Nobuhiko Obayashi

Obayashi worked between 1938 and 2020 across film director, screenwriter, film producer, film editor and composer and 4 further recorded occupations. This article rests on 1 digitised documents and 2 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

Nobuhiko Obayashi studied at Seijo University and Hiroshima Prefectural Onomichi-kita High School. The recorded working language is Japanese. Employment is recorded with Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts, Shobi University and Nagaoka Institute of Design. Works named in the authority record are House, I Are You, You Am Me, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Lonely Heart. Distinctions recorded are Medal with Purple Ribbon, Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Newcomer, The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette and Mainichi art award.

• Name — Nobuhiko Obayashi • Born — 9 January 1938 • Birthplace — Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan • Died — 10 April 2020 • Place of death — Tokyo, Japan • Occupation — Film director, screenwriter, editor, film producer • Years Active — 1960–2020 • Spouse — Kyoko Obayashi • Children — Chigumi

• Illustration — Obayashi (right) with Tamio Mori (left) at the Honolulu Festival in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi in 2012 • Illustration — Obayashi at the 2017 Tokyo International Film Festival Obayashi was born on 9 January 1938 in the city of Onomichi, Japan. After his father, a doctor, was called to the battlefront during World War II, he was raised in his early infancy by his maternal grandparents. Through his childhood and adolescence, Obayashi followed many artistic pursuits, including drawing, writing, playing the piano, and possessed a growing interest in animation and film. He made his first 8 mm film in 1944 at the age of 6, the hand-drawn animated short Popeye's Treasure Island.

In 1955 Obayashi, at the urging of his father, began procedures to enter medical school and become a physician. However, he abandoned the prospect of a career in medicine in favor of following his artistic interests at Seijo University. In 1956 he was accepted to the university's liberal arts department, where he began to work with 8 and 16 mm film. Toward the end of his stay at the university Obayashi began working on a series of short experimental films. Together—with Takahiko Iimura, Yoichi Takabayashi, and Donald Richie—Nobuhiko Obayashi established the Japanese experimental-film group Film Independent, or "Japan Film Andepandan," who were awarded at the 1964 Knokke-Le-Zoute Experimental Film Festival. Along with works by other filmmakers such as Shuji Terayama and Donald Richie, Obayashi's films would develop the tone of Japanese experimental cinema through the 1960s. In these early experimental films Obayashi employed a number of avant-garde techniques that he would carry into his later mainstream work. Though these films tended to be of a personal nature, they received public viewership due to distribution by the Art Theatre Guild. Following his departure from university, Obayashi continued to work on his experimental films. Dentsu, a TV commercial project in Japan looking for new talent, asked members of Film Independents if they would like to direct commercials; Obayashi was the only one from the group to accept the offer, and thus began earning a living as a director in the new field of television advertisements. Obayashi's TV commercials had a visual appeal similar to that of his experimental works. In the 1970s he began a series of Japanese ads featuring well-known western stars such as Kirk Douglas, Charles Bronson and Catherine Deneuve. During the course of his career, Obayashi directed around 3,000 television commercials. He made his feature film directorial debut with the comedy horror film House, released in 1977. The film employed a mixture of trick photography and avant-garde techniques to achieve its distinctive, surreal visuals, and has gone on to be considered a cult classic. It earned Obayashi the Blue Ribbon Award for Best New Director.

Through the 1980s and onwards Obayashi continued to make feature films and broadened his mainstream appeal. He directed a number of coming-of-age films such as I Are You, You Am Me (1982), The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1983), and Lonely Heart (1985)—which together form his "Onomichi trilogy", named after the town where he was born —as well as Chizuko's Younger Sister (1991). His 1988 film The Discarnates was entered into the 16th Moscow International Film Festival. His 1998 film Sada, based on the true story of Sada Abe, was entered into the 48th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize for "its unique combination of innovative style and human observation." In 2016, Obayashi was diagnosed with stage-four terminal cancer and was only given a few months to live. Despite this, he started production on Hanagatami, a passion project of his which had been over 40 years in the making. The film was released in 2017 and was met with acclaim, winning prizes such as the Best Film Award at the 72nd Mainichi Film Awards. It is the third installment in a thematic trilogy of modern anti-war films by Obayashi, along with Casting Blossoms to the Sky (2012) and Seven Weeks (2014). He shot and edited his final film, titled Labyrinth of Cinema, while receiving cancer treatment. Labyrinth of Cinema premiered at the 2019 Tokyo International Film Festival.

Obayashi died on 10 April 2020 at the age of 82, from lung cancer in Tokyo. His family held a funeral for him at a temple in Tokyo on 13 April.

• Year — Film — Director — Writer — Producer — Editor — Notes — Reference(s) • 1944 — Popeye's Treasure Island — Short film; 8 mm film • 1945 — The Stupid Teacher — Short film; 8 mm • 1957 — Youth Clouds — Short film; 8 mm • 1958 — The Girl in the Picture — Short film; 8 mm • 1964 — Complexe — Short film; Obayashi's first 16 mm film • 1966 — Emotion — Short film; 16 mm • 1968 — Confession — Short film; 16 mm • 1977 — House — Also special effects director • The Visitor in the Eye — Also appears as an actor • 1978 — Furimukeba Ai — Also known as Take Me Away! • 1979 — The Adventures of Kosuke Kindaichi • 1981 — School in the Crosshairs • 1982 — I Are You, You Am Me — Also known as Exchange Students • 1982 — Lovely Devils • 1983 — The Girl Who Leapt Through Time • 1983 — Legend of the Cat Monster • 1983 — Lover Comeback To Me • 1984 — The Deserted City • Kenya Boy — Obayashi's only animated film • The Island Closest to Heaven • 1985 — Lonely Heart • Four Sisters • 1986 — Poisson D'avril — Also known as April Fish • His Motorbike, Her Island • Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast • 1987 — The Drifting Classroom • 1988 — The Discarnates • 1989 — Beijing Watermelon • 1991 — Chizuko's Younger Sister • 1992 — The Rocking Horsemen • 1993 — Haruka, Nostalgia • Samurai Kids • 1994 — Turning Point • 1995 — Goodbye for Tomorrow • 1998 — Sada • I Want to Hear the Wind's Song • 1999 — That Guy • 2002 — The Last Snow • 2004 — The Reason • 2006 — Song of Goodbye • 2007 — Switching - Goodbye Me • 2008 — Scenery to Remember • 2012 — Casting Blossoms to the Sky • 2014 — Seven Weeks • 2017 — Hanagatami • 2019 — Labyrinth of Cinema — Final film

Nobuhiko Obayashi was born on 9 January 1938 in Onomichi. Obayashi held the nationality of Japan and Empire of Japan. Obayashi was educated at Seijo University and Hiroshima Prefectural Onomichi-kita High School. Recorded child: Chigumi Ōbayashi. Obayashi worked as film director, screenwriter, film producer and film editor, and the authority record catalogues a further 5 occupations under the same name, among them composer, television director, television producer, university teacher and writer. Obayashi was active from 1960. Obayashi was employed by Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts, Shobi University and Nagaoka Institute of Design. Obayashi worked in Japanese.

Obayashi worked for the screen, as film director, screenwriter and film producer. 38 films survive in the institutional catalogues, spanning 1966 to 2019. Among them are Emotion (1966), Death at an Old Mansion (1975), House (1977), The Visitor in the Eye (1977), Take Me Away! (1979) and The Adventures of Kindaichi Kosuke (1979). The whole run is set out in the catalogue below.

• Medal with Purple Ribbon (2004) • Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette (2009) • Person of Cultural Merit (2019)