Personal opinion about a film, I must clarify it’s not a proper review, spoilers are given.
Last night I was ready to switch off the TV when some Japanese dolls (Ningyō jōruri,p or Bunraku?) appeared, I kept telling myself “5 more minutes” until I realised more than two hours had passed, right then I decided to watch the whole film.
The director, Takeshi Kitano, has said it depends what mood the person is in how the film will be perceived, so far I have read 87% of western viewers believe it to be a tragedy, a display of dumb misplaced love. I disagree.
First of all I think it had a happy ending, I don’t believe for a second the young couple died, the girl did recover sanity and then they slide down a cliff, they didn’t jump before and didn’t do it then, they fell but love saved them and maybe somebody found them hanging (which didn’t seem likely) but whatever happened from then on didn’t matter because they had conquered and their mistakes didn’t made them miserable.
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A Walking around, lost and together, how many are willing?.
The other couples do seem to have the option of a different interpretation, the retired pop star could have known the blind guy was dead, her face is not of abandonment, she is alone, aware, looking after herself, but not necessarily disappointed.
The old woman, on the other hand could have sensed her ex-boyfriend’s death but it looks more like she recovered conscience (same way than the young one) and understood what had gone missing with all the wait.
To me, “Dolls” is not a reference to what they become after letting themselves go for a doomed relationship, it’s about how helpless humans are in the world and because of feelings.
The young man made choices but the overdose of his ex-fiance and her mental state were beyond him, the girl didn’t have control over his actions either, obviously, but for the rest it went beyond that, the retired star didn’t chose to be left disabled and could do little over the obsession her fans chose to accept as normal, his blind fan didn’t ask to get murdered (nobody does), and the old man was going to die eventually, like we all do.
I didn’t see loss, the singer got a chance of seeing something else besides her pain and the old couple got closure, even the disabled man got what he deserved, he was mean and abusive, he was left empty-handed.
It’s not a tragedy, it’s about evaluating paths in a very human way, sometimes cruel and cold measures are taken, others guilt is left to decide, but there’ll inevitably be consequences.
I liked the movie, it’s one of the best I’ve seen and I believe it was nice an optimistic.
