Written by Margaux Villard

Hitoshi Matsumoto is the director and main actor of Symbol. The movie was released in 2009 and tells the absurd story of a man who wakes up in a pristine room wearing goofy PJ’s, where the only thing to be found is a toddler’s penis on the wall. As he tries to flee the room the main character sets off all kinds of strange events by pressing the bulge. There is a double story line, one part of the story seems to belong to our reality while the other one occurs in the immaculate room, but both are reunited through the series of events.

The movie implicitly focuses on Japan and its culture and offers a one-of-a-kind-look at it, showing its peculiarities (notably bits of the Kawaii culture) in a very bold way.

It is impossible to put Symbol into a box in the very same way as it is hard to characterize Matsumoto as an ordinary director, him being a TV comedian, a writer, and an actor aside to being a director. This movie is actually a token of that unconventional style and is representative of somebody who does not take himself too seriously. It is very much worth seeing, although Symbol has been given negative reviews in Japan it has received a price at the Asian Festival of Deauville. It cannot be found anywhere, as it is only shown at festivals. Enjoy the first part of the movie above.