Symbol

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 of

maturity, 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 to

slide 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.

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.

I saw this movie at the Brussels Fantastic Film Festival, and I loved it!

In retrospect, I could have ended up hating it just as well!

Shinboru is a very odd situational comedy. It's silly yet artsy, thoughtful in parts, anarchic in its delivery and overall nuts. To this day, I have no idea what it was about, its meaning, what it's meant to *symbolize*.

I enjoyed it immensely, though, and found it especially hilarious with the geeky festival crowd commenting irreverently at the screen. It might not be as fun if you're watching it alone in your living room.

There's no mention on who the director/ lead actor Hitoshi Matsumoto is in the other reviews, which may help prospective viewers to decide if they want to see this unique film or not. Matsumoto is one half of the arguably most famous Japanese comedy duo 'Downtown'. Their style is called 'manzai', that is one guy says a lot of stupid stuff and the other butts in all the time to correct him; you may have seen this in the background of some films by Kitano, who started his career in 'manzai' as well.

If you know that type of comedy, the otherwise completely non-sequitur style of 'Symbol' won't necessarily come as such a surprise, because the whole idea of 'manzai' is to baffle the audience by pushing nonsense as far as it can go. Since Matsumoto's part is the 'boke' AKA nitwit, it's pretty much in his line to come up with the most far-fetched, senseless and weirdest story angles imaginable - after all he's been doing this on TV since 1983! The ridiculous wig he's wearing in the film is actually part of his TV antics - I remember him wobbling around with it whenever he got an idea, pretty much like what he's doing here.

What surprised me though is that 'Symbol' has excellent production values, unlike his debut 'Big Man Japan' which suffered from very bad CGI (which may have been on purpose though). Here the visuals look so well done that I can't help but wonder about the budget. Another surprise unmentioned in the other reviews: there's an appearance by 'Kiss'! Other than that, I can only confirm what everyone else said: you may love it, you may hate it, that depends on how much you can forget about any expectations you have.

It's very difficult to review this movie. I don't know if it's dumb or brilliant. It's definitely hilarious, ridiculous, entertaining and above all, unique and original. As i was watching the first hour, i decided to not recommend it even though it was kinda interesting. However, the last 15-20 minutes were almost breathtaking. I think that the ending is beautiful. I guess that there are deep messages here, but i can't decipher them. That's the reason i don't rate it higher, because there is a strong possibility that the director is just messing around and there is no hidden wisdom here. In any case, this was fun and enjoyable. There are some boring scenes but overall, i liked it. Watch it if you like weird comedy/drama/fantasy movies and make your own judgement.