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Obayashi Nobuhiko Retrospective at the Japan Society

Our Yale event with the great director Obayashi Nobuhiko ended with considerable success. We can’t get the crowds of New York or Boston, but we had some deep discussions about such topics ad Ozu’s editing, 3.11, and experimental film. Obayashi-kantoku is very much the 1960s gentleman, his wife and producer Kyoko the kindest of ladies, and their daughter Chigumi a pillar of support.

We had Obayashi and his family over to our house for dinner while they were here. There were lots of entertaining stories (including one about Kadokawa Haruki) and a bit of wisdom, but I could also see how he could be a great teacher or mentor. My son showed him the film he made in class in the spring. Not just focusing on how good the film was or not, Obayashi told him that amateur films are as equally cinema as professional films. The crucial thing is to know--and positively use--one's limitations and to have control over the film, giving it unity. Thus if my son had to play 5 or 6 parts out of necessity, the important thing is for the film to be conscious of that and use it to its benefit. If an amateur film does that, it is just as much cinema as any professional film is. Obayashi then used my son’s film as example in the talk session the next day.

A Movie: The Cinema of Obayashi Nobuhiko — at Yale

A Movie: The Cinema of Obayashi Nobuhiko

One of the last major Japanese directors active since the 1960s, Obayashi Nobuhiko
 is doing a four-city tour of the East Coast, with Yale as the first stop. Little known outside of Japan, he gained a following in America with the DVD release of his debut feature film House, but our Yale event will present his unknown sides through screenings of three of his films and separate informal talk sessions. A pioneer of experimental film in Japan, Obayashi continued to stun audiences with his stylistic flourishes even as he became one of the hit-makers if the 1980s and 1990s. A wonderful study in contrast, he combined pop culture with literary sensibility, visual innovation with a love for classical Japanese film, and nostalgia with a celebration of cinematic artifice, a stance evident in the words “A Movie” he attaches to many of his films. 

Friday, November 13, 2015

12:00 pm, Sterling Memorial Library Room 218
Talk Session (with Interpreter) and Lunch 
RSVP to Suzette Benitez, CEAS: suzette.benitez@yale.edu

7:00 pm, Whitney Humanities Center, Auditorium 
I Are You, You Am Me – “Tenkōsei” [a.k.a. Exchange Student] (Japan, 1982) 112 min., 35 mm
Complexe (Japan, 1964) 14 min., 16 mm
Director Ōbayashi Nobuhiko
Introduced and followed by a Q&A with the director
(Council on East Asian Studies and Films at the Whitney, supported by the Barbakow Fund for Innovative Film Programs at Yale)

Saturday, November 14, 2015

12:00 pm, Sterling Memorial Library Room 218
Talk Session (in Japanese) and Lunch 
RSVP to Suzette Benitez, CEAS: suzette.benitez@yale.edu

7 pm, Whitney Humanities Center, Auditorium
The Rocking Horsemen – “Seishun dendekedekedeke” (Japan, 1992) 135 min., 35 mm
Director Ōbayashi Nobuhiko
Introduced and followed by a Q&A with the director
(Council on East Asian Studies and Films at the Whitney, supported by the Barbakow Fund for Innovative Film Programs at Yale)

Film synopses: 

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