CHARON - Introduction

A film produced in Japan for a worldwide audience (1)

While he enjoys his role as an active player on the Asian stage,
film director Gen Takahashi recognizes that the motion picture market is
fundamentally international in nature. This global perspective informs
his filmmaking debut with Grand Cafe Pictures,
an unabashed "heart warming film noir" entitled Charon.

The initial production costs for Charon are a mere 20 million yen (about US$180,000). Yet the maturity of this film belies its modest budget, guided by the sure hands of professionals with a long and productive career in the Asian film business. Takahashi and his team have now begun work on this production, focusing on 35mm film as a cost-effective means of reaching an international audience. At the same time Grand Cafe Pictures is building a support base through its website, attracting funding from film aficionados worldwide.

The producer is Paul Cheng, familiar to Japanese and Hong Kong audiences as the creative vision behind such films as Fuyajo, Kitchen and Moonlight Express. Cheng, who lends his talents to this project as co-producer with Grand Cafe Pictures, has built a formidable reputation as an action director, is supporting some of the film world's best-known names. His impressive filmography includes work with some of the best-known names in Asian cinema, including Jackie Chan; Chinese master director Zhang Yimou; and Yuen Wu Ping, director of the Matrix series and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

he idea for this film was born when Cheng approached Takahashi, who had moved his base of operations to Shanghai in 2002, and asked him to film "a universal heart warming story that will strike a chord with people everywhere." This proposal marked the beginning of the production of Charon

> Next Page