Air Doll -- Film Review

May 15, 2009 Just a whiff of a story, "Air Doll" is aesthetically so exquisitely packaged, and so tenderly directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda that the urban fairytale about an inflatable sex doll come to life gradually unfurls as an achingly beautiful meditation on loneliness and longing in the city, and a reflective look on a consumerist culture that encourages easy substitutes and disposability, even of humans and feelings. Like its graphic novella original, it is structurally a little frail and stylistically fey, but female audiences will more likely tap in to its feminine sensibility, especially the themes of aging, appearance-consciousness and romantic fantasy. Waif-like Korean actress Bae Doo-na ("The Host"), with her non-Japanese (hence otherworldly) elocution and body language, perfectly fits the mold of air doll Nozomi (which means 'hope' in Japanese) -- owned by disgruntled waiter Hideo (Itsuji Itao), who eats with, chats with and has sex with her.

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