Dolls Review

Before going anywhere with this review, there are three things that people need to know. First, this is purely a directorial effort from Kitano. He does not appear in it at all. Second, although one of the major characters is a yakuza crime boss, "Dolls" is in no way a yakuza film. Third, Kitano is a filmmaker completely unafraid of silence and open space. Unless it's an outright silent film, you are never going to see a film in which the lead characters have less dialogue than this one.

Early reports on the film drew comparisons between "Dolls" and "Magnolia" and though that's accurate in some respects - both films employ multiple, thematically-linked storylines - it's also quite misleading. "Dolls" is a very quiet, subtle film, a meditation on love gone wrong. Kitano tells a trio of stories here, two of which are embedded in the first. The film's core is the story of Sawako and Matsumoto, a young couple of Japanese lovers engaged to be married despite their poverty.

Things fall apart when Matsumoto is matched up with the daughter of his firm's owner. Though he initially resists the match, pointing to his prior engagement and the strength of his feelings for Sawako, he eventually yields to the pressure of his parents and the lure of a comfortable life. Matsumoto breaks his engagement with Sawako and enters into a new engagement with his boss' daughter. The morning of his wedding, two friends arrive at the ceremony, pull him aside, and tell him that Sawako has attempted suicide and is in the hospital.

Feeling horribly guilty, Matsumoto leaves his new bride at the altar and goes to the hospital to see Sawako, now catatonic in her grief. Sawako has retreated entirely from the world. She has become completely non-verbal and non-responsive, a complete blank who can be led from place to place but seems capable of little to no independent action of her own. Matsumoto discharges her from the hospital and makes it his mission in life to care for her even though this costs him his job and, once his money runs out, his home. The two of them, now homeless, wander throughout the country, tied together at the waist with a long braided cord to prevent Sawako from wandering off.

As the couple, now something of a folk legend called the Bound Beggars, moves through the country, Kitano cuts away to tell us the stories of other similarly tragic figures that they come across. The first is of an aging yakuza crime lord slowly coming to the realization that he threw away the best part of his life when he left the lover of his youth to go and make something of himself. Meanwhile, the lover returns weekly to the park where he left so long ago and waits for him to keep his promise and come back to her. The second story deals with a Japanese pop star who has survived a horrible car accident and now lives in seclusion so that nobody can see the damage done to her face, and the adult groupie who has spent years worshipping her from afar.

To say any more about the individual stories would be a disservice to the film, but they are truly haunting and beautiful.

"Dolls" is a bittersweet, tragic film. Though we're given absolutely minimal information on the characters, the performances are so strong and subtle that you have no problem believing one hundred percent that these are real people on the screen. Their pain is palpable, as are the bursts of hope and joy that flash throughout. The pacing, though much slower than what North American audiences are used to, is absolutely perfect and the visuals are simply stunning.

There are two key elements that will decide whether you will be able to appreciate this film. The first is whether you are able to adapt yourself to the slower pace of the film’s world. I first caught this film when it played at the Toronto Film Festival in 2002 when my only exposure to Kitano’s films had been Sonatine and Fireworks, films which are still most people’s primary reference for the man. I knew that the film was significantly different from those works going in to it and was thus relatively prepared for what was coming and better able to appreciate it. For those looking for a Kitano point of reference, put the yakuza films out of mind and look to Kikujiro or, even more so, A Scene at the Sea. The second key element is how you are able to handle the heightened theatricality of the film. Dolls is largely based on the traditions and style of Bunraku – traditional Japanese puppet theater – and thus the story follows a highly melodramatic path with some strong fantasy elements, far moreso than you might expect from a typical drama. It often amazes me how easily people are willing to suspend their disbelief to enter into another world when it involves things exploding but how they insist on, ahem, “realism” from their drama. This is a story built to highlight certain aspects of human behavior and human nature and it adheres to a set of rules designed with that aim in mind. Recognize that, and accept it, and be prepared for a work of genius. Refuse to accept that and you’ll still see some of the very finest cinematography of the past ten years.

Palm have done their typical strong job with the DVD release. The transfer is crisp and clean and the audio – in 5.1 surround – is strong. Longtime Kitano collaborator Joe Hisaishi is again responsible for the score and this is some of his best work. What came as something of a surprise was the inclusion of more than half an hour of detailed interviews with Kitano, his two lead actors and the costume designer – the brilliant Yohji Yamamoto. In a strange oversight the fact that these interviews exist was completely left off of the DVD packaging and I only found them when I went looking to see if the trailer reel included anything new from previous Palm releases, which it does. Kitano’s interview segment is particularly strong and I was surprised to learn that the two elements of the film that people are most inclined to write off as overly fantastical are actually based in actual events in Kitano’s childhood. He grew up in the world of bunraku thanks to his grandmother who was an acknowledged master bunraku narrator and musician and whose pupils often lived in Kitano’s house. And, even more surprisingly, the Bound Beggars were based on actual beggars that Kitano saw in his childhood. The actors’ interviews largely involve a great deal of praise for Kitano, who they obviously are in awe of, and the interview piece with Yamamoto is again surprisingly lengthy and in depth.

I’m still waiting for the day that someone wises up and brings A Sea At The Sea – one of the great overlooked films of our times – to these shores but in the meantime I’m more than happy to have this, a fantastic release showcasing a seldom seen side of one of the world’s most important film makers.

[a rather shorter version of this review originally appeared over on Opus back in 2002]