Air Doll
2009 ‘Kûki ningyô’ Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda
Synopsis
An "air doll" (played by Du-na Bae) suddenly develops human feelings one day. Without her owner knowing, the air doll decides to walk around town. She then falls in love with Junichi, whom she spots while walking the aisles of a video rental store. She then starts to date Junichi and eventually works at the video shop. Everything seems to be going perfect for the air doll until something unexpected happens to her.
Popular reviews
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Quoth Norm Macdonald in DIRTY WORK: "Note to self: Sex with blow-up doll not as good as advertised."
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Air Doll is like a modern version of Pinocchio but female. The doll here is just a substitute for handling sexual desire.
This is a tale about a doll, finding once a "heart". She goes out and discovers - with an innocent, naive, childish look - the world... a lonely, loosely world, in which, as she described, "we lead our scattered lives, perfectly unaware of each other or at times allowed to find it the other's presence disagreeable" despite the fact that "life is contructed in a way that no one can fulfill it alone, life contains its own absence which only an other can fulfill".
After describing these sad human relationships in post-industrial urban areas leading to loneliness, sexual… -
"A blow-up doll comes to life!"
Sounds like a premise for a raunchy adult comedy, right? Well, guess what? That's actually the opposite of what Air Doll really is. No, I'm not going to rant about how I was tricked and how mad I am I didn't get two hours of sex jokes. Because what I DID get, however, is a sad, poetic, beautiful (hauntingly so at times) examination of innocence, and the loss of it.
For a lot of the movie, there's a sweet, child-like curiosity about it, as blow-up doll Nozomi (played by Korean-born Bae Doona), gains a heart and begins to explore the world, learning more about her surroundings, about herself, and about other people she creates…
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Muñecas que cobran vida. Una película divertida y triste.
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Completely not the film I was expecting and that's a good thing. A sex doll comes to life ala Pinocchio style and gets to grips with the world around her. The film plays it mostly completely straight and its much like you're experiencing lots of things for the very first time. However our doll gets a job in a video store and starts to pick up how to behave in the world through films and watching those around her as she slowly integrates into the world. However she still has to be home to be the lifeless doll her owner expects. Things take a much more darker tone as the film goes on about dealing with love, loss and death but its handled excellently.
Drinking Game: Every plastic or real boob shot?
Bottom Line: One of the more moving films I've seen for a while - and its about a sex doll?! Madness!
Recent reviews
More-
Air Doll is like a modern version of Pinocchio but female. The doll here is just a substitute for handling sexual desire.
This is a tale about a doll, finding once a "heart". She goes out and discovers - with an innocent, naive, childish look - the world... a lonely, loosely world, in which, as she described, "we lead our scattered lives, perfectly unaware of each other or at times allowed to find it the other's presence disagreeable" despite the fact that "life is contructed in a way that no one can fulfill it alone, life contains its own absence which only an other can fulfill".
After describing these sad human relationships in post-industrial urban areas leading to loneliness, sexual… -
This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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"A blow-up doll comes to life!"
Sounds like a premise for a raunchy adult comedy, right? Well, guess what? That's actually the opposite of what Air Doll really is. No, I'm not going to rant about how I was tricked and how mad I am I didn't get two hours of sex jokes. Because what I DID get, however, is a sad, poetic, beautiful (hauntingly so at times) examination of innocence, and the loss of it.
For a lot of the movie, there's a sweet, child-like curiosity about it, as blow-up doll Nozomi (played by Korean-born Bae Doona), gains a heart and begins to explore the world, learning more about her surroundings, about herself, and about other people she creates…
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Muñecas que cobran vida. Una película divertida y triste.
-
Completely not the film I was expecting and that's a good thing. A sex doll comes to life ala Pinocchio style and gets to grips with the world around her. The film plays it mostly completely straight and its much like you're experiencing lots of things for the very first time. However our doll gets a job in a video store and starts to pick up how to behave in the world through films and watching those around her as she slowly integrates into the world. However she still has to be home to be the lifeless doll her owner expects. Things take a much more darker tone as the film goes on about dealing with love, loss and death but its handled excellently.
Drinking Game: Every plastic or real boob shot?
Bottom Line: One of the more moving films I've seen for a while - and its about a sex doll?! Madness! -
Quoth Norm Macdonald in DIRTY WORK: "Note to self: Sex with blow-up doll not as good as advertised."
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just breath...
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3 out of 5 (B-)
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I really loved this movie. It blends fiction within the fiction of the movie and makes it feel real - whilst you recon at the same time this couldn't be 'real'. It's all about metafiction. A lot of people have lost their feeling towards the world and other people, due to the individualisation of society. And then they invent subsitutes. Substitutes for sexual pleasure for example. People make air dolls look like as perfect people and attribute human feelings to them, but they don't expect 'em to come alive at all. That just freaks them out. People have become afraid of real feelings, mostly devastating. This movie shows the pure desire for loving and being loved.