Symbol (2009)

A Masterpiece!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Symbol is a wonderful tale of the harsh reality of life along a man's quest to reach absolution and his trail through life.The director uses explicit visual aids to guide us through the materialistic needs of an everyday Japanese man and the things he must do to acquire them by forfeiting his freedom. Following the path ofmaturity, he, whose name we will never learn reaches a point were mere material pleasure is not enough and needs to learn what it is like to be free. During this hard and long journey he will find himself doubting and forsaking everything. Only then will he be able toslide open the door to real freedom and find himself as a new god. But still unable to shed his true human skin, he will influence the lives of people whose existence he is not even aware of.Symbol is able to reach down and touch you in places that only religion was able to before. It is breathtaking up to the very last second.

The best thing to do is find the trailer for this film on line and watch it. If it at all looks interesting see this film. If it doesn't run away.Bizarre head trip film links two seemingly unconnected stories, that of a man trapped in a white room and the tale of a Mexican wrestler. How they relate is revealed toward the end of the film, until then its a weird mix of philosophy and dry humor.The choice with this film is either to go all in and wait for the end of the film or not to watch it. If you start the film and bail you'll do so before the film pulls it all together into a neat bunch. Bailing will make you miss the AH HA moments at the end (not to mention so painfully funny (I hurt myself) bits toward the end. To really decide about this film you have to buy the ticket and ride to the end.One of the better films screened at this years New York Asian Film festival this film confounded some people who couldn't wait to see where it was all going. Normally I get impatient myself but it was clear that this film was going somewhere...it just wasn't going to tell you until you got there. I threw my desire to squirm away and I just went with it and I was richly rewarded.If you can go with a comedy that is like El Topo Meets 2001 meets Nacho Libre meets a routine by Steven Wright or Eddie Izzard then see this film. If you can't stay with it for 90 plus minutes don't even start the film.

I was fortunate enough to catch this movie at a screening during the Copenhagen film-festival last month, and when I went to see it, I didn't really know what to expect, so imagine my surprise and joy, when I found out that the plot went something like this...First, we begin with a scene in Mexico, where we see a small family eating breakfast.. nothing extraordinary in that, except that the father is wearing a full-face wrestling-mask, like the famous Mexican wrestler Santos (or for the mainstream-audience, like The Gimp from "Pulp Fiction"), and is suddenly picked up by a foul-mouthed woman dressed as a nun, who drives him to town, where the night's big fight is going to take place.Then, cut to a Japanese man, waking up in a completely empty white room, not knowing how or why he got there, he screams to get some help and attention. But all he sees is something that looks like a button in the wall.. when he presses it, hundreds of naked angel-boys appear before him, only to disappear back into the wall..except their penises! He then proceeds to press the penises, and finds out that something mysterious happens every time he does so! Holes open in the walls, and random things are thrown into the room, be it furniture, gadgets, food, or even living things! All that happens inside the room is apparently a personal voyage for the man, but it also effects other people's lives at the same time, most notably the Mexican wrestler and his family, which we discover near the end of the film. But it really is something that should be watched to be completely understood - and even then, it's not even certain that you'll be able to understand what happened - or why.Highly recommended film. Very unique and entertaining throughout, even though the last fifteen minutes get really bizarre and too artsy for my taste. This movie is not to be missed. You will probably never see anything quite as weird and funny like this. 8/10

what a followup to his first film - the mockumetary DaiNipponji. If you don't have a clue going in - the first 1hr will be treat. I found most movies are like that for me - if I was told about a synopsis to an movie - my mind will start to imagine. Sometimes not too much on the foreground - but I'm sure some neurons are working overtime in the background. This is what I think expectations and preconceptions are for me. And similarly with the same director - if you seen one of the previous movies...etc.. you get it.**spoilers** so the man waking up in white room part is fun and funny. The segmentation of it into 3 parts sorts of gives the intention away - I would have prefer not telling us the 3 parts. And the 2nd stage of the white room has some clips that might be too.. time specific that it almost seen edited not with as much scrutiny? and maybe a bit "telling" of it message.Overall, I liked it. 8 - for being different and coherent; fun and well organised; out of the ordinary and thougthful. But not as out of this world as his first movie. But much much much better than any mainstream out there.