Air Doll

For this reflection on loneliness and mortality, based on a manga by Goda Yoshiie, the maker of Still Walking, Nobody Knows and After Life chose an unusual protagonist: an inflatable plastic sex doll. A cheap one, as she says herself. Because what her owner (a middle-aged barman who calls her Nozomi) doesn't know is that his surrogate wife has come to life.
Her first steps in Tokyo are wooden and naive. Gradually she increasingly takes the bearing of the actress Bae Doo-Na, who continues to play her with stunning doll-like talent. Nozomi falls in love with the young owner of a video store and, filled with admiration, admires the people of Tokyo. Everyone lives for themselves, without realising that everything is connected, she muses, while she learns that having a heart can also hurt.