Transcending Dimensions is a surreal blast from Toshiaki Toyoda, who aims to absorb us in every way that he can. It’s ambitious, it’s unruly, but it is never, ever, boring.

Shinno (Ryûhei Matsuda) joins his client Nonoka (Haruka Imô) at a retreat with the mysterious monk/cult leader/sorcerer Master Hanzo (Chihara Junia) runs. She is there to discover what Master Hanzo has done with her monk boyfriend Rosuke (Yôsuke Kubozuka), who disappeared after following the advice of Master Hanzo and to enact her revenge on him by having Shinno assassinate him.

When a film waits almost 40 minutes to reveal the title card and features three multiple-minute song sequences that set the scene during that time (one of which is a near five-minute jazz-infused intergalactic title sequence (from the band Sons of Kemet) to get us to our next part of the story), you know you are in for something beautifully strange and bold.

So, needless to say, Transcending Dimensions is an odd film; it takes odd little turns throughout that just shake you into wondering quite what you are watching. The scene with Rosuke in the tunnel is a prime example of that. Despite this oddness, it is highly entertaining and more than worth the effort of searching for, with Chihara Junia having an absolute blast as our antagonist.

Equally, Toshiaki Toyoda also seems to be having a fun time making his film, as inexplicably, he provides us with a multitude of long scenes in which characters are filmed walking in slow motion just so he can have a great song or piece of music play. Those first 40 minutes throw everything at you, with you having to just let it sink in, as it’s truly something else. There is an entire film based on the opening act alone, and the fact that there is such confidence within Transcending Dimensions to push forward with more ideas is staggeringly bold.

At times, it feels like there are clean breaks within the film that could easily lead you to view Transcending Dimensions as an anthology, with each section of the film feeling as if it tells its own story with the same characters, rather than a film with three flowing acts. The narrative hurts the film a tad as we are left with characters that we know very little about and Toyoda is not overly keen on telling us too much about them.

Yet, for all of the expansiveness within the film, there is a good deal of restraint shown. Whenever given the opportunity, Toyoda will keep his camera static, as if to let what we are seeing on screen truly soak into our minds. As Master Hanzo tells Shinno, you too will need to “open yourself up” while watching Transcending Dimensions, for it is one hell of an experience for the senses.

Prepare to have a blast, especially if, like me, this is your first time watching a Toyoda film. An immediate need will come over you to watch more of his filmography.

★★★★

Support Us

I am but a small website in this big wide world. As much as I would love to make this website a big and wonderful entity. That would bring in more costs. So, for now, all I hope is to make Upcoming On Screen self-sufficient. Well, enough to make any website fees less of a worry for me in the future. You can support the website below…

Patreon

You can support us in a variety of ways (other than that wonderful word of mouth) and those lovely follows. If you are so inclined to help us out then you can support us via Patreon, find our link here!. We don’t want to ask you much, so for now, we have limited our tiers to £1.50 and £3.50. These will, of course, grow the more we plan to do here at Upcoming On Screen.

Thanks for reading; every view helps us out more than you would think (we have fragile egos). Until next time.

Social Media

You can also support us via Twitter and Facebook Instagram and Blue Sky! by giving us a follow and a like. Every single one helps!