Review of Like Someone in Love (2012) by David O — 02 Apr 2013

Part time Tokyo call girl finds an unlikely connection with an old retired sociology professor. Whilst living her double life as student and escort girl her relationship with her boyfriend reaches boiling point.

Like someone in love, as the title suggest is about the first pangs of love, the period when two people begin the process of understanding the other. The set up is within the seedier underbelly of Tokyo, yet seedy as the setup may be, there is no overt denouncement of this taboo subject of prostitution or of Japan's social vices. The script and the director uses the setup more to tell a tale of loneliness and discomfort within a sprawling and uncompromising city. The slight romance that is kindled within the older professor is the rapture played out in a fierce and in many ways sad cityscape.

This is not a movie for all tastes. Each scene is long and laborious, many scenes are of simply the characters waiting for the other to appear on screen. It is definitely not a movie for completists. The story is about subtleties and their are many blink and you miss it moments. So if you are willing the stay the duration you may be rewarded with a touching if some what abrupt love story, for those who expect a sense of closure you may find Pretty Woman is more up your street.