On June 24th, the upcoming life-switching comedy 'Kagi Dorobou no Method', starring Sakai Masato, received the award for Best Screenplay at the '15th Shanghai International Film Festival'.

'Kagi Dorobou no Method' is directed and written by Uchida Kenji and is the first Japanese movie to win said award in the history of this film festival. He commented, "I think that the script of a movie only gets completed at the same the movie itself gets completed. I have to thank all of the staff and the cast who participated in this movie. Thank you very much."

The movie is a comedy about an unpopular actor with money problems named Sakurai (Sakai), who switches identities with the rich and powerful Kondo (played by Kagawa Teruyuki), when the latter loses his memories in a mishap at a bath house. While Kondo now believes to be an unpopular actor named Sakurai himself, Sakurai is trying to enjoy his life as the rich Kondo. However, what he didn't know is that Kondo has also been living a second life as a legendary contract killer, which is going to make his new life more troublesome than expected. Meanwhile, Kondo is working hard to change his situation for the better and even gets proposed to by a female editor-in-chief of a magazine (played by Hirosue Ryoko).

The competition included 17 works picked out of a total 1643 applications from 106 different countries. Moreover the 3,000 tickets for the screening of 'Kagi Dorobou no Method' at the festival on the 17th were immediately sold out and over 200 fans were waiting outside to catch a glimpse of Sakai, Hirosue, and Uchida at the red carpet. The organizers even had to increase the security personal because of the passionate reception of the Chinese movie fans.

Past Japanese award winners include Iwai Shunji's 'Riri Shushu no Subete' which won the Special Jury Award and Best Music in 2002, Mihara Mitsuhiro's 'Mura no Shashinshu' which won the Golden Goblet (Best Movie) and Best Actor (Fuji Tatsuya) in 2005, and Yamada Yoji's 'Bushi no Ichibun' which won Best Music (Tomita Isao) in 2007.

In Japan 'Kagi Dorobou no Method' is scheduled to open nationwide on September 15th.

Check out the movie's first teaser below!

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Source & Pictures: eiga.com