LABYRINTH OF CINEMA unwinds at The Metrograph in NY & in LA during October

The Metrograph Theater in New York on Oct. 20, and The Lumiere Cinema in Los Angeles on Oct. 29, will show Japanese Director Nobuhiko Obayashi’s last film, Labyrinth of Cinema. In this final exploration by the late director, he returns to Japan’s history of warfare in this swan song that follows the completion of his “War Trilogy,” which ended with Hanagatami. 

In Labyrinth of Cinema, the fantasy plot unspools from a fateful closing night of  a small movie theater in Onomichi—the seaside town of Obayashi’s youth where he shot nearly a dozen films— that screens an all-night marathon of Japanese war films. 

When lightning strikes the theater, three young men are transported into the Hollywood-esque world onscreen, where they experience the violent battles of several wars including the harrowing bombing of Hiroshima, now seen in an entirely different way. 

A fearless frenetic cinematic journey through Japan’s past, Labyrinth of Cinema finds Obayashi using every trick in his cinematic playbook to create an eye-watering visually resplendent anti-war epic that urges all to consider cinema as a means to change history, in this last film that is the pinnacle of an exceptional 60-year career.

Cinema Magic from the Land of the Rising Sun

Celebrating the Life of Nobuhiko Obayashi

Born in Hiroshima in 1938, Nobuhiko Obayashi was a director, screenwriter and editor of films and television advertisements. He began his filmmaking career as a pioneer of Japanese experimental films before transitioning to directing more mainstream media, and his resulting filmography as a director spanned almost 60 years. 

He was notable for his distinct surreal filmmaking style, as well as the anti-war themes commonly embedded in his films. He died on 10 April 2020 at the age of 82, from lung cancer in Tokyo. 

This is CRESCENDO HOUSE…

Crescendo House is a new boutique distribution company that aims to reinvigorate the American film landscape with a new model for distribution. Our goal is to expand the mainstream visibility of international or otherwise underrepresented films in order to provide viewers with an array of choices that more accurately reflects the diverse world we inhabit.

For more information: https://crescendo.house/

RECAP: LABYRINTH OF CINEMA will be released at The Metrograph in New York on Oct. 20 and in Los Angeles at The Lumiere Cinema on Oct. 29 (co-presented by Acropolis Cinema ) with a nationwide theatrical release to follow.

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