Dolls

Last night I finally got around to watching Takeshi Kitano’s DOLLS. This movie was not very well received when it was released last year, and I can see why, but don’t let this stop you as there are aspects of this film that definitely make it worth watching. I’ll start off by saying that the storyline isn’t quite up there, and scene after scene of the two main characters walking aimlessly around the countryside can get quite repetitive at times (even for a Kitano film). But the colors, oh the beaufiful colors. Kitano took a whole year to film the movie in order to get all the Japanese seasons on film (and it’s not much of a stretch for him since he always has to work around his insane TV schedule), and this is one of the movie’s saving graces. There’s a scene when you see the characters come up a hill, wearing their beautifully designed Yohji Yamamoto costumes (which although artistically interesting, didn’t make a lot of sense if you took the movie to be a regular drama – taken as a sort of fable, it makes sense), with a sea of brilliant reds and oranges in the background that totally did it for me. I also got a kick out of the scenes with real life pop idol Kyoko Fukada who plays a pop idol in the film, and where a Yasuharu Konishi (Pizzicato Five) produced single plays a major part in that storyline. I’ve said it before, I sometimes am attracted to a film for certain aspects of it only, and it’s the case for this one. It’s a flawed movie, but being the Kitano admirer that I am, I found enough to keep me watching and entertained.