There are several elements that distinguish this work from other major literary works of Hirokazu Koreeda:
1. Shooting surreal objects as the theme;
2. There are obvious elements of nudity, sex scenes and blood plasma
3. The density and loudness of the background music are very high. The melody of the music is distinct, unlike the later works, such as "The Thief's Family", many "music" basically only have strong and weak and decorative sounds, without a clear melody, it can be said that it is just a contrast to the atmosphere of the plot. And in the music in "Air Doll", the melody is very clear, and it even expresses the director's intention a bit subjectively. This way of thickening BGM in this large section is rarely seen in Yu Zhizhi and other works. This technique is actually a very unobjective audio-visual narrative technique. It often appears in Hollywood popcorn movies and domestic horror films, and subjectively tells the audience what emotions to enter at this time. Realistic films should be presented objectively, leading the audience to participate in mental thinking, and finally discover the elements buried by the director.
4. The director of photography is a famous Taiwanese photographer, Li Pingbin. "Goodbye to the South", "In the Mood for Love", "Assassin Nie Yinniang" and "Yangtze River Map" are all written by Bing. Teacher Beiying also mentioned many anecdotes about filming with him. Brother Bing, to me this is a very loud name. But what makes me extremely puzzling is that there are a lot of bellows and mirrors in this work. For example, in the panorama of the old man and Pei Douna sitting and talking by the river, the camera first traverses right to the orbital camera, and then traverses back to the left. This phenomenon has occurred in at least 9 places. Generally speaking, this is a very elementary photography error, because this unmotivated method of moving the camera increases the subjectivity of the director, as if the director jumped out and said, "Look, how beautiful." In this way, I can only understand it as purely forcing parallax changes in scenes without changes in visual elements, which is called "eye candy" in the Hollywood photography system. Of course, this error in photography is probably also the responsibility of the editor. If it is not because there are no other scenes available in the material, if such material is cut into a film, in addition to the photography and director, the editing will also be criticized.
5. This work is widely praised Pei Doona's perfect interpretation of the dead inflatable doll, in fact, the method is used. There are two main things, 1. Don't blink your eyes for as long as possible; 2. Hold your breath or breathe very weakly as much as possible. I have to marvel at Bae Doona's performance without blinking. I did a timing test. When I keep my eyes open for about 12 seconds, I will feel dry and uncomfortable, and Bae Doona in the scenes with Xiuxiong, keep my eyes open for a minimum of 35 seconds and a maximum of 1 minute and 45 seconds. I don't know if she used special eye drops or how. Really great. You must know that this seems simple, but Pei Doona needs a high degree of concentration and anti-interference, the lighting, staff, abnormal noise, and cold on the set. During sex, actors may touch sensitive or itchy parts.
Compared to Hiroyuki Koreeda and other series, I feel that this work is quite experimental. Before the above 5 points, there is also the theme of the film, from the family, to another major category of Japanese literature, the art of loneliness. I can feel that it is Hirokazu-eda who has a desire to break through himself and broaden the types and themes of his works. But I don't think this is a successful attempt.
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