Toshiaki Toyoda

Director

March 10, 1969 (57 years)

Higashiōsaka, Ōsaka Prefecture, Japan

Biography

Japanese director and screenwriter. He is known for his films featuring young outcasts who struggle to fit in with mainstream society. Toyoda himself was arrested multiple times for drug possession, influencing some of his more recent works.

Filmography

6.1

Crows Explode

A month after Genji Takiya graduates, a new battle for supremacy at Suzuran All-Boys High School begins. Transfer student Kaburagi Kazeo combats Kagami Ryohei for the coveted top spot, amidst a brewing inter-school conflict with Kurosaki Industrial High.

7.2

Blue Spring

Soon after being named the new leader of his high school's gang system, Kujo grows bored with the violence and hatred that surround him. He wants desperately to abandon his post… but his once-enviable position of power has a strange way of making him feel powerless.

7.3

Transcending Dimensions

Rosuke, a monk, has gone missing. His lover, Nonoka, takes the assassin Shinno to a religious temple in search of Rosuke. There, they meet a sorcerer called Hanzo. Meanwhile, Rosuke is on a spaceship heading to the unknown planet named Kelman, in another dimension. There, he meets a strange old man. And then, a metaphysical battle.

6.4

Pornostar

A young man decides one day to start killing yakuza. After he kills his first two he gets roped into helping a wannabe gangster and his bumbling underlings to perform a hit. While things work out in the beginning, this young psychopath quickly becomes more trouble than the gang expected. Will they be able to rid themselves of him, or will they be his next victims?

7.0

The Miracle of Crybaby Shottan

Shoji Segawa was a quiet and inconspicuous boy, but, for the first time, he is recognized by people after winning the National Middle School Shogi Tournament. At the age of 26, his dream of becoming a professional shogi player collapses due to an age restriction. After he quits playing shogi, he becomes desperate. With the support of his peers, including Yuya Suzuki, and his love of shogi, Shoji Segawa begins to play shogi again. A miracle happens to him.

6.5

9 Souls

After discovering a hole in their crowded cell, nine prisoners escape their confinement to track down the key of the universe, which a fellow prisoner known as the Counterfeit King said he had hidden.

7.3

Hanging Garden

On the surface, the Kyobashis appear to be a happy family. Despite a family agreement that they are all open with each other, the entire household knows the opposite is true.

6.3

I'm Flash!

Rui is the charismatic leader of a new religious group. Consequently, he starts to gain attention from the mass media. After becoming involved in a car accident, Rui goes to a remote island with ex-gangster now bodyguard. On the island, Rui reveals more about his religious group, while a set of ominous events are about to occur.

6.0

Monsters Club

Having abandoned modern civilization, Ryoichi lives an isolated, self-sufficient life on a snow-covered mountain and sends mail bombs to the CEOs of corporations and TV networks. One day, he encounters a mysterious creature in the forest. That night, his older brother, who had committed suicide, appears before him at his cabin. The apparition takes Ryoichi beyond a door, where Ryoichi learns the truth about his family.

5.5

The Day of Destruction

Seven years ago, a mysterious monster was found deep in a rural coal mine. Since then, rumors of a plague spread through the small town, and people experience an unexplainable mental illness. A young Shugendo practitioner goes missing only to resurface transformed, intent on exorcising the world from the monsters haunting it.

5.0

Planetist

A documentary four years in the making that highlights the wondrous Ogasawara Islands, where 65-year-old Miyagawa Noritsugu resides. A surfer that draws in artists of all kinds to the beautiful island in which he resides.

6.0

The Blood of Rebirth

Based on the Japanese legend of 15th century adventurer, Oguri Hangan Daisukeshige, Toyoda places us in a surreal world of tattooed Japanese slave workers whose real life roles serve more as symbols than actual characters. After being hired by a local despot, Daizen, to massage away a nasty venereal disease, Oguri is viley betrayed after refusing to stay longer.

5.8

Go Seppuku Yourselves

A man is tasked with assisting in the ritual suicide of a samurai who won't die without condemning the corrupt powers that be.

6.6

Wolf's Calling

A girl finds an old handgun in her attic and the symbolic object conjures a mystical scene of samurai (a stellar cast of actors joined by the 20-person Edo punk band Seppuku Pistols, who also provide the soundtrack) gathering within the moss-grown location of Kasosan Shrine in Tochigi Prefecture.

9.0

Shiver

Toyoda Toshiaki went to Sado Island and filmed musician Koshiro Hino and Kodo, the local Taiko Performing Arts Ensemble, while they performed music composed especially for Shiver.

6.1

Unchain

Documentary on the Japanese boxer Unchain Kaji, who retired from the ring at the age of 30 with an eye injury and a losing record. He then tries to start a new life as a civilian.

N/A

Alive.

A prequel to "I'm Here." An 18-minute short film about a man with a torch who appears at a modern-day shrine festival and causes a commotion. This work is a new chapter in the Wolf Sozan series. No planned theatrical release date.

N/A

I’m Here

A rescue team searches for Teppei (Shibukawa Kiyohiko), who has gone missing in the mountains. Teppei was training deep in the mountains, drenched under a waterfall. Teppei refuses the rescue and fights against the rescuers.

N/A

I'm Coming

Teppei is a monk. Prostrating himself and continuing his meditation, Teppei crosses mountains and rivers, heading somewhere. His destination is Mizunashi Shrine in Hida Takayama. The guardian wolves in the shrine grounds wait for him.

N/A

Sou iu mono ni, watashi wa naritai

Toshiaki Toyoda's three short films starring Kiyohiko Shibukawa as an ascetic monk ("Alive.", "I’m Here" and "Sugu ni yuku"), re-edited together as a feature-length film, as part of the “Mt. Resurrection Wolf” series.

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