Presented by the Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong and The Japan Foundation, co-presented by the Hong Kong Arts Centre and supported by Japan Autumn Festival in Hong Kong – Rediscovering Nippon, moving image programme The Treasure Box of Love and Death: Obayashi Nobuhiko Film Showcase takes place at the Louis Koo Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Centre from 12 to 20 December 2020. Japanese director Obayashi Nobuhiko, who died in April this year, left behind a large number of works with diverse themes in different fields, from experimental films to TV commercials and mainstream features. The Treasure Box of Love and Death: Obayashi Nobuhiko Film Showcase commemorates this magical film artist, screening six selected features by Obayashi from the collection of the Foundation, including four rarely seen works from the 1980s, from which audiences can observe various motifs found in Obayashi’s films: home, playfulness, pacifism and the tragedy of love.
You can find all the details over at the Hong Kong Arts Center official site.
Seven Weeks is a film event organised by the town of Ashibetsu in Hokkaido, and it was financed independently, with 80% of the budget raised from residents in the area. The story follows the events after the death of Suzuki Mitsuo, a retired doctor who passed away at the age of 95. His children gather from all over Japan to attend his funeral, and they fight over what to do with the old things scattered throughout his house, stirring up memories about World War II and Korean miners. His children gather from all over Japan to attend his funeral.
Hanagatami was adapted from House on Fire author and protagonist Dan Kazuo’s debut novel. This is about a seventeen-year-old high school student, moves in with his aunt in Karatsu, and soon develops tumultuous friendships with his classmates and infatuations with his younger cousin as well as other local beauties, just before the outbreak of the Pacific War.
The Strange Couple portrays the disrupted life of the married couple Murota and Yuko when their childhood friend is released from jail. Obayashi used Agfa film to shoot this film, creating a colourful palette rarely seen in Japanese films by capturing trains running in the middle of a busy city, as well as the dirty and haphazard small houses along the coast, portraying an atmosphere of Onomichi city that is at once absurd and unique. In
The Ruined City, a university student visits a remote town famed for its canals in order to work on his undergraduate dissertation. He is immediately attracted to the young girl running the guesthouse in which he stays, and is enchanted by the constant sound of the waters. However, to the locals, this charming and laid-back small town is a dying and ruined city, and the large guesthouse and the family living within it are in a state of tragic decline. The story of
The Young and Wild takes place in a town located near the Seto Inland Sea in the days before the outbreak of World War II. A young boy is transferred to a primary school in the area and quickly starts a battle with his classmates to decide who will be the king of the children. Meanwhile, his beautiful older sister Osho-chan becomes the object of desire among all the male students, teachers, and even a young army officer, who compete with each other for her affection. When they find out that she is about to be sold to prostitution, all the men in town unite to save her…
Four Sisters is a story of four sisters of the Kitazawa family from Kyoto who, as it turns out, are not blood relatives, tracing the romantic and familial relationships of the women along with their trials and tribulations as they experience the various vicissitudes of life. It was seen as an updated version of the classic film The Makioka Sisters when it was released.
Veteran film critic Cheng Chuen-wai will attend after-screening talk of The Young and Wild to share his insights on the works of Obayashi. The talk is conducted in Cantonese only.
