Dolls

Based on the themes and aesthetics of Bunraku, traditional Japanese puppet theater, "Dolls" is a deliberate attempt to blend an ancient Japanese art form with modern technology and sensibilities.

Like "Double Suicide," another Japanese film based on Bunraku, the film begins with the puppets on stage being manipulated by their handlers, then transitions intolive actors. Also in common with "Double Suicide," the film is highly stylistic and modern while retaining the pace and tone of the old-fashioned story telling.

"Dolls" in all covers three stories: Matsumoto and Sawako, the happy couple who's meddling parents as well as their own poor choices leads to tragedy. Hiro, the stereotypical aging Yakuza gangster, kind to children yet ruthless to his enemies, seeking to find a love that was lost to him long ago. Haruna, the once popular singing idol, who's features were marred in an accident and is now lonely and alone, allowing no one to see her face.

As with most Bunraku stories, each is a tale of the tragedy of love, and how exquisite love is often accompanied by exquisite pain. The agony and the ecstasy. But because this is Japan, these fierce emotions are bottled up inside the characters, who show their outward masks attempting to betray nothing of their true feelings. The true story is only available to those who can read between the lines.

In the end, however, what drives "Dolls" is not the story, but the artistry of Kitano's camera. Some of the splendid scenes and colors in "Fireworks" find fruition in "Dolls." He claims that each shot can be framed as a piece of art. The changing colors reflects the traditional Japanese aesthetic of the four seasons, and of the changeability of nature and life. It is a beautiful film.

Some have difficulty accepting Kitano Takeshi as anything other than a violent action director, and those people might have a hard time with the slow pace and brilliant images of "Dolls." It is definitely not going to be everyone's favorite, but it is one of mine.

Throughout Dolls you feel as if you are observing the life of two Banraku dolls on an inner journey to escape the prison of their reality as they tell their story through three couples who seem to be struggling with similar themes and emotional issues.

This almost silent contemplative art is much more poetic than dramatically complex and yet intricately woven so as to mingle the dreams and imaginings of six souls longing for completion.

There is a contrast of serenity with conflict and it feels like the couples in the story are playing out the stories told by the Dolls. In one gorgeous scene the couple bound by a red cord dress like the dolls and that makes the ending highly evocative and memorably poetic in the most intriguing of ways.

While viewing this movie you may feel more inclined to write poetry or phrases and have strange thoughts like: "I am tied to your heart with a crimson rope. When you fall, I trip so easily over myself." In a way, you write many of the words of the script in your own mind and in that way make the movie your own. At the moment where they fall down a hill, you also see the puppets and it feels like the puppeteers are controlling the couple's life in reality.

Dolls is an especially serene and visually stunning contemplative moment of art. The trees bursting with autumn grandeur are beautifully filmed and the red rope is strangely interesting as it trails along the ground, picking up leaves or pulling across snow or keeping the couple together even in chaotic dreams. The pacing is especially relaxing and you are left in an almost mysteriously silent mood.

~The Rebecca Review

Wonderful movie! Very emotionally touching and you can really feel for the characters. And yes, at some points, it's quite a tear-jerker.