The Japan Academy Film Prize Association held the 47th edition of its awards ceremony on March 8, 2024. The nominees are selected by the Nippon Academy-Sho Association of industry professionals from the pool of film releases between January 1 and December 31, 2023 which must have screened in Tokyo cinemas.
Following its success at the recent Blue Ribbon Awards and leading with 12 nominations, Toho Studios' and Takashi Yamazaki's kaiju cinema masterpiece “Godzilla Minus One” takes top honours winning Picture of the Year and a slew of technical awards. Sakura Ando cements her place as one of Japan's top actresses securing both awards for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (for “Monster”) as well as Supporting Role (for “Godzilla Minus One”).
The full list of winners is described below.
Picture of the Year
Monster
Godzilla Minus One
Mom, Is That You?!
September 1923
Perfect Days
Animation of the Year
Kitaro Tanjo – GeGeGe no...
Following its success at the recent Blue Ribbon Awards and leading with 12 nominations, Toho Studios' and Takashi Yamazaki's kaiju cinema masterpiece “Godzilla Minus One” takes top honours winning Picture of the Year and a slew of technical awards. Sakura Ando cements her place as one of Japan's top actresses securing both awards for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (for “Monster”) as well as Supporting Role (for “Godzilla Minus One”).
The full list of winners is described below.
Picture of the Year
Monster
Godzilla Minus One
Mom, Is That You?!
September 1923
Perfect Days
Animation of the Year
Kitaro Tanjo – GeGeGe no...
- 3/12/2024
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
Director and screenwriter Haruhiko Arai worked as an assistant director for Wakamatsu Productions before making his screenwriting debut with Shinjuku, Messy District: I'll Be There (1977), directed by Chusei Sone. He established his reputation in Japan and worldwide with works such as W's Tragedy (1984), Flakes of Snow (1985), and Someday (2011). For the latter Haruhiko received the Screenplay of the Year Award by the Japan Academy Film Prize. Body and Soul (1997) was his directorial debut. A Spoiling Rain (2023), IFFR 2024 selection, is his fourth feature film.
On the occasion of “A Spoiling Rain” screening at IFFR, we speak with him about the changes he have seen in the industry through the years, love and sex, adapting the particular novel, the casting and the current situation of the Japanese film industry.
translation by Shione Kunimori
My name is Haruhiko Arai. It has been 27 years since I was at the IFFR last time. 27 years ago, I...
On the occasion of “A Spoiling Rain” screening at IFFR, we speak with him about the changes he have seen in the industry through the years, love and sex, adapting the particular novel, the casting and the current situation of the Japanese film industry.
translation by Shione Kunimori
My name is Haruhiko Arai. It has been 27 years since I was at the IFFR last time. 27 years ago, I...
- 2/11/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
It seems that the approach Nikkatsu has been implementing for the pinku film through her Roman Porno is creating ripples in the Japanese movie industry, with Toei also following suit, through the same, more sensitive to the times approach, that also focuses on women as much as on men. Haruhiko Arai has been another ‘champion' of the approach, as witnessed in his previous work, “It Feels So Good”. “A Spoiling Rain”, based on the Akutagawa Prize-winning 2000 novella “Hanakutasi” by Hisaki Matsuura, follows in the same footsteps, although the focus on the actual Japanese movie industry gives it a more personal sense, since Arai, as a scriptwriter, got his start as a screenwriter in Nikkatsu's Roman Porno.
A Spoiling Rain is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam
Two bodies wash on a beach in the winter of 2012, in a lover's suicide involving actress Shoko Kirioka and director Kuwayama. It is left to Suichi Kutani,...
A Spoiling Rain is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam
Two bodies wash on a beach in the winter of 2012, in a lover's suicide involving actress Shoko Kirioka and director Kuwayama. It is left to Suichi Kutani,...
- 1/29/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The concept of the art-house erotic film is quite new, in Asian cinema at least, as in the moment there are very few entries in the category, if one could even call it that. Titles like “It Feels so Good” by Haruhiko Arai and “White River” by Ma Xue are the first that come to mind, with “In the Morning of La Petite Mort” also moving towards the same, quite unusual direction.
“In the Morning of La Petite Mort” will premiere on VOD & Digital on January 19, 2024, courtesy of Film Movement
Ching is a beautiful young prostitute who lives in a stylish apartment where she “services” mostly elderly men, essentially just for the money since she seems not to enjoy herself at all. Matsui is a homeless food delivery driver, who spends his days from destination to destination to deliver goods and his nights to find a place to stay. Eventually,...
“In the Morning of La Petite Mort” will premiere on VOD & Digital on January 19, 2024, courtesy of Film Movement
Ching is a beautiful young prostitute who lives in a stylish apartment where she “services” mostly elderly men, essentially just for the money since she seems not to enjoy herself at all. Matsui is a homeless food delivery driver, who spends his days from destination to destination to deliver goods and his nights to find a place to stay. Eventually,...
- 1/19/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
In exchange for his overdue rent, Kutani, an out-of-job director in Japan's declining adult film industry, is recruited by his landlord to evict another tenant, Iseki. A struggling screenwriter, Iseki is surprised by the rain-drenched Kutani's unconventional manner and invites him inside to dry off. Over several drinks, the men recount their failed relationships, unaware that they have more in common than they expect.
Transplanting Matsuura Hisaki's eponymous 2001 source novel to post-Fukushima Japan, veteran screenwriter Haruhiko Arai's A Spoiling Rain presents a lush and melancholy ode to failure. Centered on deadbeats cast adrift in a waning world, the film oscillates between the present and the past, charting the parallel decay of two relationships which seem to mirror the waning fortunes of the pink film industry.
With an offhand irony that comes with certain life experiences, A Spoiling Rain delivers an account of male self-deception, doomed to wreck lives and...
Transplanting Matsuura Hisaki's eponymous 2001 source novel to post-Fukushima Japan, veteran screenwriter Haruhiko Arai's A Spoiling Rain presents a lush and melancholy ode to failure. Centered on deadbeats cast adrift in a waning world, the film oscillates between the present and the past, charting the parallel decay of two relationships which seem to mirror the waning fortunes of the pink film industry.
With an offhand irony that comes with certain life experiences, A Spoiling Rain delivers an account of male self-deception, doomed to wreck lives and...
- 1/10/2024
- by Don Anelli
- AsianMoviePulse
“The Woman with Red Hair” is probably the most acclaimed work of the late Tatsumi Kumashiro, one of the most celebrated directors within the pinku genre whose pink films even made it repeatedly to the Kinema Junpo’s Best 10 of the year. This particular one was number 4 that year, and was also nominated for four awards (although it did not win any) from the Japanese Academy, including Best Director, Best Screenplay for Haruhiko Arai, Best Sound for Fumio Hashimoto and Best Actress for Junko Muyashita, who actually won the accolade from the Hochi Film Awards.
The film focuses on the friendship between two construction workers, Kozo and Takao, with the first one being a specialist worker and thus much cherished and somewhat higher up the chain, and the second a simpleton who idolizes him for the most part. The story begins when the boss’s daughter, Kazuko (played by Ako...
The film focuses on the friendship between two construction workers, Kozo and Takao, with the first one being a specialist worker and thus much cherished and somewhat higher up the chain, and the second a simpleton who idolizes him for the most part. The story begins when the boss’s daughter, Kazuko (played by Ako...
- 3/29/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Haruhiko Arai (recently portrayed by Kisetsu Fujiwara in “Dare to Stop Us“) has always been a somewhat controversial personality in his more than 40 years in the movie industry, although his prowess in script writing is undeniable. One of the elements that make his work stand out, is that he is one of the few Japanese artists who uses explicit sex in organic fashion in his movies, not mainly to titillate, but as part of the overall narrative, with films like “Vibrator” and “Kabukicho Love Hotel” highlighting this trait in the best fashion. This approach is also obvious in his third (fourth if you count a co-director credit in “Gushing Prayer“) directorial effort which netted him awards from Kinema Junpo and Yokohama Film Festival.
It Feels so Good is screening at Camera Japan
Akita and Naoko are cousins but also used to be lovers some time ago. Since then, however, their...
It Feels so Good is screening at Camera Japan
Akita and Naoko are cousins but also used to be lovers some time ago. Since then, however, their...
- 9/24/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Exclusive: North America’s largest festival of contemporary Japanese cinema, Japan Cuts, has selected 30 features and 12 shorts for a 2020 edition that will take place entirely online due to continued corona disruption.
Running July 17-30, the traditionally New York-based event will instead be available across the country via a digital platform set up in partnership with Festival Scope and Shift72. Films will be made available to rent with a limited number or virtual tickets per title, priced at $2–$7 with discounted bundles.
Alongside screenings, there will also be virtual Q&As, discussion panels, and video introductions from filmmakers in a bid to maintain the festival’s sense of community and dedication to intercultural communication.
The fest will kick off with a live virtual Q&a with Shinichiro Ueda, director of opening film selection Special Actors, the follow-up to Ueda’s popular breakout debut One Cut of the Dead. The festival’s Centerpiece...
Running July 17-30, the traditionally New York-based event will instead be available across the country via a digital platform set up in partnership with Festival Scope and Shift72. Films will be made available to rent with a limited number or virtual tickets per title, priced at $2–$7 with discounted bundles.
Alongside screenings, there will also be virtual Q&As, discussion panels, and video introductions from filmmakers in a bid to maintain the festival’s sense of community and dedication to intercultural communication.
The fest will kick off with a live virtual Q&a with Shinichiro Ueda, director of opening film selection Special Actors, the follow-up to Ueda’s popular breakout debut One Cut of the Dead. The festival’s Centerpiece...
- 6/24/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
During the latest years, Kazuya Shiraishi has emerged as one of the prominent names of the “entertaining” Japanese film, with works like “The Blood of Wolves” and “Birds Without Names” among others. This tendency of his continues in “Dare to Stop Us”, a rather appealing look at the work of Koji Wakamatsu (Shiraishi actually worked for his production company), through the eyes of an almost completely unknown assistant, Megumi Yoshizumi.
“Dare to Stop Us” is screening atUdine Far East Film Festival
The story begins in 1969, when Megumi, 21-year old at the time, manages to get to Wakamatsu’s “family” as assistant director, through a common acquaintance known as the Spook. While there (with there meaning an office where everyone gatheres to organize their movies), she meets a number of “figures” except the eccentric Wakamatsu, including Masao Adachi, Haruhiko Arai and Kenji Takama, who eventually becomes a love interest. At the beginning,...
“Dare to Stop Us” is screening atUdine Far East Film Festival
The story begins in 1969, when Megumi, 21-year old at the time, manages to get to Wakamatsu’s “family” as assistant director, through a common acquaintance known as the Spook. While there (with there meaning an office where everyone gatheres to organize their movies), she meets a number of “figures” except the eccentric Wakamatsu, including Masao Adachi, Haruhiko Arai and Kenji Takama, who eventually becomes a love interest. At the beginning,...
- 5/3/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
During the latest years, Kazuya Shiraishi has emerged as one of the prominent names of the “entertaining” Japanese film, with works like “The Blood of Wolves” and “Birds Without Names” among others. This tendency of his continues in “Dare to Stop Us”, a rather appealing look to the work of Koji Wakamatsu (Shiraishi actually worked for his production company), through the eyes of an almost completely unknown assistant, Megumi Yoshizumi.
“Dare to Stop Us” screened at Helsinki Cine Aasia 2019
The story begins in 1969, when Megumi, 21-year old at the time, manages to get to Wakamatsu’s family as assistant director, through a common acquaintance known as the Spook. While there (with there meaning an office where everyone gathered to organize their movies), she meets a number of “figures” except the eccentric Wakamatsu, including Masao Adachi, Haruhiko Arai and Kenji Takama who eventually becomes a love interest. At the beginning, Wakamatsu ignores her,...
“Dare to Stop Us” screened at Helsinki Cine Aasia 2019
The story begins in 1969, when Megumi, 21-year old at the time, manages to get to Wakamatsu’s family as assistant director, through a common acquaintance known as the Spook. While there (with there meaning an office where everyone gathered to organize their movies), she meets a number of “figures” except the eccentric Wakamatsu, including Masao Adachi, Haruhiko Arai and Kenji Takama who eventually becomes a love interest. At the beginning, Wakamatsu ignores her,...
- 3/18/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Neil Armfield.s Holding the Man, Simon Stone.s The Daughter, Jeremy Sims. Last Cab to Darwin and Jen Peedom.s feature doc Sherpa will have their world premieres at the Sydney Film Festival.
The festival program unveiled today includes 33 world premieres (including 22 shorts) and 135 Australian premieres (with 18 shorts) among 251 titles from 68 countries.
Among the other premieres will be Daina Reid.s The Secret River, Ruby Entertainment's. ABC-tv miniseries starring Oliver Jackson Cohen and Sarah Snook, and three Oz docs, Marc Eberle.s The Cambodian Space Project — Not Easy Rock .n. Roll, Steve Thomas. Freedom Stories and Lisa Nicol.s Wide Open Sky.
Festival director Nashen Moodley boasted. this year.s event will be far larger than 2014's when 183 films from 47 countries were screened, including 15 world premieres. The expansion is possible in part due to the addition of two new screening venues in Newtown and Liverpool.
As previously announced, Brendan Cowell...
The festival program unveiled today includes 33 world premieres (including 22 shorts) and 135 Australian premieres (with 18 shorts) among 251 titles from 68 countries.
Among the other premieres will be Daina Reid.s The Secret River, Ruby Entertainment's. ABC-tv miniseries starring Oliver Jackson Cohen and Sarah Snook, and three Oz docs, Marc Eberle.s The Cambodian Space Project — Not Easy Rock .n. Roll, Steve Thomas. Freedom Stories and Lisa Nicol.s Wide Open Sky.
Festival director Nashen Moodley boasted. this year.s event will be far larger than 2014's when 183 films from 47 countries were screened, including 15 world premieres. The expansion is possible in part due to the addition of two new screening venues in Newtown and Liverpool.
As previously announced, Brendan Cowell...
- 5/6/2015
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
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