A kaleidoscope of colour, a cacophony of noise and a compendium of ideas, Shunsuke Saito’s Small Garden should be the first thing that comes up in an internet search for the phrase ‘assault on the senses’. As weird as it is wonderful, 12-minutes in Saito’s universe feels almost like an out-of-body experience, with the dizzying array of styles, themes and characters leaving you feeling slightly dazed and confused – but totally elated.

A jaw-dropping journey through a world that feels like a mash-up of the Alice in Wonderland and Humpty Dumpty universes, as imagined by a man on psychotropic drugs, describing Small Garden as unique or distinct just doesn’t quite feel enough. As far as I can tell, Saito’s story is one of an egg-like creature waking in an unknown land and trying to navigate his way home (to their pet fish?). Is he/she having an ethereal experience due to a close encounter with death, is it all a dream or did it really happen?

Narratively, I’m still undecided whether Small Garden is brilliantly complex or excusably confusing, but whichever it is, I don’t seem to be able to stop watching. I’ve been wanting to cover Saito’s film on Short of the Week for some time now, but hadn’t really found the words to do it justice…and in some sense, I still haven’t. Every time, I watch it (and I’m nearly in double figures now) I find something new to enjoy and seem to take something different away with each viewing. It’s a film words really can’t describe – it’s science-fiction, it’s a fairytale, it’s a mindfuck…it’s just brilliant!