Asian Film Review: Air Doll (空気人形)

I went to the movies on Sunday night with a friend and we ended up seeing a quite random, quite bizarre film by the name of 'Air Doll' ( '空気人形' in Japanese or '援膠女郎' in Chinese)... a Japanese film by Hirokazu Koreeda.  I'm not sure how to describe the film other than the premise - What would happen if a Japanese love doll came to life?

As the title implies, rather than being one of those super realistic Real Dolls,  this one is the old fashion inflatable type dolls.   The title character, very well played by Korean actress Bae Doona (배두나) is the property of a lonely single middle-aged guy who treats her like his girlfriend (who never talks back and will wear anything you want her to).

"I think today we'll dress you like a nurse..."

Yes, its pretty creepy, he talks to her,  sits with her at the table and even takes her out to the park.

Yes she even takes snapshots!

One day she somehow comes to life and explores the outside world with a surprising amount of innocence for someone who was designed as a glorified sex toy for creepy guys. :-P

She meets people in her neighborhood and even gets a job at a local video store despite never having watched a movie before.

The filmmaker skips over a lot of details,  so you just have to suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the scenes even if they go along in a very unbelievable situation.

You can see the seam on her arm.  After all, she is made of plastic. There is some good comedic moments as the film progresses, and a bit of nudity and sex as you can imagine from the subject matter!  (ちょっとエッチーの話よ！) 

But be forewarned! Its not all comedy!  For the most part its actually a drama.... using the innocent doll girl's journey to reveal the boring, empty lives that modern city dwellers face (get it?  she's an empty because she's made of plastic and filled with air, they're soul less, bitter lonely people who have no one to love them....) :-P

The air doll girl and her story manage to hit full spectrum of the human condition through the course of the movie - first love, birth, aging, jealousy, the meaning of life, death, mental illness, loneliness, you name it!    Its a bit all over the place, and the end gets a bit overdone (as most Japanese movies do!), but still entertaining.

Like V'ger, she even manages to meet her creator,  who happens to be Odigiri Joe (the guy from Tokyo Tower).  I was somewhat reminded of that episode of Seinfeld where the creepy guy makes a Mannequin that looks exactly like Elaine... Those who are not up on their Japanese culture may miss some of the references in the film, (like the fact that garbage in Japan is sorted by ' burnable' and 'non-burnable' or what an otaku is...).

I'll give it a 6/10.    But you got to give some credit to the director for at least TRYING not to just making an otaku wankfest a la ' Cyborg She(僕の彼女はサイボーグ)'....