JAPAN CUTS Review: LABYRINTH OF CINEMA – Nobuhiko Obayashi’s cinematic testament, an ode to peace and cinema

Nobuhiko Obayashi´s final film is a real labyrinth of cinema that begins in a movie theater about to close for good, in which three young men enter for an all-night marathon of Japanese war films. Once the lights goes down in the screen room, the magic of cinema begins to operate and they are transported in a breathless cinematic journey through the history of japanese wars from the boshin war until the Second World War and the tragic atomic bomb in Hiroshima.

Never following a lineal narrative story- telling, the film has an insane mad paced rythm and an anarchic editing, switching from a vast variety of genres, that comes from silent cinema, musical or even animation, filling the screen with colorful imagery, rapidly skipping from scene to scene having as central axis of the story, Chuya Nakahara´s verses, that becomes the perfect complement to deliver to the audience, a naive but powerful anti- war message.

However, this mad 3-hour feature is not only a breathless journey through the history of Japanese war cinema, but also a clear declaration of intentions of Obayashi of love to cinema, which he goes back to his earliest memories of youth, showing cinema as something more than just an entertainment, but also a tool to learn about life, and an useful weapon, to at least try,  change the world.

Don´t miss the chance of enjoying it in JAPAN CUTS 2020 online Festival