Hana and Alice

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1 Profile
2 Plot
3 Notes
4 Trailer
5 Image Gallery
6 Cast
7 Crew
8 Awards
9 Box Office
10 Comments
11 External links

[edit] Profile

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

[edit] Plot

Hana and Alicea

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.

With his unmistakable touch - virtuosic and supremely sentimental - Iwai penetrates in fragments the cruel and fateful world of adolescence. Surreal confidences, endless wanderings, bizarre encounters, amnesiac love-stories, dance and life lessons are waiting for the two unforgettable girls. Between manga influences and audio-visual flux at its peak, Iwai confirms to be a pop poet able to reshape post-modern melodrama.

[edit] Notes

Few filmmakers capture coming-of-age in Japan as vividly as Shunji Iwai, whose previous feature, ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU-CHOU, was a devastating portrait of 14-year-olds in the throes of a harrowing youth culture. Iwai takes a decidedly more lighthearted approach in his latest ode to adolescence, HANA & ALICE, where school seems a far less dreadful÷maybe even a tad rosy÷place for the titular teenagers. When tomboyish Alice points out her latest crush to coy friend Hana, she even encourages her to pursue his friend Mark. Reluctantly gazing at Mark from afar everyday, Hana gradually develops feelings for him; when Mark hits his head and passes out momentarily, she convinces him that he has amnesia, and that sheâs his girlfriend. Mark plays along until Hana embroils Alice into the scheme as his ex-girlfriend, only to find him falling for Alice instead. As they sort through their slightly confused dreams and memories and fumble along on their whimsical road to adulthood, Iwai reveals their incremental growth through delicately observed details of daily life÷authentically up-to-date dialogue, richly expressive gestures÷all in softly lit cinematography reminiscent of Monet paintings. Lucid in its observations yet tinged with the hue of nostalgia, HANA & ALICE offers an enchanting poem about that indescribable time when awakening minds are trying to catch up to bursting emotions.