Shinboru (2009)

A man wakes up alone in a brightly illuminated white room with no windows or doors. When he presses a mysteriously phallic protuberance that appears on one wall, a pink toothbrush ... See full summary »

Director:

Hitoshi Matsumoto

Writers:

Hitoshi Matsumoto (screenplay), Mitsuyoshi Takasu (screenplay)

Stars:

Hitoshi Matsumoto, David Quintero, Luis Accinelli

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hitoshi Matsumoto
David Quintero
Luis Accinelli
Lilian Tapia	...	(as Lillian Tapia)
Adriana Fricke	...	Karen
Carlos C. Torres	...	Antonio
Ivana Wong
Arkangel De La Muerte
Matcho Panpu	...	(as Misuteru Kakao)
Dick Togo	...	(as Dick Tôgô)
Salam Diagne
Stuart-O.
Chris Gurundy
Nik Sliwerski
Jonathan Hicks

Storyline

A man wakes up alone in a brightly illuminated white room with no windows or doors. When he presses a mysteriously phallic protuberance that appears on one wall, a pink toothbrush materializes from nowhere, clattering to the floor and setting in motion a genuinely bizarre chain of events. Soon the imprisoned man is engaged in absurd and hilarious attempts to escape the gleaming room, releasing random objects from the walls, creating a life sized mouse trap game in which a rope, a toilet plunger and an earthenware jug full of sushi might just be the keys to his escape. Meanwhile, in a dusty town, a green masked Mexican wrestler known as Escargot Man prepares for an important match. His family gathers around him, worried about his seeming impassivity before battle.

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Plot Keywords:

room | escape | key | sushi | wrestler | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Fantasy

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [jp]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese Spanish

Release Date:

12 September 2009 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Symbol

Company Credits

Production Co:

Yoshimoto Kogyo Company, Phantom Film, Aoi Promotion

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Crow"
Music by Hidekazu Sakamoto
Lyrics by Kensuke Shiga

User Reviews

A newer take on Kubrick's 2001

How can I explain such a simple yet complex film such as Symbol? It's not easy, but I'll give it a try.

Symbol see-saws between two stories and is shown in three chapters which are labeled Education, Implementation and Future. There's the story of an out-of-shape Mexican wrestler known as "Escargot Man" as he prepares for a title fight in some tiny dusty little village. And simultaneously, there's the story being told of a Japanese man who awakes to find himself in a large, all white rectangular room with no doors or windows.

Just how are these two stories connected? The answer is an existential journey into the energizing and inventive script of Matsumoto. For those who have seen his first feature Big Man Japan, in where a solitary middle-aged man periodically transforms into a giant to defend Japan from an array of monsters, you might have a little clue as to what you're getting into with Symbol. Let me assure you right now that Symbol is definitely its own monster, and perhaps one that will make both fans and newcomers to Matsumoto's work say WTF.

Perhaps the best film I could compare Symbol to would be Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Yes, it's a bold comparison, but an apt one as well. Just substitute Kubrick's towering monolith and epic wormhole sequence for Hitoshi Matsumoto's room full of baby penises and a penis wall climbing ascent into the future and you're basically looking at the same film.