"Kamogawa Harumo" picks up top prize at the Okinawa International Movie Festival

by Chris MaGee

Well, the execs at Shochiku got another nice surprise, albeit not as monumental as Yojiro Takita's "Departures" winning Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. In advance of its April 18th theatrical release in Japan Katsuhide Motoki's "Kamogawa Harumo" beat out eight other films to take home the Golden Shisha, the top prize at the inaugural Okinawa International Movie Festival. The theme of the festival was "Laugh and Peace" so obviously the line-up for the four day event leaned heavily on comedies, but Motoki's big screen adaptation of Manabu Makime's smash hit fantasy novel got the most belly laughs out of the audience and judges. You can check out the trailer featuring Takayuki Yamada, Chiaki Kuriyama , and the always hilarious Yoshiyoshi Arakawa as they battle each other in the streets of Kyoto using cute little CGI gremlins called shikigami.

Congratulations to Shochiku, Motoki-san and the cast and crew, plus thanks to Tokyograph for the details on this story.