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Nobuhiko Obayashi

Nobuhiko Obayashi

Directing

Biography

Nobuhiko Obayashi (January 9, 1938 – April 10, 2020) was a Japanese director, screenwriter and editor of films and television advertisements who is well known for his surreal visual style. He began his career as a pioneering figure in Japanese experimental film during the 1960s before transitioning to directing more mainstream works such as television and feature films. Though he remains mostly unknown outside of Japan, he has made a prolific number of films in his 50 years of working with the medium.

Known For

The Unspoiled Diamond
4.3

A college student has an affair with a married, middle-aged teacher.

The Unspoiled Diamond

1982
House
7.3

Hoping to find a sense of connection to her late mother, Gorgeous takes a trip with her friends to visit her aunt's ancestral house in the countryside. The girls soon discover that there is more to the old house than meets the eye.

House

1977
His Motorbike, Her Island
7.8

Ko, a motorbike enthusiast from the city wandering the Japanese countryside, falls for the carefree local Miyo and teaches her how to ride. When Miyo proves herself a biker prodigy, Ko begins to fear she's destined to crash.

His Motorbike, Her Island

1986
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
6.8

Kazuko Yoshiyama is a third-year junior-high-school student. One day, while cleaning the lab, she smells lavender and faints. From then on, she has the power to travel through time.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

1983
Aiko 16-sai
8.5

Aiko 16 years old is a novel by Akemi Hotta, set in Nagoya this story depicts the school life of Aiko Mita, a high school student who belongs to the Japanese archery club.

Aiko 16-sai

1983
Samurai Kids
7.5

A special effects filled fantasy adventure, in which an 8-year-old boy encounters an ancient samurai warrior who is only six inches tall.

Samurai Kids

1993
Sada
7.0

The film follows the life of Sada Abe, who became a celebrity in 1936 after strangling her lover and slicing off his penis.

Sada

1998
Labyrinth of Cinema
6.8

When lightning strikes a theater about to close its doors, three moviegoers are thrust back in time to the world inside the screen.

Labyrinth of Cinema

2020
Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast
6.9

During the fervently nationalist months leading up to World War II, a rebellious teenager is transferred to a new primary school in a small Inland Sea town. He vies with the school’s reigning bully, who takes a romantic interest in his older stepsister. When they learn she’s going to be sold to a brothel to pay off her father’s debts, they form an uneasy alliance to free her.

Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast

1986
Lonely Heart
7.1

Lonely and love-stricken high-school student Hiroki pursues a girl, but another one mysteriously appears in his life. Is she a figment of his psyche, or is she real?

Lonely Heart

1985
Kenya Boy
5.7

An 11-year-old boy who goes to Africa with his father in 1941. Because he is Japanese, the father is detained by the British. The boy joins up with a beautiful native girl, and the adventure begins.

Kenya Boy

1984
The Rocking Horsemen
7.1

It is 1965. High-school student Takeyoshi Fujiwara hears "Pipeline" by the Ventures, and is mesmerized by their unique sound. With three friends, he forms a band called "The Rocking Horsemen." A warm and comic glimpse into high-school and small-town life in Japan in the 60's.

The Rocking Horsemen

1992
Haruka, Nostalgia
6.5

Ayase Shinsuke, a popular writer of a series of girl novels, visits Otaru, the town he grew up in. He meets a strange boy who calls himself by the author's real name.

Haruka, Nostalgia

1993
Goodbye for Tomorrow
10.0

People from all walks of life all receive mysterious messages from loved ones who were killed 3 months earlier in a shipwreck. They are instructed to go to a small island in the Inland Sea that evening.

Goodbye for Tomorrow

1995
I Are You, You Am Me
6.6

9th-graders Kazuo and Kazumi take a tumble at a temple in a small seacoast town in Japan. Through supernatural intervention, their minds and bodies are switched, and the result is a touching and hilarious coming-of-age comedy as they attempt to survive the pressures of junior high school life.

I Are You, You Am Me

1982
The Motive
6.9

Four people are discovered brutally murdered in an up-scale high-rise apartment. All the victims appear to be family, but as the investigation deepens it is discovered that one of the victims isn't related to the family.

The Motive

2004
The Last Snow
10.0

A story of two men, one recently bereaved, the other with a wife in a coma. From the popular song.

The Last Snow

2002
Chizuko's Younger Sister
7.4

The Kitao family is coping with the loss of the eldest daughter, Chizuko, who was killed in a freak accident the year prior. When the other daughter Mika is suddenly in a dangerous situation, Chizuko returns as a ghost to save her; reunited with her sister, Mika begins spending time with Chizuko again.

Chizuko's Younger Sister

1991
Black Jack: The Visitor in the Eye
6.2

Komori Chiaki is a budding tennis student. However, one day while training, her coach hits a ball into her eye on accident. At the hospital, the news that she will never regain the sight in her eye leaves her heartbroken. As a last resort, she undergoes a costly surgery from the mysterious doctor known as Black Jack, where after a successful operation, a mysterious figure starts to emerge in her vision, and only she can see it.

Black Jack: The Visitor in the Eye

1977
Death at an Old Mansion
6.3

A woman and her bridegroom are found murdered in their bed the day after their wedding. It had snowed overnight and the killer left no tracks. It is up to an amateur detective to figure out what happened. Carefully and systematically, he pieces together the clues in this locked room mystery.

Death at an Old Mansion

1975