Following up yesterday’s story on Terajima Shinobu’s success at the Berlin International Film Festival – director Yamada Yoji (76) received the Berlinale Camera, a special award given to a film personality or an institution to whom the film festival feels especially attached. Yamada was at the festival with “Otouto (Little Brother), his seventh entry since “Downtown Heroes” in 1989, and the first Japanese movie to close the event. On receiving the award, the normally cool Yamada was clearly overwhelmed by what he called “a great honor.” He said he’d like to share it with Yoshinaga Sayuri (64), the actress who has starred in his last two movies and who joined him in Berlin. Yamada is the third Japanese recipient of the award, joining fellow iconic directors Ichikawa Kon (1915-2008) and Kumai Kei (1930-2007). It was while attending Berlin with Yoshinaga to promote “Kabei” (Our Mother) in 2008 that he heard the news of Ichikawa’s death. That prompted them to come up with the plan to do a remake of the master’s 1950 original of Otouto.
Earlier stories:
Terajima Shinobu Wins Silver Bear in Berlin (Feb. 21, 2010)