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Dollhouse
Comedy director Shinobu Yaguchi ventures into J-horror with this possession thriller drawing from ningyo folklore, where dolls house wandering spirits. After five-year-old Mei dies, grieving mother Yoshie (Masami Nagasawa) finds an antique doll as her surrogate daughter. When she and husband Tadahiko (Koji Seto) have another child, Mai, they discard the doll... until Mai discovers it. Innocent play turns sinister: Mai exhibits dead Mei's memories and mannerisms. The doll returns whenever discarded, defying disposal. Mai perfectly mimics her dead sister's voice. As Yoshie watches her living daughter transform into someone else entirely, a horrifying truth emerges: Mei wants her life back. Yaguchi trades comedy for psychological dread, exploring how grief manifests through objects we cannot release and what happens when they won't release us.