AIR DOLL
“I found myself
with a heart I was not supposed to have,” declares Nozomi (a brilliant Bae
Doona), in voiceover, as she takes her first tentative steps into the world. They
really are her first steps because Nozomi is a plastic blow-up sex doll owned
by a Tokyo waiter (Itao Itsuji). One day, while he’s at work, Nozomi (as the
waiter calls her), starts coming to life, so much so that she eventually gets a
job in a video store and begins a tentative relationship with Junichi (Arata),
a shy co-worker. Although the setup suggests a sex farce, in the masterly hands
of writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Nobody
Knows, Maborosi), the adventures
of this wandering air doll become a profoundly human tale, and one of this
year’s most fascinating films. At first, Nozomi mimics, comically, the words
and movements of the people around her, but Junichi’s friendship helps her to
relax and be herself, half-formed though she may be. As her exploration of
human life begins leading her to harsher and darker experiences, Nozomi seeks
out the doll maker (Sonoda) who crafted her, but not even his kindness can ease
the melancholy she’s beginning to feel about becoming a sentient being. “Having
a heart,” she says, “is heartbreaking”. (Chuck Wilson)