''Like Someone in Love'' ( ja, ライク・サムワン・イン・ラブ ''Raiku samuwan in rabu'') is a French-

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese drama film written and directed by Iranian director

Abbas Kiarostami Abbas Kiarostami ( fa, عباس کیارستمی ; 22 June 1940 – 4 July 2016) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of ...

, starring

Rin Takanashi is a Japanese film and television actress. Career Takanashi starred in the 2007 film adaptation of the Japanese novel '' Goth'' as one of the lead characters, Yoru Morino. She starred in the 2009 Super Sentai series '' Samurai Sentai Shinkenger' ...

, Tadashi Okuno and

Ryō Kase is a Japanese actor. Early life Kase was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. He moved to Bellevue, Washington in the United States soon after his birth, due to his father's job being transferred. He's father Yutaka Kase was former chairman a ...

. It was his final film to be released in his lifetime. The

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

co-production competed for the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

at the

2012 Cannes Film Festival The 65th Cannes Film Festival was held from 16 to 27 May 2012. Italian film director Nanni Moretti was the President of the Jury for the main competition and British actor Tim Roth was the President of the Jury for the Un Certain Regard section. ...

Plot

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, sociology student Akiko (

) moonlights as a high-end prostitute. Her jealous boyfriend, Noriaki (

) is suspicious, but does not know about her work. One night, she is assigned to Takashi (Tadashi Okuno), an elderly former university professor who is more interested in making her dinner than having sex. The morning after their unconsummated night, Takashi drives Akiko to school for her exams. While waiting in the car for her, he encounters Noriaki, who assumes Takashi is her grandfather and asks permission to marry her. Takashi does not correct Noriaki's assumption and assures him he is not ready for marriage. After Akiko's test, the three drive toward a bookstore. Noriaki diagnoses a problem with the car, and convinces Takashi to drive it to the garage he owns, where he replaces a fan belt. There they encounter one of Takashi's former students; Akiko worries he will reveal the truth to Noriaki. Takashi drops Akiko at the bookstore and returns home. Soon afterwards, he receives a panicked phone call from Akiko and returns to the bookstore to pick her up. Her mouth is bloodied, but she does not say why. Takashi takes Akiko to his apartment. Noriaki arrives, threatening them over the intercom and banging on the door. Takashi peers out his window to see what Noriaki is doing. An object is thrown through the window and Takashi falls to the floor.

Cast

as Akiko *Tadashi Okuno as Takashi *

Ryo Kase is a Japanese actor. Early life Kase was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture. He moved to Bellevue, Washington in the United States soon after his birth, due to his father's job being transferred. He's father Yutaka Kase was former chairman a ...

as Noriaki *

Denden is a Japanese actor and former comedian.http://japancinema.net/2012/05/29/creative-spotlight-episode-126-denden He has appeared in more than 100 films since 1981. Selected filmography Film Television References External links * { ...

as Hiroshi *Reiko Mori as Nagisa *Koichi Ohori as Taxi driver *Tomoaki Tatsumi as Mechanic *Hiroyuki Kishi as Takashi's former student *Seina Kasugai as Nagisa's friend *Mihiko Suzuki as Neighbor *Kaneko Kubota as Akiko's grandmother

Production

Production credits *Associate producer: Nathanaël Karmitz *Associate producer:

Charles Gillibert Charles Gillibert (born 14 September 1977) is a French film producer. Life and career Gillibert was born in Tassin-la-Demi-Lune. His parents were Michel Gillibert and Françoise Barquin; he is the brother of the actress Violaine Gillibert and ...

*Production designer: Toshihiro Isomi *Costume designer: Masae Miyamoto *Sound designer:

Mohammad Reza Delpak Mohammad Reza Delpak( fa, محمدرضا دلپاک (born in Tehran) is a sound Department Cinema of Iran. He is the first sound designer of Iranian cinema. Biography Mohammad Reza Delpak was born in Tehran in 1955. He holds a master's degree ...

*Sound editor: Reza Narimizadeh ''Like Someone in Love'' is a film production by France's MK2 Group and Japan's Eurospace. It had a budget of US$4.8 million. Filming was originally planned for April 2011, but had to be rescheduled due to the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

. The film was eventually shot over eight weeks in October 2011. It was shot on location in

and

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

. The film's initial production title was ''The End''. It was Kiarostami's second feature film shot entirely outside his native Iran, following ''

Certified Copy A certified copy is a copy (often a photocopy) of a primary document that has on it an endorsement or certificate that it is a true copy of the primary document. It does not certify that the primary document is genuine, only that it is a true c ...

'' (2010) which was shot in Italy in 2009.

Reception

Critical reception

The film received mostly positive reviews by critics. It holds an 83% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 102 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads, "In his second film outside his native Iran, director Abbas Kiarostami maintains the mysterious, reflective mood of previous triumphs." At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 76 based on 31 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

David Denby David Denby (born 1943) is an American journalist. He served as film critic for ''The New Yorker'' until December 2014. Early life and education Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B. A. from Columbia University in 1965, and a master' ...

of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' writes, "This story, driven by undercurrents and oblique hints, is almost surprising in its circumspection." He adds, "The cinematography is clear and hard-focussed, and the editing produces long, flowing passages. This exquisitely made, elusive film has a lulling rhythm and a melancholy charm."

Accolades

References

External links

* * *
''Like Someone in Love: On Likeness''
an essay by Nico Baumbach at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

{{Abbas Kiarostami 2012 films Films about domestic violence Films about prostitution in Japan Films directed by Abbas Kiarostami Films shot in Japan Films shot in Tokyo French drama films Japanese drama films 2010s Japanese-language films Japan in non-Japanese culture 2010s French films