DOLLS

Japan, 2002, 130 minutes, Colour.
Miho Kanno, Hidetoshi Nishijima.
Directed by Takeshi Kitano.

Dolls was written by Takeshi Kitano and directed by him. Kitano became a celebrated world director during the 1990s, especially with some tough and violent police and Yakuza films. The best of these was Hana- Beh, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival in 1997. Kitano is a stand-up comedian, an actor, a composer and appeared in a number of significant Japanese films. He also has made some sentimental films and Dolls combines sentiment with drama, combining three stories about never-ending love: a young couple bound by red cord, an ageing Yakuza going to meet a long lost girlfriend, a disfigured pop star confronting the devotion of his fan.

Kitano is able to elicit great warmth from his characters and present a deeper understanding of love.

After this he made the celebrated Zatoichi, a martial arts film with great exuberance and beauty.

1. The work of Takeshi Kitani? His usual focus on violence, on the world of gangsters? The films which included much more humanity? Combinations of both? The humanity in this film and the gangster theme being very subdued?

2. The Japanese settings, the city, the countryside? The range of landscapes? The four seasons and their different beauty? The blossoms, the summer beach, the autumn leaves falling, the snow of winter? The musical score?

3. The title of the film, the opening with the dolls from Bunraku? The play from Chikamatsu? The doomed lovers? The film's focus on the dolls themselves, their dress, expression, movements? The puppeteers, the three working the dolls? The two sitting voicing the dolls? The drama itself, the doomed love, their going off together? The prologue for the film and its plot? The young couple dressing like the dolls at the end? The final focus on the dolls bringing the drama and the tragedy together?

4. The focus on the bound beggars, the two walking together, tied together, the people watching and laughing? The cord being caught on the stump and people ridiculing them? Their seemingly eternal pilgrimage? Their silence, separation, joined by the cord? Their sad faces, their grief?

5. The wedding sequence, the people at the church, the guests waiting, the two young men talking, the boss marrying his daughter off, the up-and-coming young executive? The story of the arranged marriage, his having to abandon his fiancee? The information that she had tried to commit suicide? His leaving the church, going to search for her at the hospital, finding that she was in the institution, going to get her? Being bound with her and beginning the long journey?

6. Matsumoto and the possibilities for his life, his love for Sawako, the flashback of their happy times together, the final flashback to his proposal in the cabin in the winter, surrounded by friends, not having a ring, the necklace? Sawako and her love for him? Her desperation? The scenes in the institution, the inmates and their life? The two going together, their simple clothes, the seasons of the year? The wandering? Her mind having gone, her not understanding Matsumoto? His silence? The range of stops on their journey, the encounters? The final encounter in the snow, being hurried away? Her finally recognising him, the necklace? Their being transformed into the dolls with the clothes? The falling down the snow, their hanging from the bough? Their becoming the dolls?

7. The Yakuza boss, at home, the new recruits, his questioning them, their motivation? His memories of the past? The violence, his going in the lift with the woman and then going up the stairs, waylaying the assassins, killing them all? The code of the Yakuza, even to killing brothers? The further memory of the young woman in the park when he was a factory worker, his ambitions, sharing the lunch, her promising to come every Saturday? His going for the drive with the bodyguards, going in the park, seeking out the woman, people saying she was still coming, seeing her there, the lunch? Her telling people to move from the bench because of her friend coming? His coming regularly, sharing the lunches? Her knowing that her friend would never come, that the gangster was the substitute? The assassination? Her grief, losing him once again?

8. The pop star, her singing, her career, the fans? The accident? Her face and the bandages, hiding on the beach from people? The fan, his following her, his work on the roads, hearing of the accident, hurrying to her? His coming to see her, the blindness? So that he would not be able to see her and her disfigurement? Sharing on the beach? His walking away? The glimpse of his body, having been hit by the car? The police washing the blood away?

9. The pathos and tragedy of the three stories? Life and death? People being bound together? Love and betrayals? Memories? The delicacy of the feeling of the film in its visuals, sound, music, performances?