studio, a subsidiary launched in 2013 by Japanese media company CyberAgent, is home to creators such as writer-director Michihito Fujii, winner of best director and best film at the 2020 Japan Academy Awards for The Journalist. The film was later adapted by Netflix as a series in 2022.
Netflix has grown increasingly bullish on Japanese live-action content over the past few years. The second season of the streamer’s Japanese sci-fi thriller series Alice in Borderland set a new record as the company’s most-watched Japanese show ever, taking the top spot on Netflix’s global non-English TV list with 61.2 million viewing hours over its premiere weekend in late December 2022. Last week, the company...
- 1/16/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It’s hard to make food look unappetizing on screen. Fill up the screen with the greasiest monstrosity you can muster and the very fact it’s on a TV gives it a certain kind of baseline appeal. Fiction has a way of priming our stomachs in a way that even real life sometimes can’t.
In a weird way, that makes the cooking in “The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House” feel like even more of a challenge. Kore-eda Hirokazu’s new Netflix series can’t just rest on looking at some rice dishes or stews. It needs to convey the idea that Kiyo (Nana Mori), a bright-eyed teenager looking for a new life in the Gion district of Kyoto, is so entranced by the possibilities of her own food that it changes her life.
“The Makanai” finds the same magic in the everyday that’s dotted Kore-eda’s film resume.
In a weird way, that makes the cooking in “The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House” feel like even more of a challenge. Kore-eda Hirokazu’s new Netflix series can’t just rest on looking at some rice dishes or stews. It needs to convey the idea that Kiyo (Nana Mori), a bright-eyed teenager looking for a new life in the Gion district of Kyoto, is so entranced by the possibilities of her own food that it changes her life.
“The Makanai” finds the same magic in the everyday that’s dotted Kore-eda’s film resume.
- 1/14/2023
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
“You must show what’s unseen, but you cannot show too much either,” Mother Chiyo (Keiko Matsuzaka) explains to apprentice maiko Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi) about the delicate balance of expressing the story of a traditional mai dance. This same ethos permeates throughout the soft tone of the new Netflix series “The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House,” from acclaimed filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda.
Continue reading ‘The Makanai: Cooking For The Maiko House’ Season One Review: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Netflix Show Is A Rich and Rewarding Experience at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘The Makanai: Cooking For The Maiko House’ Season One Review: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Netflix Show Is A Rich and Rewarding Experience at The Playlist.
- 1/13/2023
- by Marya E. Gates
- The Playlist
Hirokazu Kore-eda infuses the world of the Japanese geisha with his signature gentle humanism in The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House, his first drama series for Netflix, launching worldwide this week.
Based on a best-selling manga by Aiko Koyama, the nine-episode series is set in the traditional Geiko district of Kyoto, depicting the inner sanctum of aspiring maiko courtesans. The story follows two 16-year-old girls, Kiyo (Mori Nana) and Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi), who move from rural Aomori with dreams of becoming geisha. But while Sumire is instantly identified as a natural talent in the traditional arts — dance, elaborate costume and delicate music-making — Kiyo proves an awkward fit. Instead, she finds her place as a makanai, the traditional cook who prepares the meals within the yakata house where all of the geiko live together.
Kore-eda, who won Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 2018 with his family drama Shoplifters, acts as the show’s producer,...
Based on a best-selling manga by Aiko Koyama, the nine-episode series is set in the traditional Geiko district of Kyoto, depicting the inner sanctum of aspiring maiko courtesans. The story follows two 16-year-old girls, Kiyo (Mori Nana) and Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi), who move from rural Aomori with dreams of becoming geisha. But while Sumire is instantly identified as a natural talent in the traditional arts — dance, elaborate costume and delicate music-making — Kiyo proves an awkward fit. Instead, she finds her place as a makanai, the traditional cook who prepares the meals within the yakata house where all of the geiko live together.
Kore-eda, who won Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 2018 with his family drama Shoplifters, acts as the show’s producer,...
- 1/13/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (Maiko-san Chino makanai-san) is a Japanese series created by Hirokazu Koreeda starring Mayu Matsuoka, Ai Hashimoto, Nana Mori and Keiko Matsuzaka. Based on the manga by Aiko Koyama.
The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House, is a tender Japanese story about art, friendship, youth, time… and, what can merge all these concepts in a single one? Food as an art form and an expression of ephemerality and at the same time, eternity, serves this series to achieve a portrayal of youth that is charming, consoling and above all, very, very tender.
About the Series The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House
A small delicacy for those that love the most traditional aspects of Japanese culture. The lives of these two kitchen apprentices will lead us, almost apologetically, to view a kind of Kyoto in which time goes by almost unnoticed, like those first...
The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House, is a tender Japanese story about art, friendship, youth, time… and, what can merge all these concepts in a single one? Food as an art form and an expression of ephemerality and at the same time, eternity, serves this series to achieve a portrayal of youth that is charming, consoling and above all, very, very tender.
About the Series The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House
A small delicacy for those that love the most traditional aspects of Japanese culture. The lives of these two kitchen apprentices will lead us, almost apologetically, to view a kind of Kyoto in which time goes by almost unnoticed, like those first...
- 1/12/2023
- by Veronica Loop
- Martin Cid - TV
At the close of its opening credits sequence, Netflix’s The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House splashes its title over a close-up shot of a meal. What meal specifically varies from episode to episode, depending on what the characters eat in any given one. Invariably, however, it’s some form of home-cooked comfort food: oyakodon or tomato curry or stewed eggplant, often still bubbling in the pot.
The dishes aren’t necessarily pretty, by the standards of your typical foodie show, nor do they look particularly fancy or original. But that’s precisely their appeal. They’re simple, straightforward, deceptively humble and irresistibly cozy — much like the series itself.
Adapted from the manga by Aiko Koyama, The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House centers on a rare adventure. At the start of the series, 16-year-old best friends Kiyo (an irrepressibly sunny Nana Mori) and Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi) strike out...
The dishes aren’t necessarily pretty, by the standards of your typical foodie show, nor do they look particularly fancy or original. But that’s precisely their appeal. They’re simple, straightforward, deceptively humble and irresistibly cozy — much like the series itself.
Adapted from the manga by Aiko Koyama, The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House centers on a rare adventure. At the start of the series, 16-year-old best friends Kiyo (an irrepressibly sunny Nana Mori) and Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi) strike out...
- 1/11/2023
- by Angie Han
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cannes Palme d’Or-winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s first series for Netflix, The Makanai: Cooking For The Maiko House, is based on a best-selling manga about two young girls who move to Kyoto to start their training as ‘maiko’ or apprentice geisha.
One of them turns out to be a star maiko, but the other is not so talented in the geisha arts, which mostly comprise traditional song and dance, and ends up cooking for the household where the girls are being trained, an activity in which she excels. Neither the manga, created by Aiko Koyama, or the series are set in the Edo period, the golden era of geisha culture, but in contemporary Japan, where the profession still exists and is respected, but is also regarded as a dying art.
Scheduled to start streaming tomorrow (January 12), the series is produced by Kore-eda and Genki Kawamura, a leading producer behind hits such as Confessions,...
One of them turns out to be a star maiko, but the other is not so talented in the geisha arts, which mostly comprise traditional song and dance, and ends up cooking for the household where the girls are being trained, an activity in which she excels. Neither the manga, created by Aiko Koyama, or the series are set in the Edo period, the golden era of geisha culture, but in contemporary Japan, where the profession still exists and is respected, but is also regarded as a dying art.
Scheduled to start streaming tomorrow (January 12), the series is produced by Kore-eda and Genki Kawamura, a leading producer behind hits such as Confessions,...
- 1/11/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
Netflix has set the date for its second annual free virtual fan convention Tudum, plotting out five “global” events in 24 hours for Sept. 24.
The 2022 Tudum will offer the streamer’s fans an “exciting day of exclusive news, never-before-seen footage, trailers, and first looks, as well as interviews with Netflix’s biggest stars and creators,” per Netflix. “The free virtual event is a celebration of Netflix fandom and is dedicated to sharing the scoop on over 120 fan-favorite shows, films, specials and games from across the globe.”
Per Netflix:
At 11:00 am Kst (7:00 pm Pt September 23), Tudum kicks off with an exciting show out of Korea.At 11:00 am Ist, fans will be treated to a fun look at what’s ahead from India.At 10 am Pt, Tudum kicks off as a two-part show with Part 1 out of the United States and Europe, and Part 2 at 11:30 am Pt out of Latin America,...
The 2022 Tudum will offer the streamer’s fans an “exciting day of exclusive news, never-before-seen footage, trailers, and first looks, as well as interviews with Netflix’s biggest stars and creators,” per Netflix. “The free virtual event is a celebration of Netflix fandom and is dedicated to sharing the scoop on over 120 fan-favorite shows, films, specials and games from across the globe.”
Per Netflix:
At 11:00 am Kst (7:00 pm Pt September 23), Tudum kicks off with an exciting show out of Korea.At 11:00 am Ist, fans will be treated to a fun look at what’s ahead from India.At 10 am Pt, Tudum kicks off as a two-part show with Part 1 out of the United States and Europe, and Part 2 at 11:30 am Pt out of Latin America,...
- 9/14/2022
- by Jennifer Maas
- Variety Film + TV
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