Nippon Academy Awards

[Robin Gatto]

Hi everyone,

I got the opportunity to watch the Nippon Academy Awards during my wedding
stay in Japan and had the great pleasure to see Yukisada Isao's GO bag 4
prizes : Best Young Actor and Actress, Best Actor and Best Director (not
sure whether those are the correct award denominations).

Best Actor was veteran Tsutomu Yamazaki, seen in some Juzo Itami films
(Tampopo, Taxing Woman...).

Best Film went to the inevitable Sen to Chihiro by Miyazaki.

I was wondering whether anyone else saw the award ceremony and would want to
comment on the awards. My feeling is GO is a somewhat too commercial film
but with great visual qualities and a sound comment about discrimination. I
heard one main point in the novel was changed - about the identity of the
main character -  so maybe some criticisms might be added as to the
narrative choices made by Yukisada. Anyway, my feeling is it's a good film
with a brilliant cast and should you want to read Yukisada's interview on
Filmfestivals.com, just click that - looooong, sorry - link:

http://www.filmfestivals.com/cgi-bin/fest_content/festivals.pl?debug=&channe
lbar=&fest=oscars&page=read&partner=&year=2002&lang=en&text_id=22014


Robin