Transcending Dimensions

Regaining Conch-ousness

Transcending Dimensions
Directed by Toshiaki Toyoda
Japan 2025
Toyoda Films
Screened at FrightFest Friday 22nd August 2025

Okay, so what’s this one about then?

No, really, what the heck is this one all about? Because it became clear to me not long after I started watching my second of this year’s FrightFest films, Transcending Dimensions, that pretty much the entire audience had absolutely no idea what was going on. And some people I was talking to afterwards made it similarly clear that, honestly guv, no one has a scooby!

However, I’ve always said that the art of the cinema doesn’t really have anything to do with story or plot, it being a collaborative art that doesn’t need to take in such literal concerns as a tale told from point A to point B and, in the case of this film, that’s good because, I honestly don’t think there’s a story to be found in it. It was, however, an absolutely amazing experience of a movie.  

It’s been described as sharing some ideas with Kubrick’s 2001 - A Space Odyssey but I think people are just responding to the style of certain shots, as the camera journeys through various outer and inner space star fields when, after half an hour or so, the opening titles start. It’s not like the Kubrick film in most ways but I would certainly buy it if somebody said the last 20 minutes or so of that movie had influenced the general modus operandi here. 

It would be pretty useless of me to try and approach this review, then, by trying to cage the word count inside some kind of cohesive structure but, since the movie does hang together, I can at least try and describe some of the elements... or at least some of my favourite moments. 

So the nature of reality for any of the characters... such as Rosuke played by Yôsuke Kubozuka, who you may think is held in the thrall of the teachings of a mad guru/antagonist of the movie (who collects people’s little fingers)... is not, it turns out, actually important, until you maybe realise that everything you see may (or may not be) in his head. And there’s the killer Shinno, played by Ryûhei Matsuda, who seeks to kill said guru for a dead woman who is probably a spirit of Rosuke’s dead sister, although that doesn’t stop her from killing herself again in front of Shinno by laying down on some train tracks. 

And then there’s the conch shells that tend to transport people from one state of mind to another. And when I say state of mind... it’s synonymous with appearing in a different place here too... such as ending up in outer space inside what looks like a corridor constructed from a kaleidoscope. Or by a beautiful waterfall. Or somewhere equally inscrutable. 

Oh... and finger spells shooting cosmic force from the hands. Should probably mention those too.

All I can say about this one, for sure, is that it looks and sounds fantastic. Lots of long held shots which give a sense of beauty and dynamism, such as Shinno walking towards camera as a man with a mission for a good minute or two. In fact, certain aspeccts of this movie reminded me a little of some of the work of Seijun Suzuki. Added to this we have the sound design of the movie, which is very powerful (and which the Dolby speakers in the auditorium rendered in quite an incredible way). 

I also wanted to give a big heads up to the very powerful score but, when I looked into this, I found that there was no composer for the movie and that the film had been needle dropped. So I looked up what the main piece of music was and it’s a track called Inner Babylon, by a group called Sons Of Kemet. So, yeah, I will definitely be looking that one up on CD because, it was just amazing (and rather heavy on the ears but amazing, nonetheless). 

One thing I will be slightly critical of is the constant philosophising from the main characters. Not because I’m against it but... well... put it this way. I was surprised to find that the director/writer of the movie is 56 years old and the reason this amazed me is because the various esoteric passages in the movie seemed, well, pretentious at best but, mostly, just very naive or childish. So there’s that.

But, make no mistake, Transcending Dimensions is one of those movies that cinema is absolutely made for (and see this one on a big screen with good sound if you get the opportunity). I absolutely loved this and wasn’t expecting to see a movie like this hitting hard at FrightFest, for sure. A nice surprise and something which I hope will get a proper release in this country sometime soon.