'Undoubtedly a genius... Kitano’s visions explode with emotional power'
- LES INROCKUPTIBLES

'A thunderbolt of contemporary cinema'
- LE MONDE

'Kitano's sparest and most painterly film yet, characterized by emotional rather than physical violence'
- VILLAGE VOICE

'...ravishingly beautiful... combination of realism and extreme artifice...'
- HERALD TRIBUNE

'Kitano is back in form with this three-part love story'
- Geoffrey Macnab, THE INDEPENDENT

'Kitano's purest exercise in aesthetic experimentation...'
- Tom Charity, TIME OUT

'...extraordinary new film...'
'...the sense of aesthetic adventure is palpable...'
- Tony Rayns, LONDON FILM FESTIVAL PROGAMME 2002

'A triptych of forlorn love stories... visually it's SPELLBINDING and ENTIRELY ORIGINAL'
- Tom Charity, TIME OUT

'...the film draws on bunraku puppet theatre conventions and Takeshi Kitano's own painting aesthetic to create a series of heavily stylised, often staggering beautiful tableaux'
'A true original'
- TIME OUT, LFF Supplement

'...Takeshi Kitano's ravishing Dolls substitues the director's characterstic eruptive violence with placid but equally emotional betrayal'
- Nicole Armour, FILM COMMENT (Toronto Film Festival)