Two Japanese films picked up Oscars at the 81st annual Academy Awards

“Okuribito” (Departures) won in the Foreign Language Film
category and “Tsumiki no Ie” (La Maison en Petits Cubes) was
named Best Animated Short Film. The French name translates
as “The House of Small Cubes.”

Takita and lead actor Masahiro Motoki collected the award for
“Okuribito.” A beaming Takita said in English to the audience
“I am here because of films. This is a new ‘departure’ for me.
And I will, we will, be back. I hope.”

“Tsumiki no Ie,” directed by Kunio Kato, 31,
was Japan’s first Oscar in its category - the nation’s only other
animation success coming in 2003 with Hayao Miyazaki’s
“Spirited Away” in the category of Best Animated Feature.

“So heavy. Thank you very much,”
Kato told the audience on picking up the award.

“Okuribito” portrays with a humorous touch how a mortician
observes people’s lives and deaths. For the film, which was in the
pipeline for more than 10 years, Motoki, who plays the mortician,
studied relevant techniques under a real mortician.
During his training he wiped the faces of bodies and dressed them.

“Tsumiki no Ie” is about an elderly man living in a blocklike house.
He piles up bricks to build his house higher and stay above the
rising level of the sea.
The animation was painstakingly drawn by hand, meaning it took
about seven months to complete the 12-minute film.

Japanese Movies are AWESOME! GO JAPAN!