David Fried Though the characters within the movie are quite lifelike, the story that is ultimately told is uninteresting at best.The movie is entirely filled with long overly drawn out scenes where very little of interest is said, and absolutely nothing is done. All of the action takes place outside of frame, and while I appreciate the tension it creates, and the authenticity it brings, the movie itself ends up feeling empty and ultimately boring.I could work myself into a tizzy attempting to draw meaning from the story, but it really seems to be a case of simply letting events from a premise play out on screen. I got a similar feeling from "Lost in Translation," but even that movie had a lot more action and emotional depth to it.If you liked "Lost in Translation" you may find something to enjoy here, but if your eyes glaze over at the thought of staring at an old man driving a car for 20 minutes, it's fair to say you'd find this movie a waste of your time.

Amari-Sali 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.

politic1983 Crossing cultures and language barriers is something happening more and more in cinema, with well-known directors establishing their name for making films from their homeland, looking abroad to try out their skills in a different culture. With 'Like Someone to Love', Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami heads to Japan to work with a Japanese cast and crew to look at the concept of love from various different angles and perspectives. Akiko, a young student working as a prostitute, ignores both her grandmother and fiancé to let herself be talked into working the night before an exam. But her client, an aging academic, seems more to simply want an evening's company than full sex with a woman. Seeing her off to her exam the next morning, both Akiko and her client, Takashi, are left to deal with the consequences of her deceit. 'Like Someone in Love' is a film that is lacking in many respects, but indulgent in others. Various plot holes leave the audience having to make their own deductions as to how things developed, rather than making it clear on watching. Time that could have been spent on this is instead spent on lengthy shots with little actual action. The first two scenes consist of one half of an extended phone conversation, followed by a close up of Akiko in the back of a taxi listening to all seven of her voicemail messages. With this the case, the audience can be forgiven for thinking that the next two hours will be excruciatingly long. The film, despite lacking in plot, is more an analysis of the different relationships Akiko has with the people in her life: her dutiful grandmother, whom she ignores; her prone-to-aggression fiancé, Noriaki, whom she deceives; and her client, the aging Takashi, whom she turns to in crisis. The most likable of the three main characters is Takashi, whose bumbling around Akiko provide some humour and his earnest assistance to her show him to simply be a kind man that is lonely. His discussion with Noriaki is perhaps the film's most important, indicating that neither Noriaki and Akiko are ready for marriage. But while humour and wisdom come from Takashi in parts, other flaws lead 'Like Someone to Love' to miss as much as it hits. While the question is asked as to what Akiko sees in Noriaki, the question could also be asked with the roles reversed, with the only good relationship Akiko appearing to have one with someone she has known less than 24 hours, making her less of an appealing character than required in the lead; coming across more as a spoiled brat than abused victim. The sudden development in Noriaki's anger requires assumptions to be made rather than good storytelling. The intentional sudden and abrupt ending shows the problems that misguided love has brought the trio to, and in that sense the film works in getting its point across. Though one could argue that Kiarostami takes too long to get there. Having made many shorts in the past, perhaps 'Like Someone to Love' would have been better made in a much shorter format, with the idea good, but the execution, like the film's characters, somewhat misguided and indulgent.

rgcustomer This is a film that shows a night and day in the life of one particular Japanese call girl and her customer. (But to be clear, there are no sexual situations.)As some of the other reviewers have noted, there is a wonderful immersion into the moments of the characters in this film, with each act seemingly shown in real time. I compare this aspect of it to things like Elephant (2003) or Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da (2011) (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia), both superior films that made this approach work.That is why I am disappointed that this film wasn't actually any good. There's a worthwhile film here, if only they'd filmed it.At the end of the film, reasonable audiences reasonably expect an ending. There is no end to this film. The filmmakers simply ran out of ... what? script? cash? patience? ideas? ... and simply started the end credits. If this was Lord of the Rings, I'd know to expect the next third of the story in the sequel. But it's not.The end is one of those moments in film when you realize the writer-director is telling audiences to f--- off, just to see who tolerates it. From the looks of it, quite a few did.