Part of NYAFF’s 2025 Filmmaker in Focus on Toshiaki Toyoda, 9 SOULS (2003) is the surrealist comedy addition to Toyoda’s body of work. Following his nihilist punk youth drama BLUE SPRING, Toyoda showcases his genre range with a mashup of gangster drama, satire and comedy. Though it may be different in tone, 9 SOULS nevertheless shows Toyoda’s signature rebelliousness and cult style. Nine convicts escape from prison; most are convicted murderers. They commandeer a van from a strip club. Their plan is to find a stash of counterfeit money that a deranged cell mate told them about, divide it, then part ways. They make it to the site where the money is supposed to be hidden, and then one by one, each seeks out the place he wants to be, a version of home, somewhere to connect. Will it end well for any of them? Yoshio Harada, Ryuhei Matsuda, Mame Yamada star.