Like Someone in Love (2012)

Like Someone in Love (2012)
109 min

Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Writer: Abbas Kiarostami (screenplay)
Stars: Rin Takanashi, Tadashi Okuno, Ryo Kase

Country: France | Japan
Language: Japanese


Like Someone in Love  is a Japanese-language drama film written and directed by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, starring Rin Takanashi, Tadashi Okuno and Ryō Kase. It tells the story of a young Japanese woman who finances her studies through prostitution. The film is a French-Japanese production. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
The inspiration for the film came from one of Kiarostami's visits to Japan. In the late 1990s Abbas Kiarostami was driving late at night while on a visit to Tokyo and witnessed a young girl on the side of the street dressed as a bride. In the years following, while visiting Tokyo to promote other films, he realized that he was always looking for that same girl because she had left such an impression but that he would never likely notice her again in real life because she wouldn't be wearing the same dress. This experience became the basis for the film.