Actor and TV personality Tatsuo Umemiya, who appeared in a number of popular films and television dramas, died of chronic kidney failure Thursday morning at a hospital near Tokyo, his agency said. He was 81. Born in what was then known as Manchukuo, now northeastern ...
Makoto Shinkai's anime 'Weathering With You' nominated for Annie Awards
The anime film "Weathering With You" by Makoto Shinkai has been nominated in four categories in the 47th annual Annie Awards, including best animated independent feature, the international animated film society ASIFA-Hollywood said Monday. Two other anime directed by Japanese were nominated in the same ...
A year after Bollywood followed Hollywood by naming male predators accused of sexual harassment, many women say they have suffered but the alleged perpetrators are back in the limelight. In the U.S., #MeToo triggered the downfall of power brokers including Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and ...
Taiwanese family drama 'A Sun' wins Golden Horse for best Chinese-language film
Taiwanese family drama "A Sun" won top prizes at the Golden Horse film awards Saturday in a year marked by the conspicuous absence of talent from China amid plummeting ties between Taipei and Beijing. Dubbed the Chinese-language "Oscars," Golden Horse got into trouble with Beijing ...
Julia Roberts once floated for role as African-American slavery hero Harriet Tubman
A Hollywood movie studio executive once suggested that Julia Roberts could play Harriet Tubman, the 19th century escaped slave who is seen as an African-American icon. Gregory Allen Howard, the co-writer of the new biopic "Harriet," starring Cynthia Erivo, said the idea was floated 25 ...
Japan's decade of 'closed country' cinema
As Japanese box office figures hit record highs in the 2010s, the country's film industry became increasingly insular
Jackie Chan's charity trip to Vietnam canceled over maritime row with China
Martial-arts film star Jackie Chan's planned visit to Vietnam for a charity has been canceled following an online backlash related to Beijing's expansive claims in the disputed South China Sea. The Hong Kong-born actor was set to visit Hanoi on Sunday to support Operation Smile, ...
Movie based on popular novel puts South Korean gender divide back in focus
A movie based on a controversial best-selling novel that chronicled the everyday sexism faced by women topped South Korea's box office this week, reigniting a national debate over women's roles in a historically male-dominated society. "Kim Ji-young, Born 1982" opened in last week and immediately ...
Japan film festival scraps screening of 'comfort women' movie
A film festival that began over the weekend in Kawasaki has decided not to show a documentary focused on debates over the issue of "comfort women." The phrase refers to women who provided sex, including those who did so against their will, for Japanese troops ...
Kaoru Yachigusa, actress in 'Samurai, The Legend of Musashi,' dies
Actress Kaoru Yachigusa, who rose to prominence with her role in Oscar-winning film "Samurai, The Legend of Musashi" and starred in a number of major movies and TV dramas, died last Thursday of pancreatic cancer at a Tokyo hospital, her office said. She was ...
DreamWorks' animated movie "Abominable" will not be released in Malaysia after its producers declined to meet a censor board requirement to cut a scene showing China's "nine-dash line" in the South China Sea, the movie distributor said on Sunday. The U-shaped line is used on ...
Diahann Carroll, 'Julia' star and trailblazer for black women on TV, dies
Diahann Carroll, a versatile singer and stage actress who quietly blazed a trail for black women on American television in the late 1960s by playing a widowed nurse and single mother in "Julia," died Friday at age 84, said her manager, Brian Panella. Carroll, whose ...
