Labyrinth of Cinema is a 2019 Japanese anti-war fantasy drama film written, produced, directed, and edited by Nobuhiko Obayashi, and staring Takuro Atsuki, Takahito Hosoyamada, Yoshihiko Hosoda, Rei Yoshida, Riko Narumi, Hirona Yamazaki and Takako Tokiwa. The film stars three president-day moviegoers who find themselves transported back to 1945 just prior to the bombing of Hiroshima. Labyrinth of Cinema is a commentary on the atomic bomb showcasing the history of japan through film and how people can learn from cinema.
The film starts at a cinema were military police officer who is a poet is enjoying the cinema. The film states that modernism is a form of barbarism and that dark clouds gather behind humanity showing the evil of mankind however hardy anyone notices it as this movie is made to make a better future as the film shows characters going back in time showing the similar tension and oppression that is aware in the president day. Nobuhiko Obayashi is shown in space in a spaceship talking about the memories that are lost by him and mankind. He talks about the evolution of mankind, science and the cultivation of power as humans fighting each other is ultimately mankind’s history. The film states the idea that killing each other is inevitable. The film states that movies are like a time machine as they talk about japan and America being art war as the film blends realty and fiction to comment on Japan during World War two. The movie shows the ruins of a destroyed city showcasing the consequences of war as this is contrasted with him seeing his old town contrasting nostalgia with grim reality.
The girl in the film visits the cinema by the sore in a town that looks like the 50s which wasn’t the target of bombing due to a prisoner camp showcasing how cinema helps to showcase historical tragedies. The cinema closes tonight as its sad as the girls learns things like who she is through movies. The film states nobody knows the future and all you need is movies to discover who you are as they play films about japans war history. The wind is stated to be like God as everybody is here to watch the cinemas last movie. The girl sings an old song in the cinema. She asks what war is as she doesn’t know, and nobody does however she feels its darkness and watches the film to find out as they then have a musical number about war. One of the characters a wantabe yukaza thug but is a son of a monk who gets beaten up for not having any money as the film believes movies are an illusion. The film has a musical number in the cinema as it states that film is powerful as it shows hopes, dreams, and happiness. There is truth in the leis of film as this is not vapid entertainment but is instead a war movie as they talk about a movie that they made during war time to get over censorship as they couldn’t make samurai films. From this censorship they couldn’t make samurai films as they burnt many classical films. The girl Noriko is burnt into the frame this is a person they knew in the movie they also meet a man who could impersonate any movie character making him become an actor as one of the guys is revealed to be a dept collector and not a yakuzu. The cinema projecting movies helps to build a future as the film also states that ancient tribes used shoes like musical interments as the body is extension of human condition like cinema.
Movies are stated to make the world wonderful its crates happiness as humanity is unhappy, happiness is a lie however there is truth in lies and this future can be achieved if you believe. There is a thunderstorm over the cinema, as the projectionist will die projecting his movies. As the yakuza guy, the critic and the film buff get sucked into the movie complete with singing and dancing. Movies are more immersive than videos, as people dance like spring and fall like a petal signing around the princess as they are in a similar film. They then find themselves in war time japan, as reality and fantasy blur as the real monk guy and the fictional girl fall for each other. They connect the film to the real war as they are celebrating the victory of pearl harbour as the people were made to sing propaganda films as the girl, he meets in the film is the same in real life. A federal japan shogunate battle is now in the movie as the girl is trying to discover who she is as a Capitan is injured and kills himself. They educate themselves on the horror of war as they ask for cinemas help. There is s spirt of good fortune with the age of the samurai being over. They are all shot as they end up in black and white and subtitled as they release, they are in a silent before talkies and are not in colour. People believed movies won’t last because of they are a quite uncanny depiction of reality, but movies have always been strange. They believe they won but Tokoshi was murdered and framed in a samurai death. In Japanese history the one that has the gun morally wins as they want to project themselves against the Americans but ultimately, they want to be friends.
The audience can learn about movies as history has lost a mass number of people’s lives. The film shows that atrocities through the film are the acts of revolutionaries. They want to wipe out life through the people in the film and watching this as an audience as a guy commits seppuku as his seen as a traitor. All the characters are dictating each other as the audiences hear their own voice over. The film sates modernism and barbarism are the same thing as the girl in the movies shows respect is gone in changing times as modernity happens with talkies igniting the brutal age. US guns are used against the enemy as the young lady belongs in the future and into the present as they take her home. The old man in the film wishes to go to America them as idealistic men and daydreamers and asks would japan be different if they lived longer, as history is even more chaotic than you think. The film states that nothing lasts forever, as in war people die without realising their power as a hierarchy doesn’t make a leader. The higherups die in a coup as they killed their own leader and blamed it on the enemy as no man lives beyond his abilities. No one knows the future as the film integrates real life things that happened and people who died in the war. The three guys get transported again as the soldiers during the war are looking for the girl. They are meant to protect her and come across a real WW2 soldier who thinks they are spies and imprisons them. They then meet the people they sore in the film they watched as the girl is Chinese whose parents were killed by the Japanese as they thought they were spies.
She is attacked by solider as a revenge for the guards as the film shows you have less freedom when you have power and they will be beheaded tomorrow as Japan shits on everyone, however there is a nice soldier who helps her. The town sings are replaced with the hometown sign as in the battle of Manchuria the soldiers join in on hang the signs. As a result, the town is left in terrible ruins, and everyone is emotional. Life is complex and is messed up however everyone comes together in solidary and cries and sings. They won’t fight in the war instead they must follow the movies and form this they beat up the guard and run away as they Tarzan escape through the trees. They escape as they project their life onto Tarzan linking to him being a kid. He watched Tarzan with his dad as he was in the military and grew up on films and made an animated film with a cartoon character. He played his animated film to the audience, but the film burnt however the film reel protected it allowing the film to play. He states that his sister was dying of tuberculosis as muddlehead escapes from the film world into the real world. The film comments of japan being great but compared but know that is just a memory on film as muddle head shows a kid defending his freedom showing the adventure of movies. People can’t take their own lives as they have too much to live for and they must know what war is. The dead want to know why they are dead as they had nothing to do to with the war, as the guy wants to take the dead with him. The people are shooting blanks even though it’s a real war because it’s a movie as they think they can dodge bullets because they are the heroes as war is complicated and its starts because of stuff like this. The film comments on kindness and that war movies are entertainment they show the characters brother’s death as they can win a war by killing their own.
The girl is shot and dies, and they don’t even know her name as the film shows the dangers of movies. japans plan was to unify the east Asian countries as the girl in the film is a princess who committed suicide as war is the true enemy. The girl should have lived captured but alive against the plot of the film. The film man in the film is a monk who talked about Frank Kappa movies and one that the studio ruined that would have been a masterpiece blending reality and fiction, as he acids he wants to live in Frank Kappa humanist movies. War is foolish as kids die give tee as they find a harmonica of a war poet and mourn his death as they then find the girl alive. The reality of the war creeps back in, as there is truth in lies and that truth is love. The characters see each other as the guy saved the girls name in the hope that she lives in his heart, until there are no wars. The film comments on the dangers of sentimentality and that the enemy language of English must be accepted to not start another war. War has no reason to it as people don’t want to kill, they just want to go home as the soldier guy is shot and killed, as hungry people will eat anything as life is irrational it just survival of the fittest. The movie reality is more real than reality, as the old man wanted to fight them with swords as the guys who’s a yakuza is a coward who hides it with bravado to protect the girl, he tries to protect her, so she won’t die in the movie. They end up getting downed in a sea of money as they are still at war with Japan as maturity is to try and escape from the trap of enemy.
They decide what to do without fighting as they are honoured by the death of war. People want to be enshrined with the soldiers as the films warns about pushing away from peace and towards war. Two filmmakers talk about a person only being for oneself as they talk about the war not effecting Ozu, as young people are deluded by war. The film comments on old technology like record and movie projectors as they meet a famous actor guy who loves the magic of movies. The film comments on the discrimination against military people who work at brothels. The yukuza guy picks a fight in a brothel thinking thee hitting a woman as the brothel woman he meets is the same woman he saw previously and fell in love with as the other guy sees the other woman as well. Everything she has is on loan like a doll as the guy knows her song. She dreamt about childhood friends shell never see again as she must change names and she has become a prostitute to work off her families dept. the guys who’s a depth collector is a monk’s son who knows how much she is screwed they then have sex and fall in love. The brothel people beat both up as that girl is not the same as she is in the present.
The older girl kills herself by biting her tong off as they all mourn as the guys run away as history cries as he is a part of history. The samurai girl dies serving their country. As the people stormed the castle women and children defend it to protect the hometown and its people as the girl becomes a master swordsman as her and her sisters protect her dad as she then went on to the women and children. Tones of innocent people die in times of change they still feel that they must protect people. The characters are in the grip of war and become samurai as the people die tragically as they kill themselves and try to warn them but are beaten up.
History ends up playing out and everyone dies. There was a civil war after WW2 as the emperor was a puppet and revolutionaries thought the army. People died of hunger, illness and killed themselves in the civil war it’s a tragedy as they fault and died in a big samurai battle. They cannot escape from the war as the people are bleeding even though there in a movie as if you die in the movie, you die in real life. One of the main guys says he doesn’t want to kill anyone and says he won’t kill anyone; the film tells a real story of a piano that the Japanese military tried to destroy in WW2, but girls protected it as classical music is seen as enemy music. They then execute them at an angle with a bayonet, so it doesn’t hit their ribs. An audience member watching this is made to participate stabbing a solider as the sergeant rapes a woman he saw. The army sees women as tools as he killed her via a grenade as the film states he was a boxer he punched his opponent to death. They see Okinawa before the pacific war as the talk about snow falling form the sky like its mythical Japan as its diverse as two people there decide to get married. The pacific war and pearl harbour then happen the guy gets drafted in 1944 as he gets his red appears to be sent to the battlefield to be killed. They then meet another soldier and form a bond as Okinawa residents are not considered Japanese as they form a friendship. People die worthlessly serving their country a coward is killed by a solider he asks for food and gets told a solider fight on an empty stomach as he sees his mother’s face before he dies.
The film states the Japanese killed 800 Okinawan civilians after the war to conserve food and rescores. The soldier then disserts his post and runs home to find his village leader dying saying it was for his country. The old man must sacrifice himself and gives up his women as the enemy claims to be righteous. He then finds his mother dead and his love dying with a Hitler moustache on her as she made herself useful as a rape victim as she dies. The guys mourn her death as the guy states that he could never kill anyone, he then sees her as vision as he regrets his decision. The girl is like a dead spirit animal based on a real-life woman as she wants to know about herself, but she doesn’t want anything, and they won’t forget about her, and they pray for no war as she becomes a peace symbol. They then wake up on a train showcasing history to be a lie but there are good moments to it. They then wake up near the date of the atomic bomb as they are going to Hiroshima. The ticket guy thinks they are movie actors and take them to first class. The old ticket man lived through the war as they meet a Hiroshima theatre troupe like the one, they originally met based on the same samurai story they jumped into. They then recrate a samurai they lived in acting it out as a live performance as the train lines are hit with firebombs. The real world and the bitonal world combine through film, as they are acting for real as the siters here died in the war fighting and killing each other out of mercy. A family is a war environment is split up as even during the war life was normal. The film states that you can’t be delusional during war you must be real, it not an option to go back to the fantasy as the only thing you can do is die a brave samurai’s death. The film sates teenage boys’ women and children died believing their death were good in an ironic sadness.
The granddad in the film was a militarist who is always on alert as they tell him to go to sleep as there’s no war. The guys wander to the Hiroshima atomic bomb dome as they save people as the historical actors were educated by war actors who were entertaining audiences during war time. Good performances reflect the actors state of mind as the actors get sick as these three become the actors. They pledge elegance to the empire and not the mainland as they sign the national anthem as they salute the victory of war. The siren rings out in Hiroshima, but no one is worried as a guy ends up having no food and is abandoned by his people and ends up commits seppuku as reality is brutal. They ultimately lost the evil war, which is made into a play at school, as no blood would be shed if people should see the consequences of war. The guy wishes he could go to America, as the film states that the captain that commanded the naive at pearl harbour but didn’t want to go to war with the US as you must pull peace towards yourself. They put on a play for people during war, as you must chose to love a bring peace towards you. The film shows about exiting the devil and entering good fortune as the yakuza guy loved the girl. There is no turning back now you must follow your fate as the rickshaw man falls for the widow. People believe that they are not serving Japan as they are being influenced by anti-war propaganda, as japan was centred by the US as they forced them to cut scenes from a romance film. The people warn the Hiroshima people about the bomb and try and get them out of there as the film states that the audience will change the past, present, and future with movies making a happy ending.
The girl ends up going back to be with her loved ones as the film states the fear of failing to protect people. Adults don’t teach kids how to die relaxed them to war which is the fault of the empire. They believed Hiroshima was a false flag however the bomb was dropped. The two of them find each other as she states the war won’t kill her, she will survive in the memories of those who love her. People talk about the destruction of the atomic bomb, as the girl in the movie never cared about film at first but it taught her so much. the film states that you should live in the real world as in a flash of light the atomic bomb goes of black rain comes down and the bomb is symbolic of people’s memories. The memories are linked by people’s time together, as the trope members are dead in a flash of light as ghosts of the dead watch over time. They will not forget however becomes a ghost and they sperate as the spirit is gone, as she wanted to burn in a passionate romance but not a bomb in a dramatic irony. The war is now over as there is now a quietness with the mother and daughter being in a rural home. They sing a song of soldiers returning home as some did and some didn’t as the country deceived its people. The guys can’t find a happy ending as all they have seen is sadness, but they want to lean from movies to make the world happy. People want to go to war as they have the power in the future to make no war as soldiers match on a lake.
The main cast takes this lesson to heart. They make a happy ending to history as they believe they all must learn change and do something with their lives. The guy and the girl stay connected in the future and marry on a rainy day showcasing the power of love as the yakuza guy has earned his lesson and feels awakened reflecting on his dad who was killed in the war. They remember the dead they lost in the war so that they can live forever as this was his last day of the cinema as the office watches over them. The film ends with Nobuhiko Obayashi thinking about his wife and daughter as they are a family alone now, but they are to together in the universe. There love connects to one big family which is the universe. The universe is like a mother and a family. Young people want a future with no wars, as the film is dedicated as a blessing. The film ends with the solar system which has the embryo of a baby floating in place showing that humans are all connect and that the change towards world peace must be made with our own hands.
Labyrinth of Cinema is a film about the atomic bomb showing the history of japan though film and how you can learn from cinema. The film states a need to change the world as peace can only happen with our own hands.