Mar
7
2006
Hana and Alice
Posted by luna6 3 Comments
Movie : Hana And Alice / 花とアリス
Country : Japan
Release Date : March 13, 2004
Director : Shunji Iwai
Starring: Anne Suzuki, Yu Aoi
Runtime : 135 Minutes
Editor Rating : 8.5
Users Rating: 8.89 
(37 votes)
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Plot Synopsis : Hana & Alice have been best friends for the longest time. Hana develops a crush on “Miyamoto” a guy that rides the same train as her, but never notices her, or anyone else, because he is always reading his book. She later finds out that Miyamoto belongs to a “Japanese Theatre” club at their school. Faster then you can say “Ko-nichi-wa,” Hana joins the same theatre club. After her first meeting with the group, Hana follows Miyamoto as he walks home. Miyamoto is oblivious to her or his surroundings, consumed by the book he is reading – always trying to remember his lines. Opportunity soon comes “knocking” when Miyamoto still consumed in his book, walks into a garage door and, briefly is knocked unconscious. Hana, who is still following him, runs over to help. Miyamoto when gaining consciousness asks, “Who are you?” and Hana, realizing a rare opportunity has occurred, answers “You said you loved me,” explaining to him that he must have amnesia and that she is his girlfriend. This begins the relationship between Hana and Miyamoto. Miyamoto while spending a day at Hana’s house, discovers pictures of himself on her computer taken at the train station from a distance. Miyamoto, still having doubts about their past relationship, asks Hana about the pictures. Hana answers, “those pictures were taken by your previous girlfriend Alice.” Thus begins the introduction between Hana’s best friend Alice and Miyamoto.
Movie Review : Having seen Shunji Iwai’s prior film “Swallowtail Butterfly,” the director’s name was all it took for me to check out this film. Hana & Alice is a great movie, at its core a simple love triangle type of film, made so great because of the two main characters, Hana and Alice. The quirkiness of these girls is what brings this movie to life.
The setup is a little unusual, in that the movie is really based on “Alice” and her background isn’t really shown until 40 minutes into the film. After Hana’s crush on Miyamoto is introduced and about 40 minutes into the film, Shunji Iwai shifts the focus of the film from Hana to Alice. In an odd parallel to the movie “Ping Pong” Alice is the type of character that is born for success no matter what she does (like ‘Smile’ from Ping Pong), sometimes holding back, not to hurt the other person’s feelings, and Hana (like “Pecko” in Ping Pong) is talented and brash, but has to work for everything she gets.
This film is packed with moments that will stay permanently etched in your memory, “the first luncheon between Alice and Miyamoto,” “Alice’s dance in the pouring rain,” “the fight on the beach between Hana and Alice,” “Alice holding her nostrils when she admits lying,” and the scene between “Hana and Miyamoto” during their high school performance. That scene with Hana and Miyamoto talking prior to Hana taking stage was riveting. Watching Hana cry felt like a real punch to the stomach. This film is a special movie, that should be seen at the first opportunity possible. The story itself is nothing special, but the characters of “Hana & Alice” make the movie something extremely special.
buy Hana and Alice from YesAsia
Cast:
Anne Suzuki – Hana
Yu Aoi – Setsuko “Alice” Arisugawa
Tomohiro Kaku – Masashi MiyamotoShoko Aida – Alice’s Mother
Hiroshi Abe – Alice’s Mother’s Companion
Sei Hiraizumi – Alice’s Father
Tae Kimura – Ballet Teacher
Takao Osawa – Photographer
Ryoko Hirosue – Editor
Eri Fuse
Ayumi Ito
Kazusa Matsuda
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2004 Movie Reviews, Japanese Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Comments
3 Comments so far
This was the first film I’ve seen from Shunji Iwai and I was really impressed. Strangely, I wasn’t prepared to like it after the first few minutes. I’m glad I was wrong. The characters clung to me long after I finished the movie, and the images have a sense of being vividly surreal yet familiar. And yes, that scene right before Hana goes onstage is just amazing. The whole movie is.
Hello,
Funny you mention that. I do have Love Letter on DVD , but have not gotten around to watching it yet…and I picked that up on a vacation trip well over a year ago! Guess I should check it out soon hunh?
Other movies I have seen by Shunji Iwai would have been Swallowtail Butterfly, April Story, and All About Lilly Chou-Chou. Out of all those … Hana & Alice would be my favorite, but I haven’t seen a bad Shunji Iwai film yet. Thanks for the recommendation I’ll check out Love Letter soon.
The scene where Hana (Ann Suzuki) is looking out onto the stage and talking to her ex-boyfriend that is standing behind her, was one my all-time favorite scenes ever.
So, have you seen Love Letter? That one, to me, is still the best Shunji Iwai film. (in fact… I’m in the midst of watching it the 2nd time… this month, I haven’t counted how many times I’ve seen it since 1998, when I first got hold of the film) Tend to work well for me when I’m suffering from writer’s block. Haha.