Posted: Thurs., Jan. 10, 2008, 4:58am PT

Suo pic takes top Japanese prize

Courtroom drama wins Junpo awards

TOKYO — "I Just Didn't Do It," the Masayuki Suo courtroom drama, was named the best Japanese pic of 2007 by the Kinema Junpo Awards.

Given by Kinema Junpo, Japan's oldest film mag, the awards have long been considered the most prestigious in the Japanese biz.

Suo also scooped the director and screenplay prizes for his pic, about a salaryman unjustly accused of groping a teenage girl on a commuter train.

Among other winners were Yuko Takeuchi (actress), Ryo Kase (actor), Hiromi Nagasaku (supporting actress) and Tomokazu Miura (supporting actor). Newcomer prizes were awarded to Misako Renbutsu and Kento Hayashi.

The acting prizes are not given for an individual pic, but for the thesp's body of work in the course of the year. Kase was rewarded for his perfs in "I Just Didn't Do It" and "Invitation from Cinema Orion"; Takeuchi for perfs in "Dog in a Sidecar," "Midnight Eagle" and "Closed Note."

The best foreign film was "Still Life" and the best foreign director was the pic's helmer, Jia Zhangke.


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