Hello, My Dolly Girlfriend

Plot

The Movie start off with an introverted office boy named Kentaro, who became the scapegoat to the company's huge loss in revenue. As a result, he was fired from his job. Adding insult to his wounds, his office crush disgraced him for his pitiful reputation when he tried to find solace in her. Filled with sorrow, Kentaro went to a strip bar and mumbled complains as he loses control of himself in a drunken state. One incident involving him almost hitting a stripper and getting himself kicked out.

As he continued his pitiful state, he picked a fight with a butch and her girlfriend for bumping into him and got beaten up. Terrified, he pushed her to the glass, thus bleeding her and escaping to a nearby building on the 4th floor. Unsatisfied with Kentaro and showing off her machoism, the butch continued to pursuit him despite her girlfriend's protest. There he discovered a mannequin in a sailor suit that looks and feels like a real human from the softness of her skin to the realistic pubic hair. Releasing all his repressed feelings, he began to stage a rape scene with the doll. Unfortunately for him, he was then found by the butch and her girlfriend resulting in another beating. After another beating, the butch and her girlfriend got aroused and decided to go to another room to get intimate. As they proceed to fill their desires, they discovered three thugs, who were running away from the yakuza, hiding and observing them. A fight ensued and the butch was shot twice. Thinking she has died, two of the men decided to rape the butch's girlfriend in the room where Kentaro was at. Sensing danger, Kentaro hid from under the bed to avoid any conflict and observed the whole ordeal. After a while, the butch reemerged only to be shot again. The thugs' leader then warned that he will release the girl without shooting her, only if she managed to get out of their sights within ten seconds. As the girl rushed to find her belongings, the girl discovered Kentaro under the bed and decided to reveal his presence as a way to distract the thugs and escape. This proved useless as she ended up getting shot at. Knowing his presence, they proceeded to drag him out and attempt to kill him. Before they were able to do that, the mannequin that he "raped" came to life, saved him and kill the thugs. Kentaro shocked by the events, fainted and fell asleep as his strength ebbs away.

The next morning Kentaro woke up to find the mannequin, in a new set of clothes beside him. Feeling confused, he looked around for the dead bodies that were killed only to realize he hallucinated or dreamt of it the whole night. Looking at his "heroine", he thanked her by bringing her back home. After a troublesome day reaching home, he decided to name her Kokone. As days passed, he began to form a relationship with Kokone, complaining about his sorrows and talking about his everyday life. Due to his solitude and disappointment, he started experiencing weird things about her. One minute she began to talk and move her like a real human, another minute, she remained stationary like a doll. This confusion led him to madness as he then began to have a raping fantasy with the doll.

Unable to find a job due to his bad reputation, he desperately loaned money from loan sharks and gambled. As he began to lose a lot of money, he attempted to commit suicide only for Kokone to save him. This instilled him a desire to come back victorious, which he does when he won a mahjong game with the impossible nine gates. Overjoyed he rushed back to share the good news of his winnings only to discover that Kokone has disappeared. He got very disappointed. This however, was short-lived when he heard Kokone's voice singing on the rooftop. Curious, he went up and found her in a wedding dress playing a piano. This became a blatant fantasy as he then got married to her and the previous dead characters (the three thugs, butch and her girlfriend) came back to life and embraced his happiness. All of this being done on top of the rooftop. Just as they take a picture for his wedding, the flash brought him back to reality whereby, on his journey back home after his winnings, he remembered jay-walking the street only to stop when he saw a woman who looked exactly like Kokone.

Although he was shocked and frozen, he realized an oncoming truck was going to hit them and he rushed to protect the woman from the impact. This resulted in a blank and showed Kentaro in his subconscious mind still struggling to find Kokone. When he arrived at his apartment, in Kokone's place revealed a messed up mannequin with no hair and tears in her eyes, revealing the whole experience as a fantasy of Kentaro.

Cast

Reception

It was chosen as the 8th best film at the 23rd Japan Film Professional Awards and was runner-up in Kinema Junpo's 2013 top 10 Japanese films.

In Screen Daily, Mark Adams called it an "often uncomfortably perverse and exploitative film".