Toshio Matsumoto Movies

In 1960s Tokyo, Gonda owns a bar in which the gay, cross-dresser, and trans scenes meet. Gonda is in a relationship with the madam of the bar, Leda. As the younger Eddie starts a passionate affair with Gonda, she ignites the jealousy of Leda, unaware of another kind of history between them.

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.

Towards the end of the Second World War, a downed U.S. pilot is captured and imprisoned by rural Japanese villagers, who await official instructions as to how to proceed with their “catch.”

Tells the story of the samurai Gengobe, who seeks revenge after falling prey to the schemes of a geisha and her husband.

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

An experimental short film from Toshio Matsumoto featuring Mona Lisa.

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...

Documentary about the relationships between mothers and their children.

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

A kaleidoskopic image of Andy Warhol, presumably found footage from some interview, is slowed down and played over sudden pangs of screeching white noise. Warhol's own distorted, delayed, voice guides us through the gaseous hallucination.

A documentary focusing on the things and animals necessary for the Olympics in Tokyo in 1964.

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.

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

Expansion remixes the images of Matsumoto’s Esctasis into an more colourful psychedelic short.

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...

Nippon Rayon has produced clothing of assorted colors, designs, and materials. Their nylon products are not limited to fashion but extend to all aspects of life. The film features shots of models wearing vibrant outfits as well as products being manufactured on the factory floor.

A psychedelic yoga lesson with some beautiful and bizarre visuals.

Matsumoto's early video work Murder Catalogue, but there were few opportunities to be screened at that time since it dealt with a grotesque image. Digitized a half-inch videotape he had kept in his studio. It is a work that shows the original form of a mysterious narrative that later appears well...