Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi

Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi

6 Episodes

The language of cinema is limitless in the ecstatically inspired universe of Japanese avant-pop visionary Nobuhiko Obayashi, who gleefully bridged the experimental and the mainstream over the course of a wildly prolific career. From his debut feature—the eyeball-zapping cult-horror freakout HOUSE—to his deeply personal, career-capping Antiwar Trilogy (CASTING BLOSSOMS TO THE SKY, SEVEN WEEKS, HANAGATAMI), Obayashi remained restlessly inventive, injecting even the most commercial of projects with moments of startling subversion and unexpected blasts of experimental lunacy.

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Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi

6 Episodes

  • House
    1:27:56
    House
    Episode 1

    House

    Episode 1

    Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi • 1977 • Japan
    Starring Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Oba

    How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie HOUSE (HAUSU)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of “Scooby-Doo” as directed by Mario Bava? Any...

  • Beijing Watermelon
    2:15:48
    Beijing Watermelon
    Episode 2

    Beijing Watermelon

    Episode 2

    Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi • 1989 • Japan
    Starring Bengal, Masako Motai, Yasufumi Hayashi

    Overflowing with warmth and unpredictable cinematic invention, this humanist gem from Nobuhiko Obayashi unfolds on the outskirts of Tokyo, where a Japanese grocer (Bengal) becomes a kind of benefactor to...

  • Hanagatami
    2:49:14
    Hanagatami
    Episode 3

    Hanagatami

    Episode 3

    Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi • 2017 • Japan
    Starring Shunsuke Kubozuka, Shinnosuke Mitsushima, Keishi Nagatsuka

    After being diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer at the age of eighty, Nobuhiko Obayashi set out to fulfill his filmmaking dream: an adaptation of a 1937 novella by Kazuo Dan that th...

  • Casting Blossoms to the Sky
    2:39:42
    Casting Blossoms to the Sky
    Episode 4

    Casting Blossoms to the Sky

    Episode 4

    Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi • 2012 • Japan
    Starring Yasuko Matsuyuki, Masahiro Takashima, Natsuki Harada

    In the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake, journalist Reiko Endo (Yasuko Matsuyuki) travels to the city of Nagaoka as it prepares for an annual fireworks festival memorializing the fallen v...

  • Sada
    2:12:35
    Sada
    Episode 5

    Sada

    Episode 5

    Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi • 1998 • Japan
    Starring Hitomi Kuroki, Tsurutaro Kataoka, Norihei Miki

    Legendary director Nobuhiko Obayashi brings his unique vision to the notorious true story of Sada Abe, the Japanese geisha whose life of hardship and sadomasochistic obsession exploded into publi...

  • Seven Weeks
    2:51:29
    Seven Weeks
    Episode 6

    Seven Weeks

    Episode 6

    Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi • 2014 • Japan
    Starring Toru Shinagawa, Takako Tokiwa, Yumi Adachi

    In his follow-up to CASTING BLOSSOMS TO THE SKY, Nobuhiko Obayashi continues to explore themes of lost love, memory, war, and art. At 2:46 PM on March 11, 2013, Mitsuo Suzuki (Toru Shinagawa) takes h...

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