Press release March 31, 2015
New award at Japanese Film Festival Nippon Connection: Actor Tadanobu Asano will receive first “Nippon Honor Award” // Live performance with Tadanobu Asano and Stereo Total
Tadanobu Asano, Japan’s number one star actor, will receive the Nippon Honor Award, sponsored by Lufthansa, at the 15th Nippon Connection Film Festival in Frankfurt am Main. The charismatic actor, currently working with Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese, became famous with his performances in such films as “Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl”, “Ichi the Killer”, and “Electric Dragon 80.000 V”. The biggest festival for Japanese cinema worldwide will honor Asano for his outstanding merit in the field of Japanese film. The Nippon Honor Award will be presented for the first time as part of the special occasion of the festival’s 15th anniversary.
The Nippon Honor Award ceremony will take place during the opening of the festival on 2 June 2015, at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt. With the support of Lufthansa, Tadanobu Asano will come all the way from Japan in order to receive the award in person. Together with director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, he will then present the German premiere of the opening film “My Man”. In addition, the horror science fiction thriller “Parasyte” (2014/2015) by Takashi Yamazaki and the drama “Kaza-hana” (2000) by Shinji Somai with Tadanobu Asano will be shown at the festival.
Tadanobu Asano tête-à-tête avec Stereo Total:
A very special event at the Nippon Connection festival awaits the audience on 3 June 2015, starting at 10 p.m. at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm: a live soundtrack performance with Tadanobu Asano and the German-French band Stereo Total. Together, they will perform a new soundtrack for the film “Ruined Heart: Another Lovestory Between a Criminal & a Whore” (2014) by Khavn. Asano plays the male leading role in this unique Philippine-German film, produced by Rapid Eye Movies. The party following the performance will continue until dawn.
About the awardee:
Born in 1973, Tadanobu Asano played his first television role at the age of sixteen. He has worked with many renowned directors such as Hirokazu Koreeda, Nagisa Oshima, Takeshi Kitano, Shunji Iwai, Sogo Ishii, Shinya Tsukamoto, Takashi Miike, Shinji Somai, and Wong Kar-Wai. In 1997 Asano received the Japanese Academy Award for Most Popular Actor. His performance in the Thai production “Last Life in the Universe” earned him the Upstream Award at the 2003 Venice Film Festival. Tadanobu Asano’s acting skills are also highly demanded outside of Japan. He is currently working with Martin Scorsese on a new film adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s novel “Silence”. He also appeared in “Mongol” by Sergei Bodrov, “Thor” by Kenneth Branagh, and “47 Ronin” by Carl Rinsch, alongside Keanu Reeves. Asano is also known as a musician, an artist, and a model. Together with director Sogo Ishii he founded the band Mach 1.67.
About the festival:
The 15th Japanese Film Festival Nippon Connection will take place from 2 to 7 June 2015 in Frankfurt am Main. The festival is the biggest platform for Japanese cinema worldwide, showing more than 100 new productions from all genres and with many directors attending. The filmmakers participate in the competitions for two audience awards, the Nippon Cinema Award and the Nippon Visions Audience Award, as well as for the Nippon Visions Jury Award. This year’s Nippon Retro will be dedicated to director Shinji Somai (1948-2001), who influenced many young Japanese filmmakers. The festival is topped off by a rich and diverse cultural program.
Festival centers will be at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and Theater Willy Praml in der Naxoshalle. Further events will take place at Mal Seh’n Kino, the German Film Museum, Ausstellungsraum Eulengasse and GDA Wohnstift Frankfurt am Zoo. There is also one new festival location at Theater Die Käs.