Kûki ningyô
Tags: philosophical

Plot synopsis:
Middle-aged Hideo lives alone with an inflatable sex doll he calls Nozomi. The doll is his closest companion; he dresses her, talks to her over dinner, takes her for walks in a wheelchair, and has sexual intercourse with her.
While Hideo is at work, Nozomi comes to life. She dresses in her maid's outfit and explores the world outside their apartment with wonder. Eventually she takes a job in a video store and becomes romantically involved with one of the employees, Junichi. When she accidentally cuts herself and deflates, Junichi repairs the tear with adhesive tape and re-inflates her.
One day, Hideo visits the store; she serves him, embarrassed, but he does not recognise her. Her boss presumes that Hideo is her boyfriend and that she is cheating on Junichi. She allows him to have sex with her. At their home, Hideo discovers Nozomi is no longer a doll. He asks her to return to lifelessness, as he finds human relationships "annoying". Hurt, she runs away from him.
Nozomi goes to the factory where she was created and meets her maker. He tells her that he believes all the dolls have hearts, as he can tell from their faces when they are returned what kind of treatment they received. When she asks what happens to used dolls, he says he throws them out with the garbage.
Nozomi tells Junichi she will do whatever he wants for him. He asks to let out her air and re-inflate her as he did in the video store. Afterwards, as he sleeps, she attempts to return the favour; finding no plug, she cuts him with scissors, and attempts to stem the blood flow with adhesive tape. Junichi dies and she leaves his body with the garbage. Heartbroken, she removes the tape sealing her own wound and allows herself to slowly deflate, to be collected with the garbage.

Review: Korean actress Bae Doo-na is superb in Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda's latest film Air Doll.
Shown at the Vancouver Film Festival, Air Doll is based on the Japanese manga The Pneumatic Figure of a Girl and tells the story of a life-size inflatable doll used as a sex object for a lonely waiter who finds a heart and becomes a real person.
When the film opens, Hideo (Itao Itsuji), returns from work as a waiter and begins a conversation about his day and everything seems normal until we discover that he is talking to a doll propped up in bed that he calls Nozomi, (the name of his former girl friend).
Though she is a mannequin, he tells her about his life, gives her a bath, dresses her, and has sex with her each night.One morning, Nozomi (Bae Doo-na) wakes up and finds her heart and is transformed, at least as far as appearances are concerned, into an ordinary human being.
Displaying the innocence of a child, Nozomi, dressed in a French chambermaid's uniform, goes out to explore the outside world and finds out what it means to be human (and how society treats women), picking up patterns of speech from neighbors, but comes home each night to resume her roll as the compliant inanimate doll for her master.
Nozomi soon lands a job in a video store and quickly learns about movies though she has never seen one and develops a friendship with the attendant Junichi (Arata), while continuing to believe that her only function is to provide sexual pleasure.Promoting the idea that everyone is empty at their core and must be fulfilled by the companionship of others, Koreeda introduces a host of minor characters such as an old poet who feels betrayed by the world, the doll maker who created her, a woman fearful of being left alone, and a bitter old woman.
Nozomi discovers, however, that being half human and half doll is not fulfilling and wishes to become fully human but cannot find anyone to help her, turning to her maker (God?) for assistance.Air Doll is a sweet, sad fable about the loss of innocence and Bae Doo-na is funny and touching in the role of a childlike doll in the tradition of Pinocchio.
Koreeda makes the point repeatedly about the emptiness of humans, forgetting that cities are home not only to lonely, alienated, and empty people but to brilliant, fulfilled, and compassionate individuals who contribute much value to our world..
Air Doll is a poetic, unhurried, beautifully shot and poignant movie which may remind you of Lars and the Real Girl, Artificial Intelligence, Enchanted, Cyborg She, Pinocchio and Toy Story, yet it distinguishes itself by its poetic quality and focus on the emptiness of city life.Indeed, city dwellers resemble sex dolls.
For instance, a man prefers an air doll to a real woman and even a little girl prefers a ring to a doll given by her mother.Despite the gloomy atmosphere, the movie reminds us of the cycle of life which consists of not only downs, but also ups.
Indeed, Nozomi is already happier than other real human characters in the movie.Starring as an inflatable sex doll with a soul, Korean actress Doona Bae (The Host, Linda Linda Linda) gives a convincing and dazzling performance in this Japanese movie.
The dreamlike music by World's End Girlfriend also adds much purity, mystery and melancholy to this fractured modern fairy tale.Although the plot would become more substantial if other minor characters were further developed, they help illustrate how lonely and alienated humans are.After seeing this haunting movie, one may leave the cinema with a heavy heart and a deep sigh, trying to feel one's long-lost soul and pondering on the meaning of ephemeral life.Hirokazu Koreeda is one of my favorite directors and his previous movies like Maborosi, Nobody Knows and Still Walking are highly recommended..
Hirokazu Koreeda takes a look into the abyss of Japanese society and paints a deeply disturbing but true picture of human beings who replaced their real lives into a state of mere existence.
Once again, Koreeda Hirokazu puts the finger on his recurring topic: the insular lifestyle in urban Japan, and how interactions fail to achieve fulfillment.The premise of a sex doll coming to life may appear a bit irksome, but 'Air Doll' is Koreeda's most introspective film to date because he establishes a solitary principal character observing her surroundings.
Yet the film doesn't ignore the humorous implications of an air doll coming to life, which makes for a few breaks in the simple story, as do a number of well-placed side characters.
Hirokazu Koreeda wows once again with his deliberate film making, effectively commenting on social problems dealing with urban life.
Despite the fact that it is a bit slow and a bit long, Air Doll is definitely one of the better films that I've seen recently.I was finally able to watch this film (on DVD) and was impressed, more so than I thought I would be.
With the quirky and interesting premise of a sex doll that comes to life, Air Doll (which is lightly based on a manga) establishes itself as a film which seeks to appeal to modern audiences, specifically Japanese.
This doll, "named" Nozomi (played by Korean actress Bae Doona), sneaks out of her owners house every day to go to work at a local video store.
There, she falls in love with her coworker, Junichi (played by Arata), and learns about life--both the good and the bad.What separates Air Doll from some of Koreeda's previous work is his choice of Mark Lee as cinematographer.
Bae Doona's character of the doll, Nozomi, is the highlight of the movie.
It is also interesting to note the fact that Bae Doona was very naked during the film (being a sex doll and all), a feat that not many Japanese actresses would even dare to do.
But as a character in Air Doll puts it, a real life relationship may be too hard for some folks to handle because it comes with inevitable problems, warts and all.
And yes while that's the truth, I still can't fathom the necessity of owning a doll for sexual gratification, but I digress.Kore-da's Air Doll is a fantasy film along the lines of Pinnochio, where an inanimate object comes to life and dreams of being a real boy.
Here, it's all the more creepier when the air doll Nozomi suddenly without reason nor forewarning, starts to move on her own, and develops heart and soul through the course of the story.
She doesn't need to yearn to be real, because she's almost real, utilizing clothing and makeup to conceal portions of her that are tell-tale signs that she's a life-sized made-of-plastic Barbie doll coming in the form of Korean actress Bae Doo-na (last seen in the Korean monster film The Host).
Bae brings her Nozomi a sense of that wide-eyed wonderment of the real world, and her performance as a plastic inflatable doll is flawless, with Nozomi constantly in amazement from the assault of the senses of sight, sound and touch.
Balancing her routine very carefully with that of her owner Hideo's (Itsuji Itao) in order to enable her to work at a video store in the day, living an independent life undetected, and then being back at home on time to fulfill Hideo's sexual needs, things start to become a little more complicated when she develops feelings for her colleague Junichi (Arata).Paced slowly to mirror Nozomi's journey of discovery of all things beautiful, from cosmetics to toddlers to that proverbial flower along the sidewalk, Air Doll contains a few scenes that provide that stark commentary about the emptiness of soul and the loneliness experienced in big city living.
It is these episodes and incidents, through Nozomi's interactions with others that bring the film to life, and some of these can be as short as one self-contained scene like the one on the bus where she lends her shoulder to a sleeping man.
It's all within our means to show a little compassion and to make the world a better place to live in.While yet consumed with a pop kind of feeling throughout, and Kore-eda's most erotic film to date, the film is a meditation of life, and the fragility of it, where people are constantly in search of substitutes for things they cannot obtain to fulfill some need or want, which reflects quite well of our modern life where distractions are many, and substitution being a way of life from products to services.
The science-fiction equivalent will be something like Spielberg's A.I., where a young robot embarks on a quest to find his mother and become a real boy This air doll has plenty of humanity inside her, full of soul and that never-ceasing innocent curiosity that makes it a delight to watch, maintaining touching aspects to tug at your heartstrings.
Koreeda's movie,which I viewed exactly forty years since I last looked at a "sailor's help", features certain technological advances - the skin tones are more life-like and the latex is less rubbery, the hair and make-up is more convincing - apart from these minor alterations its the same old dumb doll.Koreeda, whose poetic imagination is different to mine, wondered about many magical and profound possibilities, when he encountered his first sex doll.
But instead of the plot revolving around the guy that is obsessed over a blow up doll, the story is mainly told in the blow up dolls point of view when she comes to life and finds a heart.
Basically starts out with a living blow up doll that acts similar to a girl that has amnesia and has to learn everything all over again while falling in love, than later goes in the darker parts of life direction.
I am not sure if Doona Bae was the right actress for this role playing the live blow up doll, but she did a fine job playing all naive and innocent.
Very sad and innocent film about a blow-up sex doll come to life..
A movie about a blow-up doll who, keenly aware that her function is to provide sexual pleasure, comes to life.
His work here creates a hip, contemporary, and dreamlike atmosphere, and since this is a film about the emptiness and isolation of modern life, it's a good thing.
Bae is one of those actors, and she does it often.The film starts right off with the Air Doll inexplicably "finding a heart" and coming to life.
Bae plays the scene in a very convincing way.Air Doll has a slow pace and a number of characters seem to just float by without explanation but when it's all over they will have made sense.
Unlike some of his previous films that had connections with "family" and "memories" (AFTERLIFE, DISTANCE, NOBODY KNOWS, MABOROSI, & STILL WALKING), AIR Doll also connects but focuses on Losses - not about loved ones passing away, but the lost of values and feelings that make us human.
As usual the cinematography is perfect and appropriate for the story he is telling, and Kore-eda in this case works with Taiwanese DP Lee Ping-Bing to bring some of the most beautiful visuals and colors to each and every scene - the close-ups utilizing soft spot-focus are good enough to be used as Leica advertisements.
While the subject matter to AIR DOLL could have treaded onto "hentai" territory, Kore-eda keeps it in its surreal context and what results is a reflection on how we all are lost in a time where we also have all our material needs satisfied as substitutes to the valuable things in life we no longer have.
It's great to see the enigmatic Arata returning to a Kore-eda film (as always, his characters almost always come across as the alter-ego to the director), and Kore-eda again shows his love of the movies.
I had no idea he actually liked THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY.My favorite of Kore-eda's work still being THE AFTERLIFE, DISTANCE, and NOBODY KNOWS, but AIR DOLL is a bold attempt for Kore-eda, showing he can break the mold and continue on his journey of bringing new ideas to the film medium.
At first she feels different because she is empty, but she comes to discover that human beings, too, are empty.That's pretty much all this film has to say, but it takes a very long time to say it.
Air Doll is a rather sad and delicate story about the loss of innocence, urban alienation, loneliness, and what it means to be human.
Fans of Bae Doo-na will find a lot to like here, as the actress has done an admirable job portraying a sex doll come to life.
Hirokazu Kore-eda is probably my favorite contemporary Japanese director, but I have resisted watching Air Doll (2009) because it seemed like a silly film-a sex doll comes alive.
It took the Japanese art of poetic allegory, to use an air doll as the metaphorical character that represents a prostitute in real life.
The air doll suddenly starts breathing, and becomes a little bit conscious, then escapes form her lifetime slavery of sexual abuse by degenerated and perverted men.When she meets an old man, who symbolizes the wisdom of manhood, he explains her that getting older is dying, and if she will die alone and with empty soul, it means she was never born and lived in this world, that if she feel emptiness inside her mind, it is because nobody loves her, and she does not love nobody in return.And the whole movie becomes suddenly not a simpleminded allegory of a freed prostitute character seeking her inborn stolen soul, but discovers the real meaning of life, sharing it with the audience, which is explained basically as the need of her empty soul to be filled by the soul of someone else to share everything together, like Love trough Human Touch, to live and to share life as a real human being.This film is wonderfully executed for mature audience, where finally you do not see the hyper realistic characters of decadent realife living dead prostitutes, or the grotesque sick minded allegories of prostitution world.
It is beautifully filmed and well acted both lighthearted at times and quite dark at others.Doona Bae excels as the wide eyed innocent, wandering around Tokyo and discovering the world, for the first time.Air Doll has a lovely emotional musical score from "Worlds End Girlfriend" perfectly fits the movie.
Bae Doo-na plays a blow-up doll who comes to life.
At least not in my opinion.The story is about Nozomi, a blow-up sex doll, who comes to life and starts exploring the world taking in every single experience for the first time.I will say that the storyline was interesting, but it just left too many plot holes open and it also had too many things going on where you would wonder just how would that come to be or why wouldn't anyone notice that something fishy was going on.
Good performances all around.On a different note, then the movie does come off as interesting in the sense that some people actually do have these 'real dolls' and treat them as actual people.
Doo-na Bae, who I saw less than two weeks ago in "Spring Bears Love", now stars as a life size blow up doll come to like.
As Nozomi, she lives with a middle aged man (before she comes to life), where he speaks to her, dresses her in various outfits and even makes love to her.
Director Hirokazu Koreeda boldly took on the challenge of making a film about a sex doll, a story based on an original manga series.
She is sometimes embodied in the film by an actual doll and other times by Korean actress Bae Doona, a combination that works out very nicely.
until I got about halfway through the film, at which point, unfortunately, he lost me.Koreeda's 2004 film, 'Nobody Knows', is one of my all-time favorites, so I have to admit that I approached 'Air Doll' with very high expectations.
Koreeda Hirokazu's newest film "Kuki Ningyo AKA Air Doll" is a brilliant and sobering look at life, alienation and loneliness in modern society.
The story seems like the plot of a Japanese AV (Adult Video) or anime - a blowup sex toy one day miraculously comes to life after gaining a "heart/soul" (kokoro).
While Hideo is at work, Nozomi (portrayed by the talented Korean actress Bae Du-Na) ventures out into the real world with childlike curiosity and wonder.
However, Nozomi's happiness soon fades as fate deals her a number of setbacks and a tragic error in judgment soon shatters her life forever.While comparisons to Craig Gillespie's 2007 film "Lars and the Real Girl" (and perhaps even in a looser sense 1987's "Mannequin") are likely, "Air Doll" is more like a companion piece to that film and also goes beyond just dealing with a man's obsession with an artificial girl but explores the greater question of how people deal with loneliness and alienation.
The film examines the empty lives of people in a society like the Japanese where spending something like 5,700 yen in the purchase of the doll for sexual gratification is something not too far fetched.
Although a bit long, the film surprises in the way the subject matter is treated.Best of all is Doona Bae, whose intelligent approach to Nozomi shows an actress with an amazing range who transform in front of our eyes becoming a woman.
This is especially true in Japan, where depopulation is a serious social issue.Hirokazu Koreeda's Air Doll is a film about this phenomenon, or I interpret it as one.
The viewer is thus left to apply cultural implications to the film for it to be more than pure cinema.The air doll is an inflatable sex toy owned by a middle-aged man who calls her Nozomi and treats her as his girlfriend.
A sex doll that comes to life and mimics human behavior and grows a heart and learns (spoiler!) to love.