Air Doll
A few years ago, I had this conversation with Loris about Fukushima during which he postulated that Japanese culture is somehow inherently perverse. Shii made a similar observation about backpackers in Japan who somehow have this “Look at that! So this is why Japan is so screwed up” mindset and then discuss their culturalist findings with pretentious words. Shii was furious, and I was too back then. While it’s easy to argue that such a statement should never be made, we probably have to admit two things to ourselves: 1. There is an uncomfortable grain of truth in that statement and 2. it’s uncomfortable mostly because we are so into said culture.
More than subway gropings, lolicon porn and violence festivals à la “Battle Royale”, “Air Doll” represents what I think can only come out of some sick culture. I remember being actively appalled at the story and not wanting to watch any films for quite awhile because it was ultimately such a terrible experience.
I really like the concept, just like the science-fiction-minded part of me always loves the exploration of being that are somewhere between humans and machines. Ultimately, Nozomi is such a cyborg, except that she is also an inflatable sex doll. But this film actually explores none of the interesting questions about life, and the entire character of Nozomi is based on sex, and only the most degrading kind: She has sex with her owner, she is being coerced into sleeping with her boss (who seemed like a nice guy before that scene), and finally she attempts to have some sort of “relationship” with a guy which ends with her killing him in some wacky way. Actually she is a fetish for that guy too, and not exactly a nice one. Somehow her treatment throughout the film and her sad end just made me angry. This is worse than a woman being treated as a sex object, this is a quasi-human being treated as perverse fetishized object.
I have no idea how the director of the beautifully thoughtful “Like father, like son” is the same guy who also made “Still Walking” and “Air Doll”, both films in which characters act in the most despicable ways I have seen, and somehow I get the impression that nobody sees it.