Cult Epics has informed us that it has acquired for distribution in North America four films directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. They are:
School in the Crosshairs (1981),
The Little Girl Who Conquered Time (1983),
The Island Closest to Heaven (1984), and
His Motorcycle, Her Island (1986). The releases will be available for purchase later this year.
The 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray releases will feature extensive new bonus features and artwork for the North American market.
Label statement: The teenage symphonies of Nobuhiko Obayashi (1938-2020) are wound in a melancholy nostalgia for a period indelibly lost to time—that inexpressible gap between adolescence and adulthood. Braiding visually expressive fantasias with striking formal experimentation and pop-art boldness, Obayashi's idiosyncratic cinematic language produced some of Japan's most beloved seishun eiga (coming-of-age youth films) in the 1980s. Captivating generations of filmgoers with his earnest por-traits of young love and vanished worldviews, Obayashi's films were further bolstered by Kadoka-wa's innovative tactics of popularizing dreamy pop idols like Hiroko Yakushimaru and Tomoyo Harada.
With a career overshadowed abroad by the oddball eccentricity of his electric 1977 debut House, the 1980s would prove to be the high-water mark of Obayashi's popularity. Framed in 35mm viewfinders, against wildly ingenious chroma-key composites and characterized by his unflagging optimism for the youth of Japan, Obayashi's youth passages are caught up in the ages of transition, demonstra-bly attuned to the extraordinary nature of ordinary adolescence.
The Little Girl Who Conquered Time 4K Blu-ray
Schoolgirl Kazuko begins to experience time leaps backwards and forwards in time, disorienting her as she yearns to stay in the present. Obayashi's film is a genuine expression of the transcendence of love—one cast across the stars for a young girl who lives in tomorrow.
Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1983, 4K, 104 min., color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Tomoyo Harada, Ryoichi Takayanagi, Toshinori Omi.
School in the Crosshairs
A psychotronic fantasy forged into a young girl's destiny to defend the planet, School in the Crosshairs is a cosmic overload of extraterrestrial fascists, preternatural powers and Obayashi's uniquely adroit filmmaking abilities.
Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1981, 90 min., 2K, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Hiroko Yakushimaru, Ryoichi Takayanagi, Toru Minegishi, Makoto Tezuka.
The Island Closest to Heaven
Fulfilling her late father's dream to take her to "the island closest to heaven," bookish teen Mari ven-tures solo to a paradise-laden archipelago in search of the mythic locale.
Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1984, HD, 103 min., color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Tomoyo Harada, Ryoichi Takayanagi, Toru Minegishi, Miyoko Akaza.
His Motorcycle, Her Island
A nostalgia-filled reminiscence, Obayashi's monochromatic dream playfully worships the biker culture of yesteryear, delivering a sentimental and liberating take on young love.
Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1986, 96 min., HD, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Riki Takeuchi, Kiwako Harada, Noriko Watanabe.
The films will premiere from February 7-14 at the Japanese Society in New York as part of a Onomichi/Kadokawa retrospective on the director.