Monday, Feb. 22, 2010
First Japanese to top the field in 35 years
BERLIN (Kyodo) Shinobu Terajima won the Silver Bear for best actress at the 60th Berlin Film Festival on Saturday, the first time a Japanese has bagged the prize in 35 years.
All smiles: Actress Shinobu Terajima talks to the media in Osaka on Sunday in her first appearance since winning the Silver Bear for best actress at the 60th Berlin Film Festival on Saturday. KYODO PHOTO
The 37-year-old Terajima was honored for her performance in director Koji Wakamatsu's "Caterpillar," a film based on a 1929 short story of the same title by mystery literary icon Rampo Edogawa.
"I won the award on behalf of everyone involved in this movie for doing such excellent jobs. This award is a reward for that," Terajima said at a news conference in Osaka Sunday evening. "I'm very happy that people around the world understood (the movie)."
Terajima said she could not sleep the previous night because of all the excitement, explaining that she needed to get up a number of times during the night to take congratulatory calls from her family and friends in Japan and abroad.
The film focuses on the relationship between a woman named Shigeko, played by Terajima, and her on-screen husband, who returns from war as a decorated soldier but loses his arms and legs in battle.
"It had been a while since a script electrified me when I first read it, compelling me to want to play the role," Terajima said of the movie. She said the award was also a reflection of the director's success in being able to deliver an accurate portrayal of the realities of war.
At the award ceremony in Berlin on Saturday, Wakamatsu read out a message on behalf of Terajima in which she said: "I am thankful for the award. This will be my life-long treasure. . . . I pray that there will be no war in the world someday."
Terajima had to leave Berlin before the presentation to perform in a play in Osaka that opened Sunday. She said she first learned she had won the award through the Internet.
"It was hard to believe at first," she said. "But now, I'm beginning to be thrilled by it."
"Caterpillar" is scheduled to be released in Japan in August.
Terajima is the third Japanese actress to win the best actress award at the Berlin event, which along with Cannes and Venice is considered one of the world's three major film festivals.
In 1964, Sachiko Hidari received the award for her role in "She and He." In 1975, Kinuyo Tanaka won the award for her work in "Sandakan No. 8."
The closing film for this year's festival was "Otouto" ("Younger Brother"), presented by director Yoji Yamada. Yamada was awarded the Berlinale Camera, a special award given to a person to whom the Berlin festival considers it owes its thanks.