symbol しんぼる [movie]

unexpectedly epic and beautiful... but weird. oh so very weird.

How to describe this movie... I dont know where to start.

Matsumoto Hitsoshi (Downtown, Big man Japan) made another weird-ass movie and I stuggle to find the words to explain it. Only from his brain could this film have immerged. God only knows what goes on in his head but I am always changed, irreparably so, after spending any time watching his shows and stupidness. I love this man. I love him.

Ok we start off in Mexico with a smoking swearing nun driving across the desert in a truck with a mexican wrestler. Then we meet Matsumoto in a white room with no windows or doors but covered in cherub knobs which release random objects out of the wall when he presses them. Then we are back in Mexico again to watch the boring and seemingly unrelated scenes of this mexican wrestler and his family. You completely forget about Matsumoto until suddenly we're back with him in the room again.

 

It is so weird.

The film is split into these two plotless stories but also into chapters, the first entitled 'learning' as this is what stage Matsumoto is at. It is very slow moving for a while, deliberately so, then picks up its pace and becomes even more hysterically funny.

His pajamas are brilliant.

There is a poignant metaphorical element to this movie that doesn't really make any sense and would be spoilt by any explanation so i wont take it any further but it is so different to any other film I have seen I am surprised I saw any of it coming.

Very clever, very stupid, unexpectedly beautiful, seriously funny, the insane ramblings of Matsumoto's thought processes - I can't even - it is beyond awesome.

we are lulled into distraction by the slow and apparant pointlessness of the scenes in mexico then thrown back into hillarity with Matsumoto, all very symbolic.

Matsumoto's unimpressed face rivals Subaru's, it is truly epic. The kansai whine is constantly enjoyable and his distress and frustration is adorable and you root for his escape plans with all your heart - even when he is at his most stupid. He actually becomes quite ingenius and brilliant once he gets to grips with his room and the tools surrounding him. Not before he is completely rediculous and moronic though.

above all we are left with the memory of how it ends - which i wont ruin for you here. But what a glorious ending to such an absurd abstract movie. Very little music through the most of the film, then when we meet our epic finale in comes the most phenominal music to match the unbelievalbe scene before our eyes...

at an hour and a half it is not a great chore to watch, and aside from the osakan swearing and mad expletive ridden nun, probably suitable for most people - even kids - to find humour and mystery in. What I like about the style of humour in this movie is that it is a mixture of slapstick physical humour, clever tricks, mad comic book montage cut scenes, disasterous fail after insane unrelenting disasterous fail, random nonsensical inappropriateness, subtle cheeky timing, and flat out stupidity. Then chuck a load of deep existential metaphorical meaning in there and get yourself fully involved in the confusion. 

you may think the two seperate stories have no relation - even by the end, but i think the feel that the mexican scenes are irrelevant or insignificant is another symbolistic point of the movie. It is all very clever, dressed up as total stupidity.

Matsumoto is a genius. I stand by my words now even more than when I first thought them.

Please do yourself a favour and watch this movie. it is worth it on every level there is.

dai nippon-jin 大日本人 [movie]

I want to know what happened to the massive cat. spin off film anyone?

dai neko no fukushū!

comedian matsumoto hitoshi (dowtown) wrote directed and starred in this

crazy munchkin of a movie – it is just the sort of film i would have expected him to make.

his sense of humour is unique and totally recognisable from the very start of dai nippon-jin.  

filmed for the most part as documentary style interviews,

we follow daisato (matsumoto) as he explains his daily life

while looking like a rundown jaded old tramp.

i can never understand a sh*tting word matsumoto says (kansai or not)

as he doesn’t seem to feel the need to open his mouth when he speaks  

but im so used to that now that it doesn’t matter. it adds to his charm i think.

it works for daisato anyway as it is pretty clear he is not comfortable

talking about his life at all.

we meet a whole bunch of weird creatures in this film when we finally begin

to learn about daisato’s obscure job. in the past, such a potition was reguarded

with superhero like status but at present daisato is outcasted for his role in society.

daisato can transform (with the help of a huge dose of electricity

from the ministry of defense) into a f*cking great big ass version of himself.

this job was taken up by the men in his family for generations

but as the daikaiju creatures do not appear very often any more

daisato is not seen as the necessary force that his grandfather had been.  

 

once a golden time show adored by all, the fights to save the city

have been reduced to a late night tv slot

(where daisato appears begrudgingly smothered in sponsor logos)

viewed by people who only want to see his downfall.

it is pretty sad, its very funny for the most part don’t get me wrong,

but its one of those movies where you spend most of your time watching this

deluded guy cling on to something that just isn’t there anymore.

matsumoto plays his character with a sweet nature that you sort of pity,

he also filled him full of utter uselessness – the more he fails at everything the worse

you feel for him. he does become a little pathetic but there is definite charm there,

this could be due to matsumoto being generally full of fantastic

but I do think the character has a loveable way.

it is pretty surreal with all the daikaiju graphics and mahoosive matsumoto

stomping around the city as daisato the not so super or heroic monster fighting giant.

its kinda gross in places – the daikaiju mating in the center of town,

the weird eye on a extendy arm thing… but the constant dry humour of this story,

watching a man rejected by the whole city, wife and child,

even though he tries his best to save them from weird stupid monster things,

just carries you along comfortably through all the weirdness.

and i don’t know what the f*ck was going on with the

bizarre sudden ultraman psychosis ending – but it was definitely funny.

~