An inflatable sex doll acquires a soul and wanders off to explore what people are really like. At first she feels different because she is empty, but she comes to discover that human beings, too, are empty.That's pretty much all this film has to say, but it takes a very long time to say it. Some may say the lyricism, visual poetry, episodic delight and elegiac moments are reward enough. Personally, I found the lack of narrative coherence and complexity crushing. There is no philosophical exploration here, unless you consider on-the-nose dialogue about the fleeting nature of existence and our Godless mortality philosophy. The lack of character differentiation - everyone is lonely, maudlin, mildly misanthropic - makes the narrative progression flat and laboured.The film most closely resembles Koreeda's Maboroshi. Both films feature outstanding performances from female leads (Bae Doo-na being more expressive than Esumi) displaced from their usual realm and facing existential crisis. Both films have gorgeous imagery. Both films take too long to convey very little. Still Walking is Koreeda at his finest. The cruelty, humanity, wicked humour and scalpel-like dissection of human interaction portrayed in that film are all absent here.Far too self-aware as art house and lacking any motivation for the characters, the film itself ends up being the very theme that it intends to explore - soulless.

Director Hirokazu Koreeda boldly took on the challenge of making a film about a sex doll, a story based on an original manga series. The main character, Nozomi, starts out as a woman who's never been treated as anything other than a sex object. She is sometimes embodied in the film by an actual doll and other times by Korean actress Bae Doona, a combination that works out very nicely. As she begins to gain more awareness of herself and the world around her, she realizes how human relationships can be infinitely more fulfilling. I don't want to give away too much, but in essence, she seems to discover the link between love and beauty. The notion of a character in search of its human soul is reminiscent of 'Pinocchio' and 'The Little Mermaid' (which is directly referred to in the film). To replace such traditional figures with a sex doll is an interesting concept and I thought Koreeda would get away with it... until I got about halfway through the film, at which point, unfortunately, he lost me.Koreeda's 2004 film, 'Nobody Knows', is one of my all-time favorites, so I have to admit that I approached 'Air Doll' with very high expectations. The director's style is quiet, delicate, meditative, even feminine, something that is more commonly found in Asian cinema and art. As a Western man, I appreciate it when directors like him provide that sort of aesthetic, which is all too rare on our side of the globe. But as much as I enjoyed that quality in 'Nobody Knows', for example, I felt that 'Air Doll' is excessively sweet. At times, Bae's performance as a doll is very effective, particularly when her facial expressions seem most strange and awkward; but too often, she plays her role in a way that's just too "kawaii" (Japanese for "adorably cutesy") for me. Personally, I find that style more appropriate in animation, and rather too tacky on (live-action) film. The symbolism in 'Air Doll' also seems too heavy-handed and ultimately sinks the film from that wonderful lightness that it achieves in some parts earlier on.

I'm now a fully dedicated fan to the work of Hirokazu Koreeda. His films are endlessly lovable. Taking on strange ideas but presenting them with most earnestness. Here he does Toy Story/Pinocchio with a blow-up sex doll. She comes to life after her lonely owner leaves for work. She ventures around meeting people and begins to understand the world around her. She longs for a heart but soon finds with a heart comes great pain. This film is a realistic fantasy. Never once do we doubt the story that is being told. It deals with the objectification of women, and the loneliness of humanity. Koreeda never allows us to wallow in self-pity. He presents a montage of lonely characters which is absolutely crushing. He doesn't use cheap techniques, just showing people in their lives. Picking shell out of a cracked egg, dealing with picky customers, overhearing somebody else being chatted up. It's all done with such honesty you soon forget this is a story about a sex doll. Du-na Bae creates a fish out of water character looking for her purpose and happiness, without coming across as stupid or annoying. Her innocence drives the film and makes it all the more tragic. A wonderful piece.

When I first heard about this movie, I thought it was going to be similar to "LARS AND THE REAL GIRL". But instead of the plot revolving around the guy that is obsessed over a blow up doll, the story is mainly told in the blow up dolls point of view when she comes to life and finds a heart. And yeah some aspects of the film is creepy as it's sounds, kinda creepy version of Pinocchio and also seems to have more depth to it as well. The thing is for the most part, the premise is sort of original and was pretty interesting for the first half of the movie, but slowly started to lose my interest. Basically starts out with a living blow up doll that acts similar to a girl that has amnesia and has to learn everything all over again while falling in love, than later goes in the darker parts of life direction. Which worked fine, but didn't really grab my attention all the way through. The theme is about the value of life that makes us human and goes in the bright and dark side of life in a sort of a fairy tale manner. While also showing how people make substitutes for the stuff they want or have lost. From what I know blow up dolls are made for people that don't have a chance with a real girl, so it's there to help satisfy the sexual desires. I am not sure if Doona Bae was the right actress for this role playing the live blow up doll, but she did a fine job playing all naive and innocent. This is one of those movies where you have to just go with the premise of the movie, although some of the character reactions just doesn't make sense or awkward at times, your just gonna have to go with the flow of how the characters react to a live blow up doll. Although this has some bright elements to it, most of it is pretty depressing while showing life in general in a realistic way and the loss of innocence. I don't know how many japs use blow up dolls as substitutes although I heard that a lot of them uses it. This movie did a decent job of portraying the sad parts of society. All in all it's pretty good fantasy film that reflects on some societies and some people in general. There is also a lot of erotic scenes in this.7.5/10