HOLLYWOOD’S biggest filmmakers have struck a deal to make watching movies at home more like they intended — even as they fight to keep the cinemas relevant.

MARTIN SCORSESE’s highly anticipated new mob drama The Irishman may turn into a case of “catch it if you can” as far as traditional moviegoers are concerned.

YOUTUBE said it will launch a separate website for children after the Google-owned service was criticized and investigated for showing inappropriate videos to kids on its main site.

SHANNON MCGREW admits she’s had it a little easier than other women establishing her chops as an online film critic.

FINALLY Quentin Tarantino’s mildly racist, markedly misogynistic, mostly masturbatory Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has hit Filipino screens and if all indications prove correct it will be a major hit. Maybe not as big a hit as Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame (which I didn’t like much either) but I do love the way folks have spun the popularity of Tarantino’s wankfest: as one of the rare non-sequel non-franchise pictures to open to good box office.

5 films to see on the week of August 30 — September 5, 2019

SOLAIRE Resort and Casino presents MaestroRy, a special, one-night only tribute concert to National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab, on Aug. 31, 8 p.m., at The Theatre at Solaire.

URBAN ELECTRO band NU’EST returns with five members, a new album, and a concert tour which is making a stop in the Philippines. PULP Live World brings the band’s members — JR, Aron, Baekho, Minhyun, and Ren — here for the 2019 NU’EST Concert in Manila, which will be on Aug. 31 at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City. For details visit www.pulp.ph.

THE WORD “raw” can capture an image of boorishness. We humans think that something is only worthy of attention when it has been touched by our numerous complications. It takes a certain elegance and skill to present food safely and tastily in its rawest form, for example, sashimi. In sashimi, there is a communion between nature and humanity, the tongue getting a taste of what the universe has created in its truest, most honest, and yet proudest form, aided with minimal intervention by the human hand.

THAILAND’S CLIMATE — social and meteorological — makes for perfect culinary theater. Spices and herbs grow in abundance, while influences are gathered from high and low, from different regions like China, India, and Portugal through trade; to different classes: from the royal family itself down to the common people.

RAMEN-YA or ramen restaurants have become so popular in the country that most malls have more than one offering some form of noodle soup from some region of Japan. Such is the focus of these restaurants to maintain that authentic taste, a bowl of good ramen will set one back around P500 so it was a pleasant surprise to find a good ramen restaurant offering a complete meal for the same price.

MICHELIN-STAR chef Yoshiaki Ito of Paris-based L’Archeste restaurant and Epilogue resident chef, Hiroyuki Meno were once colleagues at the prestigious Hiramatsu restaurant chain. The Hiramatsu group is a publicly listed company from Japan, headquartered in Tokyo, and engaged in the operation of French and Italian restaurants. The Hiramatsu group operates several successful restaurants all over Japan, and has also one in France under its eponymous brand, the Restaurant Hiramatsu Paris.