Dolls

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Dolls

2002,

1h 53m,

Drama/

Romance

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Watchlist

72%

39 Reviews

Tomatometer

88%

10,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

72%

Tomatometer

39 Reviews

88%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

In this visually stunning drama, three romantic tales are told using elements of Japanese Bunraku puppet theater. In the first, Sawako (Miho Kanno) becomes suicidal when her fiancé, Matsumoto (Hidetoshi Nishijima), leaves her to marry the boss's daughter. Next, an obsessed fan, Nukui (Tsutomu Takeshige), expresses his love for pop singer Haruna (Kyoko Fukada) in a highly violent manner. Then, aging gangster Hiro (Tatsuya Mihashi) attempts to reconnect with an old flame (Chieko Matsubara).

Critics Consensus

Dolls doesn't offer easy answers, but for audiences attuned to its beguiling wavelength, writer-director Takeshi Kitano's work offers rich, distinctive rewards.

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Alexander Walker

London Evening Standard

Dec 14, 2017

Perhaps the best advice is, stop worrying about meaning. Sit back, enjoy its rich design, costumes, landscape and colours.

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G. Allen Johnson

San Francisco Chronicle

Mar 11, 2005

3/4

The cinematography is colorful and sweeping, the editing and storytelling simple and pure.

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Ty Burr

Boston Globe

Feb 11, 2005

3/4

It's all as passionate, refined, and insistently sad as Bunraku puppetry itself.

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Christopher Machell

CineVue

Jan 17, 2017

4/5

Kitano's sensibilities as a blackly-comic director serve the film well

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Robin Clifford

Reeling Reviews

Sep 23, 2011

C

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

Nov 8, 2007

The stories have a fateful, lonely feel, like one of Wong Kar-wai's missed connections. Yet their tragic timelessness, and the lovely, aching pace at which they are told, bring them to a level of extraordinary beauty.

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Rey R

Jan 19, 2019

I believe it's my first full Takeshi Kitano flick, one of many acclaimed directors of Japan and Asia. This is a piece with love as theme, but there is so much more to it between the dialogue and what's seen on screen at first glance. It opens with a weird Bunraku doll show - plenty of guys controlling two dolls with they're hands as some other fellas make music and add screaming voices. This goes into a story about a wedding never happening, then into an old yakuza remembering back to his true love and then there is a pop star involved in a car crash. Not one of these three stories really affect me, but the couple tied together in a red rope, along with a few other people, glue this thing together as we see them often. This is not an easy film to follow since there is flashbacks and short scenes of these mentioned people all over here - chopping up the three main stories. This film is about the "glue" for me - the way of sticking this big aesthetic bowl together. Beautiful music and amazing shots and colors are the true strenght of this film. Sadly it's slow and weird - mixed the way that makes it flat as well, but the glue and the overall vibe is saving this film for me. I believe it's a piece that will grow on me in a weid way. I hated it at times when I saw it, but it got better for each minute and once it sinks in I believe it will be a film that was worth watching. Depressing and artistic, beliveable but different. Filled with emotions and great looks, thin when it comes to really gripping scenes. It does hit you with some true emotions over little things like broken air-blow toys, though. 7 out of 10 red leaves.

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Draco P

Sep 10, 2017

I can't say I fully understand the movie. I think there's always something mysterious in Kitano's films, a depth that I don't quite get, or maybe it's the Japanese culture, but anyway it's a beautiful film with two endearing actors.

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Takeshi Kitano

Director

Miho Kanno

Sawako

Hidetoshi Nishijima

Matsumoto

Tatsuya Mihashi

Hiro, the Boss

Chieko Matsubara

Ryoko, the Woman in the Park

Kyoko Fukada

Haruna Yamaguchi, the Pop Star

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Synopsis

In this visually stunning drama, three romantic tales are told using elements of Japanese Bunraku puppet theater. In the first, Sawako (Miho Kanno) becomes suicidal when her fiancé, Matsumoto (Hidetoshi Nishijima), leaves her to marry the boss's daughter. Next, an obsessed fan, Nukui (Tsutomu Takeshige), expresses his love for pop singer Haruna (Kyoko Fukada) in a highly violent manner. Then, aging gangster Hiro (Tatsuya Mihashi) attempts to reconnect with an old flame (Chieko Matsubara).

Director: Takeshi Kitano
Producer: Masayuki Mori, Takio Yoshida
Screenwriter: Takeshi Kitano
Distributor: Palm Pictures
Production Co: TV Tokyo, Bandai Visual Co. Ltd., Office Kitano
Genre: Drama, Romance
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 5, 2002, Original
Release Date (DVD): Mar 8, 2005
Box Office (Gross USA): $4.1K
Runtime: 1h 53m
Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby Digital

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