Air Doll (2009; Hirokazu Koreeda) is what you would
get if Nagisa Oshima adapted a Hans Christian Andersen or Grimm’s fairy
tale: a doll gets a heart and becomes human—with all the resulting pain and
suffering that that offers.
But in this case, the doll is the type you inflate and
have sex with—including a removable polymer vagina; and the overall film is a
bleak metaphor/comment on the routine and system-wide subconsciously reinforced
dehumanization of women, grounded by an impressive performance by lead Doona Bae.
In other words, a doll gets a heart and finds out that
it’s not worth it.
