While it doesn’t get the same publicity as its fellow Japanese events in Tokyo and Osaka, the Okinawa International Movie Festival, now celebrating its tenth birthday, is an interesting cultural platform on the islands known as “the Hawaii of Japan”.

Held every April on Japan’s southernmost island, it’s organised by Yoshimoto Kogyo, a Japanese entertainment conglomerate that specialises in comedian acts and focuses on “feel-good” films and comedies as well as mainstream movies from around the world plus those produced or filmed on the island. The festival is supported by the United Nations to help spread the messages of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aim to improve the quality of life of everyone on Planet Earth.

And it’s not just about the movies – since 2015, the festival has also been a platform for comedians, singers, and shows from Japan and Asia.

The latest edition, which kicked on April 19 and wrapped last Sunday, saw “In Pursuit of the General”, the 3D Chinese opera film from Beijing opera win the Audience Award for foreign films, while “Reon”, a comedy about an unlucky office temp and a womanising CEO who end up swapping bodies after a traffic accident, pick up the Audience Award for Japanese films.

“The festival has gone on for 10 years, but I hope it will continue for 100 years,” said Hiroshi Osaki, chairman and chief executive of Yoshimoto Kogyo, which founded the event.

“I hope that in the next century, a new entertainment industry from Okinawa will go out into the world.”

The festival has from the very beginning presented films made in Okinawa, which are very different from the usual Japanese films, and recently Yoshimoto Kogyo expanded its presence in Okinawa by opening the Laugh & Peace Entertainment School on the island. The new facility will teach performance arts and creative arts to anyone who is interested. The school is open to international students who’d like to how to be a performer or a manga artist, for example.

Among the Also screened at the festival was Hiroshi Abe’s latest film “Nomitori Samurai”, directed by Yasuo Tsuruhashi, with the actor coming to Okinawa to walk the red carpet and present his film. Toshio Lee’s drama “When I get home, My wife always pretends to be dead” also had its world premiere and is expected to come to Thailand later this year.

Toshiyuki Teruya’s “Born Bone Boon”, which was made in Okinawa and focuses on the bone washing ceremony unique to Aguni Island, also premiered as did “Jimami-Tofu”, a Singapor ean production entirely shot in the Okinawa Islands about a Singaporean chef in Tokyo who discovers the art of traditional Okinawan food.

The Thai animation “The Legend of Muay Thai: 9 Satra” was originally scheduled for screening but its participation as well as that of its team members was cancelled shortly before the festival. Though no other Thai films were shown, Thailand’s Culture Minister and the Tourism Authority of Thailand brought along traditional Thai puppet troupe Joe Louis Theatre and Sweat 16, the Thai idol group, who are co-produced by Yoshimoto Thailand and LOVEiS.

“This is our first time performing in Japan”, said a member of Sweat 16, who arrived in Okinawa in time to walk the red carpet and perform.

“Okinawa is famous for the colour of the sea and even from the plane, I could see the emerald green of the ocean. It’s so beautiful,” commented an excited Suthasinee “Frame” Aemthong, obviously thrilled to be Okinawa.

“The difference between our show in Thailand and in Japan is communication,” added Warinda “Ant” Nernpermpisut, the group’s captain, “We needed to rehearse much more and work really hard before coming here to perform.

“Our songs are based on the original Japanese melody but the lyrics are adapted so we can sing them in Thai. Here we had to sing in Japanese. And that meant we had to learn Japanese.”

Some members of the group – Pim Khajonvekin for one – is already a Japanese speaker, so she could help other members of the group in practising Japanese for their show in Okinawa.

“I studied Japanese and I am happy that I can use my knowledge to help the group. It was very important that we sang the Japanese lyrics with the correct pronunciation. The lyrics are already difficult but the pronunciation is even more difficult,” Pim explained.

“The audience is so large here,” added Chadatan “‘Mahnmook” Dankul, referring to the performances, which took place on three stages across Naha city, last Friday in front of capacity crowds.

“We are so excited to perform on the same stage as idols from Japan and many other countries. We were a little bit worried how the show would turn out, but after we arrived here and saw the stage, the Japanese audience, and our Thai fans who flew to Okinawa to support us, we knew we had to do our best. Everything must be perfect.

We saw the shows by other groups and they were really great. They reminded us that we still need to improve and practise a lot to be at the same level as them.”

Sharing the stage was the Japanese icon group NMB48, the sister group of AKB48 and all the Thai girls were impressed with their professionalism.

“We want to perform and communicate with the audience as well as they did. Their shows made us realise that we need to work harder.”

“The audience here is so lovely and they really gave us support. Before we came here, we were not sure if we could communicate well enough with the audience, but we are very proud of the result. Our mission here is complete,” Ant added.

Chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos opened the studio’s segment at the annual CinemaCon film industry convention in Las Vegas with the news, praising director John Krasinski, who stars in the monster invasion thriller opposite real-life wife Emily Blunt.

“If you told me five years ago that an almost silent film starring the very funny guy Jim from ‘The Office’ would have been a hit at Paramount, I would have said, ‘Well, I should go work at Paramount,'” said Gianopulos, who joined the studio a year ago.

“A Quiet Place,” which regained top spot at the domestic box office over the weekend, has amassed more than $200 million in revenue worldwide against a budget of just $17 million and is Paramount’s biggest hit since 2016’s “Star Trek Beyond.”

It has been a ray of light in a dark year or more for Paramount, which has struggled to make the box office impact of its “big six” rival studios, all of which are presenting at CinemaCon.

Since the third of the rebooted “Star Trek” movies recouped almost $350 million globally, Paramount’s high-profile flops have included “Ben-Hur,” “mother!” and Matt Damon vehicles “Suburbicon” and “Downsizing.”

Gianopulos acknowledged the studio had suffered a rough year but vowed that Paramount was “laying the foundation” to repeat its past successes.

“I’m incredibly confident that we have the right team, culture, and attitude in place to take Paramount to new heights,” he said.

“And we already started on that road to giant success with ‘A Quiet Place.'”

Gianopulos announced a string of sequels in partnership with Skydance Media, including a new “Terminator” with Linda Hamilton from the original movie back on board with Arnold Schwarzenegger, “Top Gun: Maverick” with Tom Cruise — and two new “Star Trek” films.

Tantalizingly, he offered no details and it remains unclear if these will be a continuation of the reboot franchise or if they include a previously announced “Star Trek” movie from “Pulp Fiction” director Quentin Tarantino.

Paramount initially said after “Star Trek Beyond” came out that a fourth release would bring back “Thor” star Chris Hemsworth as Captain James Kirk’s father, George.

J.J. Abrams, the creative force behind the 2009-16 reboots, wasn’t at CinemaCon but he appeared onstage at Caesar’s Palace to promote horror movie “Overlord,” the first R-rated release from his Bad Robot production company.

Abrams scotched rumors that the World War II Nazi experiments shocker would be another release in the “Cloverfield” series.

But he added that he was planning a genuine theatrical sequel to 2008 found-footage thriller “Cloverfield,” unlike the most recent film in the franchise, the critically panned Netflix February release “The Cloverfield Paradox.”

“Fire and Blood” is set several centuries before “Game of Thrones” in the same fantasy world of Westeros, the author said on his blog. Martin stressed it is not a novel, but rather a historical text setting out the history of Westeros’ Targaryen dynasty.

Since 2012, the author has published several passages from the new book. Publisher Bantam Spectra did not respond to a request for comment about the upcoming release, but the book is already available for presale online.

As for the sixth “Game of Thrones” book — “The Winds of Winter” — Martin said: “No, winter is not coming… not in 2018, at least.”

Between 1996 and 2011, Martin published five volumes of the “Game of Thrones” series — letting six years pass between the fourth and fifth.

Since the sixth season of the phenomenally popular television show based on the series, the writers have not directly relied on Martin’s books — and in any case, producer HBO took many liberties with the original story in previous seasons.

The series — whose eighth and final season is expected in 2019 — has already scooped up a record 38 Emmy Awards.

The films vary in genre and eras and include the epic “Tamnan Somdej Phra Naresuan Maharaj” (“The Legend of King Naresuan”) by MR Chatrichalerm Yukol, “Santi-Vina”, the 1954 film that was lost for 60 years then rediscovered, restored and shown at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2016 , Euthana Mukdaanit’s acclaimed teenage drama “Ruang Khong Nampu” (“The Story of Nampoo), Thailand’s all-time top-grossing horror comedy “Pee Mak Phra Khanong”, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Loong Boonmee Raluek Chat” (“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”), which won the Palme d’Or award at Cannes.

Members of the public were invited to submit the names of the films they would like to see again. The criteria included: the film being made during the reign of King Rama 9 (June 9, 1946 to October 15, 2016) and either the winner of an award, national or international or in the top five box office releases in each year.

Almost 30,000 film fans answered the call and submitted around 359 movies. These were then considered by a jury made up of 258 individuals from the private and public sectors as well as filmmakers and national artists, before being submitted to the national film board.

Other films that made the list include “Ruan Pae” (1961), “7 Yod Manut (1974)”, “Wai Onlawon” (1976), “Bang Rajan” (2004) and “Phleng Khong Khao” (“The Song of Rice”) (2015).

The ministry has also selected 10 of the movies to screen for free at theatres across the nation. They are running at Scala through Friday in parallel with the exhibition, with nine of the movies going on tour to major provinces from May 7 to May 23 stopping at Nakhon Ratchasima (at Major Cineplex), Chiang Mai (SFX Cinema Maya), Phuket (SFX Cinema at Central Festival Phuket) and Hua Hin (Major Cineplex).

Some of the movies will also be shown overseas.

Admission for the nation showings is free but reservations must be made through the Content Thailand Facebook page.

The South African entry, which was shortlisted for the Best Foreign Language Film for the 90th Academy Awards, has been selected by Anucha Boonyawatana, the director and writer of “Malila” (“The Farewell Flower”), which won Kim Jiseok Award at Busan International Film Festival 2017 and saw Anucha nominated for Best New Director at the 12th Asian Film Awards in 2018.

After the screening, Anucha will give a talk and facilitate a Q&A about the film as well as her writing and directing styles.

“The Wound” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 and was praised for its unsettling coming-of-age exploration of masculinity and repressed sexuality through an outsider’s experience of a South African initiation ritual.

“It’s an African gay film that focuses on rural life and culture which speaks to me. There are several components in the film that I find intriguing and some of them can be seen in ‘Malila’ as well,” says Anucha.

Entry is Bt60 per person including the programme. Tickets go on sale at 3pm and the screening starts at 5pm in the fifth floor auditorium. It has both Thai and English subtitles. The post-screening talk will be in Thai with English translation.

Find out more at http://www.Bacc.or.th.

The 2019 movie “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” will look at the death throes of the old studio system — seen as a pivotal time in show business history — against the gruesome backdrop of the 1960s Manson family murders.

The 55-year-old “Reservoir Dogs” director opened Sony’s presentation at the glitzy annual CinemaCon industry get-together vowing that his hotly anticipated ninth solo feature would be similar in tone to his acclaimed mainstream breakthrough “Pulp Fiction” (1994).

“Sony and myself will be coming to the theaters with the most exciting star dynamic since Paul Newman and Robert Redford,” Tarantino told the crowd of theater operators at Caesar’s Palace.

Newman, who died in 2008, starred alongside 81-year-old Redford in 1973’s “The Sting” but the duo were best known as the titular heart-throb outlaws in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969).

“It’s very hush hush and top secret. But I can tell you that ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ takes place in 1969, at the height of the counterculture, hippie revolution and the height of new Hollywood,” Tarantino added.

DiCaprio, a Los Angeles native, said he was excited to be working with Pitt, and described Tarantino’s screenplay as “one of the most amazing” he’d ever read.

The presentation came as Sony kicked off CinemaCon with an array of stars and never-before-seen footage of its upcoming slate of movies.

Hollywood decamps to the Nevada desert for four days every year for the gathering, where theater operators are offered exclusive previews of the movies they can expect to be showing over the coming year.

– Runaway success –

Sony sparked controversy in 2017 when its movies chief Tom Rothman — who was back this year — came to the stage to present new footage from “Blade Runner 2049.”

“Netflix my ass,” he quipped after wowing the crowd with bleak scenes from the long-awaited sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 masterpiece.

The internet streamer has found itself in conflict with movie theater operators in the past because its original content goes straight to viewers’ TVs and mobile devices.

“I love movies and I love movies in movie theaters. They are my favorite place in the world,” said Tarantino, who last directed Pitt in “Inglourious Basterds” (2009).

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” — which is due to begin shooting in summer in LA — gets its US release on August 9 next year, the 50th anniversary of actress Sharon Tate’s murder by Manson’s cult devotees.

Sony set the tone for what is expected to be a week of surprises with exclusive footage from numerous blockbusters due to hit theaters over summer and beyond.

Still celebrating the runaway success of 2017 smash hit “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle,” which made the thick end of $1 billion worldwide, the studio delighted fans with an array of star presenters including Will Ferrell, Michelle Williams, Matthew McConaughey, Gina Rodriguez, Riz Ahmed and Claire Foy.

– ‘Truly iconic’ –

In an action-packed presentation, Sony squeezed in footage from a mix of original material and sequels and spin-offs, including “Sicario: Day Of The Soldado,” “The Equalizer 2,” comedy “Holmes And Watson” and weepy “A Dog’s Way Home.”

Foy — best known as Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix’s “The Crown” — wowed as the new face of Swedish computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, previously played by Rooney Mara, in footage from “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.”

The 34-year-old British actress said the character, made famous in the original 2009 Scandinavian movie trilogy by Noomi Rapace, was “truly iconic.”

“She’s very much a survivor,” said the actress, who began shooting in Berlin in January with Fede Alvarez (“Don’t Breathe”) directing. The movie hits theaters on November 9.

Sony also unveiled a second teaser for “Spider-Man” spin-off “Venom,” which opens on October 5, showing rather more of the eponymous toothy villain (Tom Hardy) than the much-derided first trailer.

“Being part of this movie is a dream come true. He’s one of my favorite characters as well,” said Hardy, who revealed his excitement over being in a superhero film his son could enjoy.

Disney, STX, Universal, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, Warner Bros, Amazon, Entertainment Studios and Focus Features will set out their stalls later in the week.

The series can be streamed on HBO GO and HBO on AIS Play and the AIS Playbox. New episodes premiere every Monday at the same time.

Fans of the series can also have fun with a series of online, on-ground and virtual reality activities by playing the Maze Game on the Westworld Microsite (http://hboasia.com/HBO/shows/westworld).

Within the site, fans have a chance to beat the children’s ball-in-a-maze game in the virtual world. The symbolism of the maze resonates throughout the series with the different characters’ storylines and the maze symbol is also frequently spotted in the park.

From now to June 25, participants of the maze game will need to direct the ball to the centre of the maze. There will be 12 levels to clear, each with increasing difficulty. There will be a leader board and participants with the 10 top highest scores will stand to win exclusive Westworld merchandise and attractive prizes. Do read the small print as terms and conditions apply.

The entire Virtual Reality experience in Sweetwater (available in Singapore and Malaysia only) begins with an introduction by a white-suited host – just like any visitor would encounter as a guest starting their visit to Westworld at the Delos office, the corporation behind Westworld. Visitors are then instructed to don the Virtual Reality goggles and headphones, entering an immersive and interactive experience!

Once in the Virtual Reality realm, guests are invited to select either a black or white hat, try on suitable outfits and pick their weapon of choice (in reality, a joystick with a trigger), before embarking on different virtual activities within Westworld such as practising at a shooting range or getting involved in a shootout with Sheriff Pickett.

This immersive experience event also features a range of Westworld-themed activities such as a Mechanical Bull, a Ring Toss Game and a video booth.

“Westworld” debuted on HBO in October, 2016 to become the network’s most-watched freshman series ever. The returning cast includes Evan Rachel Wood (Dolores), Thandie Newton (Maeve), Ed Harris (Man in Black) and Jeffrey Wright (Bernard).

New cast members for the second season are Fares Fares (Antoine Costa), Katja Herbers (Grace), Gustaf Skarsgard (Karl Strand) and Hiroyuki Sanada (Musashi).

The first season of “Westworld received 22 Emmy nominations last year, winning five, including Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media within a Scripted Programme and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour). Director Jonathan Nolan received a DGA nomination for the season finale, and both Nolan and Joy received a WGA nomination for season one.

“A Quiet Place,” an almost wordless Paramount production, stars actor/director John Krasinski and real-life wife Emily Blunt as a couple silently struggling to protect their family from invading aliens that are blind but can track their prey by sound.

The film took in a $22 million for a total of $132.4 million since opening atop the box office early this month.

Fallen from the top spot to number two was “Rampage,” starring hard-working Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson as a primatologist who befriends an albino gorilla — which grows to enormous size after a rogue experiment and then teams with Johnson to stop invading monsters. Naomie Harris co-stars.

The video-game inspired “Rampage” took in $21 million for the weekend for a total of $66.6 million in two weeks, against a budget of $120 million.

In third place was “I Feel Pretty,” an Amy Schumer film about a self-conscious woman who suffers a head injury and subsequently sees herself as beautiful, which made $16.2 million on its debut weekend.

In fourth was “Super Troopers 2” — the long-awaited sequel to the 2001 film about a ne’er-do-well group of cops — in which the protagonists are tasked with replacing a Mountie unit in a Canadian town that is found to be part of the US.

The partially crowd-funded film made $14.7 million on its first weekend.

In fifth was “Truth or Dare,” a supernatural thriller starring Lucy Hale and Tyler Posey as spring breakers caught up in an innocent game that turns deadly. The film made $7.9 million on its second weekend.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“Ready Player One” ($7.5 million)

“Blockers” ($7 million)

“Black Panther” ($4.6 million)

“Traffik” ($3.9 million)

“Isle of Dogs” ($3.4 million)