Part time Tokyo call girl finds an unlikely connection with an old retired sociology professor. Whilst living her double life as student and escort girl her relationship with her hot-hedded, blue collar boyfriend reaches boiling point.
Like someone in love, as the title suggest is about the first pangs of love, the period when two people begin the process of understanding the other. In this case it is the old professor who unexpectedly finds himself falling for the young girl. The set up is within the seedier underbelly of Tokyo, yet seedy as the setup may be, there is no overt denouncement of this taboo subject of prostitution or of Japan's social vices. The script and the director uses the setup more to tell a tale of loneliness and discomfort within a sprawling and uncompromising city. The slight romance that is kindled within the older professor is the rapture played out in a fierce and in many ways sad cityscape.
Like Someone in Love is not a movie for all tastes. Each scene is long and laborious, many scenes are of simply the characters waiting for the other to appear on screen. It is definitely not a movie for completists, a good case in point would be the somewhat abrupt nature of the final scene. Ultimately the story is about subtleties and there are many blink and you miss it moments. A good example of this would be Akiko's taxi ride through Tokyo at the beginning of this movie, this scene is absolutely heart breaking and is in many ways the pivotal moment of this movie, yet there is virtually no dialogue spoken by the actors on screen, only a series of phone messages playing over the background noise. The simplicity of this scene twinned with Akiko's reaction is enough to have the stoniest of hearts melting by the time the taxi ride has reached it's destination.
So if you are willing to stay the duration you may be rewarded with a touching if some what incomplete love story, for those who expect a sense of closure you may find Pretty Woman is more up your street.
Like someone in love, as the title suggest is about the first pangs of love, the period when two people begin the process of understanding the other. In this case it is the old professor who unexpectedly finds himself falling for the young girl. The set up is within the seedier underbelly of Tokyo, yet seedy as the setup may be, there is no overt denouncement of this taboo subject of prostitution or of Japan's social vices. The script and the director uses the setup more to tell a tale of loneliness and discomfort within a sprawling and uncompromising city. The slight romance that is kindled within the older professor is the rapture played out in a fierce and in many ways sad cityscape.
Like Someone in Love is not a movie for all tastes. Each scene is long and laborious, many scenes are of simply the characters waiting for the other to appear on screen. It is definitely not a movie for completists, a good case in point would be the somewhat abrupt nature of the final scene. Ultimately the story is about subtleties and there are many blink and you miss it moments. A good example of this would be Akiko's taxi ride through Tokyo at the beginning of this movie, this scene is absolutely heart breaking and is in many ways the pivotal moment of this movie, yet there is virtually no dialogue spoken by the actors on screen, only a series of phone messages playing over the background noise. The simplicity of this scene twinned with Akiko's reaction is enough to have the stoniest of hearts melting by the time the taxi ride has reached it's destination.
So if you are willing to stay the duration you may be rewarded with a touching if some what incomplete love story, for those who expect a sense of closure you may find Pretty Woman is more up your street.