Like Someone in Love (2013)

Are you kidding me?????????People praising this film are definitely pretentious reviews. I really don't care if it's by a well known Iranian director; positive reviews seem to show bias towards that.I can tolerate slow films, but this really takes it to a whole new level. Just pointless and mundane dialogue. Absolutely no story at all and the ending is the most cheapest, laughable, abrupt ending ever. It's like all that time wasted being tortured watching this film, the ending is like being knocked out right in the face and then being spit on and laughed at. It's that awful. Nothing really happens in this film and 2 hours you are wasting time watching them walk from one side of the room to the other and come back, pick up the phone, or just driving or having pointless small talk - hell even the main character suddenly falls asleep during the film when he's driving! It's like he suddenly mimicked how the audience felt about the film. To think the movie couldn't get worse, towards the end we have to listen to this creepy crazy old lady looking out the window ramble on and on - basically the whole film involves really annoying scenes like that with pointless ramblings - and the ending... it's like the director/writer was like "ah, I can't think of anything to write... I'll just end the film here." I love Japan but this is not a real film. It's an absolute waste of your time. Poor writing, acting, cinematography... Seriously, watching paint dry is more exciting than this film. This film makes Sophia Coppola's "Lost In Translation" seem like a fast-paced action movie masterpiece. Fast forward button on your remote will become your new best friend when watching this film. (You'll also be eager to go for the Stop/Eject button too, but I actually sat through this torturous film)

This may not be as unique a film as Kiarastami's Close-Up, but just as a movie-watching experience I would rank this as my favorite of the director's works. I can't really say why exactly I liked the film so much, and that may be part of its magic. At one point one character advises another that to truly love another means not asking them any questions. To love, then, is to accept that the other may lead you down paths that you do not know you want to take. (And indeed you really might not want to take them). To love something is to accept that they or it might lead you astray, might lie to you. This film, I think, offers the viewer that choice. It invites you to love it, but ultimately takes you where you may not want to go. You're still better off, I think, for following it down the rabbit-hole.

Every now and then I search IMDb's list of movies to find something to watch when I feel like I have seen everything I could have wished to watch. But, I stumbled across this movie, saw the trailer, and gave it a shot. It had a sort of Lost in Translation vibe to it, so I gave it a chance.Like Someone In Love focuses on three main characters. The first being Akiko (played by Rin Takanashi), who is a college student who does escort work; Noriaki (played by Ryo Kase) who is jealous man-boy who vies for Akiko's affections; and then Takashi Watanabe (played by Tadashi Okuno) who is an old man who asks for Akiko's company from her boss/ pimp Hiroshi (played by Denden).The story for the film deals with Akiko's life as an escort. At first though, you think it is simply about this young girl dealing with a jealous boyfriend, but as the movie goes on, we realize that Hiroshi, a sort of pimp, is perhaps forcing Akiko into her current profession. But, unlike Akiko's friend Nagisa (played by Reiko Mori) who seemingly is given to whoever, Akiko is special. Because of this she seemingly has some leeway, but ultimately she belongs to Hiroshi who sends her to be with his former professor Takashi. Upon meeting him, we assume the worst e.g., the pervy old Japanese man who probably buys underwear from vending machines. Luckily though, he seems to be more so the type of old man which wishes for some company and conversation, rather than sex with a 20-something year old. After meeting, he takes on the role of pretending to be her grandfather, thanks to various characters having said assumption. But then, we meet Noriaki, the would-be jealous boyfriend, and with him you realize, as well as when you reflect on the film, why the title of the film is Like Someone In Love.Now, the film itself is very strange. The reason for this is because you aren't ever really sure where it is going. Akiko appears and as you get comfortable with her, you think the worst. However, until we meet Noriaki, the film seems very light and sort of sweet. The reason I say this is because Takashi, after you realize he isn't a perv, you realize is just a sweet old man who wants some company. His wife is gone, daughter is who knows where, and all he has is books and no real human company. So it makes his moments with Akiko sweet, until she decides to try to flirt with him. Another thing I liked was Noriaki's character, to a point. To be honest, while I find his patriarchy point of view problematic, you had to give it to the actor portraying him. Very much so, the bit he is able to do within the movie made me think of Laurence Fishburn as Ike Turner in What's Love Got To Do With It. But, instead of charm, he gave us genuine vulnerability which is why I called him a man- boy in the character introductions. You can see he really does have feelings for Akiko, but he has feelings for the idea of her, and because he can't advance to really get to know her, he is unable to deal with his frustrations so he lashes out. With all that said though, if you just watch the movie and don't really analyze it, you wonder what was the point of the movie? Before writing this review, I didn't get this movie at all. However, after going to the IMDb boards and checking some comments, only then you understand what this movie is trying to portray. Before that though, I was wondering what were we necessarily supposed to get out of Akiko's adventures with this lonely old man? Was he supposed to play faux-grandpa long enough to save her? Make up for her ditching her grandma because she was forced to work? And what of Noriaki? The boy has issues and we aren't fully sure how in the world those two came together. Was he someone she knew before her profession or during? Much less, the ending is so abrupt that it makes the film feel slightly incomplete.Overall: Worth Viewing, but No Rush As a film, I would say off the bat I wouldn't physically go to the movies or really go out of my way to see this. But, I must admit that I grew to appreciate it once I fully understood the intentions of the movie, and began to appreciate the character portrayals. With that said though, I feel if I need to put a disclaimer or search about to get a movie, perhaps it isn't worth really recommending. So, while it isn't a bad movie, even after it being broken down, it doesn't really stand out in any way to make it worth recommending.

To this day I still do not understand why there are people (most probably "Asianophilic" Caucasians) who try to give meaning to a a Asian film which, for all intents and purposes, just does not have any deep meaningful messages to impart. Because if this was an American or English film, it would have been slated as boring and a waste of time. But just because it is Japanese, there are people who are automatically impressed and seek to find hidden and meaningful truth in something which is actually as empty as the abyss....One reviewer was asking how the fiancé found out the truth in a matter of hours. The answer is, it was not a matter of hours because we already knew that Akiko was meeting him for lunch. And that is presumably how she got her cut, and also how the fiancé knew the old man's address (i.e. he followed them). Funny how the reviewer did not ask why the old man did not call the police.... maybe a hidden meaning somewhere? In any case, I found nothing likable in any of the characters but the one I hated the most was the lead character. Someone who can willingly ignore her Grandmother for the entire day deserves no pity and the fact that she could have met her at the train station (but did not) made me detest her all the more.