Dolls (2004)

Fresh and Exciting

Don't listen to the negative reviews

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I watched this film without any reference to reviews or even a knowledge of the director beforehand. Just plunged in. The puppet sequence that starts the movie tells you there's tragedy ahead, but also a poignancy. Then the narrative shifts to the main story, about a young couple in love but for whom family and business split apart. For a time. But the truth is there's no one else ever for either one of them, and while this sounds clichéd, it somehow works. I think it's because of the pacing and layering. The director doesn't push any obvious buttons - in fact, there were times when I saw these two damaged people together in these really slow scenes where not a whole lot is happening that I wondered if I wanted to go the duration of the film with them. And just at about that time the second story weaves in, about an again executive who remembers a young woman who loved him uncritically and unconditionally, but who he selfishly dumped because he wanted to focus all his attention on making money. The third storyline is about a man smitten by a pop music princess, and again this would seem to stray into cliché territory, but the way it's handled is done so sympathetically that you never feel the man is a buffoon; he's childlike and uncomplicated, but at the same time he's not a simpleton. Interwoven with these secondary stories is the main plot, with the "bound beggars", as they're known to the locals. And by the time the movie is about 3/4 done you realize that your patience is mirrored by the man's patience for his damaged girlfriend, and you start to care about them both. There's a scene late in the film which is done in total silence that is completely breathtaking. I'll never forget it. Let it wash over you.

I am pleased to rate this a ten out of ten! I do not go for "odd" movies much but this one is different. There are several story plots and you have to sit patiently and watch them play out. The theme is relationships and love. The colors are beautiful, it is well acted, and the music is gorgeous. I did cry a lot though. If you don't want to get out your handkerchief, then don't see this one. It would be good to see this movie with a lover. If you are lonely and don't have a lover, this might cheer you up, because it shows how relationships can be sad, negative and even fatal things. I am perhaps swept up in the emotion of just seeing this film, but really, I think it deserves a "ten."

A passing knowledge of Bunraku, the Japanese traditional art of stage puppetry and some familiarity with the work of seventeenth century Japanese dramatist Monzaemon Chikamatsu, may help non-pointy headed viewers appreciate the themes of love, suicide, social pressure, and tragedy in Takeshi Kitano's visually enchanting film Dolls. Three intertwined stories of obsessional love are thematically influenced by Chikamatsu, (the Japanese Shakespeare) whose dramas are still acted out by Bunraku puppeteers and remain hugely resonant even in modern Japan.In the first story, a man pressured by his parents into marrying the daughter of his boss devotes his life to the lover he spurned after learning that she has attempted suicide. The two now bound together (literally) wander through Japan in a surreal journey that covers all four seasons. The following stories feature a Yakuza boss who seeks out the lover he abandoned decades earlier, and a devoted, but disturbed fan who takes an extraordinary course of action to meet with the pop star he idolises after she has been disfigured in a car crash.Dolls marks a new departure in style and subject for Takeshi, whose past work has focused mainly on the violent world of the Yakuza, and is marked by its distinct grey/blue visual style. To counter this muted look Takeshi consciously sought to add colour to Dolls, and this he does to stunning effect. With the help of his friend, fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, and cinematographer Katsumi Yanagishima, Takeshi has achieved a lush, sensuous, aesthetic that at times can be quite sublime.Many of Chikamatsu's plays were written for performance in Bunraku, and Takeshi has given the film a stage like quality - he sees the characters as living dolls and allusions are made to this throughout the film. All this leads to the inevitable question of does it work? The answer unfortunately is no. Takeshi's characters are not sufficiently developed or emotionally involving enough for us to care about them. This is especially the case with the bound lovers Sawako, and Matsumoto, (Miho Kanno and Hidetoshi Nishijima) whose subdued and emotionless performance alienates the audience.Sawako and Matsumoto were based on two real life 'bound' beggars who Takeshi would often see in his Tokyo suburb. The reason that these beggars were bound to each other we'll more than likely never know, but in the case of the lovers, an old Japanese saying about betrothed couples being bound by the red strings of fate seems to apply. This is all very interesting but sadly Dolls is not. The film pretty as it is falls a bit flat due to its poor character development and meandering story line. This is no problem for Takeshi though who has stated that he will be happy if viewers are simply amazed at the beautiful pictures. I suspect that with the majority of viewers this will be the case.

***SPOILER*** Takeshi Kitano proves himself a multifaceted filmmaker with this tragicomic look at the debilitating power of love. While love is the one real tie that binds (in the case of the co-dependent couple here, quite literally- or metaphorically, depending on how one chooses to look at it), Kitano never loses sight of the fact that it's also a symbiotic sadness that permeates the soul. Ambrose Beirce, if memory serves, once referred to love as "a temporary madness." Moving moments are allowed to run their course on screen, to the often bitter end(s). (The finale lends new weight to the phrase "the old ball and chain." Though it leaves you hanging, it doesn't...) Another fine example of Neo-Asian art.