Symbol

A man in polka dot pyjamas wakes in a white room with no door. He does not know where he is. He touches the walls and small protrusions appear on them; each one he presses drops an object into the room. The objects are arbitrary: a toothbrush, a fish, a jar, a ladder. He tries to find a way out with them. At the same time another story runs in Mexico: a middle aged wrestler prepares for a bout, spends time with his family and knows he is near the end of his career. How the two narratives join is kept until the end. Hitoshi Matsumoto writes, directs and plays the lead in the room. Matsumoto worked for many years as a comedian in Japan and is known in cinema for narratives built on a logic of his own. The first half proceeds almost as silent comedy; there is no dialogue and the humour is entirely physical. The Mexican section was shot in Spanish and stands at an entirely different level of realism. The idea the narrative builds is the invisibility of cause and effect; a small movement produces a large result elsewhere. The last section carries the narrative to an entirely different scale and the film refuses to explain there. It was shown at festivals and split its audiences. Who it is for: viewers who like unusual structures and Japanese experimental comedy. Who it is not for: the narrative offers no explanation, the middle repeats, and the ending is contested.