Producer: Keiko Kusakabe

This intimate love documentary quietly traces the “lives” of nine exquisitely crafted love dolls residing unobtrusively in a corner of Tokyo. At once ephemeral, beautiful, and eerily lifelike, they exist as silent observers, gazing upon the emotional voids harbored by the people around them.

Produced by Keiko Kusakabe, I Want to Hold a Love Doll blurs the boundaries between “object” and “subject,” prompting us to reflect on the fundamental human instincts for love, loneliness, and connection. Through serene visuals and a meditative pace, the film suggests a profound truth: that even inanimate objects can mirror the realities of the human condition. Far more than a mere record of love dolls, this is a poetic and deeply moving work that captures the “yearning” that slips through the cracks of an indifferent city.