Why are Japanese people hooked on ramen? A new documentary aiming to offer global audiences insight into the passion behind this inexpensive dish received a warm welcome on the film festival circuit before premiering at home late last month.

“Ramen Heads” was born when producer Arata Oshima watched “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”, a documentary made by an American director that followed Jiro Ono, who runs a Tokyo sushi restaurant that has earned three Michelin stars.

“I found it frustrating that a non-Japanese director had to produce a film on Japanese food culture,” Oshima, 48, recalls.

“However, high-end sushi [as featured in the film] isn’t something ordinary people can afford to enjoy. I believe ramen is part of authentic Japanese food culture.”

Koki Shigeno, 52, who directed “Ramen Heads,” has made TV programmes featuring various chefs, but had never worked on a film for cinema. The director says he wanted the film to be entertaining for overseas audiences in particular.

“Many customers line up for hours just to eat a bowl of ramen, while chefs pursue the best of the best, like seekers looking for the truth. I think these phenomena are very interesting,” Shigeno says. “I was curious to know how people overseas would feel about it.”

“Ramen Heads” focuses on Osamu Tomita, 39, the owner and chef of ramen shop Chukasoba Tomita  dubbed one of the best in Japan  in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture. The production team followed him for more than a year, and also visited a number of other eateries.

Shigeno found it surprising that Tomita dines at other ramen shops with his family on his days off. “It’s not for research. He just likes the noodles,” the director laughs. “I was amazed.”

The documentary has been shown at film festivals in 10 cities in the Netherlands, the United States, Norway and four other countries. Shigeno and Tomita attended two of the events: the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto and the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain.

At the Canadian event, the film was shown at a theatre with 300 seats, and all four screenings sold out.

A scene in the documentary showing diners slurping their ramen prompted some members of the audience to cover their ears with their hands, but when similar scenes were shown later, those same hands broke into applause.

“I intentionally put focus on those slurping scenes as I am aware that this way of eating can be offensive to some foreign viewers,” Shigeno says. “However, I didn’t expect audiences would ultimately applaud.”

In Spain, the film drew so many viewers that festival organisers added extra screenings, and Tomita created a set meal that included ramen and some other dishes using local ingredients.

“I didn’t see any ramen shops in San Sebastian, so I thought it was the first time locals were eating the noodles,” the chef says. “I was glad to find delicious dishes can be recognised as tasty no matter where you are.

“I hope viewers understand what’s behind the delicious ramen we serve: namely, our passion for preparation, choosing ingredients and hospitality toward diners,” he said.

“Ramen Heads” is scheduled to screen in more than 10 US cities, including New York and Los Angeles, from March to April. “We’ll kick off in the United States, and hope to show it in Europe, too,” Oshima says. He is not certain when or even if the film will come to Bangkok but says more ramenthemed films will be released this year.

One is tentatively titled “Ramen Teh,” a Japanese, French and Singaporean joint production directed by Eric Khoo, with Takumi Saito and Seiko Matsuda among the cast.

“Ramen Kuitee” (“Lost in Ramen”) is an adaptation of the manga with the same title. Directed by Yuki Kumagai, the film features a high school girl who makes efforts to revive a shop operated by her grandfather.

Among the earliest films about ramen, “Tampopo” (1985) is probably the most notable. Directed by Juzo Itami, it stars Tsutomu Yamazaki as a man who tries to revive a shop. It became a hit overseas as well.

“The Ramen Girl” (2008), directed by Robert Allan Ackerman, is about an American woman in Japan who trains under a ramen shop owner played by Toshiyuki Nishida. “Ramenzamurai” (2012), directed by Naoki Segi and starring Dai Watanabe, is set in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, which is said to be the birthplace of tonkotsu porkbone broth ramen.

A documentary from 2013 follows Kazuo Yamagishi, the founder of popular Tokyo ramen shop Taishoken and known as the inventor of tsukemen noodles, which are served with a dipping soup.

On Monday, March 5, viewers can stream the Oscars Red Carpet Live from 6.30am followed by The 90th Academy Awards at 8am on HBO GO via AIS Play and AIS Playbox. Both programmes will be repeated that same night on HBO at 6pm and 7pm respectively.

To enhance HBO’s Ultimate Oscars Experience and in celebration of the 90th Academy Awards, HBO Hits is featuring 90 movies recognised by the Academy for their filmmaking excellence through March 11. These movies will also be streaming on HBO GO via AIS Play and AIS Playbox and include past Oscar winning heavyweights dating back from 1977 through 2017 such as “Rocky” “The English Patient”, “Chicago”, “Birdman”, “La La Land” and “Moonlight”. For the full list of 90 movies, go to http://hboasia.com.

Fourteen lucky winners of the 2017 Oscars contest will be in Los Angeles on a five-day all-expense paid Hollywood trip to watch the red carpet live at the 90th Annual Academy Awards.

This year, HBO Asia is once again giving viewers the opportunity to win seven pairs of tickets in the HBO Ultimate Oscars Experience Contest. This opportunity of a lifetime includes watching the Oscars red carpet live and attending the Oscars viewing party at the 91st Annual Academy Awardsฎ in 2019. Also included are round-trip airfares to Los Angeles, 5D4N hotel accommodation, VIP tour of an iconic Hollywood studio, private horse riding tour through the Hollywood hills, private tour of iconic Hollywood landmarks and a three-course dinner at a celebrity restaurant.

To participate, viewers would need to tune-in to any Oscar movies showing on HBO and HBO Hits, look out for the HBO Ultimate Oscars Experience Contest icon and log-on to http://www.hboasia.com/oscars to answer two contest questions as creatively as possible. More information can be found at http://www.hboasia.com/oscars http://www.hboasia.com/oscars.

The scripted series, to be called “Swagger,” will be written by noted screenwriter Reggie Rock Bythewood and produced by Imagine Television and Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Media, a source familiar with the plan said, confirming earlier media reports.

Durant himself tweeted about the new program, saying “So excited to partner with Imagine and Apple on this series…much more to come.”

Durant, the star forward for the Golden Star Warriors, will produce the show with Imagine, which is led by Hollywood producer Brian Grazer and director Ron Howard.

The new series will be inspired by Durant’s youth basketball experiences, including amateur leagues and families dealing with the opportunities and problems of the richer professional leagues.

Bythewood is known for his work on the 2009 film “Notorious” about the killing of a the rap star known as Notorious B.I.G.

Apple has been reaching deep into its cash holdings to ramp up its original television offerings, having signed a deal with Steven Spielberg for the sci-fi series “Amazing Stories,” and another show with stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.

With ticket sales rebounding sharply from totals depressed last week by football’s Super Bowl championship game, “Freed” led three new releases to the top, with Sony’s “Peter Rabbit” coming in second and “The 15:17 to Paris” from Warner Bros. placing third, industry tracker Exhibitor Relations reported.

But the final chapter of the steamy “Fifty Shades” series — promoted by Universal with the not-so-subtle line “Don’t Miss the Climax” — dominated.

It accounted for a third of the total estimated take of the top 12 movies, helping push global sales for the trilogy past $1 billion.

Dakota Johnson stars again as English lit major-turned-publisher Anastasia Steele, while Jamie Dornan plays her lover-turned-husband, the kinky, hunky and frequently shirtless Christian Grey.

Women accounted for three quarters of North American moviegoers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The family-friendly “Peter Rabbit,” which mixes live actors with computer-generated animation, raked in $25 million, far exceeding Sony’s projections.

James Corden voices the lead bunny as he feuds with garden owner Domhnall Gleeson for the affections of sweethearted neighbor Rose Byrne.

“The 15:17,” director Clint Eastwood’s recounting of how three young Americans foiled a 2015 terrorist attack aboard a passenger train in France, netted $12.6 million.

Eastwood took the unusual approach of having the three men, none with any formal acting experience, play themselves. Some critics called that a bold move, while others said the men’s amateurism showed.

In fourth place, falling off from last weekend’s top position, was Sony’s “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” at $10 million.

The family flick, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jack Black and Kevin Hart, follows a group of teens who find themselves transported inside a video game world. The film has earned more than $800 million globally.

In fifth, down one spot, was “The Greatest Showman,” a Fox film starring Hugh Jackman as larger-than-life circus impresario P.T. Barnum. It took in $6.4 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“Maze Runner: The Death Cure” ($6.2 million)

“Winchester” ($5.2 million)

“The Post” ($3.6 million)

“The Shape of Water” ($3.2 million)

“Den of Thieves” ($3 million)

It’s been an exciting few months for independent Thai filmmaker Anucha Boonyawatana. First, her new film “Malila” (“The Farewell Flower”) premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in October, winning her the inaugural Kim Ji-seok award, which she shared with Japanese film “The Scythian Lamb”, and her lead actor, Sukollawat Kanarot, the Asian new face award.

A month later, it was screened in competition at the Singapore International Film Festival where it did even better, winning her Best Director award and praise from the head of the jury, British director Shekhar Kapur.

“He is my favourite filmmaker, I’ve seen his film “Elizabeth” several times. And although he’s a foreigner, he truly understood my intention, telling me that having compassion and living with compassion are very different. I don’t really expect people to understand my films, so this was a huge compliment,” she says.

“Malila”, which goes on general release here on Thursday, is a complex movie. The story of the relationship between two men, the first part focuses on life in a Northeast village where Shane (Sukollawat Kanarot) works as a gardener. One day he catches sight of his old friend Pich (Anuchyd Sapanphong), now back home after many years away. Pich is a master of bai sri – a delicate ornament decoration made by folding banana leaves, which is said to nourish the spirit and bring it back home.

Spending time in the secret sanctuary of their childhood, the two slowly reconnect and the audience slowly learns about their past, their relationship and the real reason Pich has returned home – he is terminally ill.

Shane decides to ordain in the hope of bringing blessings and perhaps even improved health to his friend. In the second part of the film, Shane is now a monk and is travelling through the jungle with senior monk Luang Phee (Sumret Muengput), a former soldier who helps guide Shane through his meditative task, overcome his fear and face the truth of life.

While the first part of the film dwells on the beauty of their love and the sadness of separation, the second part is quiet and powerful and reflects Buddhist spirituality in an impressive cinematic way.

Since its screening in Busan, the film has travelled on the Asian festival circuit, winning more awards from the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and India’s International Film Festival of Kerala Both Anucha and Sukollawat are in the running for more prizes, nominated for best new director and best actor respectively at the Asian Film Awards, which will be announced on March 17.

“After all these years, Thai film directors are gaining more recognition internationally. That hasn’t been the case for local actors though, so I am delighted that Sukollawat is doing so well. He’s the first Thai actor ever to be nominated for an Asian Film Award,” says Anucha.

She is also pleased that her film has done so well on the Asian festival circuit but doubts it would have been so popular among more international audiences. “Many of the selections for European film events tend to tackle current world issues like refugees or social ills. ‘Malila’ is a gay romance wrapped in Thai culture and the Buddhist approach to life.

“It’s subtle, personal and reflects aspects of Thai culture that I’m not sure more global audiences would understand. Audiences in Asia like the film because they can relate to it,” she says.

And while the Buddhist element is strong, “Malila” is still very much a gay film with everything an audience expects from the genre but telling the story in a tender, quiet way that allows the visuals to become part of the dialogue.

An important component of the Bai Sri Su Khwan ceremony, the flower arrangement is fragile, and its makers have to fold leaves delicately. It has a short life and when the ceremony is over, the decoration is released into the river.

“I used the bai sri as a metaphor for the fragility of man. Mali is the Thai word for jasmine and ‘la’ means farewell,” says Anucha, adding that the movie is also a farewell to her best friend who died of cancer when they were both in their mid 20s.

“As a LGBT, the best friend like her often is more important than parents as we can share everything. Even though I knew she had cancer and she was seriously ill, at that age, I though death was still far away. I was devastated when she died,” says Anucha.

She sees aspects of herself in both Shane and Pich. The idea of introducing bai sai was based on her own experience of making the flower decoration. She has also been ordained and like Shane, walked through the remote jungle.

“After we’d filmed the first part, I started to cry. It was like making this movie helped me see my friend again. But when the shooting was over, I could no longer see her,” she says.

It took years for Anucha to be ready to make the project. “I think it was better to wait and make ‘Malila’ now that I am older. It brings more maturity to the film,” she explains.

But she admits that editing was tough and after more than 18 months on the task, she brought in professional editors Chonlasit Upanigkit and Lee Chatametikool.

“The difficulty was in balancing different things –the beauty of flowers and the swollen corpse, the meditative monkhood and the  sensual love scenes. Too much or little editing could destroy the whole movie,” she says, adding that she took great care to portray the love scenes between Sukollawat and Anuchyd as sensual yet realistic, reflecting their affection for each other while ensuring the audience didn’t feel uncomfortable. “If it is just a beautiful love scene, then it’s too superficial, I have to balance and do it carefully,” she adds.

The transgender director started her career by making short films. Her thesis “Taam Sai Naam” (“Down the River”) was well received and in 2012, her short film “Erotic Fragments No. 1, 2, 3” was screened in competition in Berlin Shorts at the Berlin International Film Festival. She returned to the festival for the second time in 2015 with her first feature film “Onthakan” (“The Blue Hour”), which screened in the Panorama section.

Today she owns and runs G Village, which works mainly on TV commercials. The company produced both “Onthakan” and “Malila”.

Binge i8s defined as completing at least one season of a show within 7 days of starting. A recent analysis focused on members who joined in the past five years. All TV series were included except for Kids/Family content and seasons with fewer than 5 episodes. More than 90 per cent of Netflix members who have been a member for at least one year have completed a first binge.

This Valentine’s Day, Netflix wants to help you remember your first time. Ask any of the 90 per cent of members who have done it, and they’ll be able to tell you who it was with, where they were (on a bus, if you’re “Mindhunter”’s Jonathan Groff) and how long it lasted (an impressive 3 days around the world, in most cases).

As for the shows that people from around the world fall in love with first, bad boys (and girls) came out on top. “Breaking Bad” is the most popular show that people binged first, with “Orange Is the New Black”, “Narcos”, “House of Cards” and “Prison Break” not far behind.

How about Thai viewers’ first time? We’re also falling for shows that leave us hanging, like “Stranger Things” and “Narcos”. While shows that aren’t afraid to push boundaries, like “13 Reasons Why” and “Million Yen Women”, round out the Top 10.

Do you remember your first binge?

Top 10 Global “First Binges” on Netflix

1. Breaking Bad

2. Orange is the New Black

3. The Walking Dead

4. Stranger Things

5. Narcos

6. House of Cards

7. Prison Break

8. 13 Reasons Why

9. Grey’s Anatomy

10. American Horror Story

Top 10 Thailand “First Binges” on Netflix

1. Stranger Things

2. Narcos

3. 13 Reasons Why

4. Marvel’s Iron Fist

5. Shooter

6. Breaking Bad

7. Riverdale

8. Million Yen Women

9. Orange Is the New Black

10. The Crown

Content by Discovery Networks is characterised by unparalleled production values, spectacular cinematography and compelling stories, and spans non-fiction genres including science, exploration, survival, natural history, sustainability of the environment, technology, anthropology, health and wellness, engineering, adventure, lifestyles and current events.

Discovery Channel features a variety of documentary programmes including “Ed Stafford: Left For Dead”, “Coopers Treasure”, “Naked And Afraid”, “Man Made Marvels Asia”, “Idris Elba: Fighter”, “Hacking the Wild” and “Deadliest Catch”.

The expanded programme also includes popular shows from TLC Channel, among them “Playhouse Masters”, “Beach Life With Angela Kan”, “The Kings”, “90 Day Fiance”, “Love at First Swipe”, “2 Dudes & A Kitchen”, “Stay Home Chef”, “United States of Bacon” and “Hair Goddess”.

Animal Planet shows an array of animal life programmes such as “Monsters Inside Me”, “African Wild”, “Meet the Penguins” “Dogs: The Untold Story” and “Wildest Islands of Indonesia”..

“Discovery captivates fans around the globe with high quality content designed to inform, entertain and inspire. We are excited to add Discovery’s most popular brands to our extensive portfolio of the world’s most beloved entertainment brands,” says Iflix Group Chief Content Officer, Sean Carey.

“Now, iflix subscribers across Asia can stream or download the best of Discovery’s library in a dynamic, easy-to-navigate interface.”

In addition to big global hits, the offering from Discovery also includes several local productions and localised programmes. From wild fishing adventures in Thailand and how to whip up dude food, to chicken beauty pageants in Indonesia and pressing conservation issues, these stories from and about Asia will appeal to local audiences.

The film will also be streaming on AIS Play and AIS PlayBox.

The HBO Films presentation dramatises the accounts of students, parents, teachers and administrators caught in America’s school-to-prison pipeline, which pushes underprivileged, minority youth out of the classroom and into incarceration. Drawn from interviews with more than 250 people living and working within a challenged system, and featuring Smith’s fearless portrayals of 18 real-life characters, the film shines a light on a lost generation of American youth, hoping to inspire awareness and change.

A full production of Smith’s “Notes from the Field” opened in late 2016 at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and immediately transferred to off-Broadway, opening at Second Stage Theatre in New York.

In HBO’s adaptation of the play, the focus is on the lack of opportunity and resources for young people living in poverty, which often leads them into the criminal justice system.

Enlightening and empathetic, the film tackles questions of race and class through compelling first-person stories, drawing on the accounts of well-known figures like Rep John Lewis, NAACP Legal Defence Fund president Sherrilyn Ifill and activist Bree Newsome, as well as everyday people struggling in a broken system. Culled from hours of interviews conducted by Smith with more than 250 people across the country, “Notes From the Field” showcases her extraordinary gift for transforming herself into diverse characters as she recreates each person’s speech patterns, movements and emotions.

Filmed in front of a live audience and intercut with haunting video footage and photographs, the film features accompaniment by jazz bassist Marcus Shelby.

The full stage production of “Notes from the Field” ran at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge and at Second Stage in New York from August to December 2016. It serves as a centrepiece of Smith’s social-justice initiative “The Pipeline Project”, which began in 2013 and seeks to extend the conversation of pressing issues beyond theatre and into America’s communities.

Smith’s numerous honours include the MacArthur Fellowship, the National Humanities Medal, presented by President Obama, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, the George Polk Award in Journalism and two Tony Award nominations. She was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play “Fires in the Mirror”. She is Smith is currently a professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

On Monday, March 5 (Bangkok time), the 90th Academy Awards will stream “live” on HBO GO via AIS Play and AIS PlayBox and will also be broadcast live starting with the Oscars Red Carpet ‘Live’ from 6.30am followed by The 90th Academy Awards ‘Live’ at 8am.

Both programmes will be repeated the same night on HBO at 6pm and 7pm respectively.

HBO Asia’s social media crew and actor and host, Utt Panichkul, will be on the star-studded 2018 Oscars red carpet to interview Hollywood’s elite. These exclusive Oscars red carpet moments including video interviews with celebrities, behind-the-scene pictures from the red carpet and heartfelt celebrity shout outs will be available on the network’s social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

HBO Asia’s dedicated Oscars website will also feature an exclusive webcast of the star-studded ceremony including backstage interviews with the winners as they come off stage after accepting their awards and exclusive clips showcasing major moments of the Oscars ceremony

The popular Marvel original series “Jessica Jones” returns for a second season on International Women’s Day, March 8 on Netflix.

The series depicts New York City private investigator Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) who is beginning to put her life back together after murdering her tormentor, Kilgrave. Now known throughout the city as a superpowered killer, a new case makes her reluctantly confront who she really is while digging deeper into her past to explore the reasons why.

The new trailer shows Jessica exploring the death of her parents and finding out how she gains powers that seem to come from the mysterious experiments. Ritter is joined by a returning cast that includes Rachael Taylor as Trish Walker, CarrieAnne Moss as Jeri Hogarth and Eka Darville as Malcolm Ducasse plus new cast members Janet McTeer and JR Ramirez.

Jessica Jones is a 2015 Netflix original series based on the Marvel comic book “Alias” and has been hailed as one of the most successful series of the Marvel universe.

Watch the trailers at YouTube.com/watch?v=6YaMBV2ZgZI.