Syoutarou Kobayasi’s Japanese film tells the story of a cartoonist’s wife; other winners include Return Ticket and Birth Right

Japanese film Kaasan Mom’s Life by Syoutarou Kobayasi has won the Asian New Talent Award for best feature at the 14th Shanghai International Film Festival (June 11-19).

The film tells the story of a cartoonist’s wife who struggles to hold her family together as she deals with a pair of rebellious children and an alcoholic husband. 

Taiwan’s Teng Yung-shing won the best director award with his Shanghai-based drama Return Ticket, while Japanese director Naoki Hashimoto’s psycho thriller Birth Right won the jury prize.

The prizes were awarded to films in the programme at SIFF’s Asian New Talent Award Competition, which ran June 11-17. Japanese director Shunji Iwai (All About Lily Chou-Chou) serves as jury president.

Meanwhile, SIFF’s project market section China Film Pitch and Catch (CFPC) and Co-production Pitch and Catch (CoFPC) has given awards to Chinese filmmaker Qi Rui’s Cry Me A Pond and Kit Hui’s A Borrowed Life. Both films received $15,400 (RMB100,000) cash prizes sponsored by Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Qi’s Cry Me A Pond, which is based on a true incident about four 12-year-old girls from southern China who committed group suicide, won the Most Creative Project title.

Hui’s A Borrowed Life, about the journey of a middle-aged Chinese man who learns that he is the son of a Japanese soldier, won the Most Promising Project to Invest.

Isaballe Glachant’s Chinese Shadows, whose credits include Wang Xiaoshuai’s Chongqing Blues and Lu Chuan’s City Of Life And Death is producing the film in partnership with Japan’s Paxeterna.

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