Like Someone in Love

Like Someone in Love is like a puzzle that used to appear in children's magazines. There'd be a picture of a tree or something, and kids were to find the hidden pictures. This film, a seemingly simple tale of a young woman, an old man, and her boyfriend, compels one to watch it with laser intensity, with a magnifying glass.

Written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami, who is Iranian, it is a French-Japanese production, which is an indication that we have a truly global cinema. The first face to find in the picture is why is it set in Japan, rather than France, or Italy, or England, or America? What is the significance of the painting that two characters discuss at length, a portrait of a woman and a parrot, that was important in the history of Japanese art because it was the first done in Western style? What about the joke about married millipedes that no one seems to get?

I don't know what any of it means--maybe I'll wake up one night and shout "Eureka!" But in the meantime, I found this intriguing film to be richly rewarding, even if did leave me with many unanswered questions.

The movie consists of very long scenes. The first is in a bar, where Akiko (Rin Takanashi) talks to her boyfriend on a cell phone. She is lying to him about where she is, but she tells him she is not lying, the first indication that nothing may be what it seems about this. It is soon apparent that Akiko is a prostitute, as her pimp, an older man who looks less like a pimp that anyone Kiarostami could have found, talks her out of visiting her grandmother to pay a call an a special man.

She takes a taxi to the location, listening to the increasingly plaintive messages on her phone left by her grandmother. When she arrives, she is led to a small apartment over a noodle shop, where a kindly old professor (Tadashi Okuno) lives. He seems to be well into his 80s, an intellectual who has a push-broom mustache and walks with a shuffle. The two have a nice chat, and he wants her to have dinner, but she kittenishly goes to bed. Do they have sex? I don't know.

The next day, Okuno drops her off at college. Her boyfriend, Ryo Kase, berates her, and Okuno watches from his car. After a taut scene in which the two men steal glances at each other, Kase climbs into the car with Okuno, assuming he is Akiko's grandfather. Okuno plays along, without actually verifying this information, and they discuss Kase's intention to marry.

I won't go any further than that, because it's so rare to watch a film that doesn't follow a formula. After the quiet rhythms of the first ninety percent of the film, it ends abruptly, but there isn't a sense of being cheated. There is a certain inevitability of the film's progress that doesn't need to be seen, but only intellectualized as the credits roll.

The acting by the three principles is first rate. Takanashi, based on what I've read, is something of a teen star in Japan, so this must have quite a change of pace. She is both sexy, vulnerable, and determined--the look on her face while she passes a train station, looking at where her grandmother is waiting for her, is brilliant. The way she talks with Okuna, without revealing any inner horror at having to have sex with an octogenarian, is also well done.

I've seen two Kiarostami films now. Certified Copy was also a brainteaser. Like Someone in Love isn't that oblique, but it isn't a film that lays its cards on the table. They are held close the vest, which is completely refreshing.