Toshio Matsumoto

修羅

Toshio Matsumoto

Katsuo Nakamura, Juro Kara

Gengobe Satsuma, an exiled samurai cast out as an Asano clan retainer is given a second chance to join his brothers in arms to become the 48th Ronin against the Shogunate. His faithful servant gathers the 100 ryo required for his acceptance. Gengobe is also in love with a greedy geisha named Koman. About to be sold to another man, Gengobe learns that for him to keep her, her debt is exactly 100 ryo.

Funeral Parade of Roses

Toshio Matsumoto

Pîtâ, Osamu Ogasawara

Some events in the lives of several transgender women in late-60s Tokyo.

Ginrin

Toshio Matsumoto, Masao Yabe

A surrealist commercial for bicycles.

気　Breathing

Toshio Matsumoto

Hiroko Horiuchi

'Ki or Breathing' is a spare concoction assembled from slow motion shots of nature and set to a score by the much-acclaimed Tohru Takemitsu.

つぶれかかった右眼のために

Toshio Matsumoto

Two chaotic series of images, one for each eye. Hipster living, malformed fetuses, war, arts events and pop culture stands for the material.

Under the Skin

Shane O'Sullivan

Toshio Matsumoto, Kōji Wakamatsu

A documentary on sixties counterculture in Japan featuring Donald Richie, Tadanori Yokoo, Masao Adachi, Koji Wakamatsu, Toshio Matsumoto and Akaji Maro among others.

西陣

Toshio Matsumoto

Takeshi Kusaka, Hideo Kanze

The Weavers of Nishijin captures the process of traditional textile manufacture in Nishijin.

十六歳の戦争

Toshio Matsumoto

Kumiko Akiyoshi, Itsuro Shimoda

A young drifter and a precocious sixteen years old girl slowly form a bond in a small town haunted by its wartime past.

ドグラ・マグラ

Toshio Matsumoto

Yōji Matsuda, Shijaku Katsura

A young man kills his bride on the day of his marriage and goes insane. He wakes up in an asylum with no memory, left in the hands of two mysterious doctors who relate his condition with his biological identity.

White Hole

Toshio Matsumoto

Avant garde/experimental film. A mesmerizing trip through the psychedelic vastness of space.

アートマン

Toshio Matsumoto

ĀTMAN is a visual tour-de-force based on the idea of the subject at the centre of the circle created by camera positions (480 such positions). Shooting frame-by-frame the filmmaker set up an increasingly rapid circular motion. ĀTMAN is an early Buddhist deity often connected with destruction; the Japanese aspect is stressed by the devil mask of Hangan, from the Noh, and by using both Noh music and the general principle of acceleration often associated with Noh drama.

Enigma (謎)

Toshio Matsumoto

Enigma is something of a more glamorous version of White Hole, with a wide variety of elaborate textures (often composed of iconographic and religious symbols) converging towards the centre of the screen.

Engram

Toshio Matsumoto

Toshio Matsumoto

Engram is a three-part piece revolving around a few good old ideas such as photos inside of photos, movies inside of movies, photos inside of movies, movies inside of photos, and (even) a film director inside a TV set.

石の詩

Toshio Matsumoto

While extracting and polishing their blocks of stone, stonecutters used to say “the stone is coming to life". This paradox provided Matsumoto with the best metaphor for what making a film is all about. In his opinion, filmmakers work images in the same way that stonecutters work stones.

Siki soku ze ku

Toshio Matsumoto

There's more to picture than meets the eye in this journey into oriental metaphysical imagery. Starting (in a very Christian manner) with the Word, the film draws an explosion of visible forms, as if a sign of the shattering of shapes in the mundane world. But time is cyclical, of course, and what was once a multitude of sensible realities must eventually return to the Word and, finally, to sheer Color. (Sound of Eye)

Shift

Toshio Matsumoto

By cutting up and zoom in on images of facades creates Matsumoto visual effects.