空氣人形

Just got back from a screening of “Air Doll,” or “空氣人形." I'll talk a bit about the movie since I haven't really done this before. It was a thoughtful little art house Japanese film by Hirokazu Koreeda. The movie is about a life-size inflatable doll that comes to life. While her owner is away during the daytime, she would wander out to the outside world, during which she meets a variety of people and even works at a video rental store and fell in love with a co-worker. Yes, the premise sounds bizarre, but the movie is able to carry it through while conveying its messages: the emptiness and loneliness of urban life and what it means to be human. These messages may be done many times in other movies, but here it’s another creative way to present them.

One of the main themes it brings is the inability for people to connect to each other, to share their sorrows. Because of this, they are empty inside, like the doll. This is quite reflective of the current society. As the doll with a soul learns to become human and fills the emptiness inside, she also discovers that the human characters live lives that are empty, always relying on a “substitute” to release their troubles and feelings. Though I think it is also important to note that the world can't be without the hardworking kindhearted people which the movie didn't mention.

As the doll goes around the city, she also collects glass bottles, fragments, and things in which one would consider garbage. But she finds the beauty in these objects. When she walks, she notices grass, flowers, and dandelions. All these small objects may signify the things we missed as we go on our lives. By the way the scenes in the movie are all well-crafted and beautiful to look at. It’s interesting how the glass bottles are transparent and we can see light shining through…just like herself...

Anyways this is an interesting movie…weird and shocking at some parts (well it is from Japan) but overall I definitely recommend this movie. It premiered at Cannes Film Fest in May and Japan in September 2009. Oh and the lead actress is Bae Doona… she’s Korean who speaks near-perfect Japanese. She was amazing here…hmm both acting and body haha.