JAPANESE NAVY KILLS KONG

Haruki Kadokawa's YAMATO: THE LAST BATTLE opened in Japan last weekend and the first thing it did was tromp KING KONG ($2.9 million on only 354 screens, as opposed to the $2.7 million KONG made on 800 screens) and now it looks like it's going to be Japan's big hit for the year, beating out BAYSIDE SHAKEDOWN spin-off, THE NEGOTIATOR (which took in $36 million).

This is a comeback for Haruki Kadokawa (read about his Hitler Haiku and old coke habit) and the movie has been denounced for representing a surge in Japanese nationalism. The story is about the massive battleship Yamato that Japan built in WWII and was promptly sunk by the US Air Force. On that same note, while Korean culture has taken off in Japan it's also spawned a nasty backlash with anti-Korean sentiment growing in some circles.

On the positive side, this looks like yet another feather in the Asian film industries' collective caps. Korea held onto a 55% box office share, with ticket sales up by .2%. China's box office is up from 2004 by US$62 million and with film production reaching a new high. It also looks like domestic films in Hong Kong have had a good year with movies like ELECTION and SHA PO LANG turning out to be surprise hits.

So while the US box office has been a source of hair pulling, it looks like several Asian countries may have had very good years.