Best movie of this year hands down!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Surrealism in the movies comes in all shapes and sizes; you just have to give yourself over to it, or not as the case may be. "Symbol" opens very much in the real world, in this case Mexico, and the only incongruity is that the truck-driving nun we see smokes and swears like a trooper, and then suddenly we are in a gigantic white room where the only inhabitant is an Asian gentleman in what I assume are brightly coloured pajamas and around the walls and on the floor are a series of protruding phallic looking objects which, when touched, give off a honking sound and send various props into the room. The man, it would seem, is as confused as we are.Attempting to apply any meaning to Hitoshi Matsumoto's movie is futile. The film moves between its 'realistic' Mexican setting where a hooded wrestler is getting ready for his big fight and the white room from which pajama man attempts to escape using the props that fall out of the walls. Is the film a comedy? Well, not really unless you have a very bizarre, surreal or just Japanese sense of humour. It's certainly not a drama or a thriller. A comic fantasy perhaps, complete with toilet humour? It's certainly weird enough at least not to be boring and at the end the two totally unrelated stories meet in a mildly amusing if highly imaginative way. You could almost say the movie is worth sitting through for these last 10 minutes; almost but not quite. Personally I could have done without it.

I picked originally this movie for watching, because of it's mystery, single room element, which has been covered so well over and over again, without much ingenuity or desire to create something new. Imagine my surprise, when I found this movie to be a guaranteed 100% cult classic masterpiece for the future. It is difficult to describe and analyse all the ingenious subtleties of this yet another wonderful piece of modern cinematic treasure, into which Japan's movie industry has been evolving for a number of years. Some of the most creative pieces of modern cinema have certainly come from Japan during the past 10 years or so.This movie is also weird, very weird in fact, no question about it. But it is so fabulously done, the jokes are funny, they are very funny. All that which shows us, this movie is not only brilliantly thought out, it is even more astonishingly executed, it is even more difficult to find any actual goofs from this one, (as it is from most Japanese movies) - Every single prop seems to be always in it's right place! There are way more thoughts and semantics in this movie, than just a few obscure references to the direction humanity is evolving into. The outline of a man trapped inside a room, which he is clearly destined to escape from, is only faintly veiled depiction of humanity itself, which is only given purpose by creating comedy, when seemingly random objects start popping out of the walls, if we bother to manipulate, or pull the "right" levers, as in life in itself in the real outside world. The comic slapstick routines which Hitoshi Matsumoto so superbly and funnily pulls off, are truly funny, obviously the work of a master comedian, who knows extremely well the physical side of comedy, as well as the importance of sounds, facial expressions, movements and timing. And while you're watching the movie unfold, you will most certainly notice that you will start yourself imagining the infinitely various ways how he could (or should) escape from the room, using the objects found in the room. And at the same time, you can only smile and laugh for how much fun and comedy one can pull from a bottle of soy sauce, toilet plunger, sushi and a hanging rope.The other worthy observation is the parallel story line, which from the outline has absolutely nothing to do with our antagonist in his bright white room, this fact is even underlined by showing us that it happens as far away from Japan as possible, in Mexico, in the world of Luchador wrestler's family and work place, the wrestling ring. Naturally this so far removed place, with its people who are so far removed from our antagonist, must somehow be tied together, at point which the movie evolves into completely different spheres, becoming more surreal and fantasy driven. The viewer however, is not left out in the cold, as if you were watching closely from the beginning, you will understand everything when the movie ends.What a brilliant, weird, intelligent, clever and hilarious movie!

"One of the weirdest movies you'll ever see" and "El Topo meets 2001 Space Odyssey meets Nacho Libre meets a routine by Steven Wright or Eddie Izzard" are just some quotes used to describe Hitoshi Matsumotos second film Symbol (Shinboru) the word I've been using to describe it to people is just "weird".Symbol begins in Mexico where a family is eating breakfast. The father is wearing a wrestling mask and is soon picked up by a swearing Nun who has a severe case of road rage to take him to where he'll be fighting that night. The film then cuts to a Japanese man wearing spotty pyjamas who wakes up in a large, completely white room. He doesn't know where he is or how he got there and he begins to search the room for any clues. He pushes what he thinks is a button and hundreds of laughing naked cherubs appear out of the walls, they soon disappear back into the walls leaving nothing other than remnants of their tiny willies on the paintwork, the man starts to scream and the craziness begins!The man presses a willy and a toothbrush is thrown into the room from a wall, he continues to push many of them around the room and all sorts of objects appear, jars, sushi, magazines, a person who runs from one side of the room to another, a whole array of random objects. He soon realises that one of the willies reveals a door in the room but it always disappears by the time he gets to it, what then unfolds is him trying to find a way to escape from the room using different objects for different purposes, it seems almost like a video game.In Mexico everyone is doubting that the father wrestler who's stage name is Escargot Man will win the fight, but it's soon revealed that he's secretly got someone to help him in the fight. The film is set half in the white room and half in Mexico, during the film it appears the two stories have no relevance to one another but by the end they do.It's a very funny script and excellent acting by all characters but especially by director Hitoshi Matsumotos who plays the main unnamed Japanese character in the film. You have to have patience to watch this film, it takes quite a while to get into but once I got past the "What is going on?" stage but I really enjoyed it. It's quite silly in its jokes so don't go into the cinema thinking you're watching a serious arty film because it's anything but.

Many viewers may find this film or the main character quite idiotic or stupid but those who enjoy physical comedy should get a lot out of it.A very creative and imaginative concept with man in bright spotted pyjamas trapped in a white walled room. On the walls are hundreds of 'buttons'.With no visible way out of the room, the man becomes desperate and curious and one by one begins to press the buttons, with each button delivering odd 'products' and 'ojects' that are seemingly no help to him getting out of the room.At the same time, a parallel storyline runs of the real world, with an underdog Mexican wrestler getting ready for a bout.The two story lines come together with mixed results.I found the film to be very entertaining although was a little disappointed with the third act.Funny and offering something different than the usual Apatow 'hits' churned out by Hollywood.Anyone who likes early Jim Carrey style physical slapstick might enjoy this.