Is Hello Kitty in Hitoshi Matsumoto's film Symbol"? No, but she looks cute in his pyjamas

by Chris MaGee

No one really seems to know what the hell Hitsohi Matsumoto's sophomore directorial feature "Symbol" is about. What we do know is that is involves Matsumoto playing a guy wearing pyjamas who is trying to escape a white room peopled with cherubs and that a Mexican wrestler named Escargot Man is somehow involved in this. My money is on the fact that Matsumoto's character is trapped in Escargot Man's mind or head or whatever, but don't quote me on that. It's just a hunch.

Thankfully Toronto audiences will be one of the first to discover just what Matsumoto is up to with this film when "Symbol" screens at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of its Midnight Madness programme, but for the time being we know one thing for sure - Hello Kity is just as comfortable in her jammies as Matsumoto is.

To promote "Symbol" Shochiku has teamed with Sanrio to have Japanese kawaii icon Hello Kitty sport the same polka dot pyjamas that Matsumoto wears in the film. An this helps us understand the plot of "Symbol" how? Well, it doesn't... but look! It's Hello Kitty in pyjama's! Kawaii ne?!?!

Thanks to Jason Gray for this bit of news.