Japan

The Washington Post

Nobuhiko Obayashi, prolific Japanese filmmaker, dies at 82

By Yuri Kageyama

April 13, 2020

Nobuhiko Obayashi, one of Japan’s most prolific filmmakers, who devoted his works to depicting war’s horrors and the eternal power of movies, died April 10. He was 82.

His death was announced on the official site for his latest film, “Labyrinth of Cinema.” The place of death was not immediately available. Mr. Obayashi had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2016.

“Labyrinth of Cinema,” an homage to filmmaking, had been scheduled to be released in Japan on the day Mr. Obayashi died. The release was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has closed theaters. The film was showcased last year at the Tokyo International Film Festival, which honored Mr. Obayashi as a “cinematic magician” and screened several of his other works.

Mr. Obayashi stayed true to his core pacifist message through more than 40 movies and thousands of TV shows, commercials and other works.

His films have kaleidoscopic, fairy-tale-like imagery featuring his trademark motifs of colorful Japanese festivals, dripping blood, marching doll-like soldiers, shooting stars and winding cobblestone roads.

“Miss Lonely,” released in 1985, was shot in seaside Onomichi, the picturesque town in Hiroshima prefecture where Mr. Obayashi grew up and made animation clips by hand.

His other popular films include “House” (1977), a horror comedy about youngsters who amble into a haunted house, and “Hanagatami” (2017), another take on his perennial themes of young love and the injustices of war that unfolds in iridescent hues.

Mr. Obayashi was a trailblazer in the world of Japanese TV commercials, hiring foreign movie stars such as Catherine Deneuve and Charles Bronson, highlighted in his slick film work that seemed to symbolize Japan’s postwar modernization.

Mr. Obayashi was born in Onomichi on Jan. 9, 1938, and his childhood overlapped with the devastation of World War II. His pacifist beliefs were reinforced by his father, an army doctor, who also gave him his first 8-millimeter camera.

Mr. Obayashi’s works lack Hollywood’s action-packed plots and neat finales. Instead, they appear to start from nowhere and end, then start up again, weaving in and out of scenes, often traveling in time.

In an Associated Press interview in 2019, Mr. Obayashi stressed his belief in the power of movies. Movies like his, he remarked, ask that important question: Where do you stand?

“Movies are not weak,” he said. “Movies express freedom.”

Survivors include his wife, Kyoko Obayashi, an actress and film producer; and their daughter, Chigumi Obayashi, an actress.

— Associated Press