Winners of the 27th Nihon Eiga Professional Taisho (2017)

This award is decided by a panel of judges made up of movie directors, scriptwriters, producers, PR personnel and critics where they vote for the best works and actors for the year. This year's prize giving ceremony will be held at Theatre Shinjuku on 26 April 2018:

Best 10 Movies
1) Katte ni furuetero
2) Osanako warera ni umare
3) Kanojo no jinsei wa machigai janai
4) Gukoroku
5) Vigilante
6) Bangkok Nites
7) Kanojo ga sono na wo shiranai toritachi
8) MUKOKU
9) Hikari
10) Kabocha to Mayonnaise

Best Movie: Katte ni furuetero

Best Leading Actress: Matsuoka Mayu - Katte ni furuetero

Best Leading Actor: Asano Tadanobu - Osanako warera ni umare

Best Director: Hiroki Ryuuichi - Kanojo no jinsei wa machigai janai

Best Newcomer Director: Ishikawa Kei

Best Female Newcomer: Takiuchi Kumi - Kanojo no jinsei wa machigai janai

Best Male Newcomer: Murakami Nijirou - MUKOKU

Audience's Award: Aa, Kouya

Source: Natalie

Completion screening event of new movie "Mukoku"

The completion screening event of new movie "Mukoku" was held at Yomiuri Otemachi Hall on 15 May which was attended by the director Kumakiri Kazuyoshi and cast members Ayano Go, Murakami Nijiro, Maeda Atsuko, Fubuki Jun, Kobayashi Kaoru and Emoto Akira. The movie which is the first collaboration between Kumakiri and Ayano since the movie "Natsu no Owari" three years ago, will be screened in cinemas from 3 June.

The movie which is based on the same-titled novel by Akutagawa Award-winning writer Fujisawa Shu, features Ayano as Yatabe Kengo who holds the Godan rank in kendo but chooses to live a life filled with alcohol and works as a security guard at a train station's building due to an incident. One day, he happens to meet a senior high school student Hada Toru played by Murakami Nijiro who loves rap and is obsessed with writing rap lyrics. Kengo sees Toru's talent as a gifted kendo swordsman which inspires him to undergo training with the latter under a monk who holds the Hachidan where they later face off in the battle of destiny.

During the talk segment, the cast were asked on who they consider in their hearts to be their eternal rivals. Ayano who was the first to speak, jokingly cited his character Ken-san in the ongoing NTV Spring 2017 drama "Frankenstein no Koi" as the eternal rival of Kengo in this movie. When it was Murakami's turn, he mentioned his parents i.e. actor Murakami Jun and singer UA as his eternal rivals since they are both working in the same industry. Upon hearing this, Ayano said that he regretted fooling around and giving such an embarrassing answer. Meanwhile, Maeda said that when she was in AKB48, the people around her created many "rivals" for her but she actually felt that these people are important to her and is thankful for their presence. Ayano then butted in to say that he suddenly realised that he was standing in the centre today (the most popular member in AKB48 gets to stand in the centre) and apologised for "robbing" her of the centre position which she used to hog.

In order to prepare for the filming, Ayano went through two months of kendo and muscle training and even abstained from alcohol. As such, he was able to use his frustration built up over the period in a positive way during the filming. Maeda chipped in to praise her co-star for looking very cool during the kendo match scene. Murakami then revealed that he sprained his finger during their fight sequence and he was surprised by how quickly Ayano reacted by shouting for ice packs to be given to him once the scene was completed.

Sources: Sanspo / Nikkansports / Oricon / Eiga.com

Supporting cast lineup of new movie "MUKOKU" announced

The supporting cast lineup of new movie "MUKOKU" was announced. The movie which is based on the same-titled novel by Akutagawa Award-winning writer Fujisawa Shu, features Ayano Go as Yatabe Kengo who holds the Godan rank in kendo but chooses to live a life filled with alcohol and works as a security guard at a train station's building due to an incident. One day, he happens to meet a senior high school student Hada Toru played by Murakami Nijiro who loves rap and is obsessed with writing rap lyrics. Kengo sees Toru's talent as a gifted kendo swordsman which inspires him to undergo training with the latter under a monk who holds the Hachidan where they later face off in the battle of destiny.

Maeda Atsuko will be playing Kazuno, the girlfriend of Yatabe Kengo while Fubuki Jun will be Ohno Mitsuko, the owner of a small restaurant which Kengo and Kazuno frequently go to. As for Kobayashi Kaoru, he will be playing Kengo's father Shozo and Emoto Akira will be playing Mitsumura Seppou, a monk and the teacher of Kengo.

The movie will be shown in cinemas next year.

Source: Eiga.com

Ayano Go & Murakami Nijiro to star in new movie "Mukoku"

Ayano Go will be starring in the new movie "Mukoku" directed by Kumakiri Kazuyoshi which is due to be shown next year. The movie which is based on the same-titled novel by Akutagawa Award-winning writer Fujisawa Shu, features Ayano as Yatabe Kengo who holds the Godan rank in kendo but chooses to live a life filled with alcohol and works as a security guard at a train station's building due to an incident. One day, he happens to meet a senior high school student Hada Toru played by Murakami Nijiro who loves rap and is obsessed with writing rap lyrics. Kengo sees Toru's talent as a gifted kendo swordsman which inspires him to undergo training with the latter under a monk who holds the Hachidan where they later face off in the battle of destiny.

In order to prepare for the filming, Ayano went through intensive training in kendo and body training to reduce his body fat percentage to just 7 percent over two months. This is the second time that he is working with Kumakiri since 2013's "Natsu no owari" and he's looking forward to the collaboration again. Likewise for Murakami who had aspired to work with Kumakiri since his debut, he revealed that he was very keen to play the role of Toru and would probably get jealous if the role had gone to another actor.

Filming was done at Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture and expected to wrap up at the end of September.

Sources: Sanspo / Sponichi / Oricon