2002 ‘ドールズ’ Directed by Takeshi Kitano
Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.
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Falling leaves and blooming roses, death and love entwined in a red thread, linking people together, lost souls on a journey to find something. A lost lover, a meaning to life. Pairs of people indissolubly bound together by forces they can't control, two separate fates that are joint into one. Takeshi Kitano offers three variation on the same themes, three stories so different yet so similar, narrated by artistic visuals and longing silences, relying on symbols rather than words to express the complex world of the people presented. Dolls is joy for the eyes and the soul.
Notes on life non related to the movie: I'm sorry I've been less active on this site lately, I'm moving across the country…
Action!: The Campy, The Violent and The Plot Twist— Kitano's Lingering Violence
In most cases, movie titles have nothing to do with the movie itself. As many have pointed out, titles today serve only as marketing tools. Sometimes they do pertain to the movie, but they are so on the nose or generic that they lack any creativity. However, it does happen every so often that films have titles that do refer to the movie in a unique way that manages to capture its essence, as well as leave you thinking at the end.
Just like dolls, the characters in this film are delicate in the way that they are equally beautiful in their intentions and in many facets of…
''A pity... We were really close,''
Takeshi Kitano continued to experiment after his masterpiece Hana-bi, and here takes it to the next level with three disparate tales of tragic love. The film is editorially ambitious (even for Kitano), visually stunning and wonderfully avant-garde in its approach to storytelling. Every viewing I feel like I penetrate another layer and draw something deeper from its symbolism. One of my favourite things about the film is watching how the seasons change throughout and affect the characters journey.
Dolls. 2002. Directed by Takeshi Kitano.
Takeshi Kitano’s dolls is a drama, romance that deviated from his usual neo-noir films. Dolls has an experimental art house flow to it that elaborates on the complexities of relationships over time with three stories. The central story or the tie that binds all the stories together is based on an introductory Bunraku performance of “The Courier of Hell” by Chikamatsu Monzaemoon. Since relationships take place over time, the cinematography by Katsumi Yanagishima captures the main characters {Matsumoto (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Sawako (Miho Kano)} as they wander bound by a red rope through the four seasons. The red rope is symbolic of love, passion, and the bond that ties a couple together tantamount to…
I sometimes find myself struggling with this more classical style of Japanese cinema, as opposed to the punk style which emerged with Terayama and Oshima and went international with Miike and... well, Kitano, but the other Takeshi Kitano to the one who turns up here. I don't really understand Japanese culture well enough to appreciate films that are so rooted in the history of the country and its art-forms. But this worked well enough: it begins with a lengthy bunraku show and somehow didn't lose me.
There is a slight mawkishness creeping around the edges - all those crushed butterflies and broken toys - but at its best it makes the case that, at the turn of the millennium, Takeshi…
Japanuary 2021 #2
“Puppentheater” à la Takeshi Kitano
Mit einem Einstig hat mich Dolls zunächst noch sehr abgeschreckt. Der Film beginnt mit der Aufführung eines traditionellen Japanischen Bunraku (Figurentheater mit Puppen), das wirkt zunächst alles sehr fremdartig und wie genau das alles mit der Story des Films zusammenhängt stellt sich erst recht spät heraus.
Der Hauptfokus von Dolls liegt dann aber zum Glück in der Erzählung von 3 miteinander verwobenen Geschichten. Alles tragische Geschichten über Liebe und Verlust aber so Clever miteinander verstrickt das nie groß Langweile aufkommt. Auch wenn im Film nicht übermäßig viel gesprochen wird, so wird man dennoch begleitet von den wundervollen Bildern, die Japan zu allen 4 Jahreszeiten zeigen unterlegt von Joe Hisaishis (Ghibli) wundervollem minimalistischem…
Denn letztendlich sind wir alle nur Puppen im Spiel des Lebens...
"Dolls" gehört wohl zu den ungewöhnlichsten Arbeiten von Takeshi Kitano. Eine Sammlung dreier melancholisch-trauriger Geschichten: Der alternde Yakuza, dessen Schwarm seit Jahren auf ihn wartet, das entstellte Popsternchen und ein Paar, dessen Fast-Trennung schwere emotionale Folgen hat. Dabei blickt Kitano auch kritisch auf die japanische Gesellschaft und den Umgang mit dem Tod.
Ruhig inszeniert, mit wunderschönen, metaphorischen Bildkompositionen, einem sparsamen Score von Joe Hisaishi und einer tiefen Melancholie. Beeindruckend.
passionate display of messy emotions from an old man desperately trying not break down as he narrates these romanticized experiences from the many lives he's lived and the love that he's lost. it's structured in accordance with the same intertwining demonstrations of love and violence which are so prevalent in kitano's work but the editing is so freeing compared to his typically earthbound long take structures—blood splatters and autumn leaves and flowers in full bloom blanket the frame as if to try and comfort these doomed lovers with the warmth of hope for the future🥀
Bunraku at it's most artistic. Three stories. Slow glide at it's blurriest. Cherry blossoms to snow, just two lovers travelling to the end of time. The most beautiful places to be ever seen in Takeshi Kitano's world. The human mind here is one to think about. Seasons meld together so seamlessly, that just like in Hana-bi, time doesn't matter, nor age when it comes to love. The beach locations here is at it's most contemplative, especially when a painful event happens. Dolls here may or may not lead to a faithful end, one that either happens to everyone or is specific to certain people. Aching sadness at it's precisely abstract.
Mit welchem Film würdest du, spätabends nach drei knüppelharten Arbeitstagen wieder zuhause, noch etwas seelische Erleichterung suchen?
Bei mir war es heute um 0 Uhr Takeshi Kitanos Dolls. Drei traurig-schöne und miteinander verschachtelte Geschichten von einem Pop-Idol, einem alternden Yakuza und einer große Schuld; alles zusammengehalten von der Liebe... ob neuentdeckt, wiederentdeckt oder vergeben.
Viel Stille, wenige Worte, minimaler (aber ganz klarer Joe Hisaishi-) Score, und Gesichter die oft wenig und gleichzeitig doch alles ausdrücken. Will sagen, hier müssen auch mal nur die eigenen Gefühle sich Story und Charaktere "erzählen" und "erklären".
Zu sehen gibt es ein Japan im Jahreszeitenwechsel, mit künstlerischen Bildkompositionen und überbordenden Farben eingefangen, dazu kleine optische Spielereien von Kamera und Schnitt, und die wohl mit traurigsten…
Kitano's films have put me through a spectrum of feelings. Here it's pretty much heartbreak.
Inspired by traditional Japanese Bunraku, this film is a ballad of broken hearts drenched in tragedy, serenity and undying love. It's also my favourite looking Kitano film.
He's at his most melancholy here.
It's just a shame that this marked the end of his collaborative efforts with Joe Hisaishi. The OST of this film is both haunting and beautiful.
