This movie is based on the work of the same name by Japanese manga artist Ryoji Yeda, directed and written by Yuwa Yeshi. He won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year for "A Family of Thieves". His works are mostly family-oriented, full of humanistic concerns and both warm and cold, with distinct and outstanding literary qualities. So the film has scale and more depth.
The main character is an inflatable doll played by Korean actress Bae Doo-na, whose owner is a waiter uncle. He treats her as if she were a real person, grooming her. Although it is self-questioning, he also enjoys talking to her and telling stories. In the night, it is unrestrainedly in her body, how to manipulate without concern. One morning, Xiao Wang came to life. She put on the family's maid outfit and went out, feeling the sun and rain as a newborn, curiously observing and imitating every move of other normal people.
By coincidence, she walks into a video store and meets Junichi, a clerk. A strange chemical reaction makes her have a heart and a sense of autonomy from then on. The originally emotionless and obedient Xiao Wang returns home and shows resistance, she will inadvertently dodge, but still play the role of libido. When the master went to work during the day, she also began to work privately at the video store. There are so many new things in the world for her to discover and learn, and her days are full and happy. Especially when she can spend time with the people she likes every day, she can be satisfied with these small happiness. She used makeup to cover the stitches on her body, and when she saw that her shadow was empty, she hid it from Junichi. All this effort is to be able to move closer to normal, or rather to the approach of the person she likes. Finally, standing on the ladder to place the disc, she lost her weight and cut her hand before falling, and the air inside her body instantly ran out from the gap. Xiao Wang's secret was revealed, and Junichi was shocked for a moment rushing to tape her up and blow her with his mouth. There was no sex involved, but the "I have you" was realized. It was Junichi's breath that supported Xiao Wang's flesh and body. After she recovered, she was happy as a young girl in love because Junichi accepted her true identity.
She leaps lightly around the house, floating up and down between the planets hanging from the ceiling, smiling innocently. But such a smile did not last long. Junichi's home was filled with pictures of her ex-girlfriend, and her kind-faced boss raped her with lust, shouting the name of another woman. Afterwards, Xiao Wang, who silently cleans her rubber vagina, recognizes the reality that she is nothing more than a substitute to settle her sexual desires. After she hid herself in a closet, her owner, who couldn't find her, simply bought a new air doll. When he heard the birthday song for his "new girlfriend", Xiao Wang couldn't help but come out and question him. Although she has no love for him, but this home has been her dependence, at least let her have a place to return to. And the owner desperately wants her to turn back into a normal doll. Because it's too in complicated if it's human.
Separated and living alone for many years, he clearly lost the ability to communicate with other people, and can also be described as love incompetent. Out of the requirements of his job, he is solicitous to order for customers in restaurants. But when buying a disc at the video store, he either kept his head down or shifted his gaze elsewhere, so much so that he didn't even notice that the cashier was none other than Xiao Wang. In the movie, there is a passage that says:"Life may be a perfection that cannot succeed in its own strength, life is inherently pregnant with important scarcity and is completed by the presence of the Other. It is like a flower, which, even if it gathers stamens and pistils, is not enough, but still needs to be visited by insects and the breeze." The absence of mutual communication is a direct result of human loneliness. People then look for other alternatives to dissipate this negativity, and in turn become more closed off from the vicious circle they cannot get out of.
Young geeks spy on other people's skirts, come home and point the camera at a hand-me-down and start masturbating. Middle-aged women are always anxious to live in the shadow of young women, so frantically apply facial straps on a variety of instruments to maintain. Scrappy women overeat in their rooms, and rarely go out just to buy more junk food. The male boss is comforted by the raw egg with rice. Day after day, they live their lives as one. They are left with a pair of skin, as tiny as mayflies. Xiao Wang is just the opposite. She has nothing but air in her body, but she is always approaching human. Offering to lend her shoulder to a man sleeping on the bus, sending foundation to a female employee, taking care of an elderly…… She even gets too close and gets strange looks from her mother when she pokes the baby's cheeks. Mentally distressed Xiao Wang came to the inflatable doll factory to find her creator, the other side also did not give a clear answer.
In the end, the difference between a human and a doll is that one is combustible trash and the other is non-combustible trash. After listening to the creator's words, Xiao Wang no longer hold a grudge against the substitutes, as long as it is enough to be with the person you like. However, a love that cannot be reciprocated is destined to be a tragedy. Junichi doesn't make love to Xiao Wang, he wants to deflate her and blow her up again, to take the initiative from it and experience that pleasure of being desired by her. Xiao Wang, who is willing to do anything for Junichi, cooperates with him. She wanted to return the favor in the same way. She cut a hole in Junichi's body, and the transparent tape sealed the gas, but could not stop the blood that gushed out. Even if he blew more air, it would not save Junichi's life. Junichi died and was put into a garbage bag by Xiao Wang. Xiao Wang's heart died and she collapsed hopelessly in the garbage. Her world is too simple, once tainted by human temperament, will eventually fall in the red dust. In the dream, she had a long-awaited birthday. In fact, the picture is shaped like a funeral, beautiful as bleak. The child had shaken off the cold hand of Xiao Wang, but the old man saw through the appearance. He said,"People with cold hands have warm hearts." This is her epitaph.
