ON THE SILVER SCREEN: HOOKED (LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE)

By Brian Lafferty

March 15, 2013 (San Diego) – There are hookers with hearts of gold.  In Like Someone in Love, Akiko (Rin Takanashi) is no such character.  She’s a hooker with a heavy heart.  She works in Tokyo and is engaged to the abusive, controlling, and emotionally abusive Noriaki (Ryo Kase).  Her boss asks her to visit an old widower friend of his, Watanabe (Tadashi Okuno).  The next 48 hours the two spend with each other are life-changing for everyone involved.

Like Someone in Love was written and directed by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.  His uniquely plotted and paced script is such that it’s a quick and easy one for me to use to cite my cynicism for how-to screenwriting manuals like Syd Field’s Screenplay:  The Foundations of Screenwriting and Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need that promulgate formulaic storytelling and impose other “rules” and “conventions” that serve only to stifle creativity and flow.  The latter book even has a “beat sheet” that outlines which events should happen at which pages of the script.

(My advice to would-be screenwriters: don’t waste your money on these books like I did.  If you own them, throw them in the nearest wastebasket.)

Why go off on this tangent?  Because Kiarostami’s screenplay is dictated only by what he feels is right, not by what some book says or what potential audiences want.  He plays by his own rules and his screenplay, which develops at its own languid pace, reflects that.  Most movie scenes last 3-4 minutes, sometimes a little more.  The average scene in Like Someone in Love runs triple that.  It leaves plenty of time to witness the subtleties each actor brings to his or her character, as well as the atmosphere the director and his crew instills.  After Akiko leaves the bar, she sits in a taxi listening to her voice mail messages, most of them from her loving grandmother.  As the taxi drives slowly out of Tokyo, the eight messages drag on.  Three or four minutes would have sufficed in any other film, but the extra time further fleshes out Akiko’s despondent emotional state and uncertainty about her life and future.  The slow camera movements accentuate Tokyo’s bright lights and busy streets, which on paper sound like the city’s alive and electric, but are instead rendered harsh and cruel.  Like Akiko’s life.

Like Someone in Love’s cinematography is consistent with the film’s propensity for simplicity.  Katsumi Yanagijima’s color palette may be basic; the bar is a dark, neo-noirish gray, Watanabe’s apartment a welcoming orange, yellow and red, and the daylight is saturated with gray and pale blue hues associated with an overcast sky.  As simple as this palette is, the colors carry a lot of meaning and – when looking beyond the surface – are a pleasure to relish.  The overcast skies signify gloom, with doom steadily mixed in as the second day progresses and Noriaki’s bad personality (strongly suggested early on) truly starts to emerge.  The warm colors of Watanabe’s apartment transforms it into a sanctuary from all the unfair cruelty Akiko faces in the real world. 

Like Someone in Love doesn’t require intensive thinking.  Rather, it demands watching.  By watching, I mean giving full, undivided attention.  Offering only a mere glimpse means missing out on the film’s beauty.  Paying close attention to the characters, the writing, the pacing, and the visual prowess, will result in a truly rewarding experience.

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Like Someone in Love is now playing at the Landmark Ken Cinema.

A Sundance Selects release.  Director:  Abbas Kiarostami.  Screenplay:  Abbas Kiarostami.  Cinematography:  Katsumi Yanagijima.  Cast:  Tadashi Okuno, Rin Takanashi, Denden, and Ryo Kase.  Running time:  109 minutes.  Unrated.

Brian Lafferty welcomes letters at brian@eastcountymagazine.org.  You can also follow him on Twitter:  @BrianLaff.