Can Japan Repeat at the Oscars?

Dare Mo Mamotte Kurenai, Nobody to Watch Over Me


The Japanese movie industry has chosen its candidate to defend the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Looking to repeat this year’s success of “Okuribito” (Departures), the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan yesterday named Kimizuka Ryoichi’s “Dare Mo Mamotte Kurenai” (Nobody to Watch Over Me). The powerful 2-hour drama focuses on some of the more troubling aspects of modern Japanese society. The story revolves around a detective (Koichi Sato), who is assigned to protect a 15-year-old student (Mirai Shida) from public outrage and the media after her elder brother is arrested for the senseless murder of two young girls. As well as directing the feature, Kimizuka wrote the screenplay, for which he won an award at last year’s Montreal World Film Festival. “Daremo…” is his 14th movie and he is best known as the director of “Odoru Daisosasen” (Bayside Shakedown), Japan’s biggest ever box-office earner, and a series of sequels and spinoffs. As with those movies, the backing came from Fuji TV. The overseas Academy Award candidates will be whittled down to five in January and the awards show will be held in March.


Earlier story:


Japanese Win Big at Montreal Film Festival (Sep 3, 2008)