Masahiro Kobayashi

Writing

Masahiro Kobayashi

Born — Died

1954-01-06 — 2022-08-20

Place of birth

Tokyo, Japan

Known for

Writing

Credits

44 titles

Masahiro Kobayashi (6 January 1954 - 20 August 2022) was a Japanese film writer and director. Kobayashi became the first Japanese filmmaker to win the Grand Prize at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. In its wake, he founded Monkey Town Productions and made three films back to back which won prizes in three consecutive years at Cannes: Kaizokuban Bootleg Film (1999) and Man Walking on Snow (2001) in Un Certain Regard and Koroshi (2000) in the Directors' Fortnight. Description above from the Wikipedia article Masahiro Kobayashi, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known for

Flic poster
6.9

Kazuo Murata is a detective who has lost his wife and eventually the meaning of his existence.

Flic

2005

Perfect Education 5: Amazing Story poster
5.3

Because of the desolate landscape, Kobayashi chose snow-covered Hokkaido (the most northern island of Japan) as the setting for Amazing Story, a light-erotic drama about a lonely man, Kenji, who kidnaps the woman of his dreams. The woman is Harumi, a hairdresser in the deserted town where Kenji has just arrived. It's never really busy in her business. Harumi's husband is a gambling addict and spends all Harumi's money. Maybe that's why Harumi doesn't try very hard to escape when Kenji kidnaps her. His concern about her and his boundless worship probably help, too. Something strange and beautiful blossoms between the kidnapper and his victim, but can this be the basis of a long and happy encounter?

Perfect Education 5: Amazing Story

2004

Perfect Blue: Yume Nara Samete poster
6.4

Perfect Blue: Yume Nara Samete (パーfectブルー 夢なら醒めて, Pāfekuto Burū: Yume Nara Samete) is a 2002 Japanese psychological thriller film directed by Toshiki Satō and adapted from the novel of the same name by Yoshikazu Takeuchi. The story centers on Ai, a teen pop idol transitioning to a recording career, whose life unravels amid fixation from a obsessive convenience store clerk, leading to themes of distorted self-perception, narcissistic delusions, and violent events.

Perfect Blue: Yume Nara Samete

2002

Tokyo Booty Nights poster
4.5

Yuji and Akiko are newlyweds. Yuji dreams of being a movie star. He lands the lead role in a Pink Eiga soft-core sex film. The director requires him to have sex with the actress. Akiko goes to her high school reunion and is raped by a drunken guy, and then hooks up with her ex-high school love. A dark and comedic look at contemporary relationships and the pitfalls of married life. The story was written by Locarno International Film Festival, Golden Leopard Prize Winner, Masahiro Kobayashi. (Pink Eiga)

Tokyo Booty Nights

2004

Tandem poster
4.2

The story of two men, one middle aged one mid twenties, who make friends and exchange cigarettes and stories of their sex lives, unaware they have unwittingly exchanged partners. The story, told in flashbacks, as the two men travel through the night on a motorcycle, is loaded with highly charged eroticism. Sex and violence are juxtaposed against the drabness of the men's everyday lives, effectively blurring the line between what is real and what is fantasy. Founded on the well-known myth of furtive sexual gropers on the rush-hour Tokyo commuter trains, Tandem is a low-key masterpiece of Japanese Pink Cinema.

Tandem

1994

Haru's Journey poster
6.6

Stuck in a fishing village in Hokkaido, Tadao's grand-daughter Haru is desperate to visit Tokyo, a trip Tadao is reluctant to make.

Haru's Journey

2010

Film credits

Behind the camera

Flic poster
6.9

Kazuo Murata is a detective who has lost his wife and eventually the meaning of his existence.

Flic

2005

Flic poster
6.9

Kazuo Murata is a detective who has lost his wife and eventually the meaning of his existence.

Flic

2005

Flic poster
6.9

Kazuo Murata is a detective who has lost his wife and eventually the meaning of his existence.

Flic

2005

Perfect Education 5: Amazing Story poster
5.3

Because of the desolate landscape, Kobayashi chose snow-covered Hokkaido (the most northern island of Japan) as the setting for Amazing Story, a light-erotic drama about a lonely man, Kenji, who kidnaps the woman of his dreams. The woman is Harumi, a hairdresser in the deserted town where Kenji has just arrived. It's never really busy in her business. Harumi's husband is a gambling addict and spends all Harumi's money. Maybe that's why Harumi doesn't try very hard to escape when Kenji kidnaps her. His concern about her and his boundless worship probably help, too. Something strange and beautiful blossoms between the kidnapper and his victim, but can this be the basis of a long and happy encounter?

Perfect Education 5: Amazing Story

2004

Perfect Education 5: Amazing Story poster
5.3

Because of the desolate landscape, Kobayashi chose snow-covered Hokkaido (the most northern island of Japan) as the setting for Amazing Story, a light-erotic drama about a lonely man, Kenji, who kidnaps the woman of his dreams. The woman is Harumi, a hairdresser in the deserted town where Kenji has just arrived. It's never really busy in her business. Harumi's husband is a gambling addict and spends all Harumi's money. Maybe that's why Harumi doesn't try very hard to escape when Kenji kidnaps her. His concern about her and his boundless worship probably help, too. Something strange and beautiful blossoms between the kidnapper and his victim, but can this be the basis of a long and happy encounter?

Perfect Education 5: Amazing Story

2004

Perfect Blue: Yume Nara Samete poster
6.4

Perfect Blue: Yume Nara Samete (パーfectブルー 夢なら醒めて, Pāfekuto Burū: Yume Nara Samete) is a 2002 Japanese psychological thriller film directed by Toshiki Satō and adapted from the novel of the same name by Yoshikazu Takeuchi. The story centers on Ai, a teen pop idol transitioning to a recording career, whose life unravels amid fixation from a obsessive convenience store clerk, leading to themes of distorted self-perception, narcissistic delusions, and violent events.

Perfect Blue: Yume Nara Samete

2002

Tokyo Booty Nights poster
4.5

Yuji and Akiko are newlyweds. Yuji dreams of being a movie star. He lands the lead role in a Pink Eiga soft-core sex film. The director requires him to have sex with the actress. Akiko goes to her high school reunion and is raped by a drunken guy, and then hooks up with her ex-high school love. A dark and comedic look at contemporary relationships and the pitfalls of married life. The story was written by Locarno International Film Festival, Golden Leopard Prize Winner, Masahiro Kobayashi. (Pink Eiga)

Tokyo Booty Nights

2004

Tandem poster
4.2

The story of two men, one middle aged one mid twenties, who make friends and exchange cigarettes and stories of their sex lives, unaware they have unwittingly exchanged partners. The story, told in flashbacks, as the two men travel through the night on a motorcycle, is loaded with highly charged eroticism. Sex and violence are juxtaposed against the drabness of the men's everyday lives, effectively blurring the line between what is real and what is fantasy. Founded on the well-known myth of furtive sexual gropers on the rush-hour Tokyo commuter trains, Tandem is a low-key masterpiece of Japanese Pink Cinema.

Tandem

1994

Haru's Journey poster
6.6

Stuck in a fishing village in Hokkaido, Tadao's grand-daughter Haru is desperate to visit Tokyo, a trip Tadao is reluctant to make.

Haru's Journey

2010

Haru's Journey poster
6.6

Stuck in a fishing village in Hokkaido, Tadao's grand-daughter Haru is desperate to visit Tokyo, a trip Tadao is reluctant to make.

Haru's Journey

2010

Kawarasaki Family poster
6.5

Rokuro Saito was hired as a gardener for the Kawarazaki family. The beautiful mistress of the house, Kyoko, who greeted Rokuro, was a widow with two daughters, Sachiko and Rei. Also living there were Rei's tutor, Kaori, a creepy male servant named Nanbara, and the maid, Misako. Rokuro was eager to take on the job, but Misako was cold and distant.

Kawarasaki Family

1996

A Duel Tale poster
8.0

Nakadai Tatsuya, Japan’s greatest living actor, gives the performance of a lifetime as Shoji Sanosuke, and elderly samurai forced to pick up his sword to protect those he loves in this adaptation of a Fujisawa Shuhei novel. As a ”Heya-zumi” (essentially a freeloader living off his family) Sanosuke has one last chance to help his grandniece escape from the cruel samurai of an arranged marriage. Nakadai proves he ”still has it,” when fate forces him into a deadly duel. This award winning samurai drama from the pen of noted author Fujisawa Shuhei is a tribute to one of the greatest actors to ever grace the silver screen!

A Duel Tale

2015

Apartment Wife: Lost Cat poster
3.3

As a newspaper reporter listens to the confession of a wife who murdered her husband, the film shockingly depicts the process by which she discovers why she killed her husband, why she started working on street corners, and how she became deeply immersed in an affair that began as prostitution to relieve boredom...

Apartment Wife: Lost Cat

1998

Déracine poster
3.7

A mysterious street-painter, Jouji, wanders aimlessly, homeless. Together with his homeless pals, he makes his living by selling his paintings on the street. His paintings, dynamically exploding on pieces of cardboard, catch the eyes of Kyoko, an art dealer. He can feel alive only if he keeps painting, but unable to find something to fill his void inside, he tries to drown himself in alcohol. Drawn to Jouji, Kyoko commissions him to paint for her. The two travel to a secluded mountain-side, and there Jouji becomes inspired both by the natural surroundings and Kyoko herself.

Déracine

2004

Kaizokuban Bootleg Film poster
6.1

Two best friends—Tatsuo, a retiring Yakuza member, and Kiyoshi, a cop—travel to the funeral of a woman they both loved.

Kaizokuban Bootleg Film

1999

Kaizokuban Bootleg Film poster
6.1

Two best friends—Tatsuo, a retiring Yakuza member, and Kiyoshi, a cop—travel to the funeral of a woman they both loved.

Kaizokuban Bootleg Film

1999

Roppongi Reijô: Fushidara poster
4.2

An aimless and lonely call girl becomes involved with a detective who is looking for a underage runaway.

Roppongi Reijô: Fushidara

1987

Apartment Wife: Adulterous Love poster
2.0

Two wives who leave their husbands behind and go on a hot spring trip, and two husbands who play homosexual games because it's not fair for them to be the only ones enjoying it. In contrast to the wives, who warm each other's bodies with hot water and lesbian play, the husbands cool each other's bodies by facing each other naked on a dark table with a bottle of sugar. There is another couple in danger of getting married because their parents disapprove of their relationship, but these two also change their mind, saying that marriage is between them. The story focuses on the liberation and change of consciousness of these three couples, who audaciously kiss on the street to get warm, and rethink their love and freedom.

Apartment Wife: Adulterous Love

2000

Naomi poster
3.5

Tomoko and Naomi have had a lesbian relationship since their high school days. They meet again a few years later, and this film depicts the course of their love. Tomoko's strong obsession with Naomi and her intense sexual desire excite the audience. The beauty of the last scene is a must-see!

Naomi

1993

Apartment Wife: Adultery in broad daylight poster
3.7

Asako, who has been married for eight years and has no children, is dissatisfied with her husband who comes home late every night, but she lives peacefully with him after he stops his unfaithful habit. However, a man she meets at a bowling alley with her neighbor Michiko and a beautiful woman who Asako's husband is interested in, cause changes in their lives.

Apartment Wife: Adultery in broad daylight

1997

Film Noir poster
7.5

The movie is absurd, and a thoroughly original take on the morale in Japanese society. The images are beautiful, and the people are as cold as the snow that surrounds them. The take on Melville's "Samoraï" from -67 is obvious, but Kobayashi turns the image around and portrays the killer as the weakest person in the movie - haunted by his demanding wife and the moaning contractor, who is one of the most mysterious characters ever portrayed in a movie.

Film Noir

2000

Film Noir poster
7.5

The movie is absurd, and a thoroughly original take on the morale in Japanese society. The images are beautiful, and the people are as cold as the snow that surrounds them. The take on Melville's "Samoraï" from -67 is obvious, but Kobayashi turns the image around and portrays the killer as the weakest person in the movie - haunted by his demanding wife and the moaning contractor, who is one of the most mysterious characters ever portrayed in a movie.

Film Noir

2000

The Return poster
7.3

Tatsuya Nakadai, the world’s greatest living actor, returns to the screen in a brilliant adaptation of a story by novelist Shuhei Fujisawa. A traveling gambler known as “Funeral Uno” he is now 86 years old and returning to his hometown for the first time in 30 years. Partly told in flashbacks, he is forced to face his lifelong nemesis, Boss Kyuzo, a vile yakuza portrayed by another superstar of samurai cinema, Atsuo Nakamura! Before the two old gamblers can settle a 30-year-old score they must put their lives on the line in a game of dice that can only lead to a bloody sword duel the likes of which has never before been seen! Superb performances all around in a film loaded with surprises and exciting swordplay!

The Return

2019

小さな橋で poster
8.7

No synopsis available yet.

小さな橋で

2017

Lusty Hot Spring poster
2.7

Kiriko is a beautiful woman working in a quiet hot spring town. The owner of the inn, Goro, is attracted to her beauty and asks her out, but she refuses. Meanwhile, Imai, a detective staying at the inn, recognizes Kiriko's face and investigates her past on his own.

Lusty Hot Spring

1999

Lascivious Nurse Uniform Diary: Two or Three Times, While I'm Wet poster
4.2

A sexual tale of an erotic film depicting the love, lust and sex of a traumatized new young nurse. Akemi is a nurse who drags her leg due to a past injury and hates sex due to rape. One night, she passes by a sound engineer, Ikuo, working hard on a recording on a bridge. One day, she meets Ikuo when he's hospitalized with a broken leg, Akemi become attracted to him, but is troubled by her feud and affairs with doctor Kubo. Will her hidden past secrets stop her from pursuing love, lust and sex?

Lascivious Nurse Uniform Diary: Two or Three Times, While I'm Wet

1997

Where Are You? poster
6.2

A sixteen year old boy, Ryo, experiences the painful ordeal of his mother being hospitalized and then dying. The boy turns to crime, but doesn't find success. He then seeks out his remarried father, but the pain still exists.

Where Are You?

2009

Where Are You? poster
6.2

A sixteen year old boy, Ryo, experiences the painful ordeal of his mother being hospitalized and then dying. The boy turns to crime, but doesn't find success. He then seeks out his remarried father, but the pain still exists.

Where Are You?

2009

Where Are You? poster
6.2

A sixteen year old boy, Ryo, experiences the painful ordeal of his mother being hospitalized and then dying. The boy turns to crime, but doesn't find success. He then seeks out his remarried father, but the pain still exists.

Where Are You?

2009

New Apartment Complex Wife: Adultery is a Taste of Honey poster
3.0

Asako and Tomoko, who live next door to each other in a certain apartment complex, are housewives who frequently chat with each other. Asako, who is on good terms with her husband, Keiji, tells Tomoko about their nightly activities, and Tomoko, who is in a lull with her husband, Shinpei, envies her for it. One day, Keiji and Shinpei, who had never even exchanged greetings before, happen to hit it off and go out for a drink together. There they meet a pair of office workers...

New Apartment Complex Wife: Adultery is a Taste of Honey

1999

My Brother's Lover poster
3.7

Kenji breaks up with his girlfriend and goes to stay with his brother, Ryosuke, who is married but is having an affair with a local waitress. It becomes clear quickly that Ryosuke is unhappy with his marriage to Haruyo, who desperately tries to get them to reconnect. One night Kenji goes out alone, to see the mistress of his brother...and they fool around.

My Brother's Lover

1998

Bashing poster
6.2

Yuko is a Japanese girl who was taken hostage in Iraq while volunteering there as an aid worker. Finally released and back in her hometown, Yuko finds herself ostracized as a national disgrace by society that sees her helping a country other than Japan, and the embarrassment of getting captured but not killed, as things of which to be brutally ashamed.

Bashing

2006

Bashing poster
6.2

Yuko is a Japanese girl who was taken hostage in Iraq while volunteering there as an aid worker. Finally released and back in her hometown, Yuko finds herself ostracized as a national disgrace by society that sees her helping a country other than Japan, and the embarrassment of getting captured but not killed, as things of which to be brutally ashamed.

Bashing

2006

The Happiness poster
NR

The story of a vagrant who arrives in a town in Hokkaido. With only a threadbare suit, an old pair of sneakers, and a bag containing all his worldly possessions, the proprietors of a local convenience store take pity on the man and bring him in.

The Happiness

2006

Mr. Gosuto ni Yoroshiku poster
NR

Straight-to-video film directed by Shinya Yamamoto.

Mr. Gosuto ni Yoroshiku

1991

Lear on the Shore poster
6.4

Chokichi Kuwahata was once a leading actor, but he is ravaged by dementia and old age now. His daughter and the men in her life go against his wishes and place him in a retirement home. He slips away one day and meets another offspring from a different union.

Lear on the Shore

2017

Lear on the Shore poster
6.4

Chokichi Kuwahata was once a leading actor, but he is ravaged by dementia and old age now. His daughter and the men in her life go against his wishes and place him in a retirement home. He slips away one day and meets another offspring from a different union.

Lear on the Shore

2017

Lear on the Shore poster
6.4

Chokichi Kuwahata was once a leading actor, but he is ravaged by dementia and old age now. His daughter and the men in her life go against his wishes and place him in a retirement home. He slips away one day and meets another offspring from a different union.

Lear on the Shore

2017

Lunatic poster
NR

The sensual images depict the love and hatred between four men and women living together, creating a new kind of love story. One night, alcoholic writer Akimoto and live-in former actress Yumiko meet Koichi, a gay drug dealer pursued by the yakuza, and his younger brother Yuji, a castrated man. The four of them flee Tokyo and start living together in Koichi and Yuji's childhood hideout. In the midst of their peaceful life, Yumiko falls in love with Yuji, but he is unable to give her any physical satisfaction. In the meantime, Yuji asks Koichi to hold Yumiko instead of him, which leads to jealousy among the men.

Lunatic

1996

Woman of Dreams poster
9.0

Yoichi, who works for an advertising agency becomes heavily obsessed with a strange woman, things go unexpected, leading to a divorce and other disasters...

Woman of Dreams

1989