Toyota Drifted GR Yaris Down Ski Slope to Recreate Classic Japanese Movie Scene

The Toyota GR Corolla loves snow. Throw some winter tires on that bad boy, find yourself an empty parking lot, and trust me—you’ll have the time of your life. Its overseas cousin, the GR Yaris, is of course no different, and Toyota has capitalized on this with a delightful new video showing the plucky three-door hatch slaloming its way down a mountain in Japan, to an exquisite soundtrack. It’s all part of a collaboration with prolific Japanese recording artist Yumi Matsutoya, and let’s just say this morning has opened the door to my next musical obsession.

Matsutoya, nicknamed “Yuming,” is a superstar; she’s released 38 studio albums since 1973 and holds the unique distinction of having at least one No. 1 album on Japan’s recording charts every year for 18 consecutive years. (If you’re looking for a Billboard equivalent, there isn’t one; the closest is The Beatles, who managed seven in a row.) She’s also held a concert most years—if not, every year—since 1980 named “Surf & Snow,” after her record with the same title. The song behind this delightful video, “Surf Heaven, Ski Heaven,” comes from that album, and it’s already been added to a playlist I’ve been building out that mostly contained Casiopea jams up until now.

But back to the car, because that’s what brought us here. The first half of the video is set in the ’80s, judging from everyone’s style of dress, our skier listening to Yuming’s latest jam, the poster on the wall promoting her 1981 Surf & Snow show at the Naeba ski resort, and the intentionally low quality of all the footage. At first, I thought that it would’ve been sweet if Toyota pulled an ST165 out of retirement for this stunt; if nothing else, a real Celica GT-Four could’ve put those cassettes on the dash to proper use. But we’ll get back to that in a minute.

Anyway, the video builds to a chorus of fashionable winter sports lovers doing their thing before the purple guy and hot hatch take flight and return to Earth. The Yaris now has a new livery, promoting the 45th Surf & Snow kicking off this weekend at the Naeba Prince Hotel Blizzardium resort, and we’ve got even more quirky synchronous skiers now, including a picnicking family and a girl eating popcorn in an armchair. Cute!

From what I can gather Google-translating this Carview article, this Gazoo Racing-themed video is a sendup of a 1987 Japanese romcom titled Please Take Me Skiing that, among other things, contained plenty of automotive stunts on the slopes involving Celicas and Corollas. The trailer below gives you a pretty good sense of the action:

It turns out that Gazoo Racing is staging an event of its own alongside Matsutoya’s concert at Naeba, where attendees can take in a demo run with rally driver Norihiko Katsuta at the wheel of a Yaris WRC car, and drive or get a ride-along in a GR Yaris on the powder. It all sounds like a lovely time, and if I disappear from The Drive next week, you can be sure exactly where I’ve gone—not to mention one of the movies I watched on the long flight there.

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