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.
His Motorbike, Her Island
His Motorbike, Her Island is a 1986 romance film directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi and staring Kiwako Harada, Riki Takeuchi, Noriko Watanabe and Tomokazu Miura. The film follows a motorcycle enthusiast that falls in love with a young woman after teaching her how to ride....
The Island Closest to Heaven
The Island Closest to Heaven is a 1984 Japanese film directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, based on an original story by Morimura Katsura. The film follows a high school girl that after her father’s sudden death travels to the southwest pacific archipelago of New Caledonia...
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time 1983 is a Japanese science-fiction film directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. The film follows a high-school girl who gains the ability to time-travel and repeatedly reliving the same day in a time loop. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a...
School in the Crosshairs
School in the Crosshairs is a 1981 film written and directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi and staring Hiroko Yakushimaru, Ryoichi Takayanagi and Masami Hasegawa. The film follows Yuka Mitamura a schoolgirl that has psychic powers, that faces off against a new student with...
The Man Who Saved the World Review
The Man Who Saved the World is a 1982 science fantasy martial arts superhero adventure film directed by Çetin İnanç and starring actor/martial artist Cüneyt Arkın. The film follows two space cadets who crash land on a dessert planet were an evil wizard tries to take...
The Brood
The Brood is a 1979 Canadian psychological body horror film written and directed David Cronenberg and staring Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar and Art Hindle. The film follows a man and his mentally ill ex-wife who is enrolled in a physicist’s controversial therapy, as a...
Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch is a 1991 surrealist science fiction drama written and directed by David Cronenberg and staring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, and Roy Scheider. The film centres around William Lee an exterminator who after getting addicted to the substance he uses to...
Apocalypse Clown Review
Apocalypse Clown is a 2023 Irish comedy film written and directed by George Kane and staring David Earl, Natalie Palamides, Ivan Kaye, Fionn Foley and Amy De Bhrun. The film centres around a mysterious technological blackout in Ireland that decides into anarchy and...
Popuran Review
Popuran is a 2022 comedy film written and directed by Shin'ichirô Ueda and staring Yoji Minagawa, Hidenobu and eri Tokunaga. The film centres around a man who penis who becomes detached from has body becoming a high-speed flying penis that the man must catch it and...
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