Kore-eda announces ‘Kuki Ningyo’

TOKYO – Much-lauded director Hirokawa Kore-eda has announced the completion of his new film “Kuki Ningyo” (Air Doll).

The first of Kore-eda’s features to be based on something other than an original script, “Kuki Ningyo” stars Korean actress Bae Doona, who topped the 2004 Nobuhiro Yamashita comedy smash “Linda, Linda, Linda,” and Arata, who also appeared in Kore-eda’s 1999 breakthrough hit “After Life.” Also appearing are Itsuji Itao, Susumu Terajima, and Joe Odagiri.

The film is inspired by a Yoshiie Goda manga about a love doll who feels compassion and other human emotions in the course of her encounters with the human world. Bae plays the blow-up, who meets a clerk (Arata) in a video rental shop.

Asmik Ace will release “Kuki Ningyo” in Japan this fall, beginning with a run at Tokyo theater Cinema Rise in the metropolis’ Shibuya district.

Kor-eda scooped a Best Director prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1995 for his feature debut “Maborosi” and his films have gone on to take multiple awards over the years, including a Best Actor nod at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2004 for Yuya Yagira, star of Kore-eda’s drama “Nobody Knows.” (A.T.)

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