Like Someone in Love

A Japanese student moonlights as a prostitute and develops a relationship with one of her clients, an elderly professor., Celebrated Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami takes the helm for this richly textured drama set in Tokyo, and centered on the unusual relationship between an elderly professor and a pretty student moonlighting as a high-class call girl. Arriving at Takashi (Tadashi Okuno)’s home late one night, Akiko (Rin Takanashi) is surprised when her client shows more interest in cooking and conversation than he does in sex. The following morning, Takashi offers to drive Akiko to class. When the pair crosses paths with Akiko’s intensely jealous boyfriend (Ryo Kase), they simply go along with his assumption that Takashi is Akiko’s grandfather. Meanwhile, this slight deception begins to color Takashi and Akiko’s future interactions while yielding some unexpected repercussions., The veteran, multi-award-winning Iranian director Kiarostami Abbas chose Japan as the location for this intriguing drama, only the second feature he has made outside his homeland since his prolific career began in 1970. Rin Takanashi stars as Akiko, a young student in Tokyo who has turned to escort work to pay for her studies. Her latest job takes her to the city’s suburbs, to the home of an elderly academic, Takashi (Tadashi Okuno). It transpires that he’s more interested in companionship than sex, but will the gentle relationship that develops between the old man and the young woman be the catalyst which unwittingly exposes her double life as a prostitute? Also starring Ryo Kase as Akiko’s boyfriend. The narrative unfolds at an unhurried pace, and is nicely complemented by Katsumi Yanagijima’s ravishing, detail-packed cinematography and Reza Narimizadeh’s naturalistic sound design. In Japanese with English subtitles. Network premiere., A Japanese student moonlights as a prostitute and develops a relationship with one of her clients, an elderly professor, in this mysteriously romantic drama.