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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a 2008 fantasy adventure film, based on the novel by J. K. Rowling. It is the sixth film in the popular Harry Potter films series. Production is in the post-production stage. David Yates, the director of the fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is returning as director for this film. David Heyman and David Barron are producing the film, and Steve Kloves, though he did not write the fifth film, has returned as screenwriter for this instalment. Filming began on September 24, 2007 and the film is scheduled for a UK and US release on November 21, 2008, South Africa on December 5, 2008, and an Australian release on December 11, 2008. Like the previous film, the sixth film will be simultaneously released in regular theatres and IMAX 3-D. Editing of the movie has been completed and studio officials will soon see the finished product. The film has been chosen to be screened at this year’s Royal Film Performance on 17 November 2008.
The films teaser trailer has been officially released online as of 30 July 2008.
Cast:
• Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, who is now entering his sixth year at Hogwarts, with the wizarding world at war.
• Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, one of Harry’s two best friends. He develops a relationship with Lavender Brown.
• Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, one of Harry’s two best friends. Watson considered not returning for the sixth film, but eventually decided that “the pluses outweighed the minuses” and could not bear to see anyone else play Hermione.
• Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore. The legendary wizard and headmaster of Hogwarts. The revelation of Dumbledore’s sexuality prompted Gambon to “camp up” around the set when off camera, but his on-screen performance is expected to remain unchanged from the previous films.
• Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn, the newly appointed Hogwarts Potions master. Broadbent described his costumes as “tweedy”, and his character as “comic”, while Radcliffe noted that “[Slughorn's] tragedy will outweigh the comedy”.
• Alan Rickman as Severus Snape, the former Potions master, who finally achieves his goal of becoming Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.
• Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy, a classmate of Harry, who Harry suspects of carrying out a task for Voldemort across the year, and son of Narcissa Malfoy and nephew to Bellatrix. Unknown actor Tony Coburn will play Lucius Malfoy in a Hogwarts flashback.
• Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley, Ron’s younger sister in her fifth year, for whom Harry develops intense romantic feelings. Her feelings for Harry really never changed, and they finally become a couple near the end of the school year.
• Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom, a friend of Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny.
• Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood, a friend of Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny.
• Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper and Care of Magical Creatures teacher.
• Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall, the Hogwarts Transfiguration teacher, deputy headmistress and head of Gryffindor.
• David Thewlis as Remus Lupin, a member of the Order of the Phoenix and former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.
• Natalia Tena as Nymphadora Tonks, a member of the Order of the Phoenix.
• Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy, Draco’s mother and younger sister of Bellatrix. McCrory was originally cast as Bellatrix Lestrange in Order of the Phoenix, but had to drop out due to pregnancy. Naomi Watts was previously reported as having accepted the role, only for it to be denied by her agency.
• Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, one of Voldemort’s principal Death Eaters, older sister of Narcissa Malfoy, aunt to Draco, and cousin of Sirius Black.
• Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew, one of Voldemort’s principal Death Eaters.
• Mark Williams and Julie Walters as Arthur and Molly Weasley, Ron and Ginny’s parents.
• Jessie Cave as Lavender Brown, Ron’s girlfriend. Watson described her as “perfect for the role,” although Cave did not attend the open auditions. An open casting call was held for the part on 1 July 2007. Over 7,000 girls turned out for the audition and read from a scene with Madam Pomfrey, Hermione, and Ron. Yates tested Grint with the top five choices for Lavender, reading certain lines and kissing, to see which pairing had the best chemistry.
The Japanese Film Festival or Eiga Sai organized by the Japan Foundation in cooperation with the Embassy of Japan as part of the Philippines-Japan Friendship Month Celebration had showned 3 movies in Gaisano South Citimall Cinema last 25 & 26 of July 2008.
The three movies were: Hanging Garden, Linda Linda Linda and my favorite is We Shall Overcome Someday (Pacchigi). 
Awarded the top spot in Japan’s prestigious Kinema Junpo critic’s poll, this film doles out equal amounts of tender romance and bottle breaking brawling in a Romeo and Juliet tale of clashing cultures in Kyoto in 1968. Currently, Japan is in the midst of a faddish love affair with Korean pop and is gobbling up their TV dramas and music idols by the handful, but as this film shows there has long been a deep enmity between the Japanese and the Koreans who were brought over to work in Japan and settled there. In one very powerful scene a Japanese student is angrily asked to leave the funeral of his Korean friend followed by an embittered tirade of the injustices that have been levied against the Korean population in Japan.
It is a stunning moment in a film that until then had left much of this unstated but had simply focused on the intense dislike between two high schools divided by a river and by ethnicity. History is an even bigger divide it turns out. Amusing at times, wrenching at others, the film is fueled by winning performances, a sense of nostalgia and an underlying human element that speaks volumes to the fact that with all of our differences we are still just people trying to do the best we can for our family, our friends and ourselves. The Kamo River cuts from north to south through the city of Kyoto and on one side lives the Korean locals who do their best to preserve their culture, avoid the Japanese and dream of going home to Korea someday. In a symbolic way this river reminds the Koreans of their old homeland which is separated as well and they sing longingly of it in the song “The Imjin River”.
The two cultures bang heads one afternoon when a couple of insolent Japanese high school students wander into the Korean part of town on a school outing and mess with a few neighborhood girls. This brings down the wrath of the nearby Korean high school and the Japanese students are taught a lesson when they are beaten and then for good measure their school bus is tipped over. Caught in this melee is the innocent Kosuke (Shun Shioya), who has just styled his hair into a bowl look to impress the girls (not a chance) and wants to learn to play guitar. As the bus begins to topple over he gets a quick glimpse of the adorable Kyung-ja (Erika Sawajiri – “Shinobi”) and is instantly infatuated.
When Kosuke’s teacher hears of the altercation, he insists that the two groups try and bond over a game of soccer (“only war can defeat war”) and he sends Kosuke and his equally timid friend Yoshio (Keisuke Koide) to the Korean school to deliver the invitation. In a state of near paralysis the two go into the school and meet instant hostility and threats and go scooting off through the hallways – until Kosuke hears a lilting flute playing a song and he peers into the classroom only to see the same girl he saw on the previously day. In an effort to win her heart he learns the song on his guitar and some Korean to woo her. They begin to shyly date, but the fighting between the Koreans and Japanese escalates with Kyung-ja’s tough brother Ang Son (Sosuke Takaoka) leading the Korean forces. There seems little chance for the couple to seal their love among such bitterness until Kosuke plays the song he learned – The Imjin River – on the radio and in a finale that sent shivers down my spine the melancholy song wafts over the city at night as two large forces break into a fight on the river bank, a friend is put to rest, a baby is born into the world and a young woman runs to the man she loves.
DAVAO CITY, July 29, 2008 –The Ateneo de Davao University will be the venue of the first international media conference organized by the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) this coming August 21-23.
The theme of the conference is “Media in Asia: A Tool for Human Rights Education and Monitoring” is expected to tackle issues on human rights both in an academic and practical perspective.
Organizers said that expected participants include mass communication educators from the Philippines and neighboring Asian countries, students, media practitioners, government public information officers, people’s organization, and other interested individuals.
Director of Special Projects Alan Davis of the London-based Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) will be the keynote speaker.
The communiqué stated that the plenary speakers for day two (22 August) are Prof. Rachel E. Khan , journalism chair of the University of the Philippines Diliman who will give a talk on Media Ethics and Human Rights Training; Dr. Lisa Brooten, faculty of Radio-Television, Mass Communication and Media Arts, Southern Illinois University USA to talk about Human Rights in Asia: A Comparative Analysis, and Dr. Isagani R. Cruz, former Philippine Undersecretary of Education and a University Fellow at De La Salle University in Manila who will discuss Media from English, Not Media In English.
Plenary speakers for day three (23 August) are Atty. Alicia A. Risos-Vidal, National Director for Bar Discipline of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) who will discuss Media Bites, Media Rights and Media Law; Dr. Esther J. Esteban, professor of both graduate and undergraduate programs of the School of Education in University of Asia and the Pacific to discuss Gender and Child Sensitivity in Media, and Prof. Boots Anson –Roa, a TV and film personality and the executive director of Mowelfund Inc., to tackle Film As Instrument in Understanding Democracy.
ACMC is a Philippine-based Asian-wide professional organization of lecturers, practitioners, and students in the field of media, communication, and language education.
“ACMC is a non-stock, non-profit organization registered under the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission. Its primary purpose is to provide an avenue for academic discourse among institutions of media and communication,” read the communiqué.
However, “as a by-product, members are able: to establish linkages and networks among institutions of media and communication in Asia, to update knowledge of theory and practice in the field among practitioners and in the academe, to provide scholarships for students, lecturers, and practitioners of media and communication, and to mobilize people empowerment and participation through social responsibilities and projects,” the communiqué further stated.
The initiative of ACMC will expose media and communication educators to the complex interconnections between media, communication, languages and human rights at a time when both have become central tenets of political, cultural and policy debate. CBCP News(Mark S. Ventura w/PR)
Based on the life of drug-kingpin-turned-informant, Frank Lucas, who grew up in segregated North Carolina where he watched as his cousin was shot by the Klan for looking at a white girl. He eventually made his way to Harlem where he became a heroin kingpin by traveling to Asia’s Golden Triangle to make connections, shipping heroin back to the US in the coffins of soldiers killed in Vietnam. He soon made upwards of one million dollars a day in drug sales. Lucas was shadowed by lawman, Richie Roberts, who finally helped bring the kingpin to justice. The two then worked together to expose the crooked cops and foreign nationals who made importing heroin so easy.
