Filmmaker Obayashi Nobuhiko Dies Of Lung Cancer


Filmmaker Obayashi Nobuhiko dies of lung cancer

Japanese director Obayashi Nobuhiko, who produced a series of hit movies featuring youths in his hometown of Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, has died of lung cancer.

Obayashi died at his home in Tokyo on Friday. He was 82.

In 1963, following his departure from a university, he worked on his first 16 mm film which won a special award at an international experimental film festival in Belgium.

Obayashi directed more than 3,000 TV commercials in which he challenged new visual expressions.

In 1977, he debuted as a director of commercial films with the horror movie "House."

Obayashi is best known for three works, "Tenkosei" or "Exchange Students," "Tokio Kakeru Shojo" or "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time," and "Sabishinbo" or "Lonely Heart."

The Onomichi trilogy was centered on adolescence amid the scenery of the city, which faces the Seto Inland Sea in western Japan.

Obayashi was also known as an anti-war and pacifist activist, emphasizing the importance of peace in his works and at lectures. He opposed the state secrecy law, stressing that freedom of expression should be upheld.

His latest film, "Umibeno Eigakan Kinemano Tamatebako", or "Labyrinth of Cinema," was released at the Tokyo International Film Festival last autumn.

Speaking to NHK, he described the film as a wonder to all who watch it. He said everybody would be surprised at what a movie can do.