Tatsuya Nakadai took home the most prestigious prize at this year’s Kyoto International Film and Art Festival, winning the Toshiro Mifune Award for lifetime achievement as an actor. Now 82, and still active, Nakadai is famous for featuring in 11 films directed by Masaki Kobayashi, including “Harakiri,” “Kwaidan,” “Samurai Rebellion,” and most famously “The Human Condition” trilogy which was made from 1959 to 1961.Nakadai received the award in Gion, the famous old geisha district of Kyoto, from the son of legendary actor Toshiro Mifune after whom the award is named, Shiro Mifune.“I was a great fan of Toshiro Mifune even before I became an actor. I saw one of his films with Kurosawa 12 times. It was my honor to have the experience of working with Mr. Mifune. He was my teacher for acting,” said Nakadai, who then recounted a tale of working with Mifune.“When learning for the choreography for sword-fighting, he cut me many times, but I wanted to improve so I built a small house and practiced with a blade.”“I have been in this industry for over 60 years since I was 18, this award named after Mr. Mifune gave me an opportunity to keep moving forward,” he added.The other major award of the festival The Shozo Makino Award, was founded in 1958 to honor Shozo Makino, a Kyoto-born filmmaker regarded as the father of Japanese cinema. Selected by a committee, it was awarded this year to Teruyo Nogami, former scriptwriter of many of Akira Kurosawa’s films including, most famously “Rashomon.”“I have received too much! For 88 years I have been blessed with fortune and I think this might be the end of my luck,” said Nogami after stepping on the stage.“Thank you for selecting me,” she added. “I’m fortunate and that’s it. If I look at previous recipients, there are these great names who have been awardees. This year it is toned down to the big names. I don’t know if all the people know about Shozo Makino. If he wasn’t here, cinema would be completely different. He fostered many actors. His philosophy for films was ‘First comes the script, second the shooting, and third is the acting.’ This applies to the current digitalized society enormously. He had many deep insights and is such a great man. So I am honored to receive this award that bears his name.”Some 270,000 attended this year’s combined film and art festival which ran from October 15 to 18, with 65 films screened and 140 artworks on show by 66 artists. Highlights included a behind-the-scenes documentary of “Hee” starring Kaori Momoi, a presentation of artist Theo Jansen’s “Strandbeest” and an event displaying Japanese sword-play known as chambara.Award-winning author and member of Japanese comedy duo Peace, Naoki Matayoshi spoke of his sudden rise to fame following his win of the Akutagawa Award for his book Hibana (火花, A Spark).The festival also brought together two female powerhouses of Japanese cinema on October 16 for back–to-back screenings. Actress Kaori Momoi and Director Yoko Narahashi represent the very few women in the industry in Japan, and shared a stage at the event, before speaking to media.
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