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Asian cinema has always had a degree of popularity in Western culture, but all too often they were done a huge disservice by being remade instead of shown in their original state.

That trend is changing drastically, with films such as Crazy Rich Asians finding success and leading viewers down the exciting pathway towards genuine Asian films. A post by Time reported that it was the first film by a major Hollywood studio that featured a majority cast of Asian descent in a modern setting since 1993 and that it had the potential to change Hollywood.

BFI suggest it was hard to find East Asian films in UK cinemas a couple of years ago, but that is a situation that’s now rapidly evolving. The Climbers is a recent release which our article explains was shown in cinemas across the United Kingdom.

The thirst for Asian movies has increased dramatically, but...

U.S. producer David Permut and Japanese director Naomi Kawase have joined the jury for the upcoming Shanghai International Film Festival. The jury is to be headed by Chinese director and actor Jiang Wen.

Others joining the jury, which decides the festival’s Golden Goblety (Jin Jue) Awards, include Hungarian director Ildiko Enyedi, Turkish director-producer Semih Kaplanoglu, mainland Chinese actress Qin Hailu and Taiwan actor Chang Chen, who was recently on the jury in Cannes.

The festival boasts other connections with Cannes too. The Cannes Film Market party was this year sponsored by Siff. And Shanghai organizers claim to be stepping up co-operation with other major festivals around the world, led by Cannes.

The appointment of Jiang and the announcement of a “Sissi trilogy” to celebrate the 80th birthday of the late Romy Schneider, was announced in March. Others in the Classics section include 4K restored versions of several titles directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Junichi Kajioka is a Japanese actor – trained in China – and also a writer-director based in London. He acted in “Spectre”, “47 Ronin” and “Johnny English Strikes Again” in the UK and works also in China and India. He has established his own production company Culture Bridge Productions in the UK and has already produced “Imphal 1944” and “Sugihara Survivors: Jewish and Japanese, Past and Future”. He has been actively involved in film festivals around the world and has been on juries at film festivals in India and Turkey.

On the occasion of his screenings at the Japan Film Fest in Hamburg and New York, we speak with him about his films, acting work, his future projects, and other topics.

2017 has been quite a successful year for your films. Tell us a bit about the progress of Imphal 1944 and Sugihara Survivors.

Imphal 1944 was nominated at film festivals in Japan, London and Nice this year.

Warner Bros. in China has boarded the upcoming “Hidden Man,” by cult director Jiang Wen.

Jiang has had a career that lurched from being banned for his “Devils on the Doorstep” directorial effort, through to today being one of China’s most celebrated actor-directors. He recently starred in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”

The film is produced by Gravity Pictures, one of the production and distribution companies within Li Ruigang’s China Media Capital group. Warner’s investment comes through Flagship Entertainment, the Beijing and Hong Kong joint venture between Warner and Cmc. It is currently unclear what rights the studio obtains in exchange for its investment.

The film is pitched as the third element in a loose trilogy that stared with “Let The Bullets Fly” and continued with “Gone With The Bullets.” Both mix up old time gangsters, decadent high life, and power grabs, throwing up political analogies...

Warner Bros. has boarded Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen's forthcoming tentpole Hidden Man as a co-producer, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The film, set for release sometime this summer, is Jiang's first Chinese project since 2014's Gone With the Bullets, which earned $81 million. Jiang is a legend of the Chinese industry — early work included a starring role in Zhang Yimou's classic Red Sorghum and Cannes Grand Prix winner Devils on the Doorstep — but he became a familiar face to filmgoers worldwide thanks to his prominent role in Lucasfilm's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as Baze Malbus.

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Warner Bros. has boarded Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen's forthcoming tentpole Hidden Man as a co-producer, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The film, set for release sometime this summer, is Jiang's first Chinese project since 2014's Gone With the Bullets, which earned $81 million. Jiang is a legend of the Chinese industry — early work included a starring role in Zhang Yimou's classic Red Sorghum and Cannes Grand Prix winner Devils on the Doorstep — but he became a familiar face to filmgoers worldwide thanks to his prominent role in Lucasfilm's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as Baze Malbus.

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BEIJING -- Hong Kong-based Emperor Motion Pictures took "a significant equity position" and will handle worldwide sales for mainland Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen's $10 million picture The Sun Also Rises, executives said Thursday.

Jiang's production company, Beijing Buyilehu Film Co., finished shooting last week in Beijing on his first film as a director since the controversial Cannes Grand Prix winner Devils On the Doorstep (2000), Emperor Motion Pictures said.

"Sun" stars Jiang, Anthony Wong, Jaycee Chan, Joan Chen, Zhou Yun and Kong Yishan. It is Jiang's third film as a director. Jiang co-wrote "Sun" with Guo Shixing and longtime collaborator Wang Shuping.

"We are absolutely delighted at finally concluding our negotiations," EMP chief executive Albert Lee said in a statement. "Jiang Wen is unquestionably one of the most brilliant Chinese filmmakers of his generation and, hopefully, 'The Sun Also Rises' will mark the first of many collaborations between us."

Jiang, 43, is perhaps best known outside China for his starring role opposite Gong Li in director Zhang Yimou's 1987 film Red Sorghum.

Jiang made his directing debut with In the Heat of the Sun, which won the Volpi Cup for its lead actor, Xia Yu, at the Venice International Film Festival in 1994.

BEIJING -- Banned in China since winning the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2000, Devils at the Doorstep, about the excesses of the Sino-Japanese war, was released on DVD here this week, heavily edited and apparently without the permission of the copyright holder or the director. The DVD was released Wednesday, by Qiaojiaren Audio Visual Co. of Guangzhou. But on Friday, Dong Ping, general manager of the film's copyright holder Poly Buona, said he was not even aware of the release. "We have never signed any contract with any company to distribute a DVD of 'Guizi Lai Le, ' " Dong said, calling the film by its Mandarin name. " 'Devils' has never screened in China," Dong said, because it did not pass muster with the censors at the state Film Bureau. An assistant to the film's director and star, Jiang Wen (best known in the West as the lead in Zhang Yimou's Red Sorghum), said Jiang also was unaware of the release.

PARIS -- Steven Soderbergh and Meg Ryan will be on the jury for the 56th Festival de Cannes, which runs May 14-25, organizers said Wednesday. French actor Jean Rochefort, Indian actress Aishwarya Rai, Italian writer Erri De Luca and French actress Karin Viard round out the panel. The jury will be presided over by French actor-director Patrice Chereau. Other directors on the panel are China's Jiang Wen, who scooped the Cannes Jury Prize in 2000 for Devils on the Doorstep, and Bosnian helmer Danis Tanovic, who won the best screenplay award at Cannes in 2001 for his Oscar-winning movie, No Man's Land. Soderbergh's debut film, sex, lies, and videotape, won the Palme d'Or in 1989. Festival organizers are due to unveil Wednesday the 20-plus Competition movie titles from which the jury will select its winners.