Twitch on Mitani Koki:

Mitani is a strange one, a man who is a huge success and a major media figure in his home country - where he bridges several disciplines - but who is barely known outside of Japanese shores. He falls into a sort of nether region for film festival programming where he is openly populist - thus ruling him out of most arthouse festivals - but not at all 'extreme' which means he misses on the genre circuit as well. It's a shame because he's one of the absolute best writer-directors on the planet today.

I hold the same assessment of Mitani as the writer of this post and agree that Japanese film abroad generally tends to be viewed with the kind of "heads" (arthouse) or "tails" (cult-genre) pre-disposition mentioned in reference to Mitani who is neither. The festival circuit is always out to seek edgy material while seemingly turning a blind eye to just well-made crowd pleasing fare. It's not 100% the case, of course, but the tendency IS there. With so much to be had in Japanese cinema, it's a shame that a good story well told sometimes isn't enough for foreign exhibitors and buyers. This needs to be improved both on the international and domestic fronts.

Congratulations are in order to two Japanese films that have been awarded prestigious prizes at the Venice International Film Festival. They are:

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress
Shôta Sometani and Fumi Nikaidô in the film Himizu by Sion Sono

This one is makes me rather happy as these awards have been presented to actors, and not the young "hearthrobs" or "idol turned actress" or "talent" that are plastered all over the airwaves and cast in film after film, not for their abilities, but for their tie-ins with other products. This is especially true for Nikaido Fumi, also recently seen in Irie Yu's Ringing in their Ears, who doesn't have any commercial deals—yet. The sad reality, however, is while this news has made the rounds on Japanese television, the collective reaction of the viewers has most certainly been: "Who?"

Orizzonti Award (full-length films):
Kotoko by Shinya Tsukamoto

Tsukamoto has been a fringe filmmaker all his career. This is a tremendous acknowledgement of his unique vision (Orizzonti means "originality" in Italian). As with many of his films like 2004's Vital, this film looks to be another splendidly executed descent into the human psyche.

I feel a great deal of satisfaction seeing two films that aren't the usual cardboard melodramatic tear-jerkers the studio system has been turning out being recognized—no vilified—on the international stage. These films may deal with similar themes as some studio films, but it is their unflinching and uncomprising look at actual human drama and psychology that has earned them these awards.