Like Someone in Love
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
2012, 109 minutes
Currently out on release on DVD by New Wave Films
Review by Mike Sullivan
Contains some plot spoilers
Abbas Kiarostami is from Iran and has been making movies since the 1970s; his style is quite different to Hollywood directors who prefer big blockbuster action movies and is more in keeping with Japanese movies that tend to concentrate on character development. It is partly because he tries to involve the audience with the story that his movies can be controversial, for example some people feel that some of his movies lack key narrative explanations, while others feel that the point of this is to make the audience think rather than have the story spoon fed to them. Like Someone in Love is no exception to this and this should be kept in mind before watching the movie. Over the years, he has won a number of awards from different countries including Japan’s Medal of Honour in 2013. This movie was a co-venture between France’s mk2 Group and Japan’s Eurospace, it stars Japanese actors and is entirely in Japanese, and was filmed in Japan.
The story revolves around three main characters played by Rin Takanashi [高梨 臨], Ryo Kase [加瀬 亮] and Tadashi Okuno [奥野匡]. Rin Takanashi (25) is a relative newcomer to the world of Japanese cinema and TV having had parts in a few movies since 2008 including the Samurai Sentai Shinkenger series of movies and a few dramas such as Detective School Q and Rookies. Ryo Kase (39) is perhaps the most recognizable person in this film, he has starred in a number of movies since 2000 such as The Taste of Tea, About Love, I Just Didn’t Do It and Outrage. Tadashi Okuno is someone who after seeing Like Someone In Love will seem like an actor who we must have seen somewhere before, this is because he is quite simply amazing in this movie. However it seems that he has only done some TV work in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as well as some small parts in recent decades.
The movie begins with a bar, Akiko (Rin Takanashi) is arguing on the phone with her boyfriend while close by a female friend listens in while at the same time talking to a man who we never see. It quickly becomes apparent that her boyfriend is suspicious about where she is and is quite paranoid, even needing to speak to Akiko’s friend to confirm that she isn’t with a man and making Akiko go to the toilet and count tiles so that he can go to the same place later, and check that she is actually where she says she is by counting them himself. After this phone call, her boss sits at her table and it is evident that her boyfriend’s suspicions are justified as her boss tries to convince her to visit a client for an overnight stay. This movie is roughly divided into thirds with the first third focused on Akiko, she has to take a long taxi ride to the client’s house and as she sits in the taxi she listens to a number of voice messages which have been left by her grandmother who has come to Tokyo to visit her.
It is from these messages that we get a bit of background information about Akiko, as well as feel sorry for her as it appears she is too ashamed to meet her grandmother, and also feel sorry for her grandmother who waits patiently all day in Tokyo station in order to try and meet her beloved granddaughter. Akiko asks the taxi driver to pass near the station where she spots her grandmother, and asks the driver to go around again where she once again sees her grandmother and cries before the taxi continues on its journey into the night.
The next third of the movie brings in the character of the client, Takashi (Tadashi Okuno) and involves his interactions with Akiko and then Takashi with Akiko’s boyfriend Noriaki (Ryo Kase), increasingly the movie focuses on Takashi with the final part of the movie pretty much carried by him to the end. It is absolutely fascinating how such a seemingly little known actor takes on such a major role so perfectly. He is considerably older than his co-stars (86) and in keeping with Abbas Kiarostami’s preference for mistaken identities is confused by Noriaki to be Akiko’s grandfather. At the same time, he takes on the role of almost being a surrogate father or grandfather, a role which Akiko herself projects on him.
The plot is considerably more complex than the description above, however this is one movie which is best to view without knowing too much about the story. Unfortunately, despite the brilliant performance by Tadashi Okuno, this is one movie which you will either like or dislike. The audience is expected to piece together some parts of the different character’s back story themselves, as well as read between the lines of the movie’s plot, on my first viewing of this movie, I came away a little dissatisfied from what I had seen, however I feel an increasing need to watch it again in order to think again about what Abbas Kiarostami is trying to convey.