Japanese arthouse filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi ("House") dies at age 82

[Baron Von Humongous]

One of the most distinctive directing talents of the last five decades, Obayashi's idiosyncratic use of collage, color, and green screen CGI along with heightened theatricality created what he called a "charming chaos" that would destabilize viewers with its seemingly scattershot artificiality before the audience "finds their way back" to an "ounce of true feeling," as the narrator of Sada (1998) puts it.

Best known for his psychedelic, surrealist fantasy horror comedy debut House (1977), which he made a decade after working on tv ads and avant garde 8mm and 16mm shorts, it was both an auspicious debut and also a cult oddity that came to overshadow the diversity of his prolific oeuvre as many of his later films failed to gain international distribution. Much like David Lynch, what elevates Obayashi's films above being visual curios is his sincere empathy and belief in human goodness, which turns something like the zany college girls in a haunted house premise of House into an exploration of female friendship and lost innocence at the same time it has a floating head biting people on their bums. His passion for constantly evolving experimentation through art was a rare gift, and I hope more folks can experience the joy of discovering his work for the first time.

It's hard to track down most of Obayashi's films, though House and the exceptional Sada are currently streaming on the Criterion channel. His final film, Labyrinth of Cinema (2020) was set to debut this week and was lined up for several festivals before he succumbed to his four year long battle with lung cancer today. Hopefully Labyrinth of Cinema will get streaming distribution and in the wake of Obayashi's passing, we may see a few online retrospectives of his rarer movies. I'll update this thread and the film thread as I come across any opportunities to stream more of his films.

Obit: Kyodo News

Interview from 2019: Mubi
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[Baron Von Humongous]

To give you a sense of Obayashi's style: https://twitter.com/somebadideas/status/1248641645807091714
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[Baron Von Humongous]

The Little Girl Who Conquered Time (1983):

- This is split into 14 parts on YouTube and doesn't appear to be of the best quality, but it's a free version of a hard to find film.

Hot damn! Here's a motherlode of Obayashi on YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCNr22mpUvcIqP8Xc-hH4ASw/videos

- sadly, not a lot of English subtitles there. My apologies to the non-Japanese speakers (including me).

A collection of Obayashi's '60s shorts: http://ubu.com/film/obayashi.html
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[Baron Von Humongous]

Two properly subtitled Obayashi flicks to stream and/or download from Rare-Filmm:

The Drafting Classroom (1987)

Exchange Students (1982)
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[Baron Von Humongous]

For Charles Bronson fans, here he is in a 70s Japanese commercial directed by Obayashi in which he lovingly slathers Mandom cologne over his shirtless torso after a hard day of being a Western man:

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[Baron Von Humongous]

[Baron Von Humongous]

A 2015 Q&A with Obayashi at the NYC Japan Society: https://youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_title&v=jI4RsT89cz8
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[Baron Von Humongous]

A YT link for his 1966 short Emotion for those want to stream it on their tvs:

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[mykolbeta]

House & The Girl Who Leapt Through Time are great. I haven't had a chance to see his other films. I know how influential and well revered he was. May he rest in peace.

I've been wanting to see Sabishinbou for years but I can never find English subtitles for it. Trailer:

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Peace & Love

[Baron Von Humongous]