Three films dominate the Japanese Academy Awards

Only three films were made in Japan last year.

Or at least that’s what you may have thought if you were an uninitiated observer of the 34th Japan Academy Prizes on Friday February 18. "Confessions" (local title "Kokuhaku"), "Villain" ("Akunin") and "Thirteen Assassins" ("Jusan-nin no Shikaku") walked away with all of the open category, live-action domestic prizes.

It was perhaps only a wonder that Best Foreign Language Film wasn't also stuffed into one of the film's heaving bags of mantelpiece decorations -- but that went to an avant-garde American effort called "Avatar."

Psychological thriller "Confessions" pulled in Picture of the Year, Best Director and Best Screenplay for Tetsuya Nakashima, as well as Best Editing for his longtime colleague Yoshiyuki Koike.

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The victories were no surprise as the film was widely praised by critics, screened at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival and chosen as Japan’s entry for the U.S. Academy Awards.

Box office millions

It also earned ¥3.85 billion ($46.2 million) at the box office according to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPJ), good for seventh best in Japan in 2010.

The feel-good ditty tells the story of a high school teacher’s brutal revenge on the students that killed her young daughter, made all the more gnarly by the fact she gets the teen students to carry out her bloodletting.

Lee Sang-il’s "Villain" swept all of the acting awards, lead and supporting, with golden boy Satoshi Tsumabuki grabbing the Best Actor plaudits. He portrayed a wanted killer who goes on the lamb with his new love after they start a sudden affair.

The 30 year-old, cute, Tsumabuki has long been a favorite of the industry here. He broke through in 2001 with "Waterboys" and by 2007 was offered the lead in blockbuster "Dororo," a celebrated story originally penned by Japanese manga (comics) godfather Osamu Tezuka.

The highly regarded Eri Fukatsu took home Best Actress having previously collected the Best Supporting Actress Japanese Academy prize in 2004 for the film "Like Asura" ("Ashura no Gotoku") when she was 31 years old. This second win cements her place as a foremost light among female leads in Japan.

Animated success

Despite being executive-produced by Britain’s Jeremy Thomas ("The Last Emperor", "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence"), Takashi Miike’s "Thirteen Assassins" had to settle for the more technical awards, all of them, that is, except editing.

These included Best Cinematography, Best Lighting, Best Sound Recording and Best Art Direction.

Japan’s leading animation house, Studio Ghibli, pulled in yet another Japanese academy prize as their "The Borrowers" ("Kuri-gurashi no Arietti") bagged Animation of the Year.

It was also the top earner at the box office, racking up ¥9.85 billion ($118.3 million) in 2010.

And just so you know, according to the MPPJ, 408 feature Japanese films were released in the country in 2010.

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