Photo/Illutration Screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto, right, and film director Hirokazu Kore-eda show off the Cannes Film Festival award in Tokyo’s Ota Ward on May 29. (Takayuki Kakuno)

Two days after he won the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival for “Kaibutsu” (Monster), screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto took possession of the coveted trophy from a distinguished “courier.”

Sakamoto took delivery at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport from award-winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who directed “Kaibutsu.”

“I feel the weight of the award in my hands and in my heart as a sense of responsibility,” Sakamoto said as he received the award on May 29.

“Now, it’s in his hands and I feel relieved,” said Kore-eda, who had just returned from the festival.

Sakamoto joined Kore-eda in Cannes for the official screening but returned home earlier before the prize was announced on May 27.

“I wrote it not for a mass audience, but to a solitary soul somewhere in this world,” Sakamoto said of his award-winning screenplay.

Set in a small town in Japan, the film has a narrative structure where characters give differing accounts of an event that occurred at a local elementary school.

“You know right away when someone stands on your foot, but it’s much harder to be aware of your own foot on someone else’s,” said Sakamoto. “For many years, I’ve tried to depict the moments when people become aware of their victims.”

“And this was my best attempt at it so far,” he added.

The film will open on June 2 in Japan.

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