By Patrick Frater According To The variety)  “Escape,” a Korean-made action drama that has been on release for most of the month, took the lead at the South Korean box office over the latest weekend. The film recounts the story of a North Korean soldier who dreams of defecting and the South Korean officer who pursues him. It is directed by Lee Jong-pil, who previously made surprise 2020 hit “Samjin Company English Class.” It stars Lee Je-hoon and Koo Kyo-hwan in the lead roles. “Escape” earned $2.61 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That represented an unusual 7% week-on-week gain for the film, suggesting strong word of mouth sentiment. After 19 days on release “Escape” ...

By Naman Ramachandran According To The variety)  Veteran Indian director and actor Aparna Sen‘s new project “Her Indian Summer” is set to be developed as an Indo-U.K. co-production, it was revealed during a recent London retrospective of her work. The film, a mixed-race love story set against the backdrop of the 1947 partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, is being produced by Kolkata-based Indian producer-director Aritra Sen and Los Angeles-based British writer-director Alex Harvey’s Big Bazaar Films. Sen came to notice as an actor with the “Samapti” segment in Oscar winner Satyajit Ray’s “Three Daughters” (1961). She acted in several more films by Ray and also worked with Indian cinema greats Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha and Rituparno Ghosh. Her acting c...