NORTH AMERICAN DIGITAL RELEASE
North American digital distributor Echelon Studios has come on board “12.12: The Day,” the highest grossing film from Korea last year.
The film has been on theatrical release in North America, through 815 Pictures since last year and grossed over $1 million. Echelon said that the film will have a streaming release later this year. It will also be available to pre-order to own on iTunes, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube Movies, Vudu, Vimeo OnDemand and OnDemand Korea shortly.
Directed by Kim Sung-su and with a Korean gross exceeding $90 million, the action drama is based on true events in December 1979, which resulted in an eight-year military junta in South Korea.
The film stars Hwang Jung-min (“Deliver Us from Evil”), Jung Woo-sung (“Asura: The City of Madness”), Lee Sung-min (“The Spy Gone North”), Park Hae-joon (“Believer”), Kang Gil-woo (Netflix series “The Glory”), and Jung Hae-in (Netflix’s “D.P.”).
TREASURE ISLAND
Principal photography has now wrapped on Kent Donguines’ feature documentary, “Treasure of the Rice Terraces,” produced by Crawford Filmworks and Aimer Films. Donguines is the first Filipino-Canadian filmmaker to travel to Buscalan, a secluded mountain community in Tinglayan, Kalinga, Philippines, to find the legendary artist Apo Whang-Od and her apprentices to learn about the history and symbolism of Kalinga tattoos.
“Treasure of the Rice Terraces” explores how this old practice, once banned and despised in Philippine society, is evolving into a chic and in-demand type of body art that has become a source of pride and belonging for many Filipinos, both at home and abroad. The documentary highlights the importance of preserving the tattoo culture for future generations and the challenges faced by the community in doing so. It also delves into the issues of stolen mummified bodies, cultural appropriation, stigmatization, and discrimination faced by tattooed individuals.
Anthropologist, Lars Krutak, Kim “Kuya Kim” Atienza, Miss Universe Philippines 2023 Michelle Dee, and Designer Mark Bumgarner are among the people interviewed for this documentary. Knowledge Network has the Canadian rights to the film.
SILENT SEASONS
Rabbit Films is to give birth to two additional seasons of “Silent Library Suomi,” a Finnish adaptation of a Nippon TV format. The first two seasons aired on the Walt Disney Company-owned Star Channel with 36 episodes in 2023, and a fourth season is also planned for autumn 2024. Riku Rantala, the multi-talented reporter, author, and host of a popular local documentary program, will continue to navigate the series.
First airing in 2001 on Nippon TV, Silent Library has been a primetime, family-oriented television sensation in Japan. It was created by the legendary Japanese comedian Matsumoto Hitoshi from the famed duo DOWNTOWN, and is produced by Nippon TV in association with Yoshimoto Kogyo.
Since its launch as an international format in 2007, local versions of Silent Library have been developed in more than 20 countries around the world, including MTV in the U.S.
