Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.
Hiroki and Shinji have been living together for three months. When it comes to light that Shinji met with his ex-boyfriend Takayuki, the three of them have their first fight. Misunderstanding the situation, Hiroki accuses, "You're still seeing your ex!" and storms out. However, Shinji struggles to explain his true feelings. While living apart for a while, they all realize how much they need each other. Eventually, Shinji gathers the courage to go and bring Hiroki back.
Yashima is a woman who works as a plumber. She is also uncomfortable with her own sexuality. One day she visits a home for a job and meets Kyu. Yashima senses Kyu's eyes watching her. They become intimate, but a dark secret is soon revealed.
On the eve of his wedding, on holiday on the Lake Annecy shore, a career diplomat visits an old acquaintance, perhaps a former girlfriend. Through her he meets an intense teenager, Laura, and then lusts after her sister, Claire. Whilst Laura attempts to flirt with him, his fantasy becomes focused on wanting to caress Claire's knee.
Matt, a young glaciologist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall - London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night's end. Together, over a period of several months, they pursue a mutual sexual passion whose inevitable stages unfold in counterpoint to nine live-concert songs.
Part-time model Valentine unexpectedly befriends a retired judge after she runs over his dog. At first, the grumpy man shows no concern about the dog, and Valentine decides to keep it. But the two form a bond when she returns to his house and catches him listening to his neighbors’ phone calls.
An isolated lake, where an old monk lives in a small floating temple. The monk has a young boy living with him, learning to become a monk. We watch as seasons and years pass by.
After Dr. Bill Harford's wife, Alice, admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings -- and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.
Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.
A small suburban town receives a visit from a castaway unfinished science experiment named Edward.
A woman quits her job and seeks work from. Meanwhile, her friend gets stalked by a mysterious groper. How are these circumstances connected?
From the first moment, Haruo saw Makoto in a busy street crossing, it was love at first sight. He spent five years stalking her and looking at her in her house through binoculars from his apartment across the street. Watching Makoto’s seemingly perfect life with her husband became a daily habit for him. He even mastered lip-reading in order to act out conversations with her. One day. Haruo witnesses Makoto’s husband, Mikiya, having sex with another woman. To expose her cheating husband’s lies, Haruo takes photos of the incident and sends them to Makoto, along with a letter, However, when she receives the photos, she throws them away without any reaction, and their normal husband-and-wife routine resumes as if nothing happened. [Exists in 2 versions: the original R18 version, and the R15 edit version]
A new high school teacher is secretly given a mysterious floppy disk. It leads her into danger at a local porno theater.
The story depicts how an intelligent, beautiful, and chaste female teacher becomes a woman who writhes in lust after being humiliated by the lecherous vice principal and students.
Sakura divorced her husband before she turned 40 because he cheated on her. Now she lives a second life as an insurance saleswoman. Her co-worker is Akihisa, and she is already falling for her mature sex appeal.
Released from prison after serving a 10-year sentence for murder, Yoshii visits Yoko, a self-sacrificing volunteer who has devoted her life to helping former convicts. Disfigured by a hideous scar on her face, Yoko encourages Yoshii to start his life anew. During Yoshii’s long absence, his lover Fujiko has been working at a brothel and taking care of “something” in a suitcase while awaiting his return from prison. Finally reunited, Yoshii and Fujiko seemingly make up for lost time as they make love and vow to get married. For the sake of his future with Fujiko, Yoshii tries to cut ties with his shady past, but the organization he was once part of comes knocking with a new murder request.
"After a freak accident leaves him deaf, a young man enters therapy, only to discover that losing his hearing has granted him a deeper understanding of his fractured family and inner turmoil. ግብረ ጉንዳን/Gbre gundan is a psychological drama that blurs the line between perception and reality, questioning whether true healing comes from what we hear or what we choose to ignore."
The married woman, Suzu, was hiding behind her husband, Yuichi, who was assigned to work alone, and had an affair with her colleague Tobe. However, as Yuichi returned to Tokyo, Suzu and Tobe had a quarrel, and Tobe pondered and grabbed Suzu's arm and jumped out onto the road to measure his heart. Upon hearing the news, Yuichi rushes to the hospital where the bell was brought in, but is shocked to hear the story of the matter from the managing director who had come earlier. Meanwhile, he meets Tobe's wife, Manami, who wears mourning clothes, and her daughter, Akane.
Adrift in the vast expanse of the ocean, a solitary boat carries three castaways—a man and two women. Stranded and devoid of any glimmer of rescue, they find solace in recounting the tales of their lives to one another. As they delve into their personal narratives, reminiscing about the circumstances that led them to this desolate predicament, they navigate through the depths of three distinct destinies. Bound by the confines of their shared space, every aspect of their existence becomes a boundary, underscoring their plight.