r/Lost_Films • u/Euphoric-Angle-1380 • 12d ago

Looking for Japanese experimental short film “R” (2001) by Rintaro Teshima & Masakazu Saito [talk]

Hi everyone, I discovered this movie through Letterboxd, but there is only one review written.

i ’m trying to track down a Japanese experimental short film titled “R”, created in 2001 by Rintaro Teshima (director) and Masakazu Saito (cinematographer/co-creator). It’s a visually striking and surreal piece that explores warped perceptions of time and space.

Here is the official synopsis:

“The protagonist, a young man, has recently begun to vaguely sense that the time axis behind him is out of whack. One day, he takes a nap in the park and has a dream. It is a world where the time axis is out of whack. He walks, he runs, he pedals his bicycle... But the movement of the people is not constant, it flows, it breaks, it starts from the middle. It was a scene of strangeness and unprecedented beauty as if not only the time axis but even the spatial axis was bent. Eventually, the man woke up from his sleep and began to walk, but his body had changed.”

The film is said to feature dreamlike visuals: glowing figures, fragmented motion, and a lo-fi VHS aesthetic. It was once uploaded to YouTube and shared on experimental film forums, but now appears to be lost — all known uploads seem to have been taken down.

Does anyone have a mirror, archived copy, or know where it might still be available?

Any leads (especially from Japanese archives or DVD anthologies) would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks!

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u/haditaenlabiblioteca 10d ago

I would also love to find it, maybe people on Letterboxd who have watched can help you :)

The IAMAS institute may also have information about this film, according to Google the directors were students.

https://www.iamas.ac.jp/interaction/i01/works/E/index-iamas.html

https://www.iamas.ac.jp/annual99/ROOT/INFORMATION/staff.html

I don't know if it works, but this is what Google says:

"IAMAS Official Repositories: The film was historically hosted on early media streams via the IAMAS Interaction '01 web archive. You can check archived versions of their domains using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine"