Hana to Arisu (2004)

Hana to Arisu: Directed by Shunji Iwai. With Anne Suzuki, Yû Aoi, Tomohiro Kaku, Shôko Aida. When two best friends develop a crush on the same boy, they develop a plan to trick him into dating them.

“The base layer here is teenage romance tweaked a little to frame episodes of ordinary life. Two schoolgirls fall in love with an aloof boy who believes he suffers from amnesia. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnnotating this is Celine and Julie Go Boating, which was about two girls embarking upon dreamlike adventure and mischief around modern Paris. What was so remarkable about it were precisely the elusive controls: the film didnu0026#39;t give out that we were, in fact, daydreaming until we were too far in to know exactly where. The clue was already laid out in the first scene, a cat of mysterious eyes and a peculiar chase through empty streets.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo you will have to pay attention to the opening scenes of Iwaiu0026#39;s film, echoing this. Once again a chase in and out of subway cars as giggly play between the two girls. The other clue is obvious enough: Alice.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis layer borrows Rivetteu0026#39;s whimsical light structure. Roles, guises, fiction, synchronous games about the fabrication of narratives, in our case centered at this boy who remembers nothing, is empty space, a blank stage, and the plays the girls assemble around him. Heu0026#39;s told he was in love with one, then both. They both act parts, fashion entire pasts and emotions.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo love as this game of fiction, and getting to allow to be seduced by an image. This is excellent work, and in how itu0026#39;s subtly acknowledged inside the film: one girl signs up for a drama class, and has in fact done so to be close to the boy, himself an actor, the other is randomly approached on the street to model for TV commercials – and this may well reference Mikio Naruseu0026#39;s wonderful Street without Return from u0026#39;34.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo the third layer is how the play is going to be resolved on a level behind the base narrative of ordinary life, and into the stage where love is the heightened game of duplicity. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne ploy is simple enough, opening day for the school play both girl and boy were rehearsing and a near-perfect rendition of the mechanisms that give rise to images: out on the stage performance, roles, fiction consumed as real, and backstage the internal machinations of tortured soul. The other is a little more intricate because of how unassuming: Alice auditions for a part in TV commercial.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow so far this is no different than a French film. Notice what Iwai does, an extra layer that is deeply Japanese. Now the Japanese idea of high beauty and by extension performance, what is often perceived as quaint reticence, is formless heart expressed in visible form. Meditation. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut even a patriarch of Chan like Hongren could not so simply gauge his pupilsu0026#39; inner heart when the time came to decide for a succesor. What he asked instead, was that they write poems on a wall about it. This is a frequent practice in Buddhism. Painting a cycle will do, an u0026#39;enshou0026#39; meaning awareness. The hand will tell.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow all through the film Hana has secretly contrived to cling to her object of desire, has lied and deceived. But when it comes to expressing inner self, we note that she is, in fact, a bad actress. Iwai intercuts her melodramatic reactions backstage with the actoru0026#39;s mock-mannerisms out on the stage. The auditorium is empty when she finally gets out for her part.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOn the other hand Alice. She has been part of the ploy but with a certain affection for the part and with genuine feelings. So much so that it slipped from her, a bad actress in terms of the conventional drama of the world. We trust however that even though the image is false, sheu0026#39;s moved to it truthfully. Her audition is to play an image on a screen. Instead the director decides on a whim that he wants her to do a ballet dance as per her resume, and in a short skirt, an almost humiliating prospect. What does she do? Channeling true self into the thing, she amazes with her skills. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo what do we get, between these two girls? Flowers in the sky, Hana meaning flower, reflecting Zen Master Dogenu0026#39;s notions of illusory mind images.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd on the other hand, the subtlest difference. Emptiness in full bloom. Or in the words of Dogen: being one with just this, while being free from just this.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSomething to meditate upon.”