AIR DOLL

(a.k.a. KUKI NINGYO)

Hideo (Itsuji Itao) leaves work, gets a train home and stops at the local store for provisions before battling through the rain to his front door. "I’m home" he calls as he enters his quiet home. He proceeds to prepare dinner and sit with partner Nozomi (Doona Bae) at the family table, telling her about his day.

Later, Hideo takes Nozomi to bed and they make love. Afterwards, he washes out her removable vagina in the bath. She is a blow-up sex doll.

However, when Hideo leaves for work the following morning, Nozomi suddenly starts breathing and her limbs begin to move of their own accord. She comes to life (later explained through her occasional narration as a wish that came true) and begins to experience a world that is entirely new to her … a raindrop here, an excited child on the street there.

Choosing a costume from Hideo’s wardrobe at random – a French maid’s outfit (!) – Nozomi takes to the streets and wanders aimlessly, checking out the world he’d always told her about but which she’d never witnessed. She’s like a kid, full of wonder, absorbing all that is good (school kids on a fieldtrip to the local park) and bad (locals discussing a disturbing family murder).

Eventually Nozomi stumbles upon Cinema Circus, a video rental store where she meets young attendant Junichi (Arata). Immediately drawn to Junichi, Nozomi responds to the staff vacancy advert in the store and starts working with him. He teaches her the joy of escapism through the movies … and she falls in love with him.

Meanwhile, as they start to bond in a form that resembles a prelude to dating, she continues to take in the thrills and spills of the fresh world around her, while returning each evening to Hideo. He in turn is oblivious to her newfound animation and continues to treat her as his doll (he’s nice enough to her, in truth: just a lonely guy).

But what will happen when he finds out she has developed a heart and began living in the real world? Will he be as understanding as Junichi is when he discovers, during a Christmas display mishap in the video store, that she is a breathing doll?

And how will Nozomi cope in the long run with the complexities of being human? Will she want to remain this way?

There have been suggestions that director Hirokazu Koreeda’s film proffers a commentary on the viewing of females as sex objects. Perhaps this is touched upon (Nozomi’s blow-up doll origins; the voyeuristic enjoyment of video store patrons as they study the naïve new employee bending over while performing duties) but in truth the film has a lot more on its mind than that.

To me, there are two major themes running through AIR DOLL.

The first is the loss of innocence. Nozomi’s wide-eyed wonder at the world around her is destined from the start to become jaded – we, the seasoned cynics, know this. And indeed it does, as she wryly observes when she tells her first fib: "I found a heart; I told a lie". Watching Nozomi’s take on the world initially is romantic and heart-warming. Her disillusionment comes in unsentimental and well-played waves, allowing the crush to be gradual rather than melodramatic and to the film’s detriment.

The second theme is the isolation and anonymity of like in modern-day Japan. Here, Koreeda perfectly essays the paradox of an over-populated society who pride themselves on their impeccable manners and yet are too obsessed with their hectic lives to notice what goes on around them. People in AIR DOLL are portrayed as being lonely, unable to connect to one another and ultimately lost in the milieu that has become their rat race. Tellingly, the film starts with Hideo and his relationship with Nozomi: it’s not just about the sex, he wants to talk to her and share events with her too – because he can’t find that connection elsewhere.

With such concepts being prevalent throughout, AIR DOLL could easily have ended up being an oppressive affair. But the director’s deftness of touch ensures a canny balance of humour, warmth and sincerity that keeps events agreeable at all times. On top of all that, the performances are uniformly excellent … and Bae is little short of revelatory.

The Korean actress, who readers will probably know best from THE HOST, really excels here. She’s unassumingly pretty, funny without force and capable of expressing a multitude of emotions without dialogue. No overacting here, she’s savvy enough to keep it all wonderfully subtle. It’s an award-worthy performance from the actress who’s currently enjoying acclaim in the higher profile CLOUD ATLAS.

Nozomi herself meditates on love, loss, life (and its limitations) … this film wants to cover a lot of philosophical ground. And it achieves it, albeit with a tendency to make you aware of what it’s achieving on occasion. For the most part though, you won’t feel too force-fed (the moments of humour and Ping Bin Lee’s stunning cinematography ensure this).

Factor in Katsuhiko Maeda’s soft and occasionally childlike score, a cine-literate sub-thread which celebrates everyone from Theo Angelopoulos to the Farrelly Brothers, and frequent bouts of Ms Bae semi-naked (well, come on, that’s what people want to know …), and AIR DOLL can happily rest as a film that entertains, enlightens and warms the cockles in equal measures.

Just don’t go into it expecting lots of blow-up doll sex – that’s another film entirely!

Matchbox Films bring AIR DOLL to UK DVD uncut in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The transfer is enhanced for 16x9 television sets and is a very good one. Colours are a lot warmer than the average Japanese film tends to be, while blacks are strong throughout and detail is consistently impressive.

Japanese 2.0 audio does a good job of conveying the film’s emotional score alongside its contemplative dialogue with even amounts of channel balance. English subtitles are well-written and easy to read.

The disc opens to a static main menu page. From there, a static scene-selection menu allows access to the film via 20 chapters.

Extras are a little thin on the ground unfortunately. All we get are a trailer and a B-roll.

The trailer is just over 2 minutes long, presented in anamorphic widescreen and benefits from English subtitles. It looks about as beautiful as the main feature.

The B-roll is essentially a 6-minute promo package for the film. It’s set to excerpts from the score, so there is no dialogue and therefore no requirement for subtitles. We get a mixture of brief clips from the film along with behind-the-scenes footage. This reveals the shoot to be a happy one, with a clear sense of camaraderie between the cast and crew that kept them warm during the cold filming conditions. This comes in a window-boxed presentation.

AIR DOLL is a warm, heartfelt and intelligent blend of drama, romance and wry humour. It won’t be for all tastes but, if you’re willing to let it sweep you off your feet, you’ll soon find yourself involved in it so much that the 111-minute running time will pass by effortlessly.

Matchbox Films give the film an excellent video and audio representation on this satisfying UK DVD release.

Review by Stuart Willis