Abbas Kiarostami, director of Certified Copy (2010), returns this time with a new movie made in Tokyo in collaboration with Katsumi Yanagijima, known for working with Takeshi Kitano in many of his movies as Director of Photography. Like Someone in Love is presented to us through a jazz melody in a small bar, forecasting
a calm narrative environment
. It's also in this scene that we meet one of the protagonists, Akiko (Rin Takanashi) is a young woman unable to find a path for her life, switching
at night from a college student to a callgirl. Although a little contradicted
Akiko catches a taxi that will take her to the next client, whom she knows nothing about.
During her trip, the young woman listens to some phone messages left by her grandmother saying that she would love to see her, leaving Akiko shaken and unable to make a decision on whether go meet her grandmother or go to her client in one of the various examples of anxiety created by the director where we become confused about the final decision. Also in this scene we can relax while Kiarostami takes us through the city with shoots recalling Lost in Translation by Sofia Coppola.
After a tumultuous trip we arrive at our destiny: a small apartment on the second floor of a restaurant. But the client we all expected is after all Takashi Watanabe, a retired Sociology professor played by Tadashi Okuno, who only wishes for a good conversation with a young woman trying to kill the loneliness in which he lives. Following a small chit-chat about the famous painting from Chiyo Yazaki, Training a Parrot, Akiko ends up falling asleep in his bed.
In the following morning, Takashi takes Akiko to College where she's going to do a final exam and their relationship goes from strictly professional to an unlikely friendship. While he waits we meet Noriaki Higuchi (Ryo Kase), Akiko's jealous and controlling fiancé, who presumes Takashi as her grandfather. During their conversation we can see Watanabe's calm personality, a man who uses his own life experience to guide the younger, actually something that happened moments before between Akiko and her boss.
Once again, the viewer is left in a state of pure anxiety, full of questions. Will Noriaki find out the truth he always tried to ignore? How will he react? The plot is arriving to its climax. In the end of the day, Takashi returns home and we can see a little of his daily life until a sudden call arrives: Akiko was beaten by Noriaki and is alone in the middle of the street. Desperate she calls for help. Although initially it seems as something made by an inexperienced director I see in this ending a place where the characters can finally show themselves as they really are. Akiko is just a young confused and helpless woman looking for some support in Takashi, an elder with a huge protective instinct. In the other side, Noriaki finally shows us the violent and dangerous person he is.
Like Someone in Love, ends leaving us once more in a state of curiosity about the future of the trio following a scene that manages to take our breath as Noriaki decides to confront Akiko and Takashi about their lies! A movie where the characters make everything to hide who they really are until the very end.
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