Synopsis
After a series of chance meetings a shiftless motorbike enthusiast Ko begins a romance with a carefree girl Miyo, after teaching her to ride. When Miyo proves herself a biker prodigy Ko begins to fear that she is destined to crash.
1986 ‘彼のオートバイ、彼女の島’ Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi
After a series of chance meetings a shiftless motorbike enthusiast Ko begins a romance with a carefree girl Miyo, after teaching her to ride. When Miyo proves herself a biker prodigy Ko begins to fear that she is destined to crash.
Riki Takeuchi Kiwako Harada Noriko Watanabe Ryôichi Takayanagi Takahiro Tamura Tomokazu Miura Toshie Negishi Toru Minegishi Kiyohiko Ozaki Kôji Naka Kisuke Yamashita Mami Mochizuki Nenji Kobayashi Shigeru Izumiya Yasuhiro Arai Toshinori Omi Satomi Kobayashi Ittoku Kishibe Mitsutoshi Ishigami Wakaba Irie Sumiko Kakizaki Makoto Kakeda
Kare no ootobai, kanojo no shima, 그의 오토바이 그녀의 섬, His Motorbike, Her Island, 他的摩托,她的岛, 彼のオートバイ 彼女の島
Absolutely phenomenal film about the things we like to remember and the things we can't help but forget. Time and memory, the past and present, dream and reality flowing in and out of each other, flirting at the edges, eventually sharing the same frame. Every time I watch a new Obayashi film I feel invigorated, like I have this fresh love for the medium. I don't think we deserve a filmmaker as good as him.
Dreams of monochrome juxtaposed with the colours of reality. Flying, not riding, a Kawasaki in search of excitement; an escape from stability disguised as boredom. His Motorbike, Her Island is a celebration of freedom, masculinity, feminity, and the marriage of Western and Japanese culture. It's brimming with life, celebrating it with the sort of reverence that can be seen in the likes of Chungking Express and Fallen Angels.
Nobuhiko Ōbayashi is a proudly idiosyncratic man. Seamless transitions between monochrome and colour. Having unabashedly sentimental characters, and lifting the titular Motorbike and the Island to mythical status. Ōbayashi's execution is what turns a rather simple story into a wildly enchanting one. His Motorbike, Her Island possesses an ineffable quality of being…
Extremely beautiful film probably made even more romantic by the fact that it’s impossible for me to see someone ride a motorcycle and not imagine them crashing into a fiery death at any moment.
one thing to note - apart from maybe one sequence at the very end of the film obayashi never seems to use the switching from black and white to color to any schematic end. reminds me more of a great pianist just knowing when to use the pedals.
i don’t need a motorbike
i don’t need a motorbike
i don’t need a motorbike
i don’t need a motorbike
i don’t need a motorbike
weaving in and out of memories and color; dripping with the sweet nostalgic ache that is heightened with love.
it's not an Obayashi film if you're not saying "oh dear. oh dear. gorgeous" constantly throughout... this is the type of shit that's on in the waiting rooms in heaven
Fictions one pick by the road. The image overloaded of longing and weight, very much a film of its time with how it moves between registers. The romance of the road imagined with just enough danger to keep things of balance, but the real desire to disappear in a wistful memory, a filmed idea. Obayashi just has such a musical sense in how he compose everything.
“Don’t say she’s my girl. We’re both just trying to escape boredom. It’s like we’re walking on a tightrope above it.”
Yeah, I think that about sums it up. Moments passing by, threatening to become but the hint of a distant memory. Memories like an old fingerprint on an abandoned handrail. Choosing pain just so you can feel anything at all. Forgoing any chance of a real, tangible connection just so you can feel wanted, desired, yearned for. Learning that your passion and said human connection are not, in fact, mutually exclusive. But one and the same. She is His Motorbike, He is Her Island. Vice, Versa. Bottom line: Motorbikes are cool as fuck, yes, but everything is better shared.
Film Raffle #9. Recommended by danne. Cheers for this one, I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it. And R.I.P. Õbayashi 👑
Reaching back for the achromatic recesses of bygone seasons. It all seems like a dream now.
Out of a thick haze of youthful languor you rode forth against the harsh winds of ennui, trying to outrun a weary parlance placed at the feet of all the young and restless. Tastes of bittersweet fruit—those ripe summer days. Always seeming to soar like the birds above while the rainclouds appeared close enough to touch as they wept upon us. We knew we never wanted to float back down.
You were destined for the ride, possessing a vigor so in need of freedom from the confines of the rigid sphere surrounding you on all sides. You were a wunderkind; your spirit shone like…
Immortalising moments in your life as they occur, savouring them before they have passed, watching your memories be written before your very eyes. To be youthful is to exist in a constant flux of immediacy and self-reflection - colour and monochrome - living out an idealised version of reality that informs your every waking second. Racing through the wind at the speed of light, trying to stop time, and running to position so the camera can capture the moment truthfully, that is, the way you want it to be remembered.
When the boys hit the road on their bikes, to feel alive, they go and smash wing mirrors off cars. Because what's the use in seeing what's behind you when every moment of your life is happening right now?
He is her motorbike, she is his island. The thing each of them desires becomes inseparable from the person who holds the key. That is young love.
I honestly thought that people were exaggerating about this movie, at least a little bit. They weren’t. It’s absolutely beautiful.
Hard to describe exactly why this movie is so gorgeous but it just has such a comfortable vibe that just makes it feel so warm, so inviting, so easy to just sink into. It might be the music, it might be the long takes of Ko and Miyo on the bike together, I really have no idea. Let’s become wind.