Excellent adaptation.

Best movie ever!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I found this film, saw the reviews and figured I'd be giving it 10 stars, as I love films about and especially shot in Japan which I adore. Sadly, this seems like it was made by a failing freshman college student. It's about nothing and not like Seinfeld was a show about nothing. Not even worth a long review pointing out all the flaws, as it already wasted too much of my time watching it. One of the worst movies (it's not a film) I've ever seen and THEE worst Japanese film I've ever seen.

The great Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami made "Like Someone In Love" in Japan but it could have been set anywhere for this is a film that knows no boundaries or borders. As you would expect from Kiarostami it's brilliantly written and directed and beautifully played, particularly by Tadashi Okuno as an old professor whose loneliness draws him to a young student supplementing her income by working as an escort. He's not looking for sex, just conversation and company and when, the next day, they run into her jealous boyfriend the old man allows himself to be mistaken for her grandfather ... and then the boy finds out the truth.It's a film of mostly small dramas and when violence finally erupts Kiarostami keeps it off screen. For the most part these people simply talk, about their problems, their relationships and life itself and Kiarostami films sequences in 'real time' and with a fixed camera just as he does in his Iranian films. I found it mesmerizing, at times funny, sometimes moving and in the end, really rather shocking. It makes for essential viewing.

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.

I had never before seen a film by Abbas Kiarostami. But he is an esteemed film maker, having won a Palme d'Or in Cannes, and Iranian directors have quite a reputation, so I thought I could enjoy this movie. How wrong I was. The most appropriate word to describe this film is annoying. It consists of extremely long shots with a static camera, confusing dialogue, and distracting side stories that don't serve any purpose. I have nothing against slow movies, in fact sometimes I like them a lot. But in this movie, the director seems to make all possible efforts to make everything as least attractive as possible. The audience has to endure slow conversations about whether the lead character resembles someone on a painting, or about the crush a woman has had all her life on an aging neighbour. That would be tolerable if it served any purpose, if it added something to the story or the mood of the film. But it doesn't.The camera registers a day in the life of Akiko, a student who secretly works as a call girl. She ignores her grandmother who calls her to have lunch during her visit to Tokyo, but instead visits a bar and takes a taxi to visit a client, although she is supposed to prepare her exams. By pure coincidence, the client meets her boyfriend, who doesn't know about her work, and her secret life is exposed. All this in a few excruciatingly long and slow scenes. Of course, there are people who argue that this kind of film deliberately denies the rules of mainstream movie making. It's different, and we're not used to that. Why does everything have to serve a purpose? Why can't things just happen because they do? Just like in real life? And why are we annoyed when these things are filmed with a motionless camera, instead of with fast edited, slick camera movements? True. It can be quite refreshing to see directors moving away from what movies are supposed to look like. But in this case, it felt too much like showing off. By trying to do his own thing, Kiarostami neglects the needs of the audience. The best thing about this movie is the Ella Fitzgerald song it's named after, which is featured on the soundtrack.