A Movie: The Cinema of Obayashi Nobuhiko
One of the last major Japanese directors active since the 1960s, Obayashi Nobuhiko is doing a four-city tour of the East Coast, with Yale as the first stop. Little known outside of Japan, he gained a following in America with the DVD release of his debut feature film House, but our Yale event will present his unknown sides through screenings of three of his films and separate informal talk sessions. A pioneer of experimental film in Japan, Obayashi continued to stun audiences with his stylistic flourishes even as he became one of the hit-makers if the 1980s and 1990s. A wonderful study in contrast, he combined pop culture with literary sensibility, visual innovation with a love for classical Japanese film, and nostalgia with a celebration of cinematic artifice, a stance evident in the words “A Movie” he attaches to many of his films.
Friday, November 13, 2015
12:00 pm, Sterling Memorial Library Room 218
Talk Session (with Interpreter) and Lunch
RSVP to Suzette Benitez, CEAS: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
7:00 pm, Whitney Humanities Center, Auditorium
I Are You, You Am Me – “Tenkōsei” [a.k.a. Exchange Student] (Japan, 1982) 112 min., 35 mm
Complexe (Japan, 1964) 14 min., 16 mm
Director Ōbayashi Nobuhiko
Introduced and followed by a Q&A with the director
(Council on East Asian Studies and Films at the Whitney, supported by the Barbakow Fund for Innovative Film Programs at Yale)
Saturday, November 14, 2015
12:00 pm, Sterling Memorial Library Room 218
Talk Session (in Japanese) and Lunch
RSVP to Suzette Benitez, CEAS: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
7 pm, Whitney Humanities Center, Auditorium
The Rocking Horsemen – “Seishun dendekedekedeke” (Japan, 1992) 135 min., 35 mm
Director Ōbayashi Nobuhiko
Introduced and followed by a Q&A with the director
(Council on East Asian Studies and Films at the Whitney, supported by the Barbakow Fund for Innovative Film Programs at Yale)
Film synopses:
I Are You, You Am Me
Two classmates, the girl Kazumi and the boy Kazuo, tumble down a flight of stairs and find they’ve switched bodies. Obayashi colors the resulting gender confusion with a tinge of autobiographical nostalgia, not only filming in his hometown of Onomichi, but also framing the story through B&W 8mm film. A major hit that he remade in 2007.
Complexe
One of the monuments of Japanese experimental film, Complexe shares much with Obayashi’s later commercial work: a delightful play with film form, a consciousness of the camera, a charming mix of pop genres and European art cinema, and a nostalgic, if not Romanticist tone.
The Rocking Horseman
Obayashi ventures to the mid-1960s when Japanese youth discovered the electric guitar and rock and roll. Four high schoolers in a small coastal town hear “Pipeline” on the radio and decide to form their own band. The film features the problems usually found in a teen film, but Obayashi enthusiastically joins the band with his camera, giving a bravura performance with his instrument.
Aaron Gerow
Professor
Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Director of Graduate Studies, EALL
Yale University
320 York Street, Room 311
PO Box 208324
New Haven, CT 06520-8324
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6729
e-mail: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
website: www.aarongerow.com <http://www.aarongerow.com/>
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