‘Dearest’ Grabs Grand Prix at Tokyo Drama Awards
TBS Television’s “Dearest,” which mixes mystery with a love triangle story, was on Wednesday named the winner of the Grand Prix for a drama series at the Tokyo Drama Awards.
The annual awards for dramas broadcast during the past year are presented every October at the International Drama Festival in Tokyo. They are organized by the International Drama Festival in Tokyo Executive Committee. This year they were additionally the subject of a discussion streamed live on the TIFFCOM website site
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The show sets up the key witness to a murder as a former lover of a detective on the case, as well as an object of romantic interest of a lawyer. He vows to protect her by whatever means necessary. Director Ayuko Tsukahara said that the 10-hour series holds the attention of the viewer with not only the love complications of the principals but also the classic whodunit question: Who is the real killer?
Meanwhile, in the single drama category the Grand Prix went to the NHK drama “Bullets, Bones and Blocked Noses.” With the internationally acclaimed Odagiri Joe (“Adrift in Tokyo”) serving as scriptwriter, director and star, the show features a police dog handler and his ‘genius’ dog (Odagiri) who appears to the handler in the guise of a lazy, potty-mouthed middle-aged guy in a dog costume. Producer Yoshiko Yamamoto said that “People around the world will be pleased to see that we still know how to make silly shows in Japan.”
In addition to the Grand Prix winners, six shows in each of two main categories were honored, as were two programs in the local drama category. Also, special awards for foreign drama were given to the Indonesian love-triangle drama “Broken Kite,” the Taiwanese life-after-death drama “Twisted Strings,” which was executive produced by renowned auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien, and the Thai drama “A Tale of Thousand Stars,” about a heart transplant recipient who investigates the life of his benefactor
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