Nobuhiko Obayashi is best known for his film House that has achieved cult status over the decades. The Japanese director did so much over his long career and now four of his film that feature teenage characters will be coming to North America thanks to Cult Epics. The titles include The Girl Who Leapt Thru Time, School in the Crosshairs, Island closest to Heaven & His Motorbike, Her Island. We’ll have more updates on the home video releases. Here’s the press release from Cult Epics:
Cult Epics has acquired the rights of four 1980s films by Nobuhiko Obayashi (1938-2020) for North American theatrical, video and digital release in 2025.
Los Angeles, CA (February, 2025)
We are pleased to announce the premiere of 4 films by Nobuhiko Obayashi, most known for House (1978) on home video in the United States.
Obayashi 1980’s Kadokawa films
The teenage symphonies of Nobuhiko Obayashi (1938-2020) are wound in a melancholy nostalgia for a period indelibly lost to time—that inexpressible gap between adolescence and adulthood. Braiding visually expressive fantasias with striking formal experimentation and pop-art boldness, Obayashi’s idiosyncratic cinematic language produced some of Japan’s most beloved seishun eiga (coming-of-age youth films) in the 1980s. Captivating generations of filmgoers with his earnest portraits of young love and vanished worldviews, Obayashi’s films were further bolstered by Kadokawa’s innovative tactics of popularizing dreamy pop idols like Hiroko Yakushimaru and Tomoyo Harada.
With a career overshadowed abroad by the oddball eccentricity of his electric 1977 debut House, the 1980s would prove to be the high-water mark of Obayashi’s popularity. Framed in 35mm viewfinders, against wildly ingenious chroma-key composites and characterized by his unflagging optimism for the youth of Japan, Obayashi’s youth passages are caught up in the ages of transition, demonstrably attuned to the extraordinary nature of ordinary adolescence.
Films:
The Girl Who Leapt Thru Time 4K UHD Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD
Schoolgirl Kazuko begins to experience time leaps backwards and forwards in time, disorienting her as she yearns to stay in the present. Obayashi’s film is a genuine expression of the transcendence of love—one cast across the stars for a young girl who lives in tomorrow.
Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1983, 4K, 104 min., color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Tomoyo Harada, Ryoichi Takayanagi, Toshinori Omi.
School in the Crosshairs Blu-ray/DVD
A psychotronic fantasy forged into a young girl’s destiny to defend the planet, School in the Crosshairs is a cosmic overload of extraterrestrial fascists, preternatural powers and Obayashi’s uniquely adroit filmmaking abilities.
Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1981, 90 min., 2K, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Hiroko Yakushimaru, Ryoichi Takayanagi, Toru Minegishi, Makoto Tezuka.
Island closest to Heaven Blu-ray/DVD
Fulfilling her late father’s dream to take her to “the island closest to heaven,” bookish teen Mari ventures solo to a paradise-laden archipelago in search of the mythic locale.
Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1984, HD, 103 min., color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Tomoyo Harada, Ryoichi Takayanagi, Toru Minegishi, Miyoko Akaza.
His Motorbike, Her Island Blu-ray/DVD
A nostalgia-filled reminiscence, Obayashi’s monochromatic dream playfully worships the biker culture of yesteryear, delivering a sentimental and liberating take on young love.
Dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1986, 96 min., HD, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Riki Takeuchi, Kiwako Harada, Noriko Watanabe.
The releases on Blu-ray and DVD will feature extensive new bonus features and artwork for the North American market.
Furthermore, the films premiered from February 7-14 at the Japanese Society in New York as part of a Onomichi/Kadokawa retrospective on the director: https://japansociety.org/film/obayashi-80s-the-onomichi-trilogy-kadokawa-years/
The movies will be showing around the country. Here’s a listing of upcoming dates:
THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME
05/06 – Tara (Atlanta, GA)
05/09 – 05/17 – Philadelphia Film Society (Philadelphia, PA)
05/23 – Carolina Theatre (Durham, NC)
06/07 – 06/11 – The Beacon (Seattle, WA)
06/28 – Brattle (Boston, MA)
08/10 – Cleveland Cinematheque (Cleveland, OH)
09/11 – Hollywood Theater (Portland, OR)
HIS MOTORBIKE, HER ISLAND
05/04 – 05/25 – Philadelphia Film Society (Philadelphia, PA)
05/25 – Onyx Theater (Nevada City, CA)
06/03 – Tara (Atlanta, GA)
06/16 – Texas Theatre (Dallas, TX)
06/20 – 06/25 – The Beacon (Seattle, WA)
06/28 – Brattle (Boston, MA)
08/09 – 08/13 – BAM Cinematek (NYC)
08/17 – Cleveland Cinematheque (Cleveland, OH)
09/25 – Hollywood Theater (Portland, OR)
THE ISLAND CLOSEST TO HEAVEN
06/01 – 06/18 – Philadelphia Film Society (Philadelphia, PA)
06/14 – 06/18 – The Beacon (Seattle, WA)
06/28 – Brattle (Boston, MA)
08/24 – Cleveland Cinematheque (Cleveland, OH)
10/02 – Hollywood Theater (Portland, OR)
SCHOOL IN THE CROSSHAIRS
05/14 – Stray Cat Film Center (Kansas City, MO)
05/23 – Carolina Theatre (Durham, NC)
05/31 – 06/04 – The Beacon (Seattle, WA)
06/06 – Alamo Drafthouse New Mission (San Francisco, CA)
06/28 – Alamo Drafthouse Raleigh (Raleigh, NC)
06/28 – Brattle (Boston, MA)
08/03 – Cleveland Cinematheque (Cleveland, OH)
09/18 – Hollywood Theater (Portland, OR)
DATES TO FOLLOW
American Cinematheque (Los Angeles)
The Brattle (Boston)
The Beacon (Seattle)
Cleveland Cinematheque (Cleveland)
Music Box (Chicago)
Metro Cinema (Edmonton)
The Cinematheque (Vancouver)
Trylon (Minneapolis)
Roxie (San Francisco)
Mayfair (Ottawa)
Cult Epics is distributed theatrical by AGFA and for video and digital by MVD Entertainment Group in North America.
