Tokyo: Yoshida Daihachi's 'Taukei Cometh' wins Grand Prix, director, actor awards

A1 Digital India News: Yoshida Daihachi's Takei Cometh proved the big winner in the major award categories at the Tokyo International Film Festival, it revealed at a glitzy ceremony in the Japanese capital on Wednesday night.

Takei Cometh, a feature adaptation of the book by renowned Japanese novelist Tsutsui Yasutaka, won the festival's top prize, the Tokyo Grand Prix, as well as best director honors for Yoshida and best star actor for Nagatsuka Kyozo. This meditative film with monochrome cinematography tells the story of a retired French literature professor (Nagatsuka) who lectures to strange guests and plots his end when his money runs out. Old friends and former students come to visit. On one of his rare excursions, he meets an attractive young French literature student, played by Yumi Kawai.

The festival's Special Jury Prize went to Colombian filmmaker Ivan D. Gaona's spaghetti western Adios el amigo, based on the end of the 1902 Thousand Days' War. The feature film tells the story of a revolutionary soldier who receives a telegram with news that his brother's wife is pregnant. The soldier then convinces an amateur photographer to join him in the search for his brother and the two encounter a number of suspicious individuals on their journey.

The Best Actress award went to Anamaria Vartolomaei, star of the Romanian drama Traffic Teodora Ana Mihai. In this film inspired by a true story, Vartolomaei plays a Romanian couple who move to Rotterdam for a better life but instead find themselves on the margins of Western European society. Desperately poor, the pair then become embroiled in an art theft plot.

The festival's Audience Award, chosen by popular vote among the audience's cinema goers, was won by Chinese filmmaker Lina Yang Big World. The feature film tells the story of a brave man suffering from cerebral palsy who overcomes his disability to help his grandmother fulfill her dream of acting in a play.

Below is the full list of winners.

Grand Prix/Tokyo Governor's Award
Takee Cometh

Special Jury Prize
Adios el Amigo

Best Director
Yoshida Daihachi (Takee Cometh)

Best Actor
Nagatsuka Kyozo (Takee Cometh)

Best Actress
Anamaria Vartolomei (Traffic)

Award for Best Artistic Contribution
My Friend Ann Daly

Audience Award
Big World

Asian Future Best Film Award
Apollon by Day Athena by Night

Kurosawa Akira Award
Miyake Sho and Fu Tien-yu

37th TIFF Lifetime Achievement Award
Bela Tarr

TIFF Ethical Film Award
Dahomey