Best movies like Symbol
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A Japanese man wakes up alone in a brightly illuminated white room with no windows or doors. When he presses a mysteriously phallic protuberance that appears on one wall, a pink toothbrush materializes from nowhere, clattering to the floor and setting in motion a genuinely bizarre chain of events. Soon the imprisoned man is engaged in absurd and hilarious attempts to escape the gleaming room, releasing random objects from the walls, creating a life sized mouse trap game in which a rope, a toilet plunger and an earthenware jug full of sushi might just be the keys to his escape. Meanwhile, in a dusty town, a green masked Mexican wrestler known as Escargot Man prepares for an important match.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: surreal, not serious, mind bending, deep, mindfuck, philosophical, psychedelic, absurd, disturbing, art house
Best tv shows and movies like Symbol (2009):
Similar in 78%
The Forbidden Room (2015)
Plot Summary:
A submarine crew, a feared pack of forest bandits, a famous surgeon, and a battalion of child soldiers all get more than they bargained for as they wend their way toward progressive ideas on life and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Mystery
Country: Canada
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychedelic, mindfuck, philosophical, mind bending, dark, art house, avant garde, experimental, weird
Similar in 84%
Survive Style 5+ (2004)
Plot Summary:
A man continually trying and failing to get his wife to stay dead; a self-absorbed ad agency creative director who comes up with one unworkably inane idea after another; a British hitman who only wants to know everyone's function in life; and an unfortunate office worker and father whose brain is left scrambled after a stage hypnotist is murdered in mid-performance.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: surreal, dark comedy, not serious, mindfuck, mind blowing, anthology, twisted, mind bending, neo noir, cerebral
Similar in 80%
The Calamari Wrestler (2004)
Plot Summary:
This wild comedy pokes fun at the world of pro-wrestling by placing its accomplished wrestler protagonist Koji Taguchi against a giant squid known as the Calamari Wrestler. The Calimari Wrestler not only proves to be Koji's most difficult opponent yet, but also has an effect on several people's personal lives when he becomes the unlikely object of a young girl's affection.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 786
Genere: Comedy
Country: Japan
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: humorous, not serious, captivating, surreal, offbeat, weird, campy
Similar in 88%
Schizopolis (1996)
Plot Summary:
A man works for the unpleasant guru of a Scientology-like movement.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: surreal, experimental, black comedy, psychedelic, parody, confusing, cerebral, cult classic, mind bending, clever
Similar in 85%
Funky Forest: The First Contact (2005)
Plot Summary:
An outrageous collection of surreal, short attention span non-sequiturs largely revolving around Guitar Brother, his randy older sibling, and the pair's portly Caucasian brother.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, humorous, stylized, semi serious, sketch comedy, cult classic, mind blowing, psychological, mind bending
Similar in 80%
Head (1968)
Plot Summary:
The Monkees are tossed about in a psychedelic, surrealist, plotless, circular bit of fun fluff.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy, Musical
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, surreal, cult classic, grindhouse, offbeat, humorous, psychological, parody, funny, mind bending
Similar in 88%
Nothing (2003)
Plot Summary:
The film tells the story of two good friends who live together, Andrew (Andrew Miller), an agoraphobic travel agent who works from his home, and Dave (David Hewlett), a loser who works in an office where he is treated with contempt. Just when it seems things can't get any worse for the two, the entire world outside of their house disappears and is replaced with an endless white void.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, surreal, dark comedy, mind twisting, mind bending, mindfuck, psychological, psychological thriller, retro
Similar in 87%
Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)
Plot Summary:
A mysteriously linked pair of young women find their daily lives pre-empted by a strange boudoir melodrama that plays itself out in a hallucinatory parallel reality.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: France
Duration: 193 min
Plot tags: surreal, experimental, mind bending, psychedelic, mindfuck, disturbing, art house, cult classic, psychological, atmospheric
Similar in 78%
Wrong (2012)
Plot Summary:
Dolph Springer wakes up one morning to realize he has lost the love of his life, his dog, Paul. During his quest to get Paul (and his life) back, Dolph radically changes the lives of others -- risking his sanity all the while.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Comedy, Mystery
Country: France, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: surreal, experimental, humorous, not serious, mindfuck, black comedy, philosophical, underground film, fast paced, existential
Similar in 83%
Takeshis' (2005)
Plot Summary:
Beat Takeshi lives the busy and sometimes surreal life of a showbiz celebrity. One day he meets his blond lookalike named Kitano, a shy convenience store cashier, who, still an unknown actor, is waiting for his big break. After their paths cross, Kitano seems to begin hallucinating about becoming Beat.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: surreal, stylized, semi serious, mind bending, psychedelic, offbeat, non-linear, postmodern
Similar in 80%
Big Man Japan (2007)
Plot Summary:
In this hilarious mockumentary, middle-aged Daisato (Hitoshi Matsumoto) -- a second-rate, third-generation superhero -- annoys his neighbors with the noise and destruction he causes on the job. But a heroic public image is the least of his concerns. Besides defending Japan from bizarre monsters, he must deal with an agent seeking to brand him with ads, a superhero grandfather with Alzheimer's and a family embarrassed by his incompetence.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: parody, humorous, not serious, surreal, tense, exciting, captivating, mind bending, psychedelic, suspense
Similar in 76%
Yaji & Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims (2005)
Plot Summary:
A re-imagining of the classic Japanese comedy "Yaji and Kita's Travel Journey", this is the story of two samurai in Edo period Japan who are in love. One is married, the other is a drug addict. They decide to go on a trip to Ise Sanctuary, where it is presumed everything will be made right. What happens once they get on the road is as wild and wacky as anything your likely to see.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 454
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: humorous, surreal, not serious, captivating, mind bending, offbeat
Similar in 87%
Jellyfish Eyes (2013)
Plot Summary:
In present-day Japan, little Masashi moves from an evacuation center to a small village. There he will discover that every child has the ability to communicate with a fantastic creature, but they are being used in an evil plan to collect the children’s negative energy. Artist Takashi Murakami ‘s debut film is an amazing epic story that is an X-Ray of children’s hopes and fears with the artist’s unmistakable visual style.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 550
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sincere, humorous, captivating, entertaining, disturbing, mind bending, psychedelic, surreal
Similar in 85%
R100 (2013)
Plot Summary:
Ruthless dominatrixes pursue a mild-mannered salesman who wants to get out of his unbreakable contract with a secret bondage club.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychological, atmospheric, humorous, stylized, semi serious, sexy, erotic, psychedelic, controversial
Similar in 83%
Haze (2005)
Plot Summary:
A man awakes to find himself trapped in a dirty, confined crawlspace. He barely has enough room to move. He also has no memory of why he’s there, or why he’s bleeding from a stomach wound. Apparently drugged, he occasionally ‘zones out’ of his surroundings as he tries to edge towards his way to freedom. But the more he explores, the more pain he has to endure, and the more frightening his predicament becomes.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Horror, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 49 min
Plot tags: scary, bleak, serious, suspenseful, disturbing, psychological, atmospheric, clever, suspense, dark
Similar in 82%
Tokyo! (2008)
Plot Summary:
Tokyo! is an anthology of three short films by directors Michel Gondry (France), Leos Carax (France) and Joon-ho Bong (Korea), each of whom offers an imaginative and transnatural/supernatural glimpse into the Tokyo Megapolis.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: France, Japan, South Korea, Germany
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: surreal, anthology, art house, melancholic, absurd, dark comedy, sentimental, cerebral, visual, cult classic
Similar in 88%
The Taste of Tea (2004)
Plot Summary:
A spell of time in the life of a family living in rural Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo. Though her husband is busy working at an office, Yoshiko is not an ordinary housewife, instead working on an animated film project at home. Uncle Ayano has recently arrived, looking to get his head together after living in Tokyo for several years. Meanwhile, Yoshiko's daughter Sachiko is mainly concerned with why she seems to be followed around everywhere by a giant version of herself.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: surreal, touching, semi serious, mind bending, psychedelic, disturbing, contemplative, poignant, independent film, black comedy
Similar in 80%
The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz (2000)
Plot Summary:
The last day of creation. A stranger arrives in London. No one knows who he is or where he has come from. By the time he leaves, the entire universe will have been erased.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: UK, Germany
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: surreal, exciting, mind bending, humorous, futuristic, suspenseful, semi serious, disturbing, clever, offbeat
Similar in 77%
Scabbard Samurai (2010)
Plot Summary:
Nomi Kanjuro (Takaaki Nomi) is a master less samurai on the run after throwing away his sword for good. He has with him his headstrong 9-year-old daughter Tae (Sea Kumada). A bounty is soon placed on Nomi Kanjuro and 3 assassins go after the score. When Nomi Kanjuro is eventually captured and placed in front of the local feudal lord (Jun Kunimura) he is given a choice. A boy prince has been grieving ever since the death of his mother. Nobody has been able to make the boy smile. Nomi can attempt to make the boy smile within 30 days or he must commit seppuku (suicide).
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, feel good, semi serious, jidai geki, fairy tale, sincere, offbeat, humorous, realistic
Similar in 84%
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
Plot Summary:
In Luis Buñuel’s deliciously satiric masterpiece, an upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 46000
Genere: Comedy
Country: France, Italy, Spain
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: surreal, disturbing, atmospheric, talky, humorous, art house, philosophical, satirical, absurd, meditative
Similar in 78%
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
Plot Summary:
The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave. The Exterminating Angel is a 1962 surrealist film, written and directed by Luis Buñuel, starring Silvia Pinal. Sharply satirical and allegorical, the film contains a view of human nature suggesting "mankind harbors savage instincts and unspeakable secrets". It is considered one of the best 1,000 films by The New York Times.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Mexico
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: surreal, avant garde, dark comedy, allegory, black comedy, philosophical, political, black and white, mindfuck, atmospheric
Similar in 84%
The Temptation of St. Tony (2009)
Plot Summary:
A mid-level manager who develops an aversion to being "good" finds himself confronting the mysteries of middle-age and morality as he loses grasp of what was once his quiet life.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: Estonia, Finland, Sweden, France
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychological, bleak, suspenseful, black and white, philosophical, disturbing, controversial, dark comedy, spiritual
Similar in 80%
Rubber (2010)
Plot Summary:
In the California desert, the adventures of a telepathic killer-tire, mysteriously attracted by a very pretty girl, as witnessed by incredulous onlookers.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 40000
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Country: France
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: absurd, parody, surreal, horror comedy, road movie, melancholic, dark comedy, semi serious, clever, bloody
Similar in 88%
Rabbits (2002)
Plot Summary:
A story of a group of humanoid rabbits and their depressive, daily life. The plot includes Suzie ironing, Jane sitting on a couch, Jack walking in and out of the apartment, and the occasional solo singing number by Suzie or Jane. At one point the rabbits also make contact with their “leader”.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Short, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: surreal, avant garde, psychological, atmospheric, experimental, mind bending, offbeat, psychedelic, art house, dark
Similar in 80%
John Dies at the End (2012)
Plot Summary:
A new drug promises out-of-body experiences, but users are coming back changed forever, and an otherworldly invasion of Earth is underway.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 40000
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychedelic, absurd, offbeat, not serious, dark comedy, atmospheric, enigmatic, horror comedy, cult classic
Similar in 84%
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Plot Summary:
A traveling theater company gives its audience much more than they were expecting.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 153000
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: UK, France, Canada
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: surreal, dark fantasy, fairy tale, offbeat, stylized, cerebral, enigmatic, absurd, atmospheric, psychedelic
Similar in 80%
The Zero Theorem (2013)
Plot Summary:
A computer hacker's goal to discover the reason for human existence continually finds his work interrupted thanks to the Management; this time, they send a teenager and lusty love interest to distract him.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 49000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: UK, Romania, France, USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: surreal, thought provoking, philosophical, psychedelic, cerebral, offbeat, meditative, mindfuck, semi serious, futuristic
Similar in 76%
The Bothersome Man (2006)
Plot Summary:
Forty-year-old Andreas arrives in a strange city with no memory of how he got there. He is presented with a job, an apartment - even a wife. But before long, Andreas notices that something is wrong. Andreas makes an attempt to escape the city, but he discovers there's no way out. Andreas meets Hugo, who has found a crack in a wall in his cellar. Beautiful music streams out from the crack. Maybe it leads to "the other side"? A new plan for escape is hatched.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: Norway, Iceland
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: surreal, enigmatic, psychological, psychedelic, philosophical, mindfuck, art house, suspenseful, dark comedy, dark
Similar in 83%
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014)
Plot Summary:
An absurdist, surrealistic and shocking pitch-black comedy, which moves freely from nightmare to fantasy to hilariously deadpan humour as it muses on man’s perpetual inhumanity to man.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Sweden, Germany, Norway, France, Denmark
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: surreal, realistic, talky, lyrical, dark comedy, humorous, philosophical, semi serious, absurd, art house
Similar in 89%
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Plot Summary:
Spike Jonze’s debut feature film is a love story mix of comedy and fantasy. The story is about an unsuccessful puppeteer named Craig, who one day at work finds a portal into the head of actor John Malkovich. The portal soon becomes a passion for anybody who enters it’s mad and controlling world of overtaking another human body.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 349000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychological, cerebral, mind bending, offbeat, mindfuck, philosophical, dark comedy, disturbing, black comedy