Kobayashi Masahiro
After a career as a folk singer and scenario writer, KOBAYASHI Masahiro (1954-2022, Japan) directed his feature debut Closing Time in 1996. He then set up the film production company Monkey Town Productions. His films have been screened in Cannes and other festivals and brought him international attention. The Rebirth (2007) won a Golden Leopard in Locarno. In 2008, his work was shown in a retrospective at the IFFR. Strangers When We Meet (2013) is Kobayashi’s contribution to the digital project of the Jeonju International Film Festival (South Korea).
Filmography
Closing Time (1996), Bootleg Film (1999), 1 shukan aiyoku nikki (2000), Koroshi/Film Noir (2000), Joshi shain aiyoku izonsho (2001), Aruku, hito/Man Walking on Snow (2001), Kanzen-naru shiiku: Onna rihatsushi no koi/Amazing Story (2003), Flic (2004), Bashing (2005), Eejanaika nippon miyagi hen kesennuma densetsu (2006), Shiawase/The Happiness (2006), Ai no yokan/The Rebirth (2007), Byakuya/A White Night (2009), Wakanarai/Where Are You? (2009), ‘Wakanarai’ no sekai (2010 doc), Haru tono tabi/Haru’s Journey (2010), Girigiri no onnatachi/Women on the Edge (2011), Nippon no higeki/Japan’s Tragedy (2012), Strangers When We Meet (2013)
Kobayashi Masahiro op IFFR
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Man Walking on Snow
Kobayashi Masahiro | 102' | Japan | None
A simple story about grand things. The old man who walks through the snow is on his way to a fish farm to look at… -
Amazing Story
Kobayashi Masahiro | 103' | Japan | None
Again, Kobayashi takes us along to a snow-covered Hokkaido, where this time a man kidnaps the hairdresser of a small town. Not a thriller, but… -
Bootleg Film
Kobayashi Masahiro | 74' | Japan | None
Road movie filled with film references set in a snow-covered Japan. With an unlikely friendship between a cop and a Yakuza, a body in the… -
Closing Time
Kobayashi Masahiro | 81' | Japan | None
‘The most French of all Japanese film makers’ made his debut with this story about the seamy side of Tokyo. A down and out writer… -
Flic
Kobayashi Masahiro | 154' | Japan | None
When a young girl from Hokkaido is murdered in her hotel room in Tokyo with a chainsaw, Inspector Murata (the flic from the title) is… -
The Rebirth
Kobayashi Masahiro | 102' | Japan | None
Cold behaviour in a cold world doesn’t mean that a film about coldness should also be cold. Two people come to terms with a sorrow… -
Bashing
Kobayashi Masahiro | 82' | Japan | None
A Kobayashi in top form. Yuko is a young woman who worked as a volunteer for an aid organisation in Iraq. One fateful day she… -
Japan’s Tragedy
Kobayashi Masahiro | 101' | Japan | European premiere
Black-and-white, with rice-paper doors. The director knows his classics, but remains a modernist. A father and son wrestle with death and loss. Strang -
Strangers When We Meet
Kobayashi Masahiro | 45' | Japan | Dutch Premiere
A car accident and a secret date cause Ryoichi (Kobayashi himself) and his wife to stop talking to each other. Intensely sad. -
Lunatic
Sato Toshiki | 85' | Japan | International premiere
Dramatic story about the love-hate relationship between two brothers, that was started by an actress only just cured of her insanity.