Toshie the Nihilist

Synopsis:

Cryptocurrency exchange secretary Toshie (Rino Higa) ought to be celebrating the release of her boyfriend (Taro Yabe) from jail. Instead, a freak accident compels her to swim from Japan to Hawaii with the child of an American-Vietcong war hero.

あらすじ 仮想通貨のオフィスで働く主人公トシエ(比嘉梨乃)の彼氏(矢部太郎)は、刑務所から出たばかり。釈放を祝うはずのトシエだったが、不慮の事故でベトナム戦争の英雄の息子に救われ、日本からハワイまで泳ぐことになる。

Director Biography - Matthew Chozick

Matthew Chozick is a Tokyo-based American actor, writer, and filmmaker. He most recently appeared in Sion Sono's Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021), which premiered at Sundance Film Festival. He also recently wrote and directed Toshie the Nihilist (2021), which debuted at LA Shorts International Film Festival. Chozick is known for appearing weekly, since 2012, with director Takeshi Kitano on the long-running Japanese comedy-variety show Sekai marumie! Terebi tokusôbu (1990). He has notably also acted in Love and Other Cults (2017), Perfect I Nogizaka Cinemas Story of 46 (2020), Midnight Swan (2020), and Jebiotto vs. Mechajebiotto (2019) among other projects. Chozick studied acting in New York at the Barrow Group and in Los Angeles at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. He also holds a PhD in literature and teaches at Temple University's Tokyo campus. He is represented in Japan by Sky Corporation. マシュー・チョジック監督プロフィール アメリカ・コネチカット州出身。2008年より東京を拠点にライター、大学講師、出版社経営、役者、日本文化研究者、タレントとして『世界まる見え！テレビ特捜部』（日テレ）で長年「北野武」と共演するなどマルチに活動している。 役者としては、園子温監督のハリウッドデビュー作品『Prisoners of the Ghostland』などに出演。 『トシエ・ザ・ニヒリスト』は自身の初脚本・監督作品である。2021年7月、米英アカデミー賞認定のLA Shorts国際映画祭でプレミア上映された。 現在、長編映画の脚本を鋭意、執筆中。

Credits:

• Matthew Chozick Director
  

• Matt Schley Producer
  

• Rino Higa Key Cast "Toshie" Lapse

• Taro Yabe Key Cast "Boyfriend" The Naked Director

• Hideo Furukawa Key Cast "Boss"
  

• Takato Yonemoto Key Cast "Bad Influence" 47 Ronin

• Matthew Chozick Key Cast "Anh Dung" Prisoners of the Ghostland

• Hiroyuki Onogawa Original music by Harmonium (Cannes Film Festival Jury Award)

• Kôkichi Komoda Sound Recordist One Cut of the Dead (Japan Academy Award for Sound Recording)

• Kohei Soeda Cinematographer
  

• Kenta Kuwabara Cinematographer

Specifications

• Project Title (Original Language): トシエ・ザ・ニヒリスト

• Project Type: Short

• Genres: Comedy, Drama, social satire

• Runtime: 14 minutes 57 seconds

• Completion Date: June 15, 2021

• Production Budget: 1,800,000 JPY

• Country of Origin: Japan

• Country of Filming: Japan

• Language: Japanese

• Shooting Format: Digital

• Aspect Ratio: 2.35

• Film Color: Color

• First-time Filmmaker: Yes

• Student Project: No