The Blue Ribbon Awards, presented by film critics and writers in Tokyo, has announced the winners for the 62nd edition which honours films released in 2019. Crowd pleasing comedy Fly Me to the Saitama continues its awards season success by taking Best Film while Tetsuya Mariko picks up a best director award, and Kiichi Nakai and Masami Nagasawa take home Best Actor and Actress respectively. The awards will be presented at a prize giving ceremony at Iino Hall on 18th February.
The winners in full:
Best Film
Winner: Fly Me to the Saitama – broad comedy in which the residents of Saitama have become an oppressed minority.
Best 10
“Best 13” because there was a four way tie. Presented in no particular order.
- The Great War of Archimedes – wartime drama from the director of The Eternal Zero starring Masaki Suda as a maths genius trying to expose corruption in the military.
- Welcome Back, Tora-san – 50th anniversary tribute to Yoji Yamada’s long running Tora-san series.
- Talking the Pictures – Masayuki Suo’s tribute to the age of the “benshi” silent movie narrator.
- Hit Me Anyone One More Time – latest from Koki Mitani in which a man gets a blow on the head and loses his memory only to be told he is actually the prime minister of Japan!
- Kingdom – “wuxia” manga adaptation from blockbuster maestro Shinsuke Sato.
- The Journalist – political thriller starring Shim Eun-kyung as a reporter attempting to expose governmental corruption and Tori Matsuzaka as a conflicted civil servant.
- Weathering with You – latest animation from Makoto Shinkai in which a boy runs away from home and meets a girl who can control the weather.
- Fly Me to the Saitama – broad comedy in which the residents of Saitama have become an oppressed minority.
- Sea of Revival – drama from Kazuya Shiraishi in which a man moves back to his partner’s home town but finds that trouble follows him.
- One Night – drama from Kazuya Shiraishi in which a scattered family reunites 15 years after one traumatic night.
- Masquerade Hotel – mystery starring Takuya Kimura as a detective working undercover at a hotel where he clashes with front desk manager Masami Nagasawa as they try to catch a serial killer.
- Listen to the Universe – adaptation of Riku Onda’s novel following four aspiring concert pianists directed by Kei Ishikawa (Gukoroku: Traces of Sin)
- From Miyamoto to You – sequel to a TV drama directed by Tetsuya Mariko (Destruction Babies) starring Sosuke Ikematsu as a shy salesman who falls for Yu Aoi’s office worker.
Runners up
(titles from the long list which didn’t make the final cut. No particular order)
- It Feels So Good – steamy drama from screenwriter Haruhiko Arai in which a bride-to-be (Kumi Takiuchi) reconnects with an old flame (Tasuku Emoto)
- The Confidence Man JP – big screen outing for a TV drama starring Masami Nagasawa as a conwoman.
- The Bucket List – Isshin Inudo’s remake of the US comedy starring Sayuri Yoshinaga and Yuki Amami as two terminally ill women who find the bucket list of a 12-year-old girl and decide to follow it.
- 12 Suicidal Teens – 12 depressed teens meet in a disused hospital to die but discover new will to live after investigating a murder.
- Typhoon Family – family drama in which siblings reunite 10 years after their parents robbed a bank and disappeared.
- Another World – Three high school buddies reunite in their small-town home hoping to restore the easy bond of their adolescence while battling middle-aged disappointment in the latest from Junji Sakamoto.
- Closed Ward – drama in which a murder occurs at a psychiatric hospital.
Best Director
- Shinsuke Sato (Kingdom)
- Kazuya Shiraishi (A Gambler’s Odyssey 2020, Sea of Revival, One Night)
- Makoto Shinkai (Weathering with You)
- Hideki Takeuchi (Fly Me to the Saitama)
- Tetsuya Mariko (From Miyamoto to You)
Best Actor
- Shingo Katori (Sea of Revival)
- Masaki Suda (The Great War of Archimedes)
- Kiichi Nakai (Hit Me Anyone One More Time)
- Ryo Narita (Talking the Pictures)
- Tori Matsuzaka (The Journalist, Iwane: Sword of Serenity)
Best Actress
- Yu Aoi (A Long Goodbye)
- Masami Nagasawa (The Confidence Man JP)
- Fumi Nikaido (Fly Me to the Saitama)
- Mayu Matsuoka (Listen to the Universe)
- Riho Yoshioka (Blind Witness)
- Sayuri Yoshinaga (The Bucket List)
Best Supporting Actor
- Go Ayano (Closed Ward)
- Itsuji Itao (My Father, the Bride; The 47 Ronin in Debt)
- Kiyohiko Shibukawa (Another World, Closed Ward)
- Ryo Narita (Chiwawa, Fly Me to the Saitama, Farewell Song, No Longer Human)
- Tori Matsuzaka (Listen to the Universe)
- Ryo Yoshizawa (Kingdom)
Best Supporting Actress
- Yuki Amami (The Bucket List)
- Chizuru Ikewaki (Another World)
- Nana Komatsu (Samurai Marathon, Closed Ward)
- Masami Nagasawa (Masquerade Hotel, Kingdom)
- Mayu Matsuoka (One Night)
- MEGUMI (Typhoon Family; Little Nights, Little Love; One Night)
Best Newcomer
- Kaya Kiyohara (Aiuta: My Promise To Nakuhito, Day and Night, Strawberry Song)
- Oji Suzuka (Listen to the Universe, The 47 Ronin in Debt)
- Nagisa Sekimizu (Almost a Miracle)
- Tina Tamashiro (Chiwawa, Diner, Flowers of Evil, Hell Girl)
- Kanata Hosoda (Almost a Miracle)
Best Foreign Film
Winner: Joker
Foreign Film Best 10
(11 because of a tie. No particular order)
- Frozen 2
- Aladdin
- Yesterday
- Green Book
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters
- City Hunter (French live action movie)
- Joker
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
- The Mule
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Runners up
(titles from the long list which didn’t make the final cut. No particular order)
- The Irishman
- The Spy Gone North
- The Favourite
- The Truth (Koreeda)
- Toy Story 4
- Mary Queen of Scots
- Detective Pikachu
- Lion King
- Rocketman
Sources: Eiga Natalie, Sports Hochi
Presented by film critics and writers in Tokyo, the Blue Ribbon Awards has announced its nominations for the 62nd edition which honours films released in 2019. In addition to nominating a “best” picture, the best film long list will also be whittled down to a “best 10” when the polls close later this month. Winners are usually announced in advance of the prize giving ceremony which this year takes place on 18th February.
Ahead of the official ceremony on 6th February, the Blue Ribbon Awards has released its list of winners for the 61st edition which honours films released in 2018. Runaway box office hit One Cut of the Dead (
One Cut of the Dead has already devoured the Japanese box office and now finds itself the winner of the prestigious Blue Ribbon Award for best film. Opening with a 40 minute single take of zombie mayhem, this hilarious horror comedy begins with a film crew trying to make a zombie movie in an abandoned water filtration plant with a dark past only for some uninvited guests to turn up and join the fun…
The recently prolific Takahisa Zeze retreats to the Taisho era for a tale of sumo and revolution as a band of anarchists known as the Guillotine Society find themselves fascinated by an itinerant troupe of female sumo wrestlers shortly after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
Kazuya Shirashi, winner of this year’s best director award, pays tribute to the world of Battles Without Honour in an ’80-style neo-noir in which a straight-laced rookie is partnered with a veteran rogue cop who leads him straight into the heart of darkness. 
Not to be confused with Kazuya’s Shiraishi’s Sunny, Hitoshi Ohne’s Sunny: Tsuyoi Kimochi Tsuyoi Ai is a remake of the classic 2011 Korean film by Kang Hyeong-cheol in which a dying 40-year-old woman reunites with her high school friends from 1990 to relive her memories of a bubble-era adolescence.
A CEO discovers dark secrets about his own company when a tire comes off one of their trucks and kills a young mother.
Another of three films released this year by Best Director winner Kazuya Shiraishi, Dare To Stop Us revolves around the legendary figure of Koji Wakamatsu – a hugely influential director of pink film who sadly passed away in 2012 following a traffic accident. Set at Wakamatsu Productions between 1969 and 1972, the film is told from the point of view of female crew member Megumi Yoshizumi, played by Best Actress winner Mugi Kadowaki.
Starring the legendary Kirin Kiki in one of her final performances, Every Day a Good Day is inspired by the writings of Noriko Morishita and revolves around the serene elegance of the traditional tea ceremony.
A conflicted young woman struggling to move on from lost love falls for a guy who looks just like her ex but can’t decide whether to embrace the fantasy of unresolved romance or the security of a steady relationship in Hamaguchi’s complex yet playful comedy drama adapted from the novel by Tomoka Shibasaki. 
This year’s Palme d’Or winner, Shoplifters earns Hirokazu Koreeda another spot in the top 10 with a hard hitting tale of marginal lives and manufactured families which continues the long line of Japanese films asking what exactly family means in an increasingly disconnected society. 
Directed by third generation Zainichi director Wishing Chong, Yakiniku Dragon revolves around a Korean-Japanese family in the early ’70s who run a yakiniku restaurant on the outskirts of Osaka.
Adapted from the 1966 novel by Shuji Terayama and released in two parts, Yoshiyuki Kishi’s 
The third and presumably final instalment in the Outrage series, Coda sees actor/director Takeshi Kitano return to the role of Otomo now in exile in South Korea in an attempt to avoid ongoing gang strife at home.
A love/hate letter to Tokyo, Yuya Ishii’s The Tokyo Night Sky is inspired by a collection of poems by Tahi Saihate and follows two lonely city souls as they struggle with their place in a society which they often feel has no place for them. 
A departure of sorts from the director’s earlier career, 
Sho Tsukikawa adapts Yoru Sumino’s novel in which the unnamed protagonist finds a classmate’s diary and discovers that she is suffering with a terminal illness. The only person to know of her condition outside of her immediate family, the protagonist commits himself to fulfilling her last wishes while she still has time.
Satoshi Tsumabuki stars as a mild-mannered reporter investigating the murder of a model family while supporting his younger sister (Hikari Mitsushima) who is currently in prison charged with child neglect. Less a murder mystery than a dark social drama, the world of Gukoroku is one defined by unfairness in which pervasive systems of social inequality have destroyed the precious harmony the same society praises so highly. 
Hirokazu Koreeda makes a rare detour from the family drama for a high stakes legal thriller in which a veteran lawyer takes on the seemingly impossible task of defending a murder suspect who has already served time for violent crime and freely confesses his guilt, but the more the lawyer looks into the case the less confident he feels that his client is telling the truth.
Prolific young actor Masaki Suda stars in Akira Nagai’s adaptation of the manga by Usamaru Furuya in which Japan’s political future is decided at an elite military boarding school. 
Windows on Worlds 