Should we start with first reactions? Takeshi Kitano was known for movies about Yakuza (“Brother” 2000) and cops (“Hana-bi” 1997) that were, at times, quite violent. So when “Dolls” came out in 2002, I wonder if it really found its audience. But then I’m not sure who had been watching him. I’ve not seen “Brother” or the other two films in the ‘Yakuza Trilogy’, but I did see “Hana-bi”. It is strange for a cop film. It centers on character not plot. Key characters are ex-cops instead of active duty. And it focuses on efforts to cope, or failure trying, that would never be found in your bang-bang-get-the-bad-guy flick.
Still, “Dolls” is an unusual movie that doesn’t readily fit into a category. It has a framing device of puppets that turns out to be more integral than a mere framing device. Color and costume are front and center in the presentation. And there are three stories braided together like the rope on the ‘bound beggars’.
Did you like this? Is it too stylized or abstract?
24 comments:
Should we start with first reactions?
I think it would have been a much better film had it been edited down to about 15 minutes. I think all of the emotion and meaning could have been retained, and it would have gained a lot of strength.
Alternatively, it could have been the same length but had ten times as much to say.
Is it too stylized or abstract?
In my opinion, yes. But I have a low threshold for stylized and abstract art.
I forgot about Columbus Day being a postal holiday when I sent my last Netflix movie back. So I haven't seen it yet. D'oh! But I will tomorrow.
Liberty Hall didn't have it. Christy said the library did, amazingly enough, but when I went there it wasn't on the shelf.
Anyway, looking forward to it.
It was stylized, but the recurring imagery (particularly the use of red) was really part of the story. And most of the scenes with the tied couple walking together were beautiful -- that patience and dogged determination for him to make amends. Not only was the cinematography gorgeous, but it obviously was a device to show, over the course of seasons, the time he spent waiting for her to become well.
KC, you can have my library copy. You should have called me!
Also, I like panoramic storytelling in books or film. There didn't need to be any more overlap among the stories other than "just passing through," because characters were all so absorbed in their own obsessions that it would have seemed unnatural.
Ben, I don't think this story could be told in 15 minutes. I think time was required just to build up the relationships and back stories. At first I did think, OK, they're moving back to the beggars, especially when it's cutting off a great point in another storyline (successful man finds old love waiting for him on park bench and ... CUT to beggars), but in the end, it gave me the idea of what an enormous sense of time the couple spent in sort of the twilight of madness, him waiting there for her to come back.
No worries, cl! My copy arrived today. Yay.
The reason I say it could have been edited down to 15 minutes is that the majority of the film was redundant. It was saying the same things over and over again. And in any kind of art, less is more. The emotional impact and meaningfulness of the images would have been stronger had they been more compact. It's just weak to extend something beyond what is necessary.
And a filmmaker should be able to convey the oppressiveness of time without taking much time. That's the fatal flaw in this movie and The Straight Story and many others.
I didn't find the film redundant at all. I found it very lyrical and beautiful. And far from being drawn out, it was actually done with economy and real devotion to a style. It's not like an action adventure movie where you can edit out a car chase or two and not lose any meaning; it's more like an oil painting, where every brushstroke has a deliberateness, whether it's signifying something on its own or just building up layers and texture.
This movie wasn't about the oppressiveness of time. It was about the endurance and duties of love.
I think I mentioned last year either here or on Kc’s blog that there was a blogathon about ‘boring art films’? The participants decided against the joke and instead did their blogathon on ‘contemplative cinema’. They came up with a definition too: “the kind [of cinema] that rejects conventional narration to develop almost essentially through minimalistic visual language and atmosphere, without the help of music, dialogue, melodrama, action-montage, and star system.” Our movie certainly fits in with this style. A simpler way of putting this is that, in this kind of movie, we aren’t told things, instead we are given a chance to observe. And where the details are subtle, observation takes time. And this time also gives us a chance to reflect on what we are observing.
I like your comparison to an oil painting, Kc. How about the Dutch masters where there is a stunning balance of light illuminating a simple scene? And I quite like “the endurance and duties of love”.
This movie wasn't about the oppressiveness of time. It was about the endurance and duties of love.
I don't disagree with that. I didn't mean to imply that the movie was about the oppressiveness of time.
A simpler way of putting this is that, in this kind of movie, we aren’t told things, instead we are given a chance to observe.
Yes. That's a great strength of the movie.
And where the details are subtle, observation takes time.
I disagree with this. A subtle detail takes no longer to observe than an obvious one.
And this time also gives us a chance to reflect on what we are observing.
But why should a movie include reflection time? Just like a piece of music, it should produce a constant stream of content until it is over.
Well, I wouldn’t want all movies to include reflection time, but I think it is valuable in some. The time to reflect means that you change before you come to the end of the movie. If we had cut quickly to the end, our sense of Sawako and Matsumoto would have been different during the final scenes than it is when we arrive after this longer more contemplative journey.
I don’t think your music analogy works quite the way you want it to. Wouldn’t one way to describe the music of, say, Philip Glass or Steve Reich is that it includes reflection time? I’d say that reflection is a deep part of the essence of all minimalist art of what ever form.
Wouldn’t one way to describe the music of, say, Philip Glass or Steve Reich is that it includes reflection time?
I wouldn't say that. Maybe it's just me, but I find it impossible to do any meaningful reflection while the music is ongoing. It's too enveloping. Well, the good stuff is. The bad stuff just makes me want it to end. And there's a ton of bad minimalist art out there.
Yes, enough to give minimalism a bad name.
Reich's "Clapping Music" is one of my favorite minimalist pieces. Here's a performance of it, and here's his score.
I like how the performers are staring at the score (is one of them Reich?). And this is the short version -- each pattern is only done eight times instead of twelve.
I like Reich’s music, but I don’t think I know that piece. Here at home I’m back in the dial-up world, but I’ll be going over to a friend’s house with a proper connection later so I’ll try to listen to it there. Thanks for the link.
This is an interesting discussion. I did find myself feeling rather impatient during the movie, especially with the "bound beggars" scenes. I definitely agree with dw's point, though, that having all those scenes gives you a different impression at the end than you would've had with fewer of them.
"A simpler way of putting this is that, in this kind of movie, we aren’t told things, instead we are given a chance to observe. And where the details are subtle, observation takes time. And this time also gives us a chance to reflect on what we are observing."
Well-said, DW. It doesn't fit in every film, but it works here.
I think the time with the beggars was well-spent. I questioned the fiance's intent and motivations as he guided his lost love right out of the life he planned for himself. That storyline required the time given to it in the film.
And Kitano is kind enough to have us spend our time with the bound beggars in some beautiful settings and gives us a Yohji Yamamoto fashion show to boot. I enjoyed my time with them.
Ben, I’m glad you included the score to that piece as well. When I was in Africa, I tried to ask some drummers about their music. But between my poor French and the lack of any music theory in common between us, they couldn’t answer my questions. The best I could do was to get them to play a bit of it very slowly which helped me some. I wish they could have written a score for me. I’m going to look at Reich’s score some more and then listen to it again.
Yeah, just listening to it, you wouldn't believe it was that simple. One clapper does the same pattern the whole time, while the other one shifts it by one eighth note after each measure is repeated 8 (or 12) times. So he really only wrote one measure.
On YouTube, I found several videos of large groups doing it. But I prefer only having two clappers. It makes it much more distinct.
Right, it is only two parts.
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