Teenage Dream: Obayashi in the '80s

ABOUT THE SERIES:

The American Cinematheque is delighted to honor legendary Japanese filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi with a curated tribute highlighting four new restorations from AGFA/Cult Epics of his acclaimed seishun eiga, or coming-of-age films, of the 1980s. Globally known for his psychedelic horror-comedy debut HOUSE, Obayashi’s legacy extends far beyond cult notoriety. The poetic surrealist was a co-founder of the experimental film collective Japan Film Andepandan (“Independents”), which championed an avant-garde approach to filmmaking that ultimately influenced the tone of Japanese independent and experimental cinema of the 1960s and beyond. Obayashi’s eclectic artistic sensibilities accompanied him throughout his commercial career and subsequent mainstream success with his youth and pop idol films of the ‘80s striking a notable chord as they examine the complexities of Japan’s adolescents and elevate cinema’s power of exploring the depths of the human experience in a distinctively surreal fashion.

Our tribute spotlights Obayashi’s idiosyncratic youth films that delve into the ephemerality of memories and the quest for independence, beginning with HIS MOTORBIKE, HER ISLAND, a whimsical biker film about young love. Another blossoming young romance and a poignant reflection on the rapid globalization of Japan is found in BEIJING WATERMELON, filmed and released around the same time as the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations.

As with HOUSE, Obayashi frequently incorporated supernatural elements in his work, notably with SCHOOL IN THE CROSSHAIRS, a fantasy film that follows a high school girl (played by Japanese teen idol Hiroko Yakushimaru) with psychic powers who is forced to defend her school from extraterrestrial beings. In his adaptation of Yasutaka Tsutsui’s novel of the same name, THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, Obayashi addresses the fleeting nature of time and space with this sci-fi feature by foregrounding a time-traveling high schooler (portrayed by idol Tomoyo Harada). The film’s success resulted in two other cinematic reimaginings, one being an animated feature that came out in 2006 by director Mamoru Hosoda. With THE ISLAND CLOSEST TO HEAVEN, Obayashi evokes a meditative journey on grief through the lens of a young girl in search of a mythical island after the death of her father.