Movie review: Hana and Alice (Hana to Arisu) (2004)

The first time I watched Hana and Alice I really liked it. But this time I liked it even more. It is one of those movies that makes me smile!

The film starts with Alice (Yu Aoi) showing her crush to her best friend Hana (Anne Suzuki) and says she can have his "brother". At first, Hana says she is not interested but develops a crush on him and starts to stalk him.

After entering high school, Hana finds out that Miyamoto (Tomohiro Kaku), the boy she has a crush on, participates in the Traditional Japanese theatre club and joins in.

While stalking Miyamoto, who reads even while walking and is too concentrated in his book to realize he's being stalked, Hana witness him passing out after hitting his head on a garage door. She runs to ask if he's okay, he regains consciousness and asks "who are you?", she gets this opportunity to trick him into believing he has amnesia and has forgotten she is his girlfriend. To cover her lies, Hana makes more lies and gets Alice involved in it by asking her to pretend to be Miyamoto's ex-girlfriend.

 

The plot is definitely not its strongest point. It's very silly... but Hana and Alice has a lot of other charms that makes the fact of the plot being weak irrelevant. It is very pleasant to look at, and is very easy to watch; a movie you can certainly watch with your family and even younger people!

The characters and their relationships are its strongest point, they're all charming in their own quirky ways. The chemistry between Yu Aoi and Anne Suzuki felt real and they really seemed like best friends. Shunji Iwai makes the movie seem unpretentious, portraying youth's romance, first love, friendship, relationship of parents-daughter and the awkwardness of getting your first job at a young age gracefully.

Overall Shunji Iwai does a great job (as usual) with Hana and Alice. He makes a simple story become so enchanting. There are many memorable scenes that will stay with you; for Yu Aoi's fans it is a must! Her acting as Alice was very natural and comfortable/genuine.

MY RATING:

Director: Shunji Iwai | Writer: Shunji Iwai | 2004 | Genre: comedy, drama | Country: Japan