A stylised film of great beauty

The Japanese director Takeshi Kitano is best known for his gangster movies such as the award winning Hani Bi. With Dolls he breaks out of that mould and creates a poetic vision of love, loss and death filmed through the four seasons. Between the prologue and epilogue which consist of scenes from traditional Bunraku puppet theatre three different stories emerge and become subtlely intertwined.

Although Dolls is not a film that will appeal to everyone its beautiful images and moving drama will stay with one for some time.