Labyrinth of Cinema

I must confess I was unable to watch this one to the end, which is something I rarely do even when I don't like a film, but this is three hours long and it was driving me crazy after 20 minutes. Other IMDB reviewers confirmed that the style was consistent throughout. Not worth your time.

A film that blends comedy, tragedy, animation, sentimentality, drama, history, poetry and just about everything else. From the beginning the director invites you into the world that exists between what's real and what's fantasy, the world of cinema. Obayashi skids along on a line that weaves between all of these, without ever falling off the tightrope!

Honestly I don't know what to make of this movie, it was bizarre, exciting, chaotic and confusing at times. There's an unhealthy amount of green screen being presented in the movie, the shots that aren't green screen are surprisingly good. The only problem I have with this movie is that it achieves so little even with its 3 hour runtime, it's basically an anti-war movie and a love letter to cinema. There's a lot of history lesson to be learned from this movie but I'm sure it could've been done in a shorter time not saying that the movie is boring in fact the pacing in this movie is great, there's always something going on in the screen it's just that 3 hour felt too long and it's exhausting to watch.

Being the final film of the recently departed Nobuhiko Obayashi I watched this with one laughing and one crying eye. Obayashi was known for his visuals, humour and wild even experimental style. A prime example being 1977's Hausu which has become somewhat of a cult classic by now and for good reason too as it is a perfect destillation of all his greatest qualities.

Labyrinth of Cinema is an even more extreme example of his style which is both joyfully wonderful and ultimately a detriment.

The wrap-around story is about the last movie theatre in Onomichi city, Obayashi's birthplace, closing its doors forever with an all-night showing of Japanese war films. This attracts a colorful variety of odd characters who get sucked into the movies themselves and the historic events they portray.

What follows is a 3-hour long very meta, often funny, often tragic trip through 400 years of history and 100 years of cinema with the focus being on world war II, Japanese atrocities against their own and other people and ultimately Obayashi's own experience of being a child during the Japanese Empire including the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Despite what this may sound like the message of the film is actually very positive and uplifting yet doesn't really mince words when it comes to humanity's destructive capabilities.

The fact that this movie even exists is inspiring in itself. Obayashi was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2016 and given only a few months to live, yet he still completed this film and another three hour epic Hanagatami before it.

What makes Labyrinth of Cinema a much lesser film than it could have been is the complete and at times ridiculous oversaturation of style, which makes it really hard to recommend. It becomes quite exhausting very quickly. While it does get better and eventually allows important emotional scenes to breathe more it was still too much for me. And I'm usually a big fan of the sensory overload approach to art.

With more restraint this could have easily been a more epic live action version of Satoshi Kon's Millenium Actress. Still, the joy and energy this dying old artist brought to the screen in his final film is inspiring and there is plenty of good commentary that really packs a punch.

It's not going to be for everybody, if you're not well-versed in Japanese history, culture and cinema a lot of the details will go straight over your head, but I'm sincerely glad I saw it and wow, what a way to go.

The plot: A japanese cinema opens one last night and shows japanese war movies all night. Various villagers come and watch. A girl (Noriko) doesn't know about war and wants to find out by going directly into the films. 3 men (a yakuza wannabe/monk, a film critic, and the girls lover) follow her to rescue her from various dangers, the girl being present in different incarnations within the movies. The four encounter various battles of japanese history starting from the 1860s with the fall of the samurai and ending with the bombing of Hiroshima, making friends and enemies on their way.

The movie: First I have to say despite this being Nobuhiko Ôbayashis last movie it was my first from him. I was told about his experimental roots beforehand and knew the anti war & movie topic. Still, this movie has a very special style. Instead of using actual old japanese war movies they get kind of rebuild. The first ones in 4:3 and b/w with intertitles before we head to talkies. Generally Ôbayashis choice in most of the scenes is to have two layers in it: the background & the characters, by choice badly cut in. You get 3 hours of very fast paced dialoge, singing, a lot of cuts & repetitions, panels with poems, semi-documental scenes, overlays with facts/information in japanese, overlays of circles, etc.

Storywise, although its meandering style, it all concludes fine in the end & has a strong as well as important message. But still a very hard one to sit through.