LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE

EEN FILM VAN

ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

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 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE – ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
PROJECT SUMMARY

EEN PRODUCTIE VAN EURO SPACE, MK2 PRODUCTIONS

IN SAMENWERKING MET CNC (FRANKRIJK), AGENCY FOR CULTURAL AFFAIRS (JAPAN)
TAAL JAPANS
LENGTE 109 MINUTEN
GENRE DRAMA
LAND VAN HERKOMST JAPAN, FRANKRIJK
FILMMAKER ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
HOOFDROLLEN RIN TAKANASHI, TADASHI OKUNO, RYO KASE
RELEASEDATUM 10 JANUARI 2012
FESTIVALS CANNES FILM FESTIVAL – OFFICIËLE COMPETITIE

KIJKWIJZER

SYNOPSIS
Akiko verdient bij in de prostitutie om haar studie te bekostigen. Wanneer ze op een dag een
ongewone klant treft, betekent dit het begin van een bijzondere relatie tussen haar en de oude man.

CAST
AKIKO RIN TAKANASHI
TAKASHI TADASHI OKUNO
NORIAKI RYO KASE
HIROSHI DENDEN
THE NEIGHBOUR MIHOKO SUZUKI
GRAND MOTHER KANEKO KUBOTA
OLD STUDENT HIROYUKI KISHI
NAGISA REIKO MORI
TAXI DRIVER KOUICHI OHORI
AUTO MECHANIC TOMAAKI TATSUMI
NAGISA´S FRIEND SEINA KASUGAI

CREW
DIRECTOR AND SCRIPT ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
PRODUCED BY MARIN KARMITZ
KENZO HORIKOSHI
ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS NATHANAEL KARMITZ
CHARLES GILIBERT
CAMERA KATSUMI YANAGIJIMA
EDITING BAHMAN KIAROSTAMI
SOUND REZA NARIMIZADEH
ART DIRECTOR TOSHIHIRO ISOMI
COSTUMES MASAE MIYAMOTO
MAKEUP SHINJI HASHIMOTO
CASTING TSUYOSHI SUGINO
 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE – ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
NEW AWAKENING

Without doubt, there was an underlying sense of gnawing depravity that surfaced in Certified Copy
and took me by surprise. I was sure that I already had a good understanding of the work of this film-
maker that I have been lucky enough to come across so often in the past 25 years.

So I was not expecting his latest film to outstrip the already high opinion I have of his work. Some
people like to feel that they can describe and pigeonhole his films as ‘pseudo-simplistic modernism’.
But Abbas’ films have never failed to surprise and now here, not for the first time, is a new wake-up
call, for me, and I am sure many others. With this film, Abbas propels his filmmaking into another
dimension.

Like Someone In Love dissects the very spirit of human beings, delves into their most private feelings,
feelings that even they are unaware of and reveals the fate that inextricably takes hold of each one
of them. A fate that seems to have swept them all up on the same high-rolling wave, before spitting
them out, naked and frozen. I had already felt this tide of emotion when reading the pages of Alfred
Hayes.

His words could have swallowed me up, swept me away and dragged me off course. They frightened
me, and the more I was gripped by fear, the more lucid I became. I should also mention the black
light with which Carco thought he could spectrograph his characters’ inner life and the life around
them.

The more feelings of fear and lucidity come to the fore in films such as Like Someone in Love, the
more opaque and mysterious the film becomes, in a similar way to the lesser known films of Jacques
Tourneur, They All Come Out, Circle of Danger, The Fear Makers. Such subtle and clever film-making
all shows the almost intangible uniqueness of their director.

Like Someone in Love is an outstanding example of “mise-en-scene”, an almost forgotten art in

cinematography that has gradually been replaced by different aesthetic values. Here, one is
eminded of the masterful skill of Preminger, at the height of his career, but Like Someone In Love is
not just a show of masterful craftsmanship. The film is concrete, physical and profoundly enigmatic.
One leaves the cinema knowing a little bit more about life.

Abbas, I did not see this film coming, I thank you and I know others will too…

Pierre Rissient, 25th April 2012

Assistant director on Godard’s Breathless, publicist, producer, director, artistic advisor for Cannes
festival and black-listed during McCarthysm, Pierre Rissient is a very influent person in international
cinema. He introduced Asian movies to the world in the 1970s and spotted talents such as Jane
Campion and Clint Eastwood (as a filmmaker). In 2002, UNESCO awarded Rissient with the Fellini
Medal as a tribute to a major figure in the film industry, and his “notable efforts to boost the art of
film”. In 2012, he received le Mel Novikoff Award.
 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE – ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
‘MY INTERVIEW WITH ABBAS KIAROSTAMI’ BY MARIN KARMITZ

The first time I came across Abbas Kiarostami was when I was presented with one of his films Close-
Up in the early nineties. It was shown to me by one of his interpreters and I was captivated by both
the film’s subject matter and craftsmanship. I asked to meet the director.

The story of Close-Up is that of a guy pretending to be an important director called Mohsen
Makhmalbaf. I had never heard of him so I asked “Who is Makhmalbaf?” – The interpreter replied
that he was a famous Iranian director. I had asked to meet Abbas Kiarostami, but I met Mohsen
Makhmalbaf instead, and I began producing his films as well as his daughter Samira’s (The Apple)
before eventually hooking up with Kiarostami. Close-Up introduced me to Iranian cinema, which in
turn introduced me to Mohsen Makhmalbaf, who then introduced me to Abbas Kiarostami.

On seeing Close-Up, I fell in love with this artist, like I had with Samuel Beckett, Alain Resnais,
Krzysztof Kieslowski and Claude Chabrol, even though I knew absolutely nothing about him. I
immediately offered to produce one of his films, to which he replied that he didn’t need a producer
because he produced his own films. But then he started telling me stories. I realised that Abbas
Kiarostami was not only a filmmaker but also a talented Persian storyteller. Whilst he told me stories
I thought “Ah, what a beautiful film that would make!” and then another story “Ah, what another
beautiful film that would be!”.

I noticed that he was studying me carefully. Every time he came to Paris he would tell me another
story. And each time I would ask him “When are we going to make a film together?” And he would
reply “I don’t need a producer”. I looked upon his stories as gifts, and, in return, I told him stories
about cinema.

I stood back as his films such as Life, and Nothing More (1991), Through The Olive Trees (1994), and
others passed me by. Then, when Taste of Cherry won the Palme d’Or in 1997 Abbas Kiarostami was
courted by several producers. On his return to Paris he came to see me and said “That’s it. I’m ready
now for you to produce one of my films”.

By this stage I had almost given up, so I was overjoyed when he came to me. I asked him which one
he would like me to work on. He dived into his treasure trove of stories, and studied my reaction to
each film idea he suggested (something he still does to this day). He moved from story to story until
he found the one that made me really sit up and take notice. The first film we ever made together
was The Wind Will Carry Us.

When you make a film with someone your relationship changes. It was during the making of his film
Ten that I understood his method of working. When he began telling me about his idea for Ten, it
was the story of a psychoanalyst whose husband informs on her to the police. The police come and
close down her practice. She arrives to discover that they have taped off the entrance and she has a
queue of patients waiting outside. So she decides to carry on treating her patients in her car whilst
driving around the city. The final result is not so far off the original telling of the story, but it has been
refined, whittled down to what is essential. I observed how Abbas Kiarostami does this. And what I
didn’t realise before was that he has a very interesting technique: his stories evolve in a similar way
to the work of certain painters or writers: by trimming away and taking out the superfluous he gets
to the heart of the story, the universal truth. This is such a critical skill, yet so rare. Abbas Kiarostami
lets his ideas blossom like flowers, and whereas some wither away, others flourish.
 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE – ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
It was around 2002, after the making of Ten that he first mentioned the idea of basing a film in Japan.
As there was no script, I suggested that I film him whilst he explained the story to me. It was about
taxi drivers during one night in Tokyo. I recently looked at that film I made, now 8 years later, and
after Like Someone In Love was finished. In it, I asked Kiarostami to show me the preparatory images
that he had shot, and together we watched them on television with him commenting on the images.

We see the idea for the scene where the taxi that drives round a square, around an old lady. All the
elements of Like Someone In Love are already there, but in note form. It took him 10 years to turn
this story into a finished piece of work.

Abbas Kiarostami has always made draft versions before starting actual filming on the films of his
that I have produced. For Certified Copy there were two whole shoots. Firstly the film was shot with
just the location sets, then with stand-ins before real filming could begin with the actors. These draft
versions can be compared to an artist’s sketches, which he then refers back to, to help him achieve
the final result: the painting. It also reminds me of the sculptor Giacometti, who would leave his work
on the studio bench and either go back to them, leave them, finish them or throw them away. It is a
method that I have never seen used by any other filmmaker. I have never seen such obvious parallels
between film-making and other artistic genres. In cinema we work on scripts, of course we add in the
finishing touches but we start filming relatively quickly. Sometimes maybe, an idea or a subject might
take longer to develop but we do not work with a series of sketches, at least not like Kiarostami.

This working method reinforces my belief that cinema can be compared to a house being built. I
expect the director to provide the bricks to build the house. Not to finish it, but to continue building
it so that others can continue building it too. This is the core of what I expect from film-makers. Some
of them are incapable of providing one brick, even undoing the ongoing work. Some may just bring a
pebble, but at least it’s something and it proves that they want to contribute to the building of the
house. But you can’t build a house alone. You can’t just rely on the walls being built by others. If we
don’t have this collaborative vision of cinema or other forms of artistic expression, then it is a sign of
arrogance and self-importance.

Abbas Kiarostami’s working method is akin to building a personal project whilst at the same time
contributing to the construction of a cinematic oeuvre. Back then I asked him why he wanted to
make a film in Japan and this was his reply:

- “Well, because if I make a film in Japan I won’t be accused of making a film for the West. Making a
film in Japan is like making a film in Iran. Whether actors speak Japanese or Persian, there are still
subtitles.”

This conversation is a good introduction to one important aspect in our relationship: language. Or to
be more precise, the spoken word. I don’t speak English. He doesn’t speak French. I don’t speak
Persian. So how do we communicate? This is something quite miraculous and very interesting. It is
also a theme in the film Like Someone In Love. Sometimes, we travel together without an interpreter
and we manage to understand one another. How? I speak to him in French rather slowly, and he
speaks back to me in English. I manage to understand his English and he manages to understand my
French. Specially when we are in a car together and I’m driving. He sits next to me, and we speak to
each other. We can communicate with each other because the relationship we have is based on
more than just words. The words carry information but they also carry an intention, something along
the lines of a mutual understanding, a universal language. The situation was the same when working
with the filmmaker Kieslowski. I didn’t speak Polish. He didn’t speak French. So I spoke bad English
and he spoke bad English…..With him, our conversations never took place in the car, but in bars,
where we would drink together, and it worked. I found the very same universality that goes beyond
 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE – ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
the barrier of language. I’m not talking about a common language like Esperanto, it goes further than
that, it is about being on the same wavelength.

On Certified Copy, I remember we were working as we often did at the editing desk, just after the
first run through. I commented on a sequence that I felt was a bit long. He cut it out and I suddenly
realised that this was now a different film. The 30 seconds that had been taken out changed the film
and changed the language. It changed Abbas’ style and his cinematographic vocabulary: by
introducing an ellipsis and omitting a portion of the sequence of events, we were giving emphasis to
something that shouldn’t be in the film at all. Certified Copy followed continuity in space and time,
like a long take. He purposefully cut out the sequence in front of me, thinking that maybe I was right,
but it was clear that he was right and I was wrong. It was this kind of thing that contributed to our
understanding of each other. What I find fascinating about Abbas is that he is always moving
forward. His work is constantly evolving.

This is the characteristic of a great artist. He approaches each film very differently to the last. When
he made Ten it corresponded to the arrival of the digital camera. For me, Ten is the first film that
manages to combine new digital technology with the subject in a coherent way. Breathless did the
same in 1960 with the revolutionary arrival of the hand-held camera, synchronised sound and
carefully planned lighting.

There was a link between new technology and Godard’s new way of writing. In the same manner,
Abbas Kiarostami is one of the only filmmakers to have taken advantage of new digital technology
for his mise-en-scene. For Abbas Kiarostami, the issue when making Like Someone In Love was not to
forget himself once outside of Iran. This was of great concern to me. I think that every artist is deeply
rooted in the reality of his own country, but at the same time we expect them to be universal. One
foot in, one foot out. How could we help prevent him from losing his way? How could he remain true
to himself? He managed to achieve this with Certified Copy which is why I found it so surprising that
the Americans and the Brazilians felt that it was an Iranian film above all else. After having worked
with a famous actress such as Juliette Binoche, for Like Someone In Love, he chose to work with
newcomers, one of whom was 80 years old and the other 20! By doing this, he was experimenting
further with artistic expression and the complexity of relationships.

Making his film in Japan forced him to write a script, a text. This created a distance between
Kiarostami and his film, and a distance between himself and Iran. It automatically gave him the status
of foreigner, which enabled him to get to the essence of the film more directly.

There is a very interesting theme in Like Someone In Love that is worth exploring, the theme of
reflections. Reflections create backdrops, new spaces, surprising mirrored images. I watched him
work and take the time to register the reflection of the stand-ins as they passed by. Working directly
with the actors turned out to be quicker than working with the stand-ins. A director experimenting
with classic cinematographic traditions can be very trying for the film crew. There were regular run-
ins during the early stages of filming. This working method also required readjustments to be made
by the production team. We are capable of becoming lazy, and never questioning our working
methods. But Abbas Kiarostami is like an alarm bell that wakes you up in the morning. It might not be
pleasant, but you have to jump. Without him, I would be asleep! A Japanese film, produced in France
has never been tried before. As Arte turned down the film, I didn’t have enough money to produce it,
even with the contribution from the Japanese producer. But I had promised Abbas. So I took a very
beautiful Yves Klein sponge sculpture that I cherish along to Sotheby’s who sold it for me in auction
in the States. With the proceeds of the sale, I was able to make Abbas Kiarostami’s film. I am happy
to have swapped a beautiful piece of work by Yves Klein for a beautiful piece of work by Abbas
Kiarostami.
 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE – ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
Just the other day I said to him:

- “Who will you do your next film with?” He looked at me slightly taken aback.
- “Well… with you of course. You are my only producer.”
- “I’m so pleased, because you are my only director.”
 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE – ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
‘IN PRODUCTION WITH ABBAS’ BY KENZO HORIKOSHI

I watched Abbas Kiarostami’s Close-Up for the first time in 1991, at the Yamagata Documentary Film
Festival, and I was impressed by its meticulous and delicate character. Ever since, for 20 years, I have
distributed his films in my little cinema theater as well as in other arthouse cinemas in Japan.

In 1993 we picked up the very first Iranian film to be distributed commercially in Japan. Where Is The
Friend’s Home? had a documentary nature, but managed to touch a large audience, struck by its
simplicity while still making a strong impression. Akira Kurosawa saw the film and sent us his
thoughts: «I would have loved to have directed such a film.»

During the years to come, Abbas Kiarostami regularly travelled to Japan to promote his films and to
attend the Japanese Film Festival. In 2004, he was granted the Praemium Imperiale (an arts prize,
annually awarded on behalf of the Japan Art Association) and, upon his visit to Japan to attend the
ceremony, he asked to be introduced to an elderly lady, an extra, and requested a video camera as
well as a car, to use for film tests. Everything was ready according to his requests. We went to
Roppongi, central Tokyo’s entertainment district, for the film tests. At the time you could often see
posters with pictures of call girls in phone booths. Kiarostami asked the elderly woman to go to a
phone booth and bring back a photo of a call girl. That’s when he started to shoot.

In the following scene, the same woman stood waiting at the corner of a busy street. Following his
directives, the car passed by, observing the woman, while Kiarostami was shooting from inside the
car. Later, this would become the key scene in the first half of Like Someone In Love and the idea for
the film was born from this scene.

In 2010, at the press conference for Certified Copy in selection at the Pusan Film Festival Kiarostami
suddenly announced, to my great surprise, that his next film would be shot in Japan. One month
later, Kiarostami began casting for his film in Tokyo!

As soon as it became known that the Palme d’Or award-winning director Abbas Kiarostami was
casting for a film to be shot in Tokyo, a large number of acclaimed and famous actors lined up to
meet with him. Among them, some were determined to play the lead roles and subsequently the film
financing went smoothly. With pre-production underway, we planned for the production to start end
of March 2011. But then disaster struck.

On March 11, Japan was hit by the most powerful earthquake it had experienced since 1900 and the
tsunami caused considerable damage to the country’s East Coast. From then on, all films in
production, including ours, were interrupted or held back until a future date. The financing partners
abandoned all their film projects. Hoping to for a fresh start in May, we realized that our lead actors
were no longer available for rehearsals. Once again, we had to set up a new casting process. After a
few months of casting, the ensemble was finally confirmed, and apart from the actor Ryo Kase, none
of the lead actors were known to film fans. Kiarostami’s remarkable intuition allowed us to lock down
a cast, in line with the characteristic cast of his films.

The production finally got under way on October 30 2011 beginning with the first scene of the
screenplay written by Kiarostami: FIRST SCENE - CAFÉ - NIGHT TIME.

But again we suffered a setback. A couple of days later, all the extras were replaced and the scene
was shot again. As expected, Kiarostami’s direction was completely unique. He would not allow the
actors to read the entire screenplay. Every day, the details of the scene to be shot the following day
were revealed to the actors. They did not know their characters’ role in the story, nor did they know
 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE – ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
how the film ends. To know the end of the story and the fate of the characters could lead to the
actors counter-performing, a sort of «performance with a downgrading effect».

I don’t believe that Kiarostami is limiting the actor’s liberty, but that he believes that everyday life
should reflect in a film and in our everyday life we have no idea of what will happen to us tomorrow
or with whom we will fall in love. In fact, it seemed to me that the actors who wanted to know the
fate of the character they would portray, were determined to relinquish that knowledge, their
worries did fade away and they very quickly started enjoying «life» naturally in front of the cameras.

As the producer, I should have understood long ago, that Kiarostami’s films are not tinged
documentaries. He plants trees along streets, he expands houses, transforms the walls in another
person’s home in one simple turn and gives subtle attention to every aspect of the framing of the
screen. He configures reality, really.

Even I, as an admirer of his films, did not realize that the hidden reality behind this «zig-zag path» of
his was in fact part of his unique work, as a result of months of work.

On December 4, the production wrapped with the scene where Noriaki (Ryo Kase) realizes what is
about to happen at the old professor’s home and ferociously pounds on his apartment door. We had
a wrap party. But a few weeks later, Kiarostami wanted to plan a new scene with Noriaki.

The actor, Ryo Kase, had by then already committed to another film and was in the middle of
shooting it. We had to wait for his beard to grow. We waited and waited. Finally, his beard grew back
to the length of Noriaki’s beard in the film and when the production finally wrapped for good, it was
already Christmas.
 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE – ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
BIOGRAPHY - ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Abbas Kiarostami was born on 22 June 1940 in Tehran, Iran. He showed a keen interest in drawing
early on and, at age 18, entered a graphic-art contest and won. He studied at the fine arts school in
Tehran whilst making ends meet as a graphic designer, poster illustrator and commercial ad director.
In 1969, he founded the cinema department of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of
Children & Young Adults, which is also where he directed his first short films.

In his first film, The Bread and The Alley (1970), Abbas Kiarostami explores the weight of images and
the relationship of realism and fiction. His preferred theme, the universe of childhood, is expressed
over a long series of short, medium length and feature films, during which he has managed to
establish a subtle balance between narrative and documentary style. Homework (1989), his last
childhood film, is a good example of warm and poetic cinema that discreetly denounces the heavy
aspects of Iranian society.

With Close-Up (1990), he turned a page. In less than one week, the director embraced a news story
and, with the participation of the real life protagonists, made it a pretext to introduce reality into the
realm of fiction. Life And Nothing More (1992) and Through The Olive Trees (1994) complete a trilogy
that began with Where Is My Friend’s House? (1990). In the latter, the devastating effects of an
earthquake in northern Iran serve to uncover the lie that is cinema.

Taste Of Cherry (1997) marked the director’s coming into his own, and his entry into the ranks of
award winners. The film, which tells the story of a 50-year-old man’s obsession with suicide, is an ode
to individual freedom. The film was praised by critics and denounced by religious authorities in Iran.
A slow and contemplative pace, limited intrigue, and references to Persian poetry and Western
philosophy are the trademarks of this deeply original director’s work. His taste for improvisation is
grounded in loosely written scripts, amateur actors, and his own editing. The Wind Will Carry Us
(1999), the story of a group of city dwellers who go to find something in a rural village, is yet another
example of his unique style. The film was also his first creative collaboration with Marin Karmitz and
MK2.

Since 2001, Kiarostami has been involved in a love affair with a small camera and, as a result, works
only with digital film. He has gained more freedom with this «camerapen » of his and has with its
help, directed several nature films of varying lengths, between fiction and documentary: ABC Africa
(2001), Ten (2002), Five Dedicated To Ozu (2003), 10 on Ten (2004), Roads of Kiarostami (2005) and
Shirin (2008).

With Certified Copy in 2009, Kiarostami comes back through fiction to a bigger production and shoots
for the first time out of Iran - in Tuscany - with an international cast. Juliette Binoche will receive the
Best Actress award during Cannes Festival where the film was presented in the Official Competition.

After Italy, Like Someone In Love, a production similar to Certified Copy, brings Abbas Kiarostami to
Japan, a new universe to discover.
 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE – ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
FILMOGRAPHY - ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

2012 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE

2010 CERTIFIED COPY
2008 SHIRIN
2007 WHERE IS MY ROMEO?
2005 CORRESPONDANCES
ROADS OF KIAROSTAMI
TICKETS
2004 10 ON TEN
FIVE
2002 TEN
2001 ABC AFRICA
1999 THE WIND WILL CARRY US
1997 TASTE OF CHERRY
BIRTH OF LIGHT
1995 AN EGG (UN OEUF)
REPÉRAGES
1994 THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES
1992 LIFE AND NOTHING MORE
1990 CLOSE-UP
1989 HOMEWORK
1984 FIRST GRADERS
1982 THE CHORUS
1981 ORDERLY OR UNORDERLY
1980 DENTAL HYGIENE
1979 FIRST CASE, SECOND CASE
1978 SOLUTION NO 1
1977 TO PAINT
THE REPORT
1976 THE COLOURS
A SUIT FOR WEDDING
1975 SO I CAN
1974 THE TRAVELER
1973 THE EXPERIENCE
1972 THE BREAKTIME
1970 THE BREAD AND ALLEY
 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE – ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
RIN TAKANASHI

Born in 1988, Rin Takanashi started her activity as an actress with Goth in 2008. In 2009 she played in
Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, an action TV series where she featured as one of the main characters.
Her next feature film is Is There Anyone Alive? directed by Gakuryu Ishii. Her other works are TV
drama Space Dog Strategy, O Parts, Papador and some more.

This year she has also played in Today, Love Will Start directed by Ken Furusawa, scheduled to be
released in December 2012.

TADASHI OKUNO

Tadashi Okuno was born in 1930. He has started his activities in his early 20s as a play actor with
Bungakuza, a famous play group and theatre. Later he played as supporting actor in a few TV dramas
and movies.

RYO KASE

Born in Kanawaga in 1974, Ryo Kase lived in Washington until the age of seven. His cinema career
began in 2000 in the legendary action film Gojoe by Sogo Ishii and in the comedy Party 7 by Katsuhito
Ishii. In 2001 he went on to act in Godzilla, Mothra And King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
by Shusuke Kaneko.

Ryo Kase has since been in over 40 films, as well on television and in advertisements. Most of his
films have never made it to European cinemas. Films such as Antena by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (2004),
Scrap Heaven by Sang-il Lee (2005), I Just Didn’t Do It by Masayuki Suo (2006) and The Invitation
From Cinema Orion by Kenki Saegusa (2008).

However, the French cinema-going public discovered him in 2001 in the romantic comedy Hush by
Ryosuke Hashiguchi and later in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s dramas Jellyfish (2003) and Retribution (2007), in
Nobody Knows (2004) and Hana Yori Mo Naho (2006) by Hirokazu Kore-eda, The Taste of Tea by
Katsuhito Ishii (2004), and in Outrage by Takeshi Kitano (2010).

Kase has also had parts in international films such as The Passenger by François Rotger (2005). He
played the part of Shimizu in Clint Eastwood’s film Letters from Iwo Jima (2006). He did the voice-
over for one of the characters in The Sky Crawlers by Mamoru Oshii (2008).

He is a ghost in Restless by Gus Van Sant (2011) and Akira inInterior Design, Michel Gondry’s segment
in the film Tokyo! (2008).