Individual winners of the 38th Yokohama Film Festival's Japanese Movie Awards

Best Movie: Kono sekai no katasumi ni

Best Director: Nakano Ryota (Yu wo wakasu hodo no atsui ai)

Morita Yoshimitsu Memorial Best New Director: Mariko Tetsuya (Distraction Babies) / Sugiyama Yasukazu (No Youna mono No youna mono)

Best Script: Nakano Ryota (Yu wo wakasu hodo no atsui ai)

Best Photography: Sasaki Yasuyuki (Distraction Babies)

Best Leading Actor: Miura Tomokazu (Katsuragi Jiken) / Yagira Yuuya (Distraction Babies)

Best Leading Actress: Tsutsui Mariko (Fuchi ni tatsu)

Best Supporting Actor: Suda Masaki (Distraction Babies)

Best Supporting Actress: Sugisaki  Hana (Yu wo wakasu hodo no atsui ai)

Best Newcomer: Taiga (Fuchi ni tatsu) / Komatsu Nana (Distraction Babies) / Murakami Nijiro (Distraction Babies)

Judges Special Award: Non (Kono sekai no katasumi ni)

Special Award: Anno Hideaki (Shin Godzilla)

Source: Yokohama Film Festival

DAIGO & Kitagawa Keiko announce their marriage on 11 January

DAIGO and Kitagawa Keiko announced via their official websites and blogs on 11 January that they had submitted their marriage application on the same day. The couple met while filming the Winter 2011 drama "LADY ~ Saigo no Hanzai Profile ~" and their relationship came to light in 2014. DAIGO was said to have proposed to Kitagawa after finishing his 100km marathon for NTV's "24 Jikan Terebi" charity event last August.

In Kitagawa's statement, she mentioned that as she is turning 30 this year, getting married marks the beginning of a new phase in life for her. She also expressed her thanks to everyone around her and pledged to become an even better person and actor from now on. As for DAIGO, he revealed that he already had plans to make the announcement personally after filing the marriage application so he is happy to achieve that (rather than letting the news leak beforehand). He expressed his hope that they will be able to build a happy family together and support each other in their work and private lives. DAIGO ended his announcement by thanking everyone who has been supportive of them and asked for their continued support in future.

DAIGO will be seen in the upcoming NTV Winter 2016 drama "Higanbana ~ Keishicho Sousa Nanaka ~" starting from 13 January while Kitagawa's new movie "No You na Mono No You na Mono" is due to be screened in cinemas from 16 January.

Source: Oricon 1 /  Oricon 2

Matsuyama Kenichi & Kitagawa Keiko appear at PR event for their new movie "No You na Mono No You na Mono"

Matsuyama Kenichi and Kitagawa Keiko appeared in traditional Japanese clothing at the PR event with their co-star Ito Katsunobu and the director Sugiyama Taichi for their new movie "No You na Mono No You na Mono" at Shinjuku Suehirotei on 20 December. The movie which is the sequel to the late Morita Yoshimitsu's debut movie "No You na Mono", will be shown in cinemas from 16 January 2016 and is set in Yanaka, Tokyo. Matsuyama plays a rakugo performer Dearu Shinda who tries to get his senior Shingyo to get back on stage with him and starts living with him.

Matsuyama commented that the movie is like an espresso where the characters pour their youth into rakugo and there is a bitter aftertaste. Ito described that life depicted in the movie is somewhat like bowling where you have to go straight at times and go around bends at times. Kitagawa who is the only actress in the film, revealed that she has finally realised that rakugo is a fashionable art and you need to have the talent in order to excel in this. She was also full of praise for Matsuyama who was chatting to her one minute and immediately rattled off lines for 10 minutes during the filming so she thought that he had practiced so much that he seemed possessed.

As the day was also Morita's death anniversary, the cast and director also held a premium screening at Shinjuku Picadilly on the same day which was attended by Nomura Hironobu as well as Ono Takayasu and Kobayashi Masahiro who acted in the original movie in 1981. Matsuyama then changed into a suit while Kitagawa changed into a black and green dress for the screening event. Kitagawa recounted her interaction with Morita in the past that she was assigned a different role in "Mamiya Kyoudai" which was Morita's film in 2006 despite preparing for another role during the audition and was a bit upset about it. To make things worse, when she asked Morita then if he knew her, he said no thus making Kitagawa feel that she had no chance of landing a role in his movie. On the contrary, she was selected to be part of the cast and was treated very warmly by Morita during the filming.

Source: Eiga.com