In October/November time a Nobuhiko Obayashi 4 film set will be released containing School in the Crosshairs, Girl of time, Island Nearest Paradise and His Motorbike Her Island. So, in perpetration for the event it seems right to look at these four films.
School in the Crosshairs is a 1981 Sci-Fi fantasy film. The film centres around Yuka a shy middle school student with psychic powers. However, when a new student with similar ability’s uses his power to steal the class election Yuka and her friends try to stop him. The film received mixed reviews with critics praising the tone of the film being funny, cute. and weird at the same time but criticised the lack of character development and an incoherent second half.
Girl of Time is a 1983 Sci-Fi film. Based on the 1965 Japanese novel of the same name it tells the story of a high-school girl who gains the ability to time-travel and repeatedly relives the same day in a time loop. The film was a box office success being the second highest-grossing Japanese film in 1983, ultimately earning 4.76 billion Yen. The film received positive reviews with critics praising the honest sentimentality, acting and story.
Island Nearest to Heaven is a 1984 about a high school girl that travels to the island of New Caledonia and goes on magical adventures. The film gained mixed reviews.
His Motorbike, Her Island was his next film in 1986 the film is about a temperamental young biker who after a failed romance meets a carefree rural girl while riding through her island home and gets her obsessed about riding a motorbike. The film gained mixed reviews with critics praising the unusual narrative and camera work but feeling the film was unnecessarily experimental with musical interludes that seemed pointless and cheesy dialogue.
I hope that more people look at the films of Nobuhiko Obayashi from both this set and the previous Anti-War Trilogy box set as well as his most famous film the 1977 experimental comedy horror film House and his final film Labyrinth of Cinema from 2019. By experiencing these films you can dive into the work of a master and one of my favourite directors of all time.
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