At 7:23 p.m. local time on April 10, the famous Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi, known as the "Image Magician", died of lung cancer at his home in Tokyo's Setagaya District at the age of 82. Many of his former friends and actors, including Yoji Yamada, Takumi Kobayashi, Chisei Harada, and Goro Inagaki, expressed their condolences for his passing. Director Yoji Yamada, 89, said: "I lost a very, very important friend. He is a unique director and a gentle artist who hates war and loves peace. At the age of 17, Satomi Kobayashi, who entered the film world with Obayashi's famous work "Transfer Student", said: "Director Obayashi is my root and my sun, and I sincerely pray for him." ”
In January 2017, during treatment for cancer, Nobuhiko Obayashi and his wife Kyoko Obayashi appeared on the talk show Tetsuko's House.
A teenager drinking whiskey with an examiner
Obayashi was born in 1938 to a prominent family in Oido City, Hiroshima Prefecture. His father was a famous local doctor, and his mother was a professor in the Thousand Families of the Tea Ceremony School. At the age of two, he found a movie projector in his family's storage room, figured out the doorway to use it, and at the age of 6 he was able to paint on 35mm film and make moving images.
As a teenager, Nobuhiko Obayashi was obsessed with American cinema and used to go to the cinema on weekends with "Uncle Shinto" (Kanehito Shinto), who was living in Owido at the time and would later become a famous Japanese director. When he was 15 years old, the famous director Yasujiro Ozu came to Omichi to shoot "Tokyo Story" (that is, the hometown of Shukichi and his wife in the film), and Obayashi, who was curious about making movies, also went to the shooting site to visit.
During Obayashi's middle school years, when manga artists led by Osamu Tezuka were on a rampage, he also began to experiment with manga creation. In addition, literary and artistic genres such as piano, stage plays, and fanzine novels are also all the favorites of Obayashi Nobuhiko. His interests were wide-ranging and versatile, so when he decided on a university major, he naturally took the film department of the Art Department of the Faculty of Arts of The University of Tokyo's Naruseong University as his test goal.
In a 2012 interview with Asahi Shibate, Nobuhiko Obayashi revealed an anecdote about a college entrance exam. Because he admired the great French poet Baudelaire who lived a bohemian life at that time, he actually brought a bottle of whiskey into the field during the exam and answered the question while drinking. Who expected the invigilator to smell the wine and move, sighing "how fragrant." Obayashi calmly responded, "How about the teacher also have a drink?" "It is better to be respectful than to obey." So, the two drank in the examination room.
Whether it was because it was too easy to get into college, or the contrast between the colorful Tokyo and the peaceful town of Onomichi, or the toho Film Studio near the rented apartment, Obayashi did not listen carefully to a few classes in class, but spent a lot of time shooting 8mm films on his own. Like the cowboy in his beloved American Western, he wore a short red scarf and played a romantic chanson while photographing the endless stream of students who came to watch. Among them was Kyoko Obayashi, who later became his wife. Later, they co-founded Obayashi Productions (PSC), with his wife as a producer, and various chores were contracted by one hand, and the two were together for more than half a century, until Obayashi Nobuhiko passed away.
In Obayashi's university days, the concept of "independent production" had not yet been born in the Japanese film industry, but the way he wrote scripts, shots, directed, and scored like him was actually the abuse of independent production. Now that he had fully mastered the essentials of filmmaking, Obayashi did not wait for the graduation certificate to arrive, and said goodbye to the university.
From an avant-garde filmmaker to an advertising wizard
After dropping out of college, Obayashi began to mix in the avant-garde film circle that was just emerging at that time, forming a small group with like-minded young people such as Takahiko Iizuru, Koichiro Ishizaki, Shigetoshi Sato, and Yoichi Takabayashi to shoot 16mm films. However, most of the experimental works he shot during this period were temporarily screened in places such as galleries and small film galleries, and they were not seen by the general public, let alone filled his stomach. Interestingly, next, Obayashi's creative path took a sharp turn, from the avant-garde film of Yangchun Baixue to the field of commercial advertising.
In the 1960s, Japan's economic development began to enter the fast lane, corresponding to the budding advertising industry in thirst. In 1964, the Shinjuku Kiikoku Bookstore Building held a 60-second video collection event for the opening. Dentsu Advertising Company smelled talent from Obayashi's entries and tried to invite him to participate in advertising shooting. And for Obayashi, someone let him shoot what he wanted to shoot at any cost, so why not enjoy it.
In fact, not only is there no restriction on creating content, but advertising also allows Obayashi to work with his favorite filmmakers. Even after turning his focus to shooting feature films, he did not completely cut off his love affair with advertising, shooting more than 3,000 films before and after.
It is worth mentioning that it was Nobuhiko Obayashi who started to invite Western stars to Japan to shoot advertisements in the industry. He enlisted Charles Bronson, a hardcore Actor from Hollywood, to shoot an advertisement for the cosmetics company Mandan in the style of a Western, changing the Stereotype of Men Using Cosmetics in Japan. In addition, his collaborations with French actress Catherine Deneuve, French composer Francis Lai, Beatles member Ringo Starr, and Hollywood actor Kirk Douglas have also caused constant conversation.
Compared with the use of new people and new faces in film works, Obayashi often cooperates with big names in the Japanese film and television industry when shooting advertisements. In 1989, NEC asked Akira Kurosawa to shoot an advertisement for its personal computer, and because he admired Obayashi's 1985 film "Lonely Ghost", the master pointed out that the advertising director had to be Ōbayashi. So, under the "command" of Nobuhiko Obayashi, Akira Kurosawa took down his sunglasses in public for the first time. In addition to Akira Kurosawa, Obayashi has worked with Momoe Yamaguchi and Tomokazu Miura, Hisashi Mori, Shusaku Endo, and Fumiko Wakao.
The "Onomichi Trilogy" became famous in the film world
After ten years of hard work in the field of commercial advertising, Nobuhiko Obayashi was able to devote himself to film creation without any worries. In 1977, at the age of 39, he finally completed his feature film debut, House(HOUSE ハウス). Although the work received good reviews and won the Best Newcomer Award at the Blue Ribbon Award for Japanese Cinema, its molding process was not smooth. At that time, in the Japanese industry, before the directors could stand alone, most of them were like apprentices, starting from the grassroots level in the studio, and finally promoted from assistant director to director, in order to make independent films. And Obayashi Nobuhiko has always been a solo player and an advertising director, so "Ghost House" was fiercely opposed by a number of assistant directors when toho set up the project. Thanks to the persuasion of Matsuoka Gong, then the sales minister (who later became Toho President), and the lobbying of Toho's elder and famous director Kihachi Okamoto, he was able to pass the pass.
Obayashi's feature film debut, Haunted House, is a combination of horror, comedy, and fantasy
"Ghost House" tells the story of seven female high school students who come to a country house for summer vacation, and the strange things are one after another, and the girls disappear one by one. From the current point of view, this horror film is quite the first to lead the way, and later in Asia and Hollywood, the horror genre with beautiful girls as the protagonist, such as "Happy Ghost", "Midnight Bell", "Curse", "Scream", "I know what you did last summer" and so on, there are many similarities; on the other hand, this movie also opened the fantasy road of Obayashi Nobuhiko.
"Transfer Student", starring O-Merid (left) and Toshimi Kobayashi, tells the story of the physical exchange of young boys and girls
However, what really makes Obayashi a unique presence in the industry and is known to ordinary audiences is the "Transfer Student", "The Girl Who Traveled Through Time" and "Lonely Ghost" set in his hometown of Onomichi, that is, the "Onomichi Trilogy", which tells the three stories of young boys and girls who are in the cardamom age exchanging bodies, the superpowers that girls in the middle school unexpectedly obtain crossing, and the strange female classmates who appear around the teenager who have just opened their hearts and minds. Among them, "Lonely Ghost" was ranked fifth in the top ten of the year in the "Movie Magazine" and was selected as one of the fifty best works in Japan in the 1980s.
Nobuhiko Obayashi (left) during the filming of "The Girl Who Traveled Through Time"
Before Obayashi's film, Kojo Omichi's inspiration in literary works came from fumiko Hayashi, a writer who was also born and raised on onomichi. She wrote in her autobiographical novel "The Book of The Waves": "When you see the sea, you can finally see the sea." I haven't seen it in five years, and the sea on the end is nostalgic. The train sails by the sea, and the roofs of the smoked small town people's homes snake like lanterns. The red top of the red pagoda of The Thousand Lights Temple comes into view, and the mountain is full of new green. On the opposite side of the green sea, red boats are moored in the dockyard, and the masts are straight into the sky. And I was already in tears. And Obayashi Nobuhiko projected Hayashi Fumiko's words onto the screen through the unique scenery of the trails that stretch up the mountain trails, the patchwork of old mansions, the unbeatable Seto Inland Sea, the tranquil Senko-ji Temple, and the old and spacious shopping streets. Fumiko Hayashi also said, "I am a fatalistic wanderer, there is no hometown", but Obayashi Nobuhiko uses the movie to fully vent his familiarity and attachment to his hometown. Through these three works, the inaccessible Otomichi became a popular tourist destination for young people, and it still does today.
From the above content introduction, it is not difficult to see that the "Onodomichi Trilogy" has some science fiction colors. However, unlike the surreal senses that such works typically strive to create, Obayashi employs a naturalistic approach. As a result, listening to somewhat bizarre stories seems to become everyday and amiable. In his own words, it is to "make a science fiction film without science fiction special effects." "That is to say, in the location of the on-end road, the idea of the story itself is a big sci-fi effect." The reason why this distancing approach is used is because Obayashi did not agree with the prevailing concept of "science fiction is the picture" in the Japanese film industry at that time, and in his view, "science fiction should be speech" ("Multidimensional Vision: Contemporary Japanese Film Studies: Obayashi Nobuhiko", China Film Publishing House, 2007).
End your life on the silver screen
Throughout the 1980s, Nobuhiko Obayashi maintained a strong creative force. After the "Onomichi Trilogy", he continued to wander between reality and fantasy, shooting works with different themes such as "Sister Slope", "His Motorcycle, Her Island", "Going to the Wild, Going to the Distant Mountains, Going to the Sea", "Strange Two People", "Summer with Ghosts", "Watermelon in Beijing" and so on. Among them, "Watermelon in Beijing" takes the simple vegetable and fruit shop owner and the Chinese students living in a poor life as the protagonists, and unsentimentally presents the idyllic and long-lasting friendship between orientals in their exchanges. However, the audience acceptance of these works cannot be compared with the "Onodomichi Trilogy".
In the 1990s, Nobuhiko Obayashi returned to his hometown to shoot the "Shin-Onomichi Trilogy" ("Two People", "Tomorrow", "That Summer"). Among them, "That Summer" is a special work made at the invitation of the Omichi City Government for the centenary of the city's founding, showing the ancestral love between elementary school students returning from Tokyo and their grandfather who suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
"That Summer" is a special work for the centenary of the founding of Omichi City
In view of the fact that a series of films made by Nobuhiko Obayashi with the background of Onomichi greatly increased the local popularity, the trend of marketing local sightseeing with film and television works in various parts of Japan has been set off to this day. In 2002, the city of Usuki in Oita Prefecture also invited Nobuhiko Obayashi to shoot the film "Residual Snow" starring Tomokazu Miura.
After entering the 21st century, although the cycle of Nobuhiko Obayashi's new works has been extended, he has always been creative. His most important works in his later years were the "War Trilogy" ("Flowers in the Air", "The Story of Hanabi Nagaoka", "Forty-Nine Days in the Wilderness", and "Flower Basket") filmed after 2010. Because of his childhood spent in war, coupled with his father's experience as a military doctor who was unable to accompany him growing up, Obayashi always hated war. In March 2018, when he attended a special screening of the three works in Tokyo, he expressed the hope that the film would convey the concept of peace to the younger generation: "Your times must be protected and created by yourselves." Don't let the stupid thing of war happen again – it's the responsibility of the living. Movies can make people enjoy entertainment; in the same way, movies have great power. ”
The finale of the "War Trilogy" is "Flower Basket"
In August 2016, during the filming of "Flower Basket", Obayashi was diagnosed with lung cancer, and the doctor told him that he only had six months left in his life. But at the age of 78, he did not stop his pace on the road of film, but chose to make a film while treating. As a result, he not only survived the most difficult six months, completed "Flower Basket", but also returned to his hometown again to shoot a new film "Cinema by the Sea". The film was originally scheduled to be released in April 2020, but it has to be postponed due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic.
"Cinema by the Sea" became Obayashi's masterpiece
"Cinema by the Sea" tells the story of three young people who were originally sitting in the cinema, accidentally traveled into the movie they were watching, met the beautiful heroine, and also experienced the difficult war years. Owomichi, fantasy, movies, all these elements of Obayashi's favorite elements are all in one, and what could be more suitable as his sealed work than such a work?
In an interview in the early years, Obayashi Once Confessed his hopeless love for movies: "I think that as long as I am loyal, honest, and dedicated, then tomorrow will always be better than today." As long as today does not collapse, there will be tomorrow. I was originally an overly romantic, but this alone is very realistic. I always had to sort out the structure of my spiritual world very clearly, because I was going to be a doctor. Because I was infected with the filming habit, the more I wanted to be cured, the more serious the disease, and I had to make a film to live or die, and as a result, the filming habit won, which is the so-called 'self-struggle'... With love, hope, joy and loneliness, despair, and distress, I want to continue to make films. For this reason alone, the film will surely appear with a bright, beautiful, and idyllic smile, and I will use this for the rest of my life. I would like to talk and talk slowly and non-stop, and end my life on the screen. "Multidimensional Perspectives: Contemporary Japanese Film Studies: Nobuhiko Obayashi")