Takeshi Kitano continues alternating between introspective drama and violent films with DOLLS, which he wrote, directed, and edited in between the bloody gangster picture BROTHER (2000) and the samurai update THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI. Beginning with an excerpt from Bunraku puppet theater master Monzaemon Chikamatsu’s THE COURIER FOR HELL, Kitano goes on to tell the story of three sets of men and women obsessed with ill-fated relationships. Matsumoto (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is in love with Sawako (Miho Kanno), but he chooses to marry his boss’s daughter instead so he can get ahead in the world. After Sawako attempts suicide and loses her mind, Matsumoto chooses to do his penance by giving up everything to take care of her, leading her through the streets and parks tied to him with a red cord so she can't get away and hurt herself. Hiro (Tatsuya Mihashi) is a yakuza boss who left his love (Chieko Matsubara) long ago in order to make something of himself; she promised she would come to the park to wait for him every Saturday, and he is shocked when he returns to the bench decades later and finds her there, with his lunch. And traffic worker Nukui (Tsutomu Takeshige) is so dedicated to young pop sensation Haruna (real-life pop sensation Kyoko Fukada) that he makes a bizarre sacrifice after she is partially blinded in an accident. With an emotional score by Joe Hisaishi, DOLLS is a deep, dark, bleak, but mesmerizing look at lost love, as seen through the eyes of one of Japan’s best filmmakers.
