Oscar-Contender ‘Drive My Car’ Wins Eight Japan Academy Prizes

Naman Ramachandran Amazon Prime Video has doubled down on its investment in Japan with six local originals greenlit and an additional foray into live boxing. At an event in Tokyo on Wednesday, Amazon revealed a reboot of “Takeshi’s Castle,” the iconic game show starring Kitano Takeshi that aired on terrestrial network TBS from 1986-1989. The reboot, with the working title “Takeshi’s Castle Project' will bow in 2023.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentHamaguchi Ryusuke’s “Drive My Car” is now making headlines in Japan after winning the best international feature Oscar. The film is only the second from the country to take the prize, the previous one being the 2008 “Departures.” Released domestically in August, “Drive My Car” had earned only $250,000 by the end of 2021, despite winning three awards at Cannes, including best screenplay for Hamaguchi and co-writer Oe Takamasa.

The big finale! CODA took home the award for Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars on Sunday, March 27.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car scooped the International Feature Film Oscar tonight, becoming the second movie from Japan to take a competitive prize in the category formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film (it’s the fifth for Japan if we count honorary awards given out in the 1950s).

Japan has won the award, and the first time since 2008.It beat out Italy’s “The Hand of God,” Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World,” Denmark’s “Flee” and Bhutan’s “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom.”———For more of AP’s Oscar coverage visit: https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards

Not surprisingly, the most celebrated film of the year took one of the most coveted Oscars in the world. No, this isn’t about “Power of the Dog” or the Best Picture race.

Shinji Aoyama, the Japanese film director, writer and composer known for the film “Eureka,” which won him two prizes at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, died March 21 in Tokyo after a battle with esophageal cancer, according to local reports. He was 57.Aoyama made waves in the international film community when he premiered “Eureka” at Cannes.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBruce Tuchmann-backed Rialto International has launched a branded on-demand streaming service in Japan, focused on independent film, and housed on Amazon’s Prime Video Channels platform.Rialto Channel launched in 1999 in New Zealand, where it was initially branded as The Sundance Channel. It established itself as an award-winning and industry-leading indie film destination for over twenty years.In Japan, the Rialto-branded venue will feature current and iconic independent films.

Neil Young has announced the fourth instalment in his ‘Official Release Series’ anthology, comprising three classic albums from the 1980s – one of his own, and two collaborative efforts – as well as a rare EP that was only ever sold in Australia and Japan.‘Official Release Series Volume 4’ is set for release on April 29 via Reprise. In addition to Young’s 1980 solo album ‘Hawks & Doves’, the box set includes his fifth album with Crazy Horse (1981’s ‘Re•ac•tor’) and his debut effort with The Bluenotes (1988’s ‘This Note’s For You’).It also marks the first time many fans will be able to hear the EP ‘Eldorado’, which was initially released in Australia and Japan in 1989.

Christopher Vourlias At a time when he was both his country’s most celebrated novelist and a journalist struggling to make ends meet, “Zorba the Greek” author Nikos Kazantzakis set sail for Japan on a formative journey that would shape the latter half of his career – and ultimately lead to his untimely death.Based on the written account of his travels in the Far East, “Last Voyage,” by journalist and documentary filmmaker Aris Chatzistefanou, examines that journey while using it as a framework to explore how the period between the two World Wars shaped what would come to be known as the “Japanese Miracle.” Produced by Kyriakos Chatzistefanou for Moviementa Productions, the film premieres this week at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Greece’s greatest modern writer occupies a singular place in the country’s literary canon.

“Best Supporting Actress” for “Minari” in 2021) for acting stars in the Apple TV+ adaptation of the generation-spanning 2017 novel “Pachinko.” “This role was suitable for my age – she’s 74,” Yuh-jung, 74, told The Post. “I read the script first.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKitano Takeshi, a contemporary icon of Japanese cinema, is to receive a lifetime achievement award next month at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy.“A legendary artist on Friday the 29th of April will receive the Golden Mulberry Award for lifetime achievement on the stage of FEFF 24,” the festival announced Friday with barely concealed delight.Kitano who has film credits as writer, director, producer and performer, as well as a whole TV comedy career, is known for the brutal sergeant he played alongside David Bowie and Sakamoto Ryuichi in Oshima Nagisa’s “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” and for incursions into Hollywood in “Johnny Mnemonic” and “Ghost in the Shell.” His Japanese oeuvre ranges from fine art to gangster genre thriller. He has credits in film noir (“Violent Cop”), romance (“A Scene at the Sea”), drama masterpieces (“Sonatine,” “Kids Return,” Venice Golden Lion-winner “Hana-bi,” “Kikujiro,” “Dolls” swordplay (“Zatoichi”) and hard-boiled cult saga “Outrage.”“For Far East Film Festival 24, a truly incredible dream comes true: the dream of bringing one of the giants of world cinema to Udine.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefFree Stone Productions has added a quartet of new Japanese film titles to its sales slate for this week’s virtual edition of Hong Kong FilMart. The female-led company is selling romance “Leave in Summer” and drama film “Yes, I Can’t Swim” both of which will release later this year.Directed by Igashi Aya, “Leave in Summer” is a tale of a lost soul and his spiritual guide. It depicts a man washing up in a seaside town at the end of the season and seeking to stay so that he can reconnect with his recently deceased wife.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefTwo feature films from Ukraine will this month be given special screenings in Tokyo, Japan, as part of a fund- and awareness-raising initiative about Russia’s war in Europe.Both films “Atlantis” and “Reflection” were made by director Valentyn Vasyarovych. They played at the Venice film festival but have not been licensed to Japan or released commercially there.However, under the banner of the Ukrainian Filmmaker Support Screening Association, former Tokyo International Film Festival programmer Yatabe Yoshi, has arranged special permission for the benefit screenings to go ahead.

A.D. Amorosi To complement Japanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s grieving, soft-spun vision for “Drive My Car,” which has received four Oscar noms including director and best picture, the choice of composer to create a melodramatic and delicate score was crucial.Enter Eiko Ishibashi, an experimental Japanese multi-instrumentalist whose 2018 “The Dream My Bones Dream” was a turning point in an already decade-long career of scores for theater and short films.Ishibashi’s 2018 album of haunting soundscapes and its electro-acoustic mix of noise, oddball pop, improvisational jazz and minimalist, modern classical music made her a cinematic force equal to Hamaguchi.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentCedric Jimenez’s action thriller “The Stronghold” won the Cesar Award which was voted on by nearly 2,000 students from French high schools in France, the U.K., Mayotte and Japan. The Studiocanal film, which was produced by Hugo Sélignac at Chi-Fou-Mi Productions, a Mediawan company, was nominated for seven Cesar Awards, including best film and two actor nods.

Marvel’s Deadpool gets help in his battle against evil from All Might, the muscular hero in “My Hero Academia,” a hit Japanese manga that’s sold 65 million copies worldwide.“Deadpool: Samurai,” published in Japanese last year, came out in English translation this month. The Japanese “Deadpool: Samurai” was the best-selling Marvel comic last year, surpassing more than 1 million views online.

Summer of Soul” were among the big winners at the 37th Film Independent Spirit Awards Sunday.The ceremony hosted by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally was held in a tent by the beach in Santa Monica, California, broadcast on AMC and IFC. It is the cool, casual counterpart to some of the more traditional film awards shows.“If you don’t win, you can just walk straight into the ocean,” Offerman said.Gyllenhaal won best feature, director and best screenplay for her adaptation of the Elena Ferrante novel “The Lost Daughter.”Through tears, Gyllenhaal said that more than anything she believes in love.

At Contenders Film: The Nominees, Deadline presented a panel with the director and star of perhaps the most historic nominated film at this year’s Oscars, Drive My Car, which represents Japan’s first-ever Best Picture nomination. It’s an astounding feat for a three-hour Japanese-language film, about a stage director’s personal crisis interweaved with his trip to Hiroshima to direct a production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.