Toso

Japanese maverick Adachi Masao, the elder statesman of Japanese cinema’s far-left bastion, has never shied away from controversy. Whether in his own films or his collaborations with Oshima Nagisa and Wakamatsu Kōji, he has always displayed an uncompromising commitment to revolutionary ideas paired with an astringent, politicised form of modernism. Adachi’s latest film TOSO is no exception. But while it is just as radical as any film he has ever made, it is far more elegiac than strident. TOSO is a drama based on the true story of Kirishima Satoshi, a member of a terrorist cell who managed to evade capture for nearly fifty years. He had been living under an assumed identity and finally confessed to being a fugitive on his deathbed. Adachi depicts Kirishima at three distinct phases in his life: his activist youth, his middle-age existence as an itinerant labourer and during his final hours. These time periods intersect in Kirishima’s memories, and Adachi depicts this instability with a formal acumen sharpened by his years as a key figure of the Japanese New Wave. TOSO is the story of one man who took it upon himself to shoulder the burden and blame for his generation and its lost ideals. (Michael Sicinski)

On the 22nd of October, a live talk with Adachi Masao will take place via Zoom afterwards.

Adachi Masao (selection): TODAY HAS PASSED AGAIN (1960), BOWL (1961), CLOSED VAGINA (1963), ABORTION (1966), BIRTH CONTROL REVOLUTION (1967), VIOLATED ANGELS (1967), GALAXY (1967), THREE RESURRECTED DRUNKARDS (1968), SEX ZONE (1968), SEX GAMES (1968), FEMALE STUDENT GUERILLA (1969), A.K.A. SERIAL KILLER (1975), THE RED ARMY/PFLP: DECLARATION OF WORLD WAR (1971), GUSHING PRAYER (1971), ECSTASY OF THE ANGELS (1972), ARTIST OF FASTING (2016), THE UGLY ONE (2013), CATERPILLAR (2010), THE KAMAGASAKI CAULDRON WAR (2018), NARIYUKI NA TAMASHII (2016), TOCKA (2022), REVOLUTION+1 (2022)