Torso

Posted by Aldo Pusey on Sunday, June 23, 2024

The current inflated interest in the blow-up doll subgenre receives a further pump with pic.

The current inflated interest in the blow-up doll subgenre (“Lars and the Real Girl,” “Air Doll”) receives a further pump with the helming debut of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s frequent d.p., Yutaka Yamazaki. “Torso,” as the name suggests, features a headless synthetic trunk — complete with male member that provides comfort and pleasure, if not quite companionship, to a solitary woman in Tokyo. Yamazaki’s carefully calibrated, restrained visual style solidly grounds the narrative, which thankfully focuses more on the protag’s self-imposed isolation than on her closet pal. This interesting but not incisive pic could receive a gentle boost from fests, and especially ancillary.

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Parallels will be made with Kore-eda’s recent “Air Doll” (not, in fact, lensed by Yamazaki, though its male star, Arata, has a small role here). But Kore-eda’s penchant for a yin-yang of seriousness and whimsy is largely absent from the more psychologically dense “Torso.” In addition, the doll here remains an inanimate object, its lack of head and limbs eliminating any possibility of anthropomorphism.

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Like many single urban thirtysomethings, Hiroko (Makiko Watanabe, “The Rebirth”) has carved out a tidy, if routine, life for herself. What sets her apart is the synthetic torso she keeps in her closet, blowing him up each night for bathing, cuddling and more. She’s not interested in socializing with her younger co-workers, nor in fostering a close relationship with her outgoing younger half-sister, Mina (Sakura Ando).

After a fight with her abusive b.f., Mina turns up at Hiroko’s apartment looking for a place to stay. During their uncomfortable cohabitation, it’s revealed that Mina’s b.f. was originally Hiroko’s guy, leading the sisters to trade emotional epiphanies.

Yamazaki at no time makes Hiroko into a bizarre figure. She’s slightly withdrawn, certainly unhappy, and carries around a lot of emotional baggage, but she’s far from nuts. And while her relationship with the doll appears to give her a modicum of happiness, it elicits audience pity rather than discomfort. Keeping her things real — inestimably helped by Watanabe’s sympathetic performance — saves “Torso” from becoming either fetishistic or prurient.

Watanabe and Ando are well paired (the two appeared together in Sion Sono’s “Love Exposure”) and it’s their relationship that grounds the narrative. Given Yamazaki’s fruitful tenure as a d.p. for Kore-eda, Naomi Kawase and others, it’s no surprise his lensing here is satisfyingly confident, with handheld work kept to a controlled minimum and, when used, done for a reason.

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Torso

Japan

  • Production: A 104 Co., Transformer production. (International sales: Transformer, Tokyo.) Produced by Yutaka Yamazaki, Eisuke Ishige, Michio Koshikawa. Directed by Yutaka Yamazaki. Screenplay, Aki Sato, Yamazaki.
  • Crew: Camera (color), Yamazaki; editor, Yuji Oshige; music, Akira Matsumoto; production designer, China Suzuki; sound (Dolby Digital), Eiji Mori. Reviewed at Turin Film Festival (competing), Nov. 18, 2009. (Also in Hong Kong Film Festival.) Running time: 103 MIN.
  • With: With: Makiko Watanabe, Sakura Ando, Sola Aoi, Arata, Renjo Ishibashi, Miyako Yamaguchi.

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