Complexe

Cast

Hitokazu Ishizaki, Mamoru Kato, Miyuki Oka, Tamiko Tachikawa.

Synopsis

A 16mm work by the young Obayashi, who dropped out of university to plunge headfirst into underground filmmaking. Much of the film is made using stop-motion animation — people bound down empty streets, slide down staircases, play with a ball, tickle each other's heels, speed up and freeze, and leap from one space to another, as the story drifts ever further into dreamlike imagery. Here, as in Émotion, we can already glimpse what would become Obayashi's signature style: his ability to turn any ordinary day into a spectacle brimming with absurdist humor.

About the Director

See Nobuhiko Obayashi's biography under "Onomichi" — the director is the same across all films in the retrospective.

Festivals and Awards

• Screening (retrospective "Nobuhiko Obayashi films," curated by Alina Roslykova) — O-FEST