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Movies / On DVD / Dolls
Dolls

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Dolls (2004)

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Reviews Counted:36

Fresh:27

Rotten:9

Average Rating:6.7/10

Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Synopsis: Takeshi Kitano continues alternating between introspective drama and violent films with DOLLS, which he wrote, directed, and edited in between the bloody gangster picture BROTHER (2000) and the... Takeshi Kitano continues alternating between introspective drama and violent films with DOLLS, which he wrote, directed, and edited in between the bloody gangster picture BROTHER (2000) and the samurai update THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI. Beginning with an excerpt from Bunraku puppet theater master Monzaemon Chikamatsu's THE COURIER FOR HELL, Kitano goes on to tell the story of three sets of men and women obsessed with ill-fated relationships. Matsumoto (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is in love with Sawako (Miho Kanno), but he chooses to marry his boss's daughter instead so he can get ahead in the world. After Sawako attempts suicide and loses her mind, Matsumoto chooses to do his penance by giving up everything to take care of her, leading her through the streets and parks tied to him with a red cord so she can't get away and hurt herself. Hiro (Tatsuya Mihashi) is a yakuza boss who left his love (Chieko Matsubara) long ago in order to make something of himself; she promised she would come to the park to wait for him every Saturday, and he is shocked when he returns to the bench decades later and finds her there, with his lunch. And traffic worker Nukui (Tsutomu Takeshige) is so dedicated to young pop sensation Haruna (real-life pop sensation Kyoko Fukada) that he makes a bizarre sacrifice after she is partially blinded in an accident. With an emotional score by Joe Hisaishi, DOLLS is a deep, dark, bleak, but mesmerizing look at lost love, as seen through the eyes of one of Japan's best filmmakers. [More]

Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Miho Kanno, Tatsuya Mihashi, Chieko Matsubara

Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Miho Kanno, Tatsuya Mihashi, Chieko Matsubara, Kyoko Fukada, Tsutomu Takeshige

Director: Takeshi Kitano

Director: Takeshi Kitano
Screenwriter: Takeshi Kitano
Producer: Masayuki Mori, Masayuki Mori, Takio Yoshida
Composer: Joe Hisaishi
Studio: Palm Pictures

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Dolls

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
11/08/07
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

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Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/26/06
Time Out
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
07/08/03
Guardian [UK]
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
05/24/03
Channel 4 Film
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While Kitano obviously believes his subject matter is deeply moving, the result is a film of stunted emotional development.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
05/21/03
Jamie Russell
Jamie Russell
BBC
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
11/08/07
Boston Phoenix
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N/R

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Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
11/08/07
AV Club
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The stories have a fateful, lonely feel, like one of Wong Kar-wai's missed connections. Yet their tragic timelessness, and the lovely, aching pace at which they are told, bring them to a level of extraordinary beauty.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
11/08/07
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

...this anthology of tragic tales is never dull and always a feast for the eyes.

Full Review Source: New Times | comment Comment
05/28/05
Luke Y. Thompson
Luke Y. Thompson
New Times

Kitsch art.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
05/23/05
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

pretentious and as hollow as the puppets

Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | comment Comment
03/19/05
Jules Brenner
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals

The cinematography is colorful and sweeping, the editing and storytelling simple and pure.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
03/11/05
G. Allen Johnson
G. Allen Johnson
San Francisco Chronicle

There aren't many movies more visually beautiful than Takeshi Kitano's odd but moving "Dolls."

Full Review Source: About.com | comment Comment
03/06/05
Marcy Dermansky
Marcy Dermansky
About.com

It's all as passionate, refined, and insistently sad as Bunraku puppetry itself.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
02/11/05
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe

Dolls isn't a film for everybody, especially the impatient, but Kitano does succeed, I think, in drawing us into his tempo and his world, and slowing us down into the sadness of his characters.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
02/04/05
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A work both rigorously stylized and deeply personal.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
02/03/05
Michael Wilmington
Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune

Devoted fans of Kitano will want to see Dolls. Others may be put off by the dirgelike pace (Kitano takes full credit for the editing) and a ghastly, mood-destroying pop-music number performed by Fukada.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
01/21/05
John Hartl
John Hartl
Seattle Times

Fascinating bits of behavior are scattered throughout these stories, but it cannot be said that the characters are fleshed out beyond their sentimental symbolism.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
01/21/05
Bob Strauss
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

The movie's pace is appropriate to its mood, which is crisp, melancholy and gently cruel.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
01/20/05
Carina Chocano
Carina Chocano
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Though Kitano has called Dolls 'a puppet show with human characters,' there's nothing stiff or unreal about its intensity of feeling.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
01/20/05
Ella Taylor
Ella Taylor
L.A. Weekly
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
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