Photo/Illutration Film director Nobuhiko Obayshi forms an “I love you” sign while discussing his thoughts on the abolition of nuclear weapons in Tokyo in 2019. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Film director Nobuhiko Obayashi, who died on April 10 at age 82, came from a long line of medical doctors.

As a teenager, Obayashi considered following the family tradition. But while preparing to enter medical school, he changed his mind and chose to study filmmaking at a university.

His goal, as he recalled years later, was to make films that "heal people like a powerful medicine would."

In "Saigo no Kogi" (The last lecture), a book he wrote for students aspiring to the filmmaking profession, Obayashi explained: "In medicine, there are clinical departments such as surgery and internal medicine. Using this medical analogy, I would say that 'filmmaking' is one such department, and you are going to become doctors specializing in it."

During his prolific career, Obayashi created memorable TV commercials and directed numerous blockbuster movies for teenagers and young adults. In his final years, his focus turned to war.

Multidimensional as his works are, many convey his wish to "heal" people through them.

The protagonist of his 1992 film "Seishun Dendeke Deke Deke" is a high school student living in Shikoku in the 1960s. The "dendeke deke deke" in the title is the Japanese onomatopoeia for the electric guitar sound popularized by The Ventures.

The film stresses the sheer intensity of the "electrifying revelation" that came to the teenage protagonist when he first heard the sound on the radio, and then goes on to portray the preciousness of the friends he encounters and with whom he forms a band.

Youth film as a genre is not something older movie fans readily relate to.

But that's not the case with Obayashi's works.

His depiction of youthful experiences is sharp and precise, and yet it is extraordinarily tender and sweet. It makes you feel as if you are being asked gently by Obayashi to recall your own most precious moments from your youth.

Obayashi once noted that because of his wartime boyhood, he was constantly aware of the possibility that whatever fun he was having, or whatever book he was reading, could be his last.

I wonder if that was how he felt every time he made a movie.

And that may have formed the underlying current that ran throughout his prolific works.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 14

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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