Dolls (2002)

Director:

Takeshi Kitano

Writer:

Takeshi Kitano (written by)

Release Date:

12 October 2002 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Three stories about neverending love.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Pop Star | Blind | Doll | Bench

Awards:

2 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Miho Kanno	...	Sawako
Hidetoshi Nishijima	...	Matsumoto
Tatsuya Mihashi	...	Hiro, the Boss
Chieko Matsubara	...	Ryoko, the Woman in the Park
Kyôko Fukada	...	Haruna Yamaguchi, the Pop Star
Tsutomu Takeshige	...	Nukui, the Fan
Kayoko Kishimoto	...	Haruna's Aunt
Kanji Tsuda	...	Young Hiro
Yûko Daike	...	Young Ryoko
Ren Ôsugi	...	Haruna's Manager
Shimadayu Toyotake	...	Tayu, Puppet Theater Narrator
Kiyosuke Tsuruzawa	...	Puppet Theater Shamisen Player
Minotaro Yoshida	...	Puppeteer of Umegawa the Courtesan
Yoshida	...	Puppeteer of Chubei
Shogo Shimizu	...	Matsumoto's Father
Midori Kanazawa	...	Matsumoto's Mother
Nao Omori	...	Matsumoto's Colleague
Kyoko Yoshizawa	...	Haruna's Mother
Kazunari Aizawa	...	The Young Minion
Moro Shioka	...	Hitman in the Park
Shûhei Saga	...	The Driver
Al Kitago	...	Aoki, the Fan
Hawking Aoyama	...	Son of the Boss's Brother
Hôchû Ôtsuka	...	Matsumoto's Friend (as Yoshitada Ohtsuka)
Mari Nishio	...	Sawako's Friend
Sammy Moremore Jr.	...	Friend of the Boss's Brother's Son
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Takeshi Oonishi

Directed by
Takeshi Kitano

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Takeshi Kitano		written by

Produced by
Masayuki Mori	....	producer
Takio Yoshida	....	producer

Original Music by
Joe Hisaishi

Cinematography by
Katsumi Yanagijima

Film Editing by
Takeshi Kitano

Production Design by
Norihiro Isoda

Costume Design by
Yohji Yamamoto

Sound Department
Senji Horiuchi	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Hitoshi Takaya	....	lighting director

Production Companies

• Bandai Visual Company
• Office Kitano
• TV Tokyo
• Tokyo FM Broadcasting Co.

Distributors

• A-Film Distribution (2003) (Netherlands) (theatrical) (for)
• Artificial Eye (2003) (UK) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Bir Film (2003) (Turkey) (theatrical)
• Filmmuseum Distributie (2003) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Frenetic Films (2003) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Mikado (2002) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Palm Pictures (2004) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Rapid Eye Movies (2003) (Germany) (theatrical)
• A-Film Home Entertainment (2003) (Netherlands) (video)
• Artificial Eye (2003) (UK) (DVD)
• Channel Neko (2007) (Japan) (TV)
• Golden Scene (2003) (Hong Kong) (all media)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (all media)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (New Zealand) (all media)
• Panorama Distributions (2004) (Hong Kong) (DVD)
• Sunfilm Entertainment (2004) (Germany) (DVD)

Other Companies

• All Nippon Airways Co.  
• Aoi Studio  post-production sound services
• Bunraku Association  
• Canon Sales Inc.  
• Canon  
• Carstunt Taka  car
• Chiso  
• Continental Far East  Dolby consultant
• Fujipacific Music  music production
• Half H-P Studio  sound re-recording studio
• Kagawa Film Commission  film commission
• Kodak Japan  film stock supplied by
• NAC Image Technology  camera equipment supplied by
• Nihon Shomei Co.  lighting equipment supplied by
• Office Kitano  music production
• Tokyo Laboratory Co. Ltd.  film processing
• Universal Music  music production
• Universal Music  soundtrack
• Wonder City  music production
• Yoshikawa Casting Office  casting

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | Hungary:16 | South Korea:15 | Hong Kong:IIB | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | France:U | Germany:12 | Netherlands:AL | Spain:7 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12A | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company:

Bandai Visual Company

Trivia:

This is the last Takeshi Kitano film to feature music by Joe Hisaishi. Kitano claimed that it became too expensive to hire Hisaishi for soundtracks while Hisaishi claimed that he didn't like the screenplay of the movie. Actually, they both had an argument about some pieces which weren't selected for the soundtrack, and where to put the others in the movie. They stopped working together since then.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Embrace (2007)

Soundtrack:

Feel

A Visually Stunning and Wrenching Tour of Love and Guilt

"Dolls" is a gripping lesson in film as a visual medium, even when exploring territory that Beckett and Bergman handled verbally.

Takeshi Kitano wrote, directed and edited with astonishing beauty and poignancy, way beyond the audience pleasing romp of "Zatôichi: The Blind Swordsman." With minimal dialog, he is in a great partnership with the breathtaking cinematography of Katsumi Yanagishima, which uses seasonal changes as powerful visual and emotional metaphors as did "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom)," and the moody music of Joe Hisaishi, which effectively switches back and forth from traditional to Western instrumentation, as the film opens with a Bunraku puppet theater performance and then the stories of three casually intersecting couples gradually enact the sensibility of this what I presume is a traditional tale. The senses are so powerfully called upon that when two blinded characters stand in a rose garden I practically smelled the flowers.

While I am sure I missed a multitude of references and symbols, particularly colors, to elements of Japanese culture past and present, the very powerful themes of the spectrum of ambition destroying love such that love becomes a guilt-filled responsibility at one extreme and obsession at the other are similarly hauntingly recalled in Western culture, such as in old English ballads and more contemporary versions like "The Long Black Veil" and Springsteen's "Reason to Believe." I also felt resonances from "Waiting for Godot" to classics sensitively sympathetic to love-tossed women as "Madame Bovary" and "Anna Karenina."

Flashbacks are used powerfully in a Joycean stream of consciousness way, so that we see the memories, dreams and disturbing nightmares of the characters'associations, literally showing us the Faulknerian dictum that "The past is never dead. It's never even past." This adds considerable emotional build-up for each character as they restlessly return to geographies with meanings to their lives and we gradually see what they were like before their current emotionally (or in some cases physically) stunted states so we heartbreakingly understand their personal iconography, particularly for those two unforgettably bound beggars.

There is no Hollywood happy endings for these couples, only acceptance of the fates they have consciously and willingly chosen and committed themselves to. But their resignation is thrillingly moving in its very graphic representation.