Somai films have everything I seek in cinema, virtuoso filmmaking but grounded in human theater, it is great for film geeks as well people who love drama and performance. He does both, when most directors do not do either.
First it has the vignette style and he is so locked in I do not think anything he does isn't interesting. The film is probably his saddest. It is inherently sentimental with such a big heart over the piece, while brutally watching her pain.
Think about how the happy ending of the movie is its first scene. The movie is what happens 'after' a films happy ending the audience goes home. This is one thing it does so well. The early scenes are so floaty and magic with childhood. Then she grows up and the film becomes increasingly subdued with the whimsy of young adult and the disappointment of adulthood.
One small detail that was of note. I have never before seen a detective like this in a movie. He is this trickster-like Jester character, hanging around on fences, chasing them around. He is like a djinn or something, running parallel to the imaginary doll thing as a metaphysical expression, of things being unfixable and out of sorts.
The female lead, played by Yuki Saito, she is so sad, so lonely. Her big eyes show neurosis, her whole character trait of being adopted reads on her face. It is perfect casting. But reading her through the father makes us project onto him, meaning that we the audience feel like she is our adopted daughter too. I was wanting the best for her even as her life is so doomed, and it is futile. Through him I see Somai's gentle wisdom and nobility. But the tragedy is this comes at a limit. Mike Leigh said a director must cross an extreme empathy with a brutal detachment. It is a formula of wisdom on screen.
