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Even before the success of “Shoplifters” the family drama has been one of the most popular genre within Japanese cinema. As a mirror of social, political and economic issues the family portrait can be quite powerful as many artists, also from other media, have found out which is perhaps why these images have become so frequent. However, it takes a certain kind of director, among other things, to make a family stand out, but in the case of Nobuhiko Obayashi's “Seven Weeks” we luckily have one of those features. Described by the director as “Guernica in moving images”, the story Obayashi tells in one of his last movies touches upon a death in a family, and the kind of conflicts and memories it brings for the relatives left behind, while at the same time presenting a uniquely maverick portrayal of post-war Japan.

on Terracotta by clicking...

In his late works, Nobuhiko Obayashi became a very keen and critical observer of his home country, its society and politics, posing the question whether they had actually learned anything from the past. “Casting Blossoms to the Sky” is the first movie in what is now considered a trilogy of anti-war features, with “Seven Weeks” (2014) and “Hanagatami” (2017) being the other parts. Following his visual and narrative approach of combining layers of dream, reality and time, Obayashi focuses on several incidents and experiences of a woman traveling to Nagaoka, a city famous for its fireworks tradition, but also a place which may hold the key in understanding the present as well as the possible future of Japan.

on Terracotta by clicking on the image below

As a newspaper journalist, Reiko Endo (Yasuko Matsuyuki) has always been interested in the history of places, such as Nagaoka. After the earthquake...

When Nobuhiko Obayashi sadly passed away in April 2020, most social media was filled with many posts showing pictures of the director and perhaps the feature most people remember, his 1977 film “Hausu”. While there is no denying about the quality of said film, given the vast career of Obayashi which spans over five decades, these pictures also indicate that so many viewers still need to discover for themselves the multitude of themes and the experimental visual style of the majority of his body of work, in which his debut feature makes up only a small portion. One way to start this journey into Obayashi’s work may be the upcoming release of his penultimate work, “Hanagatami” by Third Window, a touching and very poetic film about growing up during war times.

“Hanagatami” is screening at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, as part of the Obayashi Nobuhiko Film Show Case

In 1941, Toshihiko (Shunsuke Kubozuka), a sixteen-year-old teenager,...

The ne plus ultra of Japanese maverick Nobuhiko Obayashi’s work as a surrealist and staunch anti-war advocate, the cult “House” director’s dizzying and frequently dazzling final feature is told through the adventures of four young people who are magically transported into the movies themselves. Opening with a riotous bombardment of sound and image that risks confusing and losing some viewers even as it sends others into rapturous delight, “Labyrinth of Cinema” then makes sense of the chaos and emerges as

It’s something of a miracle that “Labyrinth of Cinema” exists. After being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2016, Obayashi completed “Hanagatami” (2017), the final chapter in his anti-war trilogy that included “Casting Blossoms to the Sky” (2012) and “Seven Weeks” (2014). Defying a prognosis that gave him just months to live, Obayashi then co-wrote, directed and co-edited this three-hour feature while undergoing treatment. He survived to see its world premiere...

Uchida Eiji, co-director of Netflix’ “The Naked Director” series and 2020 transgender drama movie “Midnight Swan,” tops the new sales slate unveiled by indie rights agency Free Stone Productions in time for the Tokyo festival and market.

Uchida’s “Shrieking in the Rain” is a drama film in which a female first time director has tough choices to make on the set of an erotic movie production she is shooting. The film stars Matsumoto Marika, Oyama Maeko, Motola Serena, and Shibukawa Kiyohiko and is set for a VoD release in Japan from December.

Free Stone is also launching “Life In Bloom,” a drama film directed by Miyake Noboyuki that will release in Japanese theaters in 2022. With a cast headed by Iwamoto Renka, Doi Shiori, Yoshiyuki Kazuko and Takarada Akira, the film tells the story of a student who absconds from school to work in an end of life clinic but eventually...

Passing away in April of last year, Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi left behind a surreal, fascinating body of work. While he was most known for his Criterion-approved horror-comedy Hausu aka House, he was also working right up until the very end, editing his farewell opus Labyrinth of Cinema while receiving cancer treatment. His swan song will now thankfully receive a U.S. theatrical and home-video release this fall, and we’re pleased to present the exclusive new trailer.

Labyrinth of Cinema will have its New York Premiere at Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film (Aug 20 – Sept 2), closing out the festival on Sept 2. Additionally, the film will be available on home video in September with a theatrical release in October, courtesy of the newly formed distribution company Crescendo House. The company aims to reinvent the current model, instead offering a collector’s edition home release first, the reception of which will secure future theatrical bookings.

In his late works, Nobuhiko Obayashi became a very keen and critical observer of his home country, its society and politics, posing the question whether they had actually learned anything from the past. “Casting Blossoms to the Sky” is the first movie in what is now considered a trilogy of anti-war features, with “Seven Weeks” (2014) and “Hanagatami” (2017) being the other parts. Following his visual and narrative approach of combining layers of dream, reality and time, Obayashi focuses on several incidents and experiences of a woman traveling to Nagaoka, a city famous for its fireworks tradition, but also a place which may hold the key in understanding the present as well as the possible future of Japan.

“Seven Weeks” Opens Japan Society, NY and Nationwide Virtual Cinemas and Theaters, July 9, courtesy of Kimstim Films

As a newspaper journalist, Reiko Endo (Yasuko Matsuyuki) has always been interested in the history of places,...

In the last decade of his long and prolific career, Nobuhiko Obayashi (1938-2020) — best-known in the U.S. as the filmmaker behind the cult hit House (1977) — wrote and directed a trio of deeply personal and formally audacious films that confronted Japan’s wartime past.

Made in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 2011 and informed by Obayashi’s firsthand experience as a child born on the eve of World War II in Hiroshima Prefecture, the staggering films in this trilogy—consisting of Casting Blossoms to the Sky (2012), Seven Weeks (2014) and, Hanagatami (2017)—collectively consider the loss of innocence for an entire generation of Japanese youth raised in the shadow of war and national disaster.

Kimstin is proud to present Nobuhiko Obayashi’s War Trilogy, which opens at Japan Society, NY and nationwide virtual cinemas and theatres on July 9th

Hanagatami

Drama • 2h 51m • 2014

After being diagnosed...

Even before the success of “Shoplifters” the family drama has been one of the most popular genre within Japanese cinema. As a mirror of social, political and economic issues the family portrait can be quite powerful as many artists, also from other media, have found out which is perhaps why these images have become so frequent. However, it takes a certain kind of director, among other things, to make a family stand out, but in the case of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s “Seven Weeks” we luckily have one of those features. Described by the director as “Guernica in moving images”, the story Obayashi tells in one of his last movies touches upon a death in a family, and the kind of conflicts and memories it brings for the relatives left behind, while at the same time presenting a uniquely maverick portrayal of post-war Japan.

“Seven Weeks” Opens Japan Society, NY and Nationwide Virtual Cinemas and Theaters,...

Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s House (1977) is showing in the United Kingdom.Above: House“What a strange landscape”“It feels like we’re lost in another world” —HouseAs they walk on the path approaching the titular House, the protagonists of Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s cult classic self-reflectively acknowledge the strangeness of the scenery they inhabit: suspiciously idyllic painted backdrops, beautifully nightmarish skies, and bidimensional sets that look like they’ve come out of a pop-up book. Above all, a strange blue halo that seems to be tracing the outlines of their bodies and of the objects surrounding them, making them look like ghosts. House is an explosive showcase of filmic techniques and practical effects: in the space of its 88 minute runtime, Ôbayashi experiments with virtually every means at his disposal to create what is perhaps one of the most formally daring, visually interesting horror films ever made. And yet if there’s one...

Trading platform enables buyers to select films, negotiate rights with sellers, sign contracts and request deliverables directly.

Yokohama-based digital rights trading outfit, Filmination, has launched a platform to provide global VOD acquisitions executives with the ability to buy Japanese films and TV series directly from rights holders.

The site, filmination.jp, builds on the company’s previous browsable catalogue of Japanese films available to global VOD buyers, launched in January 2019. The new platform provides a bilingual marketplace ecosystem, through which buyers can select films, negotiate rights with sellers, sign contracts and request deliverables directly.

Japanese films currently have low penetration on international VOD services,...

If you think of the words “amateur” or “amateurish”, it is not only a derogatory term, but it also defines a border between what is considered to be high art or successful versus what cannot attract audiences or does not meet popular tastes. The fact these tastes are, at least nowadays, defined by marketing people diagnosing what makes money now rather than what audiences might want or whether there is a niche somewhere no one has discovered yet. Within the Japanese film industry, not being associated with the studio system meant a stigma for many artists as they were labeled outsiders such as Seijun Suzuki, who was famously fired after “Branded to Kill”, now considered an avantgarde masterpiece, did not meet the expectations of the production company. Others like Nobuhiko Obayashi never really worked within the studio system and were seen as “amateurs”, a label the director never saw as an insult or a stigma,...

Three upcoming Japanese films from Third Window Films are now available for preorder.

Hanagatami

Out July 6th

In 2016, Nobuhiko Obayashi, the director of the cult Japanese film House (Hausu) was diagnosed with lung cancer and given only a few months to live. Despite not much time left, for what was supposed to be his final film he adapted Kazuo Dan’s 1937 novella Hanagatami, his passion project 40 years in the making.

In 1941, as Japan prepares its attack on Pearl Harbor, 16 year-old Toshihiko (Shunsuke Kubozuka) leaves his parents in Amsterdam and moves to the seaside town of Karatsu where his aunt Keiko (Takako Tokiwa) cares for his ailing cousin Mina (Honoka Yahagi). Immersed in the exquisite nature and phenomenal culture of Karatsu, Toshihiko befriends the beautiful, Apollo-like Ukai (Shinnosuke Mitsushima), the contemplative Kira (Keishi Nagatsuka), the ingenuous Akine (Hirona Yamazaki) and the brooding Chitose (Mugi Kadowaki) as they all contend with the war’s inescapable gravitational pull.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Nobuhiko Obayashi in his "humble workspace." (Photograph by Aiko Masubichi for Mubi.) We're devastated by the loss of three great titans within the last week, each totally singular and significant to the history of movies: Bruce Baillie, avant-garde filmmaker and founder of Canyon Cinema and the San Francisco Cinematheque, the prolific pacifist and green-screen master Nobuhiko Obayashi (whose penultimate film Hanagatami was featured on Mubi in January of 2019), and Pan-African cinema pioneer Sarah Maldoror, known for her portraits of women's role in African liberation struggles. The Cannes Film Festival, which earlier announced plans to postpone the festival until the end of June to early July, has confirmed that this will no longer be possible, and that the festivities can no longer take place in their "original form." Recommended VIEWINGThis Long Century, a digital...

Nobuhiko Obayashi – (09.01.1938-10.04.2020) born in Onomichi, after his father, a doctor, was called to the battlefront during World War II, he was raised in his early infancy by his maternal grandparents. Through his childhood and adolescence, Obayashi followed many artistic pursuits, including drawing, writing, playing the piano, and possessed a growing interest in animation and film. In 1956 he entered the Liberal Arts department of Seijo University, where he began to work with 8mm and 16mm film. He worked on a series of experimental films, becoming one of the pioneers of this genre in 1960s Japan. His breakout film ‘House‘ (1977), a surrealist horror comedy, was a commercial hit internationally and has garnered a cult following . Throughout the 1980s he then transitioned to directing more mainstream media – including many popular coming-of-age films -and his resulting filmography as a director spanned almost 60 years. Obayashi died on 10 April 2020 at the age of 82 in Tokyo...

The Night Is Short, Walk on GirlNew York City’s remarkable summer of Asian film programming continues this week, when, just as the New York Asian Film Festival comes to a close, the Japan Society begins its annual series highlighting the best of contemporary Japanese cinema. This twelfth edition of Japan Cuts features 28 films over ten days, most of which are premiering for the first time in the United States. It’s an eclectic mix of arthouse and genre films from world famous directors as well as young unknowns. I was able to sample a handful of this year’s program, for the most part steering away from the biggest names1 in favor of less heralded filmmakers. In all I saw six films: three romantic comedies; a road movie; a 1980s pink film (Masayuki Suo’s Abnormal Family); and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Hanagatami, which is some kind of a historical drama.

It’s good to be a cinephile in New York City. Every summer — just when it seems like all of the most anticipated blockbusters have already come and gone, and the dog days of August are beginning to bark at the door — a string of incredible film series arrives to tide us over until the fall. Two of those events have become inextricably knotted together, The New York Asian Film Festival and Japan Cuts transforming July into a month-long celebration of Asian cinema.

And while the festivals once fed into each other and co-presented certain screenings, Japan Cuts has grown into an annual institution that’s more than capable of standing on its own. Sold-out screenings of explosive new films, bonafide classics, cult oddities, and numerous cat-based adventures (shout out to the legendary “Neko Samurai”) have made it into a fixture of the city’s film scene.

The 2018 lineup is...

Now in its 12th year, Japan Cuts continues to grow as the largest festival of contemporary Japanese cinema in North America. Bringing a wide range of the best and hardest-to-see films made in and around Japan today — from blockbusters, independent productions and anime, to documentaries, avant-garde works, short films, and new restorations — Japan Cuts is the place to experience Japan’s dynamic film culture in New York City. Like every year, this thrilling 10-day festival offers exclusive premieres, special guest filmmakers and stars, fun-filled parties, live music and more! Tickets are on-sale now!

The festival programmers Aiko Masubuchi, Kazu Watanabe and Joel Neville Andersonhave highlighted in a note that “perhaps most strikingly, the struggle for dignity and individual rights reverberates throughout the lineup—including Lgbtq advocacy (“Of Love & Law”), reparations for government abuse (“Sennan Asbestos Disaster”) or the plight of refugees (“Passage of Life”). Additionally, multiple films deal with the...

Even those who live in Asia may find there’s no better time and place to be a fan of their cinema than this July in New York City. A mere few days after New York Asian Film Festival concludes, the last half of the month features the return of Japan Cuts, which is dedicated to the best in Japanese cinema, and this year proves to be another stellar line-up. Featuring 28 feature-length films and 9 short films, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the trailer for the festival, which runs from July 19 through the 29 at Japan Society.

Highlights from this year’s festival include Takeshi Kitano’s crime drama sequel Outrage Coda, Naomi Kawase’s Radiance, the U.S. premiere of Shinsuke Sato’s much-anticipated live-action manga adaptation Bleach, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s recent Berlinale premiere Yocho (Foreboding), and many more. This year’s Opening Night film is Eric Khoo’s Ramen Shop,...