If occasional pretentious doodling like this is what it takes to keep Kitano's copious creative juices flowing, so be it. The Great Ones are allowed the occasional snoozer.
Comment
01/20/05
Dolls (2004)
75
%
Tomatometer
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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... [More]
Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Miho Kanno, Tatsuya Mihashi, Chieko Matsubara
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Reviews for Dolls
Since Dolls is told in a somnambulist manner, the stories become languid and staid.
01/14/05
Kitano succeeds on the strength of his images, but it's a very near thing.
01/07/05
Weighed down by heavy-handed sentiment and largely free of [Kitano's] trademark dark humor, Dolls is still a compelling work from a genuine talent.
12/26/04
Probably one of the most unusual testaments to love's enduring power in recent memory.
12/22/04
Studied and stately, and restrained to the point of stasis, Dolls isn't for everyone. But it will provide loyal fans of Kitano, and Japanese art, a decided pleasure.
12/13/04
A really slow story of love and redemption.
12/13/04
Rife with beautiful imagery and loads of symbolism, though none of the stories is particularly compelling on its own.
12/10/04
Lush and poetic, Dolls proves once again that Kitano is one of the world's most original filmmakers.
12/10/04
Whether this measured exercise in romantic melancholy moves you to tears or bores you to them is probably a matter of personal susceptibility to the sting of bitter regret for love lost.
12/10/04
Takeshi Kitano's melancholy allegory is a meditation on the heavy ties that bind, of which love is merely one and not necessarily the strongest.
12/10/04
Top CriticKitano always delivers movies that, however mixed in quality, make you stare at them intently. And almost always, you feel as though the movies are staring right back at you.
12/09/04
While the drama's emotional observations could have been brought together more cohesively, its sorrowful mood resonates beyond the end credits, allowing key themes to continue to gel.
12/09/04
Top CriticLove and faith, Takeshi Kitano suggests in his lyrical and typically original film, can coexist with impossibility and loss.
12/08/04
Dolls risks the bank on symbology as gaudy as teen anime and as heavy as a stone temple.
12/07/04
A few days removed from my first and only viewing of it, I admit it's already begun to grow a little in the rear-view.
11/18/04
Kitano is great at examining and breaking down cultural and sexual boundaries, but Dolls merely plays out like a work of hegemonic reinforcement.
09/06/04
The long sequences of shuffling silence and haunted expressions are punctuated by moments of muted anguish that are unbearably heartbreaking
03/13/04
Has all the colour, delicacy, and detached fragility of a china doll
10/28/03
Kitano is now showing his softer, more interpretive side. Dolls is his most challenging and finest work to date.
05/21/03
Latest News for Dolls
March 01, 2006:
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