Labyrinth of Cinema (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi (House)
	Actors: Tadanobu Asano, Takuro Atsuki, Yoshihiko Hosoda
	Country: J
	Genre: Drama, War
	Conditions of visioning: 28.06.2020, FEFF2020, 14" screen.
Synopsis: The last cinema in the coastal town of Onomichi is about to be shut down for good, screening one final marathon of old war films. Three young viewers become so immersed in the action that they find themselves on the other side of the screen, chasing through the annals of war and film.
Review: I missed this movie at the Nippon Connection 2020 Festival, but I had a second chance at the Far East Film Festival. I knew it would be hard to squeeze in my schedule the 3 hours of this experimental movie, but I was attracted by it and didn't regret my choice. I am no expert but the movie seems characteristic of its director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi. It is not your normal average movie by any standard, more like a documentary reflection on Japanese wars and their depiction in the local Cinema. Be warned that it it not linear at all, we keep on jumping back and forth in time, and the movie may be 3 hours long but there are only 2.5 hours of footage in it because of many repetitions. Those elements combined make it possible to follow more or less what is going on in spite of a superficial chaos. It also helps that we follow those three characters: a cinema buff (named Mario Baba, haha), a history buff and a son-of-monk-turned-yakusa-wannabe, maybe the closest to a war-time soldier in modern times? They give different perspectives to the action and provide a common thread for us to hold on. Many other figures also also recurrent through the timeline, in particular a little girl (and her three sisters?) which they keep on trying to save. I don't think I got 20% of the references in the movie, it is so packed with them and you have to be Japanese to get much more. Even then, I don't know if this experimental movie fared well on the island. A few things help: some knowledge of the Japanese culture and its cinema, having been there (in Hiroshima in particular), watching a simplified recap on Japanese History before this movie (that one for example), and not hesitating to fact-search on Google as the movie goes, to not get totally lost (for example about the Sakura-tai Traveling Theater Troupe or the forced mass suicides of Okinawa). We always say that Japanese movies which underline in passing the message "War is bad" do it far too heavily, but this message is the whole purpose of Labyrinth of Cinema, it is a kind of anti-War propaganda film. From what I understood, it focuses especially on the two major events of Japan opening to the rest of the World (and the ensuing conflicts with swords vs. guns) and WWII (the last war of Japan, culminating with the atomic atrocity). So it really is about History and War, but all from the point of view of a cinema audience (this reminds of Joe Dante's Matinee) and many directors and movies are quoted along the way of which I knew none but my attention was caught by The Rickshaw Man directed in 1943 by Hiroshi Inagaki, not its many remakes (note for later viewing). Technically the movie looks cheap and contains tons of quickly-done green screen effects, but it is on purpose, the director didn't want to spend the time or budget to show something realistic while a juxtaposition of images suffices to pass the same message. Also it was shot with a Canon digital camera, and not even the best one. I like the message that you don't need money to express your art, partly contradicting what I remember Kevin Smith saying that Cinema is the most expensive Art form (give me 60 million dollars and Ben Affleck!). Of course Smith started with the cheap Clerks. Even though Nobuhiko Ôbayashi's film was done for little money and looks cheap, it doesn't feel cheap as the man knows what he is doing (like a good photographer is supposed to take great shots even with a smartphone). The 3-hour long movie could have been unwatchable but for some reason it incites watching further, even though you don't get the references. I did it in two parts nonetheless. Not an easy watch but I found it worth it.
Rating: 6 /10