Glasgow Short Film Festival Girl in the Picture: The Youth Films of Nobuhiko Ôbayashi

Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s work, criminally under-seen in the West, is driven by a fascination with youth, family and ripping convention to shreds.

His foundational 'seishun eiga' ('youth films') are assured, rich and startling in their own right. The wistful E no naka no shôjo (The Girl in the Picture, 1960) stars Ôbayashi’s soon-to-be wife, Kyoko. In Mokuyôbi (Thursday, 1961), a young couple have a life-changing picnic in the forest. Finally, the collagic-vampiric love story Emotion (1966) stars the Ôbayashis’ young daughter, Chigumi.

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Captioned for Deaf/Hard of Hearing audiences