Are you in love Like someone in Love?

By Jenny Alvarez

Photo: Courtesy

With his new film, Abbas Kiarostami goes to Tokyo and delves even more deeply into the world of artifice that he explored in his last film. The masquerade begins when Akiko (Rin Takanashi), a call girl, and her client Takashi (Tadashi Okuno), an elderly professor, pretend to be granddaughter and grandfather in order to avoid the wrath of Akiko’s jealous boyfriend when they are caught in a car together. Kiarostami builds layers of secrets into the stories that Akiko and Takashi tell each other; their lies eventually become more real and powerful than the truth and increasingly dismissive of the uninitiated third party that is Akiko’s boyfriend.

The film begins very slowly and focus on the girl’s ‘client’ is an friendly, almost doddery old academic who doesn’t seem to be remotely interested in sex; and almost everything else in the movie – not only motives but even events and identities – appear slippery and ambiguous. It’s not that the story is hard to follow; it’s just so delicate, almost evanescent, that it’s difficult to get a firm grasp on it.

Some tension is introduced when Takashi gives advice to Akiko’s mechanic boyfriend Noriaki (Ryo Kase), who claims to be her fiancé, and may now dangerously find out how Akiko makes money. So this story involves mysterious and troubling with ambiguity intentions in sentimental contours and despite of the action takes place in and around cars some characters’ relationships and moral twists you can get a good message from it.  It lacks the dark streak of unpredictability end but this film is full of reflections of life in the typical Japanese style.