Nobuhiko Obayashi

Nobuhiko Obayashi was a Japanese filmmaker who devoted his works to depicting war's horrors and singing the eternal power of movies. He began his filmmaking career as a pioneer of Japanese experimental films before transitioning to directing more mainstream media, and his resulting filmography as a director spanned almost 60 years. He is best known as the director of the 1977 horror film House, which has garnered a cult following. He was notable for his distinct surreal filmmaking style, as well as the anti-war themes commonly embedded in his films. Obayashi was born on 9 January 1938 in the city of Onomichi, Japan. 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. He made his first 8 mm film in 1944 at the age of 6, the hand-drawn animated short Popeye's Treasure Island. In 1955 Obayashi, at the urging of his father, began procedures to enter medical school and become a physician. However, he abandoned the prospect of a career in medicine in favor of following his artistic interests at Seijo University. In 1956 he was accepted to the university's liberal arts department, where he began to work with 8 and 16 mm film. Toward the end of his stay at the university Obayashi began working on a series of short experimental films. Together with Takahiko Iimura, Yoichi Takabayashi, and Donald Richie, Obayashi established the Japanese experimental-film group Film Independent, who were awarded at the 1964 Knokke-Le-Zoute Experimental Film Festival. Along with works by other filmmakers such as Shuji Terayama and Donald Richie, Obayashi's films would develop the tone of Japanese experimental cinema through the 1960s. In these early experimental films Obayashi employed a number of avant-garde techniques that he would carry into his later mainstream work. Though these films tended to be of a personal nature, they received public viewership due to distribution by the Art Theatre Guild. Following his departure from university, Obayashi continued to work on his experimental films. Dentsu, a TV commercial project in Japan looking for new talent, asked members of Film Independents if they would like to direct commercials; Obayashi was the only one from the group to accept the offer, and thus began earning a living as a director in the new field of television advertisements. He directed over 2000 commercials in his career, working with celebrities such as Kirk Douglas, Charles Bronson, Sophia Loren, Catherine Deneuve, and David Niven. He also collaborated with musicians such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Simon & Garfunkel. Obayashi made his feature film debut in 1977 with House, a horror comedy film about a group of teenage girls who are terrorized by a haunted house. The film was based on an idea by his daughter Chigumi, who also played a role in the film. The film was a commercial success in Japan, but received mixed reviews from critics, who found it bizarre, nonsensical, and poorly made. However, the film later gained a cult following for its unique style, inventive special effects, and surreal humor. The film was released in the United States in 2009 by Janus Films and the Criterion Collection, and received more positive reviews from Western critics, who praised it as a creative and original work of cinema. Obayashi continued to direct films in various genres, such as comedy, drama, fantasy, science fiction, and romance. He often explored themes of war, peace, youth, nostalgia, and the power of cinema. Some of his notable films include The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1983), The Discarnates (1988), Sada (1998), and Casting Blossoms to the Sky (2012). He also directed several television films and series, such as Mikeneko Holmes (1996), Manuke Sensei (1998), and The Reason (2004). In 2016, Obayashi was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and given six months to live. However, he defied the prognosis and continued to make films until his death. He completed his final trilogy of films, which he called his "war trilogy", consisting of Casting Blossoms to the Sky, Seven Weeks (2014), and Hanagatami (2017). His last film, Labyrinth of Cinema, was released in 2019 and premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where he received a lifetime achievement award. The film is a three-hour epic that pays homage to the history of Japanese cinema and its role in confronting the atrocities of war. Obayashi died on 10 April 2020 in Tokyo, Japan, at the age of 82. He was survived by his wife Kyoko and his daughter Chigumi. He was buried at Zoshigaya Cemetery in Tokyo.