Photo/Illutration Movie Director Nobuhiko Obayashi in 2012 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Acclaimed film director Nobuhiko Obayashi, dubbed the “cinematic magician” for his lyrical and playful style of making films, died of lung cancer at his Tokyo home on April 10. He was 82.

He is survived by his wife, Kyoko Obayashi, a film producer.

A funeral service will be held with only close relatives attending. A public memorial service is scheduled at a later date.

Obayashi was born in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, in 1938.

He started making experimental films while he was a student.

“Tabeta Hito” (An Eater), Obayashi’s first 16-mm film and co-directed with painter Kazutomo Fujino, was awarded the special jury prize at a 1963 Belgian experimental film festival.

In 1982, Obayashi released "Tenkosei" (Exchange Students), in which the minds and bodies of a junior high school boy and a junior high school girl are switched. The movie was set in Onomichi.

The following year, he shot “Toki o Kakeru Shojo” (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) in Onomichi, starring idol Tomoyo Harada making her film debut.

Combined with his 1985 film, “Sabishinbo” (Lonely Heart), also shot in his native city, these movies helped transform Onomichi into a pilgrimage site and popular destination among fans and tourists traveling from across the country.

Since then, Obayashi created works of various genres, from entertainment blockbusters, such as “Shimaizaka” (Four Sisters) and “Hyoryu Kyoshitsu” (The Drifting Classroom), to highly artistic “Haishi” (The Deserted City) based on a novel by Takehiko Fukunaga.