Fantastic Fest ’11 Review: ‘BODY TEMPERATURE’

While a film about a man’s relationship with a Real Doll is nothing new, but Body Temperature tries to do something a little different with the topic. Rintaro is a young guy who believes his Real Doll, or an Eve as they call it in the movie, is actually real as he has appointed a name for her as Ibuki. Rintaro has a connection to Ibuki much like a companion would have to a non-independent person. He takes her around in a wheelchair to enjoy outside activities and even takes her bowling and to an arcade for her birthday. Unfortunately, there is only so much a doll can do and Rintaro starts to look around and becomes infatuated with a girl and he begins to shift his care & focus towards her while Ibuki sits at home and gathers dust.

Director Takaomi Ogata, who’s previous film was Endless Blue, handles the subject tastefully given the content of the film. The film is barely clocks in at feature length time – the film is around 72 minutes – but Ogata definitely utilizes all the time he has with very little waste. Obviously, a film like this depends on the taste of the viewer. What is interesting is how Ogata films the sexual aspects of the film as Rintaro’s acts towards Ibuki, the doll. He treats these scenes with delicacy and by not showing a wide shot of the act but instead by panning along the profile of the doll so not much is scene. However, when Rintaro’s sexual act with Rinko appears on screen it is at first invasive and shown without any visual seduction. Much of the praise of this film goes to the director as he does a great job making the audience part of the film. That’s not a knock towards the actors, they were adequate in their roles, but the directing kind of takes front stage.

There are a few scenes that stick out as being awkward. One of which is the scene after the sex scene with Rinko as it seems very out of place and doesn’t really belong in the film as a whole. Instead the scene only seems to be there to appeal to the type of audience that Fantastic Fest and other genre fans attracts.

Body Temperature isn’t a great movie but it wasn’t horrible either. It was just there.