Ryosuke Takahashi is a Japanese actor and voice actor who portrayed Koichi Yamagata in “Kamen Rider Wizard” and Kagetaka Ichimura/Transamza Level 4 in “Revice Forward: Kamen Rider Live & Evil & Demons”. In recent years, he has also been active as a stage director, screenwriter, and video director. With “Tokyo Submarine”, he takes on the role of movie director for the first time, following one of the recent trends of the Japanese industry. The short, which runs for 24 minutes and 55 seconds, also won the Cinematic Tokyo Competition Best Short Award / Governor of Tokyo Award at Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2026.
The short begins in slow motion, depicting various aspects of Tokyo under idyllic music, from the streets to the bedroom of Sen Fukami, a scruffy-looking man whose alarm clock both wakes him up and brings us back to reality. As he goes to the bathroom, he stumbles upon a man he does not know, who actually towers over him and has no reason to be in his apartment. He has prepared breakfast, which he is sharing with Sen, and is soon revealed to be Sakari Hatano, with whom Sen spent the previous night drinking. And singing.
During his work in traffic control, Sen confides in his colleague, who urges him to kick the stranger out. It turns out, though, that Sakari is actually a very organized man, who tidies up the house, cooks, and in general proves to be a very positive presence, while spending his last week before he gets married. Gradually, memories of the previous night return and the days pass, with the two men starting to spend time together, even outside the house, including riding the Ferris wheel. Sakari even helps Sen deal with his personal issues.
Ryosuke Takahashi directs a very pleasant 25-minute short that functions as an ode to male bonding and friendship, as much as to the city of Tokyo, with the tour guide element intermingling with the story of the two men. The comment about how, sometimes, life-changing solutions come from unexpected places is also intriguing, even within the quirky but quite prevalent in Japan concept of the sudden appearance of a stranger.
The way the relationship of the two men progresses can only be described as adorable, with the antithetical chemistry between the raw Woderu Ibaraki as Sen and the more “classy” Hiroaki Iwanaga as Sakari being the movie’s best trait. The way Takahashi implements humor throughout the story adds even more to this element.
Takaya Kawahara and Yuki Narazaki’s cinematography is rather polished, but in a fitting way, and finds its apogee in the shots of Tokyo, particularly the night ones. The presentation of the cramped apartment is more grounded in realism, but the framing is quite good here too. The editing results in a fast pace that suits the story nicely.
“Tokyo Submarine” is a very warm, very pleasant, and very well-shot short, whose main value lies in the entertainment it offers and how easy it is to watch.
