is a 2019 Japanese

anti-war An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conf ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written, produced, directed and edited by

Nobuhiko Obayashi was a Japanese film director, director, screenwriter and film editing, editor of films and television advertisements. He began his filmmaking career as a pioneer of Japanese experimental films before transitioning to directing more mainstream m ...

. It stars , and Yoshihiko Hosoda as three present-day

Onomichi is a Cities of Japan, city located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 129,314 in 64055 households and a population density of 450 people per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Onomichi is loca ...

moviegoers who find themselves transported back to 1945, just prior to the

atomic bombing of Hiroshima On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during World War II. The aerial bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of whom were civil ...

. The cast also includes Rei Yoshida,

Riko Narumi , known professionally by the stage name is a Japanese actress and Model (person), model. Personal life On September 23, 2020, Narumi's agency announced that she had registered her marriage to a non-celebrity man. Her spouse's name was not dis ...

, Hirona Yamazaki and Takako Tokiwa. ''Labyrinth of Cinema'' premiered at the 2019

Tokyo International Film Festival The is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biennially from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter. According to the FIAPF, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals and the second largest film festival in Asia behind the ...

. It is Obayashi's final film before his death in 2020, as well as

Yukihiro Takahashi was a Japanese musician, singer, record producer, fashion designer, and actor, who was best known internationally as the drummer, lead vocalist, & 2nd keyboardist of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, as the former drummer of the Sadistic Mika Band, ...

and

Hiroshi Inuzuka was a Japanese actor, comedian and bassist. Inuzuka was one of the members of the Crazy Cats. His first starring role in the film was in ''Suteki na Konban wa'' directed by Yoshitarō Nomura and played the leading roles in six films in his acti ...

's last film roles before their deaths in 2023.

Plot

On the eve of closing down for the last time, a local cinema is hosting an all-night movie marathon, showing classic Japanese war films. Three men, Mario Baba (a film buff), Shigeru (a Buddhist monk turned Yakuza street-thug) and Hosuke (an intellectual film historian) have all come to the cinema, albeit for different reasons, to watch the film. A fourth individual, a young schoolgirl named Noriko, is also there to learn about cinema and the history of war. The action starts in earnest when the 13 year old Noriko falls into the Setouchi Kinema movie screen and becomes a part of the film's narrative. The three protagonists also jump into the screen, and find themselves a part of the fabric of the films they were there to watch, as they try to save people from the horrors of war. The film is largely composed of several interlinked eras in Japanese military history, beginning with the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

of 1868, moving into the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, and into the second

World War A world war is an international War, conflict that involves most or all of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I ...

, with a particular insight into the impact of the war on

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

, and later the impact of the

Atomic Bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...

drop on Hiroshima. The protagonists find themselves in various scenarios within each war.

Cast

;Main * Takuro Atsuki as Mario * Yoshihiko Hosoda as Shigeru * Takahito Hosoyamada as Hosuke * Rei Yoshida as Noriko *

as Kazumi Saitō * Hirona Yamazaki as Kazuko Yoshiyama * Takako Tokiwa as Yuriko Tachibana ;Others

Production

In 2016, Nobuhiko Obayashi was diagnosed with stage-four terminal

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

. Despite this, he wrote and directed ''

Hanagatami is a 2017 Japanese war film directed by Nobuhiko Ōbayashi, based on a 1937 novel by Kazuo Dan. The film tells a story of the purity of youth beset by the chaos of war, inspired by Obayashi's own childhood. It revolves around Toshihiko, a sixte ...

'' (2017), and decided to start production on ''Labyrinth of Cinema'' after ''Hanagatami'' was completed. While filming and editing ''Labyrinth of Cinema'', Obayashi was receiving treatment for his cancer.

Critical reception

Deborah Young of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' referred to ''Labyrinth of Cinema'' as "Nobuhiko Obayashi's opus", calling it "exuberantly shot" and "imaginatively edited". Mark Schilling of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote that the film has Obayashi's "characteristic blend of surreal whimsy and heartfelt emotion."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Labyrinth of Cinema 2019 films Anti-war films Films directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi Films about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 2010s films about time travel Japanese fantasy drama films Films scored by Kousuke Yamashita 2010s Japanese films 2010s Japanese-language films