"Shoplifters" wins big in Japan
Thursday, March 7, 2019 at 8:42PM by Nathaniel R
Sakura Ando and Kirin Kiki in "Shoplifters"
Awards season never truly ends. Someone somewhere in the world is always handing out a prize. The latest are the Japanese Academy film prizes, where Hirokazu Kore-eda thoroughly dominated with the exquisite and also Oscar-nominated Shoplifters. It was nominated in every category it was eligible for. It won 8 awards, including both of the female acting prizes for Sakura Ando and Kirin Kiki. Sadly, Kirin Kiki's prize was posthumous as she died a few months after the movie won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
A list of winners, including (sigh) their choice for foreign film, is after the jump...
Film Shoplifters
Director Hirokazu Kore-eda, Shoplifters
Actor Koji Yakusho, The Blood of Wolves
Actress Sakura Ando, Shoplifters
Supporting Actor Tori Matsuzaka, The Blood of Wolves
Supporting Actress Kirin Kiki, Shoplifters (posthumous)
Screenplay Hirokazu Kore-eda, Shoplifters
Animated Feature Mirai
Music Shoplifters - Haruomi Hosono
Cinematography Shoplifters- Ryuto Kondo
Lighting Direction - Shoplifters -Isamu Fujii
Art Direction - The Blood of Wolves Tsutomu Imamura
Tori Matsuzaka and Koji Yakusho won the male acting prizes for the gangster drama "The Blood of Wolves" which also took some craft prizes
Sound Recording - The Blood of Wolves Kazuharu Urata
Film Editing - One Cut of the Dead - Shinichiro Ueda
Foreign Language Film - Bohemian Rhapsody (UK)
All of the foreign film nominees were American or British. The other nominees were: The Greatest Showman, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards, and Mission: Impossible - Fallout.
The have a Newcomer of the Year prize but all the nominees win, apparently, so there are 8 of them this year. Here's a billboard featuring them all....
- Moka Kamishiraishi – A Forest of Wool and Steel
- Shuri – Love At Least
- Yurina Hirate – Hibiki
- Kyoko Yoshine – Kasane and Samurai's Promise
- Kentarō Itō – Cafe Funiculi Funicula
- Taishi Nakagawa – Kids on the Slope and Lock-On Love
- Ryo Narita – Stolen Identity and The Antique
- Ryô Yoshizawa – River's Edge
Most of these actors are so new they don't even have photos up yet on their IMDb pages. We've only heard of Ryo Yoshizawa thus far, because he was in so many movies in 2018 that one of them even made it here to the US via Netflix. He's the archer in that insane Bleach movie you can stream. He's reteaming with his Bleach director for a costume epic action film called Kingdom this year. Here's the poster
Even though its a Japan production in Japanese it is about and set in China. It should not be confused with Netflix's Kingdom series, which is a Korean costume epic actioner, starring Doona Bae (Sense8, Cloud Atlas).
Reader Comments (12)
The Netflix series Kingdom is a Korean series, not Chinese.
oh, this is the third win for Kore-eda in the last four years.
And the same lead actor winner.
Loved the film, hate the award. (They are'nt an "Academy" they are "Japan Academy Award Asociation", just poorly copying the Oscars).
As for Kingdom, I think it's a live action movie based on a manga, just like Bleach was.
In the last decade the number of manga-based live action films increased a lot, even making 2 or 3 part films releasing one month apart each.
oof, that foreign language choice...
Yay! On of my favorite films of the year. I think about it every day—what makes a family. Heartbreaking.
This award group is irrelevant.
I'm so happy Sakura Ando won Best Actress!! Her perf really blowm me away!! ♥ ♥ ♥ Esp the interrogation scene!! 😥
Perhaps Sakura Ando’s win was expected but I’m very happy for her win and I’m she wasn’t considered supporting. NOW I hope she will win the Asian Film Awards next week.
its so funny. i'm usually such a stickler for categories but i didn't think of anyone in shoplifters as a lead really... except maybe Lily Franky. it's like one big ensemble.
Mirai is Mamoru Hosoda's fifth win in the Animation of the Year category. He had won this award with every film he made since the introduction of the category.
I didn't know Kirin Kiki passed away. I loved the sense of mischief she brought to Shoplifters. I'm very happy for Sakura Ando too. Shoplifters is great.
I'm surprised that the boy in Shoplifters, Jyo Kairi, was not included in the category Newcomer of the Year or, why not, Best Supporting Actor!