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The Daily Movie Wallpaper
Wednesday, September 9, 2009

***
Nikkatsu Noir Contest from Cinema is Dope – Enter Today
***

Big Man Japan aka Dai-Nihonjin was one of the more brazen and outlandish comedies I’ve seen this decade and with Symbol, Hitoshi Matsumoto finally returns with more absurdity. Move aside Antichrist and Enter the Void as for those lucky enough to see it, Symbol will be the biggest “what the…” unpredictable head scratcher of 2009. This is my hunch at least. I do recommend not reading a single thing about this film and going into it as fresh as possible.

Be sure to catch it at Midnight Madness at TIFF (details).

INTRODUCTION:

“SYMBOL” is the second film by Japan’s best-known comic virtuoso, Hitoshi Matsumoto. It follows on the success of his first film “DAINIPPONJIN”, which was invited to the Directors Week of the 60th Cannes International Film Festival in 2007 and was lauded as the Festival’s “most individualistic work.” As was the case for “DAINIPPONJIN”, Matsumoto developed, directed and played the leading role in “SYMBOL” and co-wrote the script.

In “DAINIPPONJIN”, Matsumoto bypassed convention and applied an inventive approach of his own, resulting in an unfamiliar entertainment genre derived from the hero’s real and public image. The film succeeded through the exploration of the figure of the hero through Matsumoto’s worldview, utilizing a documentary film approach complete with reporting and interviews.

In his new film “SYMBOL”, Matsumoto builds further upon the tradition of comedy in an ambitious work that seeks to carry his sense of humor beyond cultural boundaries. He does this by not only constructing “SYMBOL” with the words of the story, but also by utilizing the “language” of imagery. As was the case for “DAINIPPONJIN”, “SYMBOL” covers deep philosophical ground, which under Matsumoto’s hand results in a unique film of tremendous impact.

Japanese Cinema Sites I Highly Recommend:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Nippon Cinema
::: Outcast Cinema
::: Ryuganji
::: Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow

Image Source:
Official stills that were used in the original international release of the film.

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: IMDb Profile

200 points if you can name who Dai Nipponjin is pitted against in the above image.

I don’t offer up images at the additional 1280 width anymore, but this image certainly is one that requires me doing so.

Related Coverage:
::: Big Man Japan Japanese Poster Artwork

Japanese Cinema:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Nippon Cinema
::: Outcast Cinema
::: Ryuganji
::: Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow

Image Source:
Official digital still that was used in the original international release of the film.

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: IMDb Profile
::: Magnet

At last some original Japanese poster artwork for Big Man Japan!

Japanese Cinema:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Outcast Cinema
::: Ryuganji
::: Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow

Related Coverage:
::: Twitch Review (Todd)
::: Twitch Review (Mack)
::: Mark Schilling’s Japan Times Review
::: Scott Weinberg’s Cinematical Review

Image Source:
Official still used in the original Japanese poster artwork for this film.

Eiga Chirashi = mini poster/flyer’s from Japan

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: IMDb Profile

Hitoshi MATSUMOTO’s message

I have no particular reason for production of a film. It’s a kind of human games, for example, by throwing a dice it was “production of a film” that I saw on the dice. From the beginning of the project I never urge the company to hurry. “When it is done, a shooting will be done. If not, it is better to think that there is no project”, I just thought like that. It is of no use of making films by force.”

Let me think of the time when we had the first project meeting, and it was when I was 38 years old. Now I am 43 years old, which means it took 5 years to complete the film. It is true that production took a lot of time, but I am sure I did a good job. I was lucky in my mind to be able to shoot last year.

Basically no one did harm to my film, nor have I been influenced by anyone. All I kept in mind is not to make a job duplicate or over lap with someone else’s, so “to keep watching others doing” is necessary. In a comic world sometimes duplication with other jobs happens, and criticism of “you should have told us in advance” tends to come. Since now and then my work has been always novel. Therefore when my work is well evaluated by audience, it is certainly to be said the best, and if failed, it will be said “without no experience it cannot be understood.” Even in that case, I don’t think I am wandering away, but I feel confident that in the future it will be paid attention.

About ten years ago when I made a short video, “Touzu”, I had a firm intention to make it artistic. At that time on TV programs a lot of interesting things were available to do, because regulations were loose. Then if we tried to do something else beside TV, productions tended to be headed for artistic ways. Now TV programs are strictly regulated and we may feel depressed. As for me I am tired of what happened at that time, “no more reasoning, for a project to be interesting and funny is its principle” You may guess that we have intentionally kept the contents of the film secret, but, to be honest, I have no idea how to talk about it. If my explanation is poor, the film will have a risk to become unpopular, and/or there will be possibility of being thought that the film is aiming at dealing with social problems. For example, when we are going to tell kids a bedtime story, kids will ask you what is the story about. “It will be told right now!” Things are like that. At a restaurant you can easily guess what kind of food is going to be served by knives and forks or chopsticks on the table (at least a rough idea of kinds of food). I don’t like to give a rough idea in advance. Performers in the film may have had no idea what they were told to do, I think. When they watch the film, they may realize differences from what they had thought. It is, however, quite certain that the film never fail to be amusing and interesting.

Related Coverage:
::: Twitch Review (Todd)
::: Twitch Review (Mack)
::: Mark Schilling’s Japan Times Review
::: Scott Weinberg’s Cinematical Review

Japanese Cinema:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Ryuganji

Image Source:
Official digital still used in its international release.

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: IMDb Profile

CAPTION THIS:
So write a caption for this image using the comment section below. Dai Nipponjin was a huge hit at the recent Fantastic Fest. Tim League, the director of Fantastic Fest fell in love with it at Cannes and brought it in as a surprise midnight film. In Spain at the Sitges Film Festival, the audiences seemed to mirror the Fantastic Fest audiences by being in complete joy in buzzing over its insane ending.

Related Coverage:
::: Twitch Review (Todd)
::: Twitch Review (Mack)
::: Mark Schilling’s Japan Times Review
::: Scott Weinberg’s Cinematical Review

Image Source:
Official digital still used in its international release.

Related Links:
::: Official Site
::: IMDb Profile

Japanese Cinema:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Ryuganji