AIR DOLL June 25, 2010

AIR DOLL
Romantic Japanese fantasy touches upon the meaning of “life”
Opens Friday, June 25, 2010 at a Landmark Theatre in Bay Area

Landmark’s Lumiere Theatre, 1572 California Street, San Francisco, (415)267-4893
Tickets are $10.50 for general admission and $8.00 for seniors, students, and children
Showtimes (valid 6/25-7/1): Fri-Sat at 2:00, 4:30, 7:00 & 9:30 and Sun at 2:00, 4:30, & 7:00, and Mon-Thu at 4:30, 7:00

Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley (510) 464-5980
Tickets are $10.00 for general admission and $8.00 for seniors, students and children
Showtimes (valid 6/25-6/29): 2:00, 4:25, 6:55 & 9:15

Advanced tickets will be available at: http://tickets.landmarktheatres.com and theatre box office by June 22, 2010.

http://palisadestartan.com/

The premise of AIR DOLL seems silly at best, salacious at worst: an inflatable sex doll comes to life. But in the sensitive hands of internationally-acclaimed director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Still Walking, After Life, Nobody Knows) the story becomes a magical meditation on what it means to be human. Lonely middle-aged waiter Hideo (Itsuji Itao) relieves his solitude with the company of an air doll: he chats with her, dresses her, and has sex with her every night. One morning after he has left for work, the doll suddenly comes to life and, dressing up in her maid outfit, goes out to explore the world with the wide-eyed wonder of a small child. Beautiful Korean star Bae Du-na (The Host) is mesmerizing as the come-to-life doll, fearlessly naked both physically and emotionally. Mimicking the speech and actions of her neighbors the air doll learns to fit in, and soon lands a job working at a video store, where she begins to fall in love with a sympathetic co-worker (Arata). Yet every night she goes home and pretends to be a doll for Hideo, who has not noticed any change. Her soul is pure, but one of the first things she learns as a human is deceit. “I found myself with a heart I was not supposed to have,” she says. AIR DOLL showed recently in the 2010 San Francisco International Film Festival.

The film’s running time is 116mins; this film is not rated. In Japanese; fully subtitled in English.