Toshiaki Toyoda: 2005-2021 — Toshiaki Toyoda: 2005-2021( Blu Ray set)

Toshiaki Toyoda: 2005-2021 is a three blu ray set, bringing together six films from Japanese director/writer Toshiaki Toyoda, who has the ability to create emotionally impactful and visually clever work, which often utilizes genre varied music to great effect. The Osaka born Toyoda has fifteen credits to his name- with five shorts/ docs to his name, and ten feature-length films. As its titles suggests this set focuses on his work from between 2005 and 2021, and takes in three feature-length films, two shorts, and one film that sits between short and feature-length.

The release appears on Third Window Films presented in a digipack, with a fair selection of commentaries and other extras. The release has an ltd pressing of 2000 copies, so if the set sounds your thing I’d act sooner than later.

The first disc in the set features just one film- 2005’s Hanging Garden ( aka Kûchû teien )- and this was Toshiaki Toyoda fourth feature-length film. On the surface/ on paper, the film is just a fairly straight family drama, but there is so much quirky charm, subtle character depth, and visual wonder- be enchanting, at points nature fed, or dramatically bloody. The film introduces us to the Kyobashi family- Takashi (Itsuji Itao) the families salaryman father, Eriko(Kyôko Koizumi) mother of the family, who works part-time in a restaurant, but the rest of the time is a housewife, who is suffering from depression- but tries to cover it with a permanent smile. And there are two older children- the lanky and quietly scholarly 16-year-old Ko(Masahiro Hirota), and his more devil may care 14-year-old sister Mana(Anne Suzuki).
The family live in an upmarket ‘housing project’ building on the outskirts of the city. The fairly recent build is all steel and large windows, with a fairly large and lush garden attached to each apartment- hence the film’s title.  Each member of the family travels back and forth from their building via a bus, and the most key to the plot/set-up is that the family have a motto of ‘no secrets and all questions must be answered'. After the lulling and entrancing credits, featuring illustrations of a mystical hanging garden over a mellow harp tipped ambient score, we get proof of the family’s moto. As 14-year-old Ko asks her parents where she was conceived, they tell her it was in a city-based love hotel- and this fairly soon is visited by Ko and her seemingly cool-cat cigarette smoking boyfriend. As the film unfolds we find out the family certainly have a lot of secrets, and their seemingly steady as rock structure is not as firm as it seems. Added into the mix we have Sacchin (Asami Imajuku) Eriko’s brash and speaks her mind mother who has lung cancer- and is clearly the origin of many of her daughter's issues.

The film's cinematography is often spell-binding and creative, as the camera moves from slow swinging/ drifting shots that mimic feather-like floats, onto furtive and lulling darts, through to filming in and out of nature, and even some dizzy balance defying shifts. This added to the wonderfully accomplished and subtly emotional nuanced acting, and the slowly unfolding and intriguing plot makes this nearing two-hour film total spellbinding and enchanting throughout, wonderful blending and balancing emotional honest/ depth with visual creative/ wonder. A great start to this box set.

On these first disc extras wise we get a commentary track from director Toyoda- this is subtitled and is a most interesting/informative track- as he moves from talking about shot choice and what he was trying to with certain shots. Moving on to talk about the actors he selected, their background, why he selected them and often mentions what they are doing today. He briefly touches on the book the film was based on, moving on to comment on locations, sets that were built, and general talk about the actors, the film, and its themes. We get a making-of, which is an archive doc- taking in interviews with cast and crew, as well as on-set footage. Lastly, we get half an hour of deleted scenes.

 

Moving onto the second disc, and this features the following Monsters Club, Wolf's Calling, The Day Of Destruction, and Go Seppuku Yourselves. First up we have 2011’s Monsters Club, which is sort of a grim internal dialogue fed drama with odd & lightly unsettling fantasy elements. The film is largely in and around a snowbound forest in the Japanese mountains- here in an isolated cabin lives Ryoichi (Eita Nagayama) a stern twenty-something man, who is making and sending postal bombs to CEOs of corporations and TV networks. One day while out in the snowbound forest he comes across a strange humanoid figure with an odd white lumpy textured face- with red pigment surrounded eyes and blue pigment face, it says nothing but freaks him out. Next, he starts getting visitation from his two dead brothers, who taunt him for his bombings, and in time his younger sister (who is very much alive) comes to visit him too.
The grim drama unfolds in a decidedly glum manner- and clearly, the Unabomber case is an influence on the story. The fantasy elements are low key and at points slightly unsettling- with the film spinning to a fairly manic and sad finale. Once again Toyoda visual sense is keen, though more subdued due to largely whites of the forest, and footage of the deep snowbound cabin he lives and builds bombs in. It runs fairly short for a film at one hour and eleven-minute and does at times feel longer than its length.  Nagayama acting is largely low key/ subdued, and he gets lots of length dialogue dumps- though he does get more animatedly troubled towards the end of the film. On the whole, I appreciate what Toyoda was trying to do with Monsters Club, and it’s certainly a skilfully captured film, has its effective moments, but is a little uneven in its pace.

Moving on and we have 2019’s Wolf’s Calling- this runs seventeen minutes, and is the first of part of the Resurrection Trilogy. This short has no dialogue, though an interestingly rousing and atmospheric soundtrack that blends traditional flute and percussion elements, with a simmer guitar backdrop. The film opens with a later teen girl going through some old boxes and a chest of draws, she comes across a box with an old label featuring red oriental texts and a picture of a dog/ wolf- inside is a handgun. Next, we see a lone Samurai warrior (Kiyohiko Shibukawa- who appears in all three films) climbing up the steps of an in the woods temple, which has stone statues of dog/ wolf from the label- he climbs up and up through the trees and mist. He’s joined fairly soon by three or four other Samurais, and soldiers- it initially seems it’s back in the past, as he pulls the gun- which is now clean and shiny, though rather randomly a modern beach ball bounces by. Before we go back the girl sitting outside a modern apartment with the gun. I’ve got an idea of what I think it’s all about, but won’t comment here. And it’s a moodiest effective short.

Next, we have The Day Of Destruction, which is from 2020 and is the second part of the Resurrection Trilogy. It’s clearly influenced/ inspired by the covid pandemic. The film kicks off in extremely grim post-credit form- as we find a suited and long-coated man wandering through a snowbound industrial landscape, as he walks along he notices a severed finger with two safety pins in either end- he throws it down and continues on his snowbound wonderings walking towards a mine. At the mines chained gate, he gives the man grading it an envelope of cash- they have a brief exchange discussing the creature that has been found in the mine. The suited man starts walking into the mine, and we get a wonderful use of building sonic dread, which in times move into more seared noisy moments as he progresses- I won't’ reveal what happens to the man, as you’ll have to watch the film. Fairly soon red text on black background credits appear, and we get a nice slice of edgy/ slightly experimental hip-hop on top, and throughout the use of music is most central to films impact- with it going from building post-rock, punked and intense art-rock, and mood music. The film runs at the fifty seven-minute mark, and its lion share is set seven years after the pre-credits action. Where a virus has moved through a rural area, driving many people to madness.  We see a troubled young man, Kenichi (MahiTo ThePeople), locking himself inside an outdoor tomb so he can mummify himself nearby the hillside temple from  Wolf’s Calling. He’s found near death, brought out to be recovered before a finale in Tokyo.  The films is certainly an interesting comment on the pandemic, it just feels like it’s neither fur nor feather- sit awkwardly between a short and feature lengthy, and not really feeling wholly satisfying as either.

Finally, on disc two we have the most recent film of the boxset, and the final part of Resurrection Trilogy- 2021’s Go Seppuku Yourselves. This final part runs twenty-six minutes and is a good conclusion to the trilogy. The film opens with a samurai climbing the night-time steps of the temple in all three films- he’s wearing a black wooden demon mask, when he reaches the top of the temple he knees down- suddenly looping off his little finger. After the credits run it seems we’re in a period setting again, as we see a mean and greedy medicine man walking through a ward of dying people, they reach out and ask for medicine, but he refuses as none of them have any money. Next, they track down the man- samurai who poisoned the towns water supply causing the virus, and as we move towards the end of the film he has a lengthy rant before he is told to Seppuku( commit suicide by cutting one's belly open) himself. Once again we get an interesting blend of traditional and modern genre-mixing for the musical element of the film.

On this second disc, we get the following extras- a commentary track by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharpe. He moves from discussing points of interest about the film's director, for example, he was a child chess master. Moving on talk about the films lead actor, his background, and his one named title. He talks about certain scenes, the meaning behind the film, other actors bios as they appear, similar/ related films and more. It’s clear Mr Sharpe knows his stuff and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Japanese film, but his delivery is very monotone and one-note- he also drifts off point/ subject, for example when he’s talking about single named actors. There is worth in track, but on the whole, I found it rather a chore to get through. Next, we get an archive making-of for Monster club which runs eight minutes. We have a twelve-minute interview with the director focusing on the wolf calling. Lastly, we get a trailer for each film on the disc.

On the third and final disc we have just one film, and that’s 2012’s I’m Flash- which sounds like it should be a superhero parody- but instead, it’s a thoughtful drama, with touches of dark humour, and sudden flashes of bloody action. The film focuses on Rui (Tatsuya Fujiwara) a rather vapid, womanizing, and arrogant leader of a religious cult- who constantly dresses all in white, and lives in a huge seaside mansion. One night out drinking he picks up another woman, but on the way back to his place they have a head-on collision with a motorbike. Rui staggers out of the wreckage, but the woman is hospitalized. This understandable shakes Rui up, and he starts considering his role as a guru, and his own meaning/ mortality. In the meantime, it’s decided he should hire three bounces to look after him. And as the film unfolds we find Rui wasn’t quite what he initially seems, and he’s as flawed/ doubtful as everyone else. I won’t detail the plot further as you get some interesting twists and turns. The film is constantly jumping back from the present to the night of the car crash, and this element is very well done. Also worth a mention is the very neat underwater footage- as throughout the film Rui regularly dives into the sea, with his white suit still on, and speargun in hand ready to spear fish.  The film initially feels a little slight and unevenly laid out, but give it chance, and in the end, you get a well made, subtly visual impressive, and most thought-provoking film that focuses on faith, self-belief, and existence.

Moving onto the extras on this disc- and we get a commentary track from Japanese film expert Tom Mes. Here he goes from discussing how the film was meant to be about shrugging off death- connecting into the three disasters that occurred in Japan in the year 2011- Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. He moves on to discuss how director Toyoda & lead actor Fujiwara had been wanting to work together for some time, and that some scenes had to have up to thirty takes, as an attempt to undo Fujiwara's Theatre training. He talks about other actors in the cast, commenting on certain key scenes, the film's themes and more. As always Mes does a great entertaining and informed track, and this is well worth a play. Next, we get a lead actor on-screen interview, which runs for twenty minutes. And an eighteen-minute interview with the film's director.

 

Toshiaki Toyoda: 2005-2021 highlights what a great, and subtly creative filmmaker Toyoda is. He has the ability to lightly blend and blur genres together in an interesting and clever manner. If you’d like to pick up a copy of this set (before they disappear) head here to buy direct