Hana and Alice

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Movie: Hana and Alice
Romaji: Hana to Arisu
Japanese: 花とアリス
Director: Shunji Iwai
Writer: Shunji Iwai
Producer: Shunji Iwai
Cinematographer: Noboru Shinoda
Release Date: March 13, 2004
Runtime: 135 min.
Distributor: Toho
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

Plot

Hana and Alice are friends from childhood. Alice is lively but a bit reckless, and Hana is always picking up after her friend’s messes. But Alice is capable of doing good deeds as well, like introducing Hana to her first crush. Alice believes in love at first sight, and she acts on her belief, pursuing a high school student and dragging along the reluctant Hana. Then Alice suggests to Hana to consider the boy’s friend, Miyamoto, as a possible boyfriend. Although she doesn’t seem interested at first, Hana soon finds herself accepting her friend’s recommendation and falling for him.

Notes

Related titles:
1. Hana and Alice | Hana to Arisu (2004)
2. The Case of Hana & Alice | Hana to Arisu Satsujin Jiken (2015

Cast

Anne Suzuki - Hana
Yu Aoi - Setsuko "Alice" Arisugawa
Tomohiro Kaku - Masashi Miyamoto
Shoko 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
Makoto Sakamoto - Ataro The Crazed
Eri Fuse
Ayumi Ito
Kazusa Matsuda
Nao Omori
Hiroyuki Nakano
Zen Kajihara
Lou Oshiba
Reiko Matsuo - Harumi (model audition participant)
Ami Ikenaga
Terry Ito

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Comments

Ki Mar 19 2009 4:13 pm 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.

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.

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