Dolls

3 stories of doomed relation ships. all jumbled together.

I just got done watching this movie. Yes it's slow. Yes there isn't a lot of dialogue. But this movie is brilliant. The visuals, the style, the symbolism, the utter sadness..

This isn't a movie for people who want action. or people who want dialogue. Visuals people, READ the visuals. The story is told through images.

It's beautiful. But very depressing.

HIGHLY recommended.

Takeshi Kitano proudly presented Dolls in the last Venice festival, where it received bad critics and reviews from the so-called cinema intellectuals and movie critics (I'd rather called them dollar-seekers). A few months later it was premiered in the Sitges Cinema Fest, I didn't expected too much, I was too wrong.

Dolls is a great movie about true love and the meaning of life. It's perfectly directed, it's perfectly acted, it's... perfect? May be, of course it depends on you. The point to criticize the movie for most of the critics, is the point that I praise: the use of the symbols is 100% aesthetic, I even believe that the real love is not the subject of the movie, but aesthetics; and the greatest of everything is that using this strange way of filming he really emphasizes the story. The traditional filming would use symbol's as a way to directly emphasize the action, but this movie uses the symbols independently from the action and that gives strength to the overall story.

The aestheticism is very dangerous, because it can turn your movie into a sum of meaningless scenes attached with a very poor story, making it very boring. However Kitano-sensei (my biggest and greatest inspiration) manages to exploit aesthetics without loosing the plot.

This is not the first time that Kitano tries to explain a story with images, in Ano natsu ichiban shizukana umi (A scene at the sea) tried something similar, but didn't fully succeed.

In conclusion, it's a masterpiece you shouldn't forget. Kitano is one of the greatest directors nowadays and this movie proves it. Whether you are a hardcore Kitano fan or just enjoy films, watch it, you won't get disappointed.

10 out of 10

In "Dolls" Takeshi Kitano moves away from his peculiar ultra violent cinema and gives us his most poetic and introspective movie. He resorts to the crossing-stories structure to tell us three tales about love and regret, about doing anything for the person you love (and I mean ANYTHING). Calm, almost without dialogs, full of symbols and metaphors, every shot looks like a postcard. The minimalistic soundtrack and the amazing photography (wich stands out every single colour on the screen) catch you as you follow the tragedies that hide in every one of the stories. Kitano expands his horizons and demonstrates that he's a hell of a talent no matter what the genre is.

PS: not recommended for the impatient.

My rate: 8/10

Kitano never fails to amaze me, and this movie is an exact epitome of the queer nature of his films. This movie is a collection of three love stories intersecting in the same time-line. The nature of love stories quite different from one-another and each one has a different essence to it.

First story is about a young couple, second story is about fan-idol love and the third one is about an unrequited love. All of these stories are somber and moving, and are not as mushy as typical love stories of Hollywood.

Cinematography in the film is awesome. There many long shots, which again is kind of Kitano's signature. Performance of the actors is quite good. Background score is beautiful and perfectly coherent with the scenes. The use of a puppet show in the movie is quite surreal and symbolic.

If you liked "Amorres Perros"; you will definitely like this movie.

A must watch for Kitano fans and those who admire subtle romance.

Told through a mixture of old Japanese culture and contemporary film- making, the three separate love stories overlap and interweave cleverly but subtly, too.

Without any sullying from saccharine sweetness or melancholy, all three tales strain the credibility of what we would normally think a person's love for another would go to. But, that's the beauty - this is a dream- felt movie, exaggerating hardship and our emotions to emphasise that extraordinary bond that love can be.

It's all interconnected by symbolisms and the extraordinary cinematography of Katsumi Yanagijima has us shimmering and floating in rose gardens, amongst autumnal leaves and under cherry-tree blossom. It is here that we take breath and sigh, after the often difficult human journeys we've just seen the characters go through. We cannot help but feel that we have journeyed with them - and perhaps suffered too.

To me, it's the first story of the jilted bride who's rejection sends her insane and the subsequent redemption and dedication from her boyfriend to the extent that they become homeless that it the most moving. Their story united the other two stories and adds symbolism at the end. The tale of the ageing Yakuza who finally feels that he needs more than his violent lifestyle to exist as a human being and the fanaticism for a young pop singer also paint vivid pictures on Japan's social and cultural agenda.

It did remind me of south Korea's 'Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter...' in that often idyllic and contemplative gestures and activities are interspersed with morally questioning random acts that leave cavities in people's lives and the atonement needed to rectify them; or at least to try to, in a soul-satisfying way.