Japan Synopsis
ドールズ
“Three stories of never-ending love.”
Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Dolls. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From TV Tokyo
Drama + Romance in Japan
270 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Drama and Romance genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Dolls itself).
The 2001–2003 Japan Window
Dolls holds position #52 of 247 Japan films in the 2001–2003 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2000s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 2000s in Japan, 1020 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Dolls premiered alongside 81 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 81 other Japan films in 2002.
The 1461st Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
281 audience reviews — more than 89% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (89th percentile) outruns trending popularity (59th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Dolls, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- multiple storylines · 5
- regret · 4
- pop star · 4
- allegory · 3
- long lost love · 3
- broken engagement · 1
- bunraku · 1
- eternal love · 1
- suicide attempt · 22
- new love · 11
- japan · 454
- murder · 155
- yakuza · 93
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,044 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (77th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.7 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Drama productions specifically: #449 of 1,933 (top 23%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | TV Tokyo, Bandai Visual, Office Kitano, Tokyo FM |
| Runtime | 1h 54m |
| Release Date | October 12, 2002 |
| IMDb | tt0330229 |
| Official Site | www.office-kitano.co.jp |