Trailer - Symbol

Posted by Kevin Ouellette at 5:50pm on Saturday, August 1, 2009

Filed under: Comedy, Future releases, Trailer Updates

Unable to load:
This player requires Adobe Flash Player 9.0.115 or higher.
Download it from Adobe.

Leave it to Hitoshi Matsumoto to take a really confusing teaser for his latest film, Symbol, and extend it out to an even more confusing trailer. Self-indulge much? I still have no clue what this one is about. Apparently it involves a guy who breaks out of a prison of some sort and meets a lot of foreigners. The entire project is still shrouded in mystery and Japanese movie sites aren't listing legitimate plot info other than that. I have no insight into why a fat guy is barking at dogs or cherub penii are popping out of walls, but if anyone has any info feel free to enlighten us.

Source: Official website

Update: Consider us enlightened. Don at Quiet Earth noticed this synopsis on the film's IMDb listing:

A Japanese 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.

I'm still as confused as ever, but at least it's something.

Related Entries:

Tags: hitoshi matsumoto, symbol

Comments

Avatar for logboy By logboy on Sun, Aug 2, 2009 at 10:51am EST

there was a dodgy youtube version of this during the past week. i think it was one of those entertainment shows where they box in guest faces into the corner of the screen, to catch their indifference to what they’re seeing.

Reply
Avatar for Duncan By Duncan on Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 11:14pm EST

I’m willing to put up with a certain amount of pretentious bullshit if there’s a good film behind it. I guess we’ll have to wait and see about this one, but my hopes aren’t high. I did like the scene with all the animals, for personal reasons. I can’t help but adopt homeless cats and as a result I feel a bit like that at times- just besieged by the little bastards.

Reply
Avatar for Duncan By Duncan on Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 11:16pm EST

Also- those pajamas have to die. I immediately dislike the protagonist for wearing them…

Reply
Avatar for JohnM By JohnM on Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 7:22pm EST

Just found your site tonight, sorry it took so long. Can’t see how else to ask this question so forgive me for dumping it in the comments. I’m English married to a Japanese lady & we live in Spain &that; makes getting any Japanese film extremely difficult. Yes I do speak Spanish but there is no way I want to watch Japanese films in Spanish, Japanese I can manage. But, has anybody got any good advice about where I can get new release films & perhaps TV series like the NHK Sunday night dramas? I don’t mind using the internet, but there are some seriously unsafe looking sites out there. Also being in Europe we need region 2 DVDs. American DVDs represent a lot of work to convert if they even can be. Thanks for any help you can offer. This is a special email I have set up for any possible answers.  mendozaJCMF@gmail.com please add subject line Jfilms.

Reply
Avatar for Arthur By Arthur on Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 4:32pm EST

I just saw this film, and it’s brilliant. Calling the trailer uninformative is missing the point completely. This is a film that cannot be summarised, and is best seen without any preconceptions of what to expect.
Unforgettable.

Reply

Name (required):

Email (optional, but suggested if you have a Gravatar):

Location (optional):

URL (optional):

Remember my personal information

Email me follow-up comments

Match the characters in the box below:


Trailer for "Oniichan no Hanabi" starring Kengo Kora and Mitsuki Tanimura http://goo.gl/2rHR (via @yobgol) (1 day, 30 minutes ago)

Trailer for "Mother Water" starring Kyoko Koizumi and Satomi Kobayashi http://goo.gl/FT3R (1 week, 2 days, 22 hours, 1 minute ago)

Second teaser for "Kimi ga Odoru, Natsu" starring Junpei Mizobata and Haruka Kinami http://goo.gl/92GA (1 week, 3 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes ago)

@dreamlogicnet I don't think it's related. The movie/manga is set in an alternate timeline where women rule and men are objectified (1 week, 3 days, 20 hours, 7 minutes ago)

Stills for the upcoming live-action adaptation of "Ooku" http://goo.gl/QIi0 (1 week, 3 days, 20 hours, 52 minutes ago)

Copyright © 2006-2010 Nippon Cinema

Home | Contact | Login | Privacy Policy | About

Follow Updates: RSS | Twitter | Facebook