Dolls (2002)
Movie | |
---|---|
German title | Dolls |
Original title | Dolls |
Country of production | Japan |
original language | Japanese |
Publishing year | 2002 |
length | 113 minutes |
Age rating | FSK 12 |
Rod | |
Director | Takeshi Kitano |
script | Takeshi Kitano |
production |
Masayuki Mori Takio Yoshida |
music | Joe Hisaishi |
camera | Katsumi Yanagishima |
cut | Takeshi Kitano |
occupation | |
|
Dolls (also: Takeshi Kitanos Dolls ) is a Japanese feature film from 2002 . The drama was directed by Takeshi Kitano , who also wrote the script.
The episode film consists of three loosely connected storylines that run parallel to each other and not chronologically. The film begins with a Bunraku screening (“The Messenger to the Underworld” by Chikamatsu ) and ends with one.
action
A young man named Matsumoto broke off his engagement with his fiancée Sawako in order to marry the daughter of a company president. Thereupon she makes a suicide attempt and remains mentally withdrawn. When Matsumoto learns this, he rescues her from the hospital and ties her to himself with a thick red rope so that she does not run away. Both wander through Japan and are stared at and laughed at by people when they stumble.
The second storyline is about a man named Nukui who is obsessed with the pop singer Haruna Yamaguchi. When Haruna has a serious car accident and threatens to go blind in one eye, Nukui blinds himself in order to be close to her and to preserve the image of her beauty from the accident. Finally, the now blind Nukui is allowed to meet Haruna and they go for a walk together. After that, Nukui dies - presumably in a car accident.
The third storyline is about an old yakuza boss named Hiro, who remembers his childhood sweetheart Ryoko after decades. When he goes to the park where they used to meet, he notices that she is still keeping her promise to wait for him with a snack every Saturday. But he can't bring himself to reveal himself to her. Instead, he sits down next to her and gratefully accepts the lunchbox offer, but is shot after the second meeting.
Publications
The film premiered on September 5, 2002 in the competition for the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival . It was shown at several other film festivals in the following period. Dolls opened in Japanese cinemas on October 10 of the same year . Cinema releases followed in other countries. In Germany, where the film opened on October 30, 2003, it was seen approximately 12,300 times.
The version shown in the third programs of German television was shortened.
reception
The majority of the critics received the film positively. Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times that although the film is not a film for everyone (especially not for the impatient), Kitano is, he believes, successful in “pulling us into his speed and his world to slow down on the sadness of the characters. "
The lexicon of international films said that Dolls was “designed as a powerful visual poem full of melancholy” . The film is a "as beguiling as sometimes alienating masterpiece, whose visual beauty you can hardly get enough of."
“The superficial calm, quiet, slowness and lack of words of the film is counteracted by the almost bursting tragedy and violence that is in the staging and portrayal of the three couples. This violence is not that of action cinema. "
"The successful combination of exquisite form and generally applicable content in 'Dolls' has made Takeshi Kitano one of the greats in the director's field, and 'Takeshi Kitanos Dolls' has a firm place in film history."
"Fans of Kitano's other works [...] won't know what to do with 'Dolls'."
"[Kitano] pulls the strings well enough, but there is no life in his dolls."
"Transports its subtext into the text [...] The decision to make a film that consists only of subtext, however, rarely goes well: such cinema seems pretentious to some, and if you clear the basement, the basement is logically empty. That is the case with Dolls , who says everything he has to say "
“Self-confidently magnificent [...] but leaves you completely indifferent, schematic, hollow, technically adolescent. [...] Overall like a bath in syrup. "
"Kitano is talented enough as a filmmaker that even his failures are somehow fascinating"
Awards
At the 2003 Japanese Academy Awards , the film was nominated for “ Best Camera ,” “ Best Music ,” “Best Set Design,” and “Best Lighting,” but was not recognized in any of the four categories. Miho Kanno received the Hochi Film Prize for “best supporting actress”.
Web links
- Dolls in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Dolls atRotten Tomatoes(English)
- Katja Nicodemus: Japan's fashion, Japan's greed in Die Zeit 45/2003, an interview with Takeshi Kitano
- Dolls ( Memento from November 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) at Rapid Eye Movies
- Dolls at the fan site Takeshi Kitano's films
- More information about the film
- Des O'Rawe: Inviolable Attachments: Takeshi Kitano’s Dolls in Screening the Past Issue 21 (English)
- Tony Rayns: Puppet Love in Sight & Sound June 2003, Interview with Takeshi Kitano (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rapid Eye Movies, see web links.
- ↑ Lumiere
- ^ Review by Roger Ebert
- ↑ Dolls. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Ulrich Behrens: Kitano. In: Follow me now. Retrieved July 27, 2008 .
- ↑ José García: Takeshi Kitanos Dolls. In: Texts on the film. Retrieved on July 28, 2008 (also from Filmzentrale).
- ↑ Darrin Keene: Dolls (DVD). In: Film Threat. March 23, 2005, accessed on July 28, 2008 (English): "Fans of Kitano's other work [...] may not know what to make of" Dolls. ""
- ↑ Mark Schilling: Fate's puppets on a string. In: The Japan Times Online. October 2, 2002, accessed on July 28, 2008 : "He's jiggling the strings expertly enough - but there's no life in his puppets"
- ↑ Walter Chaw: Dolls (2002). In: Film Freak Central. Archived from the original on March 6, 2012 ; accessed on July 28, 2008 (English): “sublimates his subtext into the text. [...] The decision to make a film that is all subtext, however, is seldom successful: such pictures tend towards the pretentious for one, and in emptying the basement, logic follows, they leave the basement empty. So it is with Dolls, which says everything it has to say "
- ↑ Bob Davis: Takeshi Kitano. In: Senses of Cinema. 2003, accessed July 27, 2008 : “Self-consciously gorgeous […] but utterly unaffecting, schematic, hollow, technically juvenile. [...] All in all, like taking a bath in syrup "
- ↑ Andrew Cunningham: Dolls. In: Midnight Eye. October 23, 2002, accessed on July 27, 2008 (English): "Kitano is a gifted enough filmmaker that even his failures are somewhat fascinating"