Okuribito wins

[Rea Amit]

A few words on the runner up...

As was mentioned already above "Waltz with Bashir" was most
speculators favorite to take the prize, after winning in many
festivals all over the world, including Tokyo`s Filmex.

I must say that in any other circumstances I would have too, favorite
almost automatically a Japanese picture over an Israeli one, as both a
Japanese cinematic fan and as an Israeli who opposes the idea of
supplying any Israeli government with a world-wide media tool saying
"you see, we`re not that bad". However, "Bashir" is different, it
takes, even if only partially, responsibility for a massacre that took
place in Lebanon while the Israeli army was conducting a "normative
anti-terrorist activity" there(basically it went after Arafat, but at
the end it let him go free, leaving Lebanon in a social and material
turmoil, not to mention at all the body count...). Israel still claims
to this day that it had nothing to do with the massacre but the film
brought up a fascinating situation where many in Israeli were waiting
for the prize, as if to a national treasure!  The movie was also
screened in Lebanon once, where Israeli pictures are strictly ban and
its screening rights were bought by a Saudi businessman. I feel that
it`s a shame Hollywood did give it the final mainstream Kosher stamp
it deserves.

Concerning "Okuribito", I can just say that it was defiantly not my
favorite picture this year. I find it to be way over too melodramatic,
bombastic in it`s emotional manipulations and far from being any near
this year`s achievements of both Kurosawa Kiyoshi or Koreeda Hirokazu.

At any rate, the Oscars are not there to pick up the best pictures of
the year, something no$B!!(Bone actually can, so let`s just hope it would
at least open up a new area for Japanese cinema(f