LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE: Japanese romantic drama by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami opens 3/8 SF March 8, 2013

Fresh from the triumph of his Tuscany-set Certified Copy, master filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry) travels even further afield from his native Iran for this mysteriously beautiful romantic drama filmed in Japan. LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE revolves around the brief encounter between an elderly professor (the wonderful 81-year-old stage actor Tadashi Okuno, here playing his first leading role in a film) and a beautiful sociology student (Rin Takanashi) who moonlights as a high-end escort. Dispatched to the old man by her boss—one of the professor's former students—the young woman finds her latest client less interested in sex than in cooking her soup, talking and playing old Ella Fitzgerald records (like the one that gives the film its title). Eventually, night gives way to day and a tense standoff with the student's way-too-possessive boyfriend (Ryō Kase); but as usual with Kiarostami, nothing is quite as it appears on the surface. Are these characters—who conjure in one another the specters of regret and roads not taken—meeting by chance, or is it fate? Is this love, or merely something like it?

"EXQUISITELY MADE. An enchanting game of misfired passions and mistaken identities." - The Hollywood Reporter

"A WONDROUS FILM. Surpasses even the visual enticements of his previous feature, 'Certified Copy'." - The New Yorker

"A TANTALIZING MYSTERY. Leaves you contemplating its significance long after it ends." - Indiewire

"A film of intense visual beauty." - The New York Times

"An intoxicating series of sleights-of-hand. Kiarostami masterfully plays with expectation; clichés are upended in both character arcs and manipulation of visual perspective. The result is a film that riffs beautifully on the jazz standard that gives it its title." - LA Weekly

The film’s running time is 109 minutes; it is not rated. In Japanese, fully subtitled in English.

Official Web Site: http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/like-someone-in-love

Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinemas, 601 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco (415) 771-0183
Showtimes (valid 3/8-3/14): Fri-Sat: 12:00, 2:25, 5:00, 7:20, 9:35; Sun: 12:10, 2:25, 5:00, 7:20; Mon-Thur: 2:25, 5:00, 7:20
Tickets are $10 for general admission and $8 for seniors, students, and children, & are available online at: https://tickets.landmarktheatres.com/Ticketing.aspx?ShowDate=3/8/2013&TheatreID=226 & at theatre box office.

Official Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/568769323141256/