Touches You

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

One of my friends once asked me to talk about Dolls, since it was a movie that really charmed me, and it's one of my favorites. I really had to think carefully before starting to give any description... How can you describe a movie like this one? You should see it.Too hard to concentrate in words the symbols, atmospheres, emotions, silence, and everything you can find in this great work if you're thoughtful and receptive enough.I'd really not recommend it if you like "light" and fast paced films, that's for sure. Dolls is so sad it sticks to your soul for hours, and its best parts are the ones you can catch from images, metaphors and details, that speak and live more than the plot itself and its dialogs can do. This film is made for thinking, and it has a very special way to show thoughts, not for everyone in my humble opinion. Dolls is 3 love stories, but I think love isn't the "main" theme... I'd say it covers a series of details, feelings and absurd things. The characters are always stroke by a world with a series of incidents and expectations that brings 'em far away from their dreams. Dolls is aesthetic, and poetry.

Matsumoto (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Sawako (Miho Kanno) are in deep love for each other. When the president of the company where Matsumoto works "selects" him to marry his daughter, Matsumoto's parents force him to accept the engagement. On the wedding day, Matsumoto is informed that Sawako has attempted to commit suicide and is slow and catatonic in a clinic. Matsumoto feels guilty, and takes Sawako out of the clinic; his decision affects their lives.The old Yakuza boss Hiro (Tatsuya Mihashi) misses his girlfriend from thirty years ago that has promised to wait for him in a park while he would chase success. When Hiro visits the park, he sees her on the bench where they used to meet each other.The pop-star Haruna Yamagushi (Kyôko Fukada) has an obsessive fan called Nukui (Tsutomu Takeshige) that stalks her. After a car accident, Nukui makes a decision to be close to his beloved idol."Dolls" is a sad and depressive movie based on the Japanese Puppet Theater Bunraku that tells three tales of guilt and eternal love. Each tragic love story is disclosed in a very slow pace and supported by stunning cinematography and excellent direction and performances. Takeshi Kitano has also a magnificent work promoting the culture of his country overseas. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Dolls"

I've seen the movie Dolls. It's from Japan and directed by Takeshi Kitano. This movie has three different stories about unrequited love. The first story is about a young man named Matsumoto; he's supposed to get married to his new girlfriend. Horrible news happened on his wedding day: his ex-girlfriend went insane after a drug overdose an was sent to a psychiatric ward. That made me feel upset when Matsumoto and Sawako took a walk on memory lane. Third segment was about Hiro, the Yakuza mob boss. His childhood wasn't unsure to reunite with his former lover Ryoko, the girl at the park. Finally, there was Haruna Yamaguchi; a pop star who confronts her past after a tragic accident left her face disfigured. Her number one fan named Nukui needed to help that desperate situation that ruined her career.See what I mean, all three stories were somewhat great but sad throughout the movie.

A passing knowledge of Bunraku, the Japanese traditional art of stage puppetry and some familiarity with the work of seventeenth century Japanese dramatist Monzaemon Chikamatsu, may help non-pointy headed viewers appreciate the themes of love, suicide, social pressure, and tragedy in Takeshi Kitano's visually enchanting film Dolls. Three intertwined stories of obsessional love are thematically influenced by Chikamatsu, (the Japanese Shakespeare) whose dramas are still acted out by Bunraku puppeteers and remain hugely resonant even in modern Japan.In the first story, a man pressured by his parents into marrying the daughter of his boss devotes his life to the lover he spurned after learning that she has attempted suicide. The two now bound together (literally) wander through Japan in a surreal journey that covers all four seasons. The following stories feature a Yakuza boss who seeks out the lover he abandoned decades earlier, and a devoted, but disturbed fan who takes an extraordinary course of action to meet with the pop star he idolises after she has been disfigured in a car crash.Dolls marks a new departure in style and subject for Takeshi, whose past work has focused mainly on the violent world of the Yakuza, and is marked by its distinct grey/blue visual style. To counter this muted look Takeshi consciously sought to add colour to Dolls, and this he does to stunning effect. With the help of his friend, fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, and cinematographer Katsumi Yanagishima, Takeshi has achieved a lush, sensuous, aesthetic that at times can be quite sublime.Many of Chikamatsu's plays were written for performance in Bunraku, and Takeshi has given the film a stage like quality - he sees the characters as living dolls and allusions are made to this throughout the film. All this leads to the inevitable question of does it work? The answer unfortunately is no. Takeshi's characters are not sufficiently developed or emotionally involving enough for us to care about them. This is especially the case with the bound lovers Sawako, and Matsumoto, (Miho Kanno and Hidetoshi Nishijima) whose subdued and emotionless performance alienates the audience.Sawako and Matsumoto were based on two real life 'bound' beggars who Takeshi would often see in his Tokyo suburb. The reason that these beggars were bound to each other we'll more than likely never know, but in the case of the lovers, an old Japanese saying about betrothed couples being bound by the red strings of fate seems to apply. This is all very interesting but sadly Dolls is not. The film pretty as it is falls a bit flat due to its poor character development and meandering story line. This is no problem for Takeshi though who has stated that he will be happy if viewers are simply amazed at the beautiful pictures. I suspect that with the majority of viewers this will be the case.