Masahiro Kobayashi, a film director who worked on many socially-oriented films and received high acclaim overseas for films such as "Ai Yokan", died of transverse colon cancer at his home in Tokyo on August 20. .
he was 68 years old.
Born in Tokyo, Masahiro Kobayashi worked as a folk singer and TV drama scriptwriter before debuting as a film director in 1996 at the age of 42, when he independently produced "Closing Time".
After that, he released works such as "Walk, People", which depicts the conflict between the hearts of a family, and "Bashing", which is inspired by the Japanese hostage crisis that occurred in Iraq. In addition to being exhibited at festivals one after another, in 2007, "Premonition of Love", in which he starred himself, won the "Golden Leopard Award", which is the Grand Prix at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland.
In 2017, "Umibe no Ria" starring Tatsuya Nakadai was released.
And on August 20th, he died at his home in Tokyo from transverse colon cancer.