Sang-il Lee's "Villain" and Masahiro Kobayashi's "Haru's Journey" win big at Mainichi Film Awards

by Chris MaGee

It looks like Sang-il Lee's "Akunin (Villain) continues to be one of the biggest critical successes of the Japanese awards season. It was announced this week that Lee's adaptation of Shuichi Yoshida's serialized novel about a lonely young blue-collar who is accused of a brutal murder has been announced as the winner of the Grand Prize at the 65th annual Maincihi Film Awards. Add this to the film being named Best Picture by Kinema Junpo, Japan Times film critic Mark Schilling, and by the Nikkan Sports Film Awards and Sang-il Lee and the folks at Toho must be very happy indeed.

The Grand Prize win for "Akunin" wasn't the only piece of news in the winners of this year's Mainichi Film Awards though. Best Film (a separate category from the Grand Prize) went to Masahiro Koboyashi's "Haru to no Tabi (Haru's Journey)" (above) starring legendary actor Tatsuya Nakadai and young actress Eri Tokunaga, the latter of whom was awarded the Sponichi Grand Prix Newcomer Award. Other notable wins include Takashi Miike for Best Director for "13 Assassins", Shinichi Tsutsumi for Best Actor for his performance in "A Lone Scalpel" and Shinobu Terajima for Best Actress for her performance in "Caterpillar".

You can check out the full list of winners of this year's Mainichi Film Awards below courtesy of Tokyograph. The lucky winners will receive their trophies in a ceremony in Kawasaki, Kanagawa on February 8th.

Grand Prize: Villain
Best Film: Haru's Journey
Best Foreign Film: Breathless
Best Director: Takashi Miike (13 Assassins)
Best Screenplay: Yuki Sato (Heaven's Story)
Best Actor: Shinichi Tsutsumi (A Lone Scalpel)
Best Actress: Shinobu Terajima (Caterpillar)
Best Supporting Actor: Goro Inagaki (13 Assassins)
Best Supporting Actress: Yui Natsukawa (A Lone Scalpel)
Sponichi Newcomer Award: Kaname Endo (Yellow Kid)
Sponichi Newcomer Award: Eri Tokunaga (Haru's Journey)
Kinuyo Tanaka Award: Kyoko Enami
Best Cinematography: Ryuto Kondo (Sketches of Kaitan City)
Best Art Direction: Nariyuki Endo (The Abacus and the Sword)
Best Music: Jim O'Rourke (Sketches of Kaitan City)
Best Sound: Jun Nakamura (13 Assassins)
Best Animated Film: Colorful (Keiichi Hara)
Tsutaya Fan Award (Domestic Film): THE LAST MESSAGE: Umizaru
Tsutaya Fan Award (Foreign Film): The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Special Award: actress Hideko Takamine