Melbourne International Film Festival: Symbol
A film that stands above pretentious arthouse fare and shines with originality and wit.
A man in bright, colourful pyjamas wakes up in an empty white room, where he is greeted by a host of cherubs who disappear into the walls, leaving behind their tiny penises. Pushing any of these makeshift buttons makes random objects appear in the room - everything from sushi platters to an African tribesman. In Mexico, a masked luchador named Escargot Man (who never takes the mask off, even while having breakfast) is preparing for a very important bout. In any other film, there would be no way two disparate stories like these would have anything to do with each other.
However, with Symbol, Japanese comic/director Hiroshi Matsumoto has found a way to do it; and the results are nothing short of uproarious.
Matsumoto himself plays the hapless victim stuck in the room and comes off as a force of nature. With a natural gift for physical comedy, the actor yells, runs, jumps, cries and grows even more manic as the situation becomes infinitely more bizarre (those cherubs have a mean streak a mile wide). He's a one-man circus act through these demented set pieces; even his exasperated facial expressions - worthy of the early Jim Carrey - are worth a chuckle.
By contrast, the scenes with Escargot Man are much more subdued, but they do take the Nacho Libre route of lampooning every single stereotype associated with the portrayal of Mexico and lucha libre in movies. All that's missing is Jack Black with a funny accent.
Both stories do dovetail at one point; and amidst the silliness, there is a surprisingly strong philosophical reflection on humanity, how we are all connected, the unpredictability of life and how one simple action can have numerous effects on the rest of the world; the interpretations are numerous and may vary. In the end, the only one who truly knows what the director intended is Matsumoto himself.
If you're going to make a deep and philosophical film, this is the way to do it...with fart jokes. It is refreshing to see an arthouse film that is not ponderous, dull and concerned with its own self-importance. This is an outright slapstick comedy that delivers a message, but can also be enjoyed for what it is. Taken on a purely superficial level, it's hilarious and loads of fun; the food for thought is there if one cares to search. The audience may not really be sure of what they're watching, but they'll be too busy laughing to care.
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Comments
Ro-mac 07 Aug 2010 03:33
Great review. I loved this film. Depth hiding behind silliness
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