It's awards season in Hollywood. On Sunday, all eyes were on the ゴールデン・グローブ賞 (Gōruden Gurōbu-shō, Golden Globe Awards), where two Japanese directors were nominated: 是枝裕和 (Koreeda Hirokazu, Hirokazu Kore-eda) and 細田守 (Hosoda Mamoru, Mamoru Hosoda).
Though both are critical darlings, Kore-eda's 「万引き家族」 ("Manbiki Kazoku," "Shoplifters") and Hosoda's 「未来のミライ」 ("Mirai no Mirai," "Mirai") both lost out in the end. Let's hope they find better luck when the nominees for the アカデミー賞 (Akademii-shō, Academy Awards) are announced Jan. 22 (the ceremony takes place Feb. 24).
Until then, film will be a great topic of conversation, especially in Japan where 映画鑑賞 (eiga kanshō, watching movies) is one of the country's top two 趣味 (shumi, hobbies). (The other is 読書 [dokusho, reading books].)