His Motorbike, Her Island

Kō travels Japan on his motorcycle, goes to an island one summer and meets Miyo there. She wants to learn to ride and he teaches her. Nobuhiko Obayashi starts in black and white and moves into colour in certain passages, using colour as the mark not of memory but of the present moment. The motorcycle here is not a symbol of freedom but the one shared language through which the two find each other. The story moves slowly across the summer and grows unexpectedly heavy toward the end. Obayashi's formal games, the jump cuts and the looks straight to camera are here too, though more measured than in his first films. It is among the best-loved examples of Japanese youth cinema of the eighties. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese summer films and Obayashi's formal play. Who it is not for: anyone looking for plot.