Winners of the 59th Blue Ribbon Awards (2016)

Best Movie: Shin Godzilla

Best Director: Katabuchi Sunao (Kono sekai no katasumi ni)

Best Leading Actor: Matsuyama Kenichi (Chinyuuki /  Satoshi no Seishun)

Best Leading Actress: Ootake Shinobu (Gosaigyou no Onna)

Best Supporting Actor: Lily Frankie (Onna ga nemuru toki / Umi yori mo mada fukaku / Nijuu Seikatsu / Himitsu THE TOP SECRET / SCOOP! / Otousan to Itou-san / Satoshi no Seishun)

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

Best Newcomer: Okamura Izumi (Gymnopedies ni midareru)

Special Award: Kimi no na wa

Best Foreign Movie: Rogue One Star Wars Story

Top 10 Japanese movies (in alphabetical order)
Ikari
Kimi no na wa
Gosaigyou no Onna
Satoshi no Seishun
Shin Godzilla
SCOOP!
Nagai Iiwake
Yu wo wakasu hodo no atsui ai
Rip van Winkle no Hanayome
64 - Rokuyon -

Top 10 Foreign movies (there are 11 listed here as two movies ranked at No.10 had the same score)
The Martian
Carol
Suicide Squad
Zootopia
Spotlight
Trumbo
Sully
Bridge of Spies
The Danish Girl
The Revenant
Rogue One Star Wars Story

Source: Cinema Today

First-day-screening event of new movie "Otousan to Itou-san"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "Otousan to Itou-san" was held at Shinjuku Wald 9 on 8 October which was attended by the director Tanada Yuki and cast members Ueno Juri, Lily Franky and Fuji Tatsuya.  The movie depicts the story about Aya (Ueno) who is 34 years old and cohabits with her boyfriend Itou-san (Franky) who is 20 years older than her. One day, her father (Fuji) who is 20 years older than Itou-san, comes to visit her and stays with them which creates a series of issues.

Ueno addressed the full-house audience consisting of 400 people that response to the movie has exceeded her expectations especially since the film release was to be done at small cinemas only. However, due to overwhelming interest in the film and good critical reviews, the cast had been to places like Osaka and Nagoya for promotional campaigns and been interviewed by about 100 media companies to date which made her extremely happy at the positive response. There was once when she and a female interviewer were chatting about the latter's favourite scene in the movie and the two of them ended up crying together. Franky said in jest that he has never cried during an interview and commented that the interviewer must have been feeling quite emotionally unstable so was so affected that she cried.

During the event, the host revealed that one of the female interviewers had commented that she would like to meet a man like Itou-san who can say the important things when it matters even though he may not do the kabe-don on her. In response, Franky said that he wants to do the kabe-don on women too but has never gotten such a role to date.

Fuji who is said to be good at giving nicknames to people, revealed that he calls Ueno as a city-style wild cat while Franky is an ojisan fairy. He even described himself as a classic car while Franky is a brand new Porsche. Ueno commented that when she heard about this, she went to look at picture books to see how the wild cats look like while Franky joked that it was lucky that Fuji didn't use the other "yosei" (rhymes with fairy but means testing positive for an illness) to describe him.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sanspo / Sponichi / Oricon

Completion screening event of new movie "Otousan to Itou-san"

The completion screening event of new movie "Otousan to Itou-san" (Father and Mr. Itou) was held on 8 September which was attended by the director Tanada Yuki and cast members Ueno Juri, Lily Frankie and Fuji Tatsuya. The movie describes how the heroine Aya (Ueno) is cohabiting with her boyfriend Itou-san who is 20 years older than her and how her father's (Fuji) sudden visit to their apartment causes chaos in their peaceful lives.

Ueno who married Wada Sho from TRICERATOPS in May this year, was asked during the event about the advantages of getting married to which she replied that it was impossible to find someone to have meals with her when she was single and she didn't like having food from the convenience stores. Even if she buys ingredients from the supermarket to cook, it would take her at least two days to finish the food. Now, the portions are just right for two people and she finds that she has become more relaxed than before. Upon hearing this, Lily who is single, said that he would probably die alone and it would take 3 weeks before anyone will notice that so he hopes that he can be "discovered" in three days if that happens.

As Ueno's mother-in-law is the culinary expert Hirano Remi, she revealed that she has grown to be better at cooking and enjoys it for its creative aspect. When Fuji asked Ueno what she cooked yesterday, she revealed that it was pasta and steak. When asked about details, Ueno said that she was with her mother-in-law until 6pm so she couldn't go to buy any ingredients and resorted to using what was in her fridge. In the end, she made a tomato-based sauce with basil, eggplant, onions, tabasco sauce, anchovies for the pasta with natto, eggs and shiso as the topping. In response to this, Lily asked if she had used the Remi-pan which is the brand of frypans which her mother-in-law endorses and Ueno confirmed that she did use that to grill her steak.

Source: Oricon