Known in the horror community as the director of 1977’s Hausu, we've learned the sad news this afternoon that Nobuhiko Ôbayashi has passed away at the age of 82, following a multi-year battle with lung cancer.
Produced by the iconic Japanese company Toho, Hausu was Ôbayashi's feature length debut as a director.
The film's official Wikipedia explains, "Toho approached Obayashi with the suggestion to make a film like Jaws. Influenced by ideas from his daughter Chigumi, Obayashi developed ideas for a script that was written by Chiho Katsura."
With a filmmaking career spanning almost 60 years, Ôbayashi directed nearly 50 feature films, including The Eye's Visitor (1977), The Adventures of Kosuke Kindaichi (1979), The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1983), The Deserted City (1984), Lonely Heart (1985), His Motorbike, Her Island (1986), Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast (1986), The Drifting Classroom (1987), The Strange Couple (1988), The Rocking Horsemen (1992), Samurai Kids (1993), Sada (1998), The Last Snow (2002), Casting Blossoms to the Sky (2012), Seven Weeks (2014), and most recently, Labyrinth of Cinema in 2019.
Hausu was released by the Criterion Collection in 2010.
"The great and endlessly inventive Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi has died at the age of 82," Mubi.com posted on Twitter. "His most recent film, LABYRINTH OF CINEMA, is a masterpiece and a fitting cap on an incredible career that is still under-explored."
