is a 2019 Japanese

anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to pa ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

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. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written, produced, directed and edited by

Nobuhiko Obayashi was a Japanese 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 film ...

. It stars Takuro Atsuki, Takahito Hosoyamada and Yoshihiko Hosoda as three present-day

Onomichi is a city located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, facing the Inland Sea. The city was founded on April 1, 1898. As of April 30, 2016, the city has an estimated population of 141,811 and a population density of 497.8 persons per km2. The total a ...

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

atomic bombing of Hiroshima The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...

. The cast also includes Rei Yoshida,

Riko Narumi is a Japanese actress and model. Filmography Films Television Photobooks * ''12sai'' (Littele More, 28 June 2005) * ''14sai no Koibana'' (Shufunotomo, 23 March 2007) * ''Natural Pure'' (Kadokawa Media House, 12 June 2007) * ''Rico Days'' ...

Hirona Yamazaki is a Japanese actress who is represented by the talent agency Toho Entertainment. Biography Yamazaki won the Special Jury Prize at the ''7th Toho Cinderella Audition''. Her first film appearance is in ''We Were There (manga), We Were There'' and ...

and

Takako Tokiwa is a Japanese actress. Career Tokiwa was nominated for the "Best Actress" award at the Japanese Academy Awards in 2005 for her performance in '' Akai Tsuki''. She co-starred with Hidetoshi Nishijima in Amir Naderi's 2011 film '' Cut''. Fil ...

. ''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. Along with the Shanghai International Film Festival, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals, and is considered to be the ...

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

Yukihiro Takahashi Yukihiro Takahashi (高橋幸宏 ''Takahashi Yukihiro'', born June 6, 1952) is a Japanese musician, singer, record producer and actor, who is best known internationally as the drummer and lead vocalist of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, and as the fo ...

's last film role before his death in 2023.

Cast

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

as Kazumi Saitō *

as Kazuko Yoshiyama *

as Yuriko Tachibana ;Others

Production

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

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. 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 sixtee ...

'' (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.

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 clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...

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

World War A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most 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 WarI (1914 ...

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

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

, 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 bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

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

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 bayashi'scharacteristic 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 Films about time travel Japanese fantasy drama films Films scored by Kousuke Yamashita 2010s Japanese films 2010s Japanese-language films