"Forget style over substance. Ôbayashi Nobuhiko’s swan song, Labyrinth of Cinema, is style as substance. Part drama, part memoir, part essay on Japan’s imperial and military history, and part elegy for the medium of cinema, this chimera embodies one of its own definitions of film as “reality and fantasy all mixed up.” And clothed as it is in the style of another time, namely one where the new waves were still new and cinema sat at the apex of its cultural caché, Labyrinth of Cinema fits another of its definitions: film as a time machine. Whether this comes off as a timely reimagining of techniques that have been neglected for too long, or simply old-fashioned, will hang on the temperament of the viewer."
Read William Repass' full review for Slant Magazine
