Anti-Fascist, All Fun: Disobedient Whimsy in Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s School in the Crosshairs

|Chris Polley| Sometimes this place feels like a prison” is a sentiment I hear at least once every few years as a public school teacher—from students, yes, but also at least twice from fellow teachers. It’s also a haven for many kids who lack stability and routine at home. And yet it remains a source of so much stress and so… Continue reading

Be the Wind: Movie Motorbikes and the Power of Bōsōzoku

|Jake Rudegeair| Yeah guys, this film has motorcycles. And lots of other stuff too.  Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s His Motorbike, Her Island (1986) is a treasure from the annals of motorcycle cinema, bent with nostalgic longing, light on its feet, washing between full color and monochrome classic. Continue reading

Memories of Summer

|Harry Mackin| Spoilers for His Motorbike, Her Island—watch the movie before you read this! We meet several different versions of His Motorbike, Her Island’s protagonist, Koh. First, we meet Koh the narrator. This Koh begins his narration immediately following the opening images of the film, when an appropriately… Continue reading

Of Teens and Time Travel: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

|Dan McCabe| Time travel is a fantasy. While time travel stories often get lumped in with science fiction, there’s not much “science” behind it. While general relativity and time dilation theories support the possibility of moving forward in time, backwards time travel has about as… Continue reading

A Hit Before It Was Made, And A Fairy Tale Ahead Of Its Time: How Nobuhiko Obayashi Made “House”

|Lucile Hanson| “How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava?” That quote is what opens up the description on the… Continue reading