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“Emerald Hill” hits 1.35m views in Singapore; Mediacorp Chinese drama breaks domestic records
Mid-way through its 30-episode season, Mediacorp drama “Emerald Hill” hit a record 1.35 million viewers on streaming platform mewatch and free-TV broadcast service, Channel 8. This made the series the Singapore media company’s most-watched drama of the year. On Netflix, “Emerald Hill” has seen off competition from global phenomena such as “Adolescence”, and Korean blockbuster “Karma”. For the week of 7-13 April, “Emerald Hill” was Netflix’s #1 title in Singapore for the fourth week since its premiere on 10 March. Other than South Korea, Singapore and Japan were the only two of 11 markets in Asia where domestic series are holding firm against competition. ▶ Read the full story here

Toho plans US$1.47-billion investment over three years; Japanese giant eyes anime and international development
Toho Co, already Japan’s largest integrated film company, is investing ¥70 billion/US$489 million over the next three years in new content. An additional  ¥120 billion/US$839 million has been earmarked over three years on corporate acquisitions and the opening of multiplex cinemas. ▶ Read the full story here

“I started to realise how uniquely Japanese I was”; Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ema Ryan Yamazaki talks to the Asian AV Club
Oscar-nominated Japanese-British director Ema Ryan Yamazaki found her feet as a documentary feature filmmaker in the story of the couple who created kids’ character, “Curious George”. In a wide-ranging interview, she talked to the Asian A.V. Club about pivotal moments in her creative life, including the realisation that the answer to her most searching questions – “Why me? What can I bring that’s unique?” – lay in Japan. “I began to see qualities I inherited from my upbringing in Japan as strengths rather than sources of suffocation”. ▶ Read the full story here

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