Hideo, a waiter for a restaurant, lives a lonely existence. He does not appear to have any friends with whom to meet, but he concentrates all his attention in Nozomi, an inflatable doll that is designed for people like him. It is a sexual toy which gives him the comfort, and release, he would have to pay by visiting a 'real' person, a prostitute who will provide what Nozomi gives him freely.
The waiter's universe is centered in his small apartment in an unfashionable part of Tokyo, far from the glitter and noise from more affluent areas. One day, when Hideo is away at work, Nozomi wakes up. Taking small steps she goes to the window. It has been raining, so she feels the rain drops that have accumulated. The sensation, is something she has never experienced.
Nozomi feels as though a new life has been injected to her body. She intuits she suddenly has a heart. Observing the life outside her modest dwelling inspires to go on. She meets a father with a young daughter, a woman with eating disorders, an old man at a park overlooking the water, but it is Junichi, the clerk of a video shop that captures her imagination. Junichi has a secret of his own and he identifies with Nozomi immediately.
Nozomi feels betrayed when she returns home to find a substitute in Hideo's bed. She is not as important anymore. She decides to track down the man who made her. When she does, she is in for another surprise. The doll maker is blunt in telling Nozomi what is basically his belief and what he hopes to accomplish by making the dolls. Eventually, losing Junichi, Nozomi's life is not worth living. She ends up among the discarded bags of garbage that are not recyclable.
An interesting parable by Japanese Hirokazu Kore-eda, who wrote the screenplay based on a manga by Joshile Goda. The film examines the empty lives of people in a society like the Japanese where spending something like 5,700 yen in the purchase of the doll for sexual gratification is something not too far fetched. In a city of such large population, Tokyo must be a place where individuals without social skills can be ostracized from the mainstream, which seems to be the theme behind the story. Although a bit long, the film surprises in the way the subject matter is treated.
Best of all is Doona Bae, whose intelligent approach to Nozomi shows an actress with an amazing range who transform in front of our eyes becoming a woman. Arata and Itsuji Itao are good as Junichi and Hideo. The film kept reminding this viewer of another American film about the same subject, 'Lars and the Real Girl', which had a different tone, but dealt with a man that falls in love with an inflatable doll, something that does not happen in this picture.
The waiter's universe is centered in his small apartment in an unfashionable part of Tokyo, far from the glitter and noise from more affluent areas. One day, when Hideo is away at work, Nozomi wakes up. Taking small steps she goes to the window. It has been raining, so she feels the rain drops that have accumulated. The sensation, is something she has never experienced.
Nozomi feels as though a new life has been injected to her body. She intuits she suddenly has a heart. Observing the life outside her modest dwelling inspires to go on. She meets a father with a young daughter, a woman with eating disorders, an old man at a park overlooking the water, but it is Junichi, the clerk of a video shop that captures her imagination. Junichi has a secret of his own and he identifies with Nozomi immediately.
Nozomi feels betrayed when she returns home to find a substitute in Hideo's bed. She is not as important anymore. She decides to track down the man who made her. When she does, she is in for another surprise. The doll maker is blunt in telling Nozomi what is basically his belief and what he hopes to accomplish by making the dolls. Eventually, losing Junichi, Nozomi's life is not worth living. She ends up among the discarded bags of garbage that are not recyclable.
An interesting parable by Japanese Hirokazu Kore-eda, who wrote the screenplay based on a manga by Joshile Goda. The film examines the empty lives of people in a society like the Japanese where spending something like 5,700 yen in the purchase of the doll for sexual gratification is something not too far fetched. In a city of such large population, Tokyo must be a place where individuals without social skills can be ostracized from the mainstream, which seems to be the theme behind the story. Although a bit long, the film surprises in the way the subject matter is treated.
Best of all is Doona Bae, whose intelligent approach to Nozomi shows an actress with an amazing range who transform in front of our eyes becoming a woman. Arata and Itsuji Itao are good as Junichi and Hideo. The film kept reminding this viewer of another American film about the same subject, 'Lars and the Real Girl', which had a different tone, but dealt with a man that falls in love with an inflatable doll, something that does not happen in this picture.