UPDATE: The winner is Cat_D!
It might be tempting to lump this movie in with all the stories we’ve shared about men falling in love with their anime body pillows or courting video game characters on their Nintendo DSs. After all, the premise of ‘Air Doll’ seems silly at best, salacious at worst: an inflatable sex doll comes to life. But in the hands of internationally-acclaimed director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Still Walking, After Life, Nobody Knows) the story is a meditation on what it means to be human.
Lonely middle-aged waiter Hideo (Itsuji Itao) relieves his solitude with the company of an air doll: he chats with her, dresses her, and has sex with her every night. One morning after he has left for work, the doll suddenly comes to life and, dressing up in her maid outfit, goes out to explore the world with the wide-eyed wonder of a small child. Beautiful Korean star Bae Du-na (The Host) is mesmerizing as the come-to-life doll, fearlessly naked both physically and emotionally. Mimicking the speech and actions of her neighbors the air doll learns to fit in, and soon lands a job working at a video store, where she begins to fall in love with a sympathetic co-worker (Arata). Yet every night she goes home and pretends to be a doll for Hideo, who has not noticed any change. Her soul is pure, but one of the first things she learns as a human is deceit. “I found myself with a heart I was not supposed to have,” she says.
Koji already posted his review of ‘Air Doll’ and says it’s worth watching, so if you’re in the Bay Area this weekend, why not catch it in the theatres?
The film’s running time is 116 minutes; it is not rated. In Japanese; fully subtitled in English.
Palisades Tartan presents AIR DOLL; Landmark Theatres engagements begin Friday, June 25, 2010 at Landmark’s Lumiere Theatre, 1572 California St., San Francisco, (415) 267-4893 and Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley (510) 464-5980
Want to check it out this weekend, Bay Area folks?
What you could win from Landmark Theatres and 8Asians:
A free pair of tickets for Opening Weekend (6/25/2010) in SF (Landmark’s Lumiere Theatre) or Berkeley (Landmark’s Shattuck Theatre)!How do you enter?
All you have to do is to leave a comment with your preferred location and one lucky winner will be selected to go!Hurry, the deadline to enter is: Friday, June 25 at 12noon (Pacific Time)
ONE lucky winner will be selected and contacted that afternoon.Rules for entering:
1) Please be serious about using the tickets– unused free tix suck!
2) Contributors to 8Asians and their immediate family members are not eligible to win.Prize courtesy of: Landmark Theatres and 8Asians.
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