Asian Film Awards 2019 winners: Shoplifters named best picture; China, Japan and South Korea dominate
- Honour for Hirokazu Koreeda’s film about a family of petty criminals in Tokyo follows Oscar nomination and Palme d’Or win at Cannes festival in 2018
- Lee Chang-dong wins best director for psychodrama Burning, and Hong Kong cinema is recognised with best supporting actress and best new director prizes
Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda’s masterful family drama Shoplifters won best picture at the 13th edition of the Asian Film Awards on a night when films from Japan, South Korea and China dominated proceedings.
Already winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and a nominee for best foreign-language film at this year’s Oscars, Shoplifters revolves around an impoverished household in Tokyo whose family members regularly resort to petty crime to survive. Koreeda and his lead actress, Sakura Ando, were on stage at TVB City, in Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong, on Sunday night to receive the award.
Two recipients of honorary awards ended up getting more than they had probably bargained for.
Meanwhile, veteran Japanese actor Koji Yakusho, recipient of the Excellence in Asian Cinema Award, a mid-career honour, was named best actor for his role as an unorthodox police detective in the gangster epic The Blood of Wolves. This was his third best actor nomination at the Asian Film Awards, after nods for his roles in 13 Assassins (2010) and Chronicle of My Mother (2011).