Japanese Director Kichitaro Negishi Wins at Montreal Film Festival

Japanese director Kichitaro Negishi has won the best director award at the 33rd Montreal World Film Festival for his 2009 film Viyon no Tsuma (English title - Villon’s Wife). The film is based on several short stories by Osamu Dazai (1909-1948), and is a tribute to this legendary fiction-writers’ 100th anniversary of his birth this year. It depicts the positive way of life of the wife of a novelist who leads a catastrophic life, and stars Takako Matsu and Tadanobu Asano. The film is scheduled for release in Japan on Oct 10.

Last year, the festival’s grand prize was won by Yojiro Takita’s highly-acclaimed “Okuribito.”