Topic

Dolls

Not who you're looking for? Others named Dolls: 2007 film · manga short stories · 2013 film by Shalil Kallur · 2022 EP by Bella Poarch

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Overview

is a 2002 Japanese film written, edited and directed by Japanese director Takeshi Kitano. A highly stylized art film, Dolls is part of Kitano's non-crime film oeuvre, like 1991's A Scene at the Sea, and unlike most of his other films, he does not act in it. The film has been praised for its cinematography (Katsumi Yanagishima) and features costumes by Yohji Yamamoto. Plot The film features three primary sets of characters, each within their own distinct story: A young man (Matsumoto, played by Hidetoshi Nishijima) who rejects his engagement to his fiancée (Sawako, played by Miho Kanno) to marry the daughter of his company's president. When his former fiancée attempts suicide and ends up in a semi-catatonic state, he takes her out of the hospital and they run away. Another young man (Nukui, played by Tsutomu Takeshige) is obsessed with the pop-star Haruna (played by Kyoko Fukada); he blinds himself when she is involved in a disfiguring car accident. An aged yakuza (Hiro, played by Tatsuya Mihashi), who tries to meet a girlfriend from his youth (played by Chieko Matsubara). These stories do have some incidental visual cross-over with each other in the film, but are mostly separate. The first story is the one on which the film centers. The film leads into it by opening with a performance of Bunraku theatre, and closes with a shot of dolls from the same. The performance is that of "The Courier for Hell" by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, and it alludes to themes that reappear later in the film. Because the rest of the film itself (as Kitano himself has said) can be treated as Bunraku in film form, the film is quite symbolic. In some cases, it is not clear whether a particular scene is meant to be taken literally. The film is also not in strict chronological order, but there is a strong visual emphasis on the changing of the seasons and the bonds of love over the progression of time (Matsumoto and Sawako spend most of the film physically connected by a red rope).

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“Before Barbie, dolls were babies, to be fed and burped and bathed and wheeled around in prams and put down for naps.”
— Jill Lepore, "When Barbie Went to War with Bratz", The New Yorker, (January 22, 2018).
“As Kozinski would write in his opinion in Mattel v. MGA, it’s possible to make dolls that don’t look like porn stars but “there’s not a big market for fashion dolls that look like Patty and Selma Bouvier”—a reference to Lisa Simpson’s big-nosed, wide-waisted, thick-ankled aunts.”
— Jill Lepore, "When Barbie Went to War with Bratz", The New Yorker, (January 22, 2018).
“In Shinto, everything has a soul. Even if you don't want the dolls anymore, you can’t abandon them. There is a special ceremony that is performed for them at a shrine. It’s like a ceremony for a dead person. Since dolls have a human form, they must be treated as such.”
— Shin Takagi, as qtd. in Roc Morin, "Can Child Dolls Keep Pedophiles from Offending?", The Atlantic, (Jan 11, 2016).
“It is a common belief in Japan that dolls are mirrors. The dolls show their owner’s true self.”
— Shin Takagi, as qtd. in Roc Morin, "Can Child Dolls Keep Pedophiles from Offending?", The Atlantic, (Jan 11, 2016).
“From my experience, kids are most interested in movie merchandise from about three to eight years old,” says Lisa Wragg, who worked in children’s licensing for many years. “At about eight, it tends to wane as they get more into music, artists and social media.”
— Lisa Wragg in "Lights, camera but no action figures: are movie toys going out of fashion?", by Anna Smith. The Guardian, (5 Apr 2018).
“The Sex doll industry has been transformed by advances in computer generated images (CGI) and silicone technology. Hollywood special effects technicians began using advances in these technologies to create realistic corpses for films. (Ferguson, 2010). These mannequins were the beginnings of the realistic, functional sex doll.”
— p. 10.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

On IJR

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Not who you're looking for? Others named Dolls: 2007 film · manga short stories · 2013 film by Shalil Kallur · 2022 EP by Bella Poarch

Overview

is a 2002 Japanese film written, edited and directed by Japanese director Takeshi Kitano. A highly stylized art film, Dolls is part of Kitano's non-crime film oeuvre, like 1991's A Scene at the Sea, and unlike most of his other films, he does not act in it. The film has been praised for its cinematography (Katsumi Yanagishima) and features costumes by Yohji Yamamoto. Plot The film features three primary sets of characters, each within their own distinct story: A young man (Matsumoto, played by Hidetoshi Nishijima) who rejects his engagement to his fiancée (Sawako, played by Miho Kanno) to marry the daughter of his company's president. When his former fiancée attempts suicide and ends up in a semi-catatonic state, he takes her out of the hospital and they run away. Another young man (Nukui, played by Tsutomu Takeshige) is obsessed with the pop-star Haruna (played by Kyoko Fukada); he blinds himself when she is involved in a disfiguring car accident. An aged yakuza (Hiro, played by Tatsuya Mihashi), who tries to meet a girlfriend from his youth (played by Chieko Matsubara). These stories do have some incidental visual cross-over with each other in the film, but are mostly separate. The first story is the one on which the film centers. The film leads into it by opening with a performance of Bunraku theatre, and closes with a shot of dolls from the same. The performance is that of "The Courier for Hell" by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, and it alludes to themes that reappear later in the film. Because the rest of the film itself (as Kitano himself has said) can be treated as Bunraku in film form, the film is quite symbolic. In some cases, it is not clear whether a particular scene is meant to be taken literally. The film is also not in strict chronological order, but there is a strong visual emphasis on the changing of the seasons and the bonds of love over the progression of time (Matsumoto and Sawako spend most of the film physically connected by a red rope).

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“Before Barbie, dolls were babies, to be fed and burped and bathed and wheeled around in prams and put down for naps.”
— Jill Lepore, "When Barbie Went to War with Bratz", The New Yorker, (January 22, 2018).
“As Kozinski would write in his opinion in Mattel v. MGA, it’s possible to make dolls that don’t look like porn stars but “there’s not a big market for fashion dolls that look like Patty and Selma Bouvier”—a reference to Lisa Simpson’s big-nosed, wide-waisted, thick-ankled aunts.”
— Jill Lepore, "When Barbie Went to War with Bratz", The New Yorker, (January 22, 2018).
“In Shinto, everything has a soul. Even if you don't want the dolls anymore, you can’t abandon them. There is a special ceremony that is performed for them at a shrine. It’s like a ceremony for a dead person. Since dolls have a human form, they must be treated as such.”
— Shin Takagi, as qtd. in Roc Morin, "Can Child Dolls Keep Pedophiles from Offending?", The Atlantic, (Jan 11, 2016).
“It is a common belief in Japan that dolls are mirrors. The dolls show their owner’s true self.”
— Shin Takagi, as qtd. in Roc Morin, "Can Child Dolls Keep Pedophiles from Offending?", The Atlantic, (Jan 11, 2016).
“From my experience, kids are most interested in movie merchandise from about three to eight years old,” says Lisa Wragg, who worked in children’s licensing for many years. “At about eight, it tends to wane as they get more into music, artists and social media.”
— Lisa Wragg in "Lights, camera but no action figures: are movie toys going out of fashion?", by Anna Smith. The Guardian, (5 Apr 2018).
“The Sex doll industry has been transformed by advances in computer generated images (CGI) and silicone technology. Hollywood special effects technicians began using advances in these technologies to create realistic corpses for films. (Ferguson, 2010). These mannequins were the beginnings of the realistic, functional sex doll.”
— p. 10.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.