After the teasing conundrums of the Tuscan-set Certified Copy, Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami confounds expectations again with this Japanese drama of mistaken identity – which nods towards Ozu’s classic Tokyo Story but takes its title from an American jazz standard.

‘Like’ is the key word here, since the protagonist is a young woman who appears a regular student/grand-daughter/girlfriend depending on the circumstances, but is actually moonlighting as a call girl, where one of her clients is, outwardly, a distinguished professor and widower, but obviously with secrets to hide.

As these characters’ individual deceptions gather critical mass, Kiarostami mounts the action with breathtakingly economical finesse, never telling us quite what to think, yet suggesting throughout that we ponder how our true selves exist in relation to an everyday cross-weave of social assumptions. Playful, exotic, and wise, as only Kiarostami knows how. (Notes by Trevor Johnston.) 

This film will be one of three films discussed in June’s The Critical Take, our FREE monthly film club, on Wednesday, June 26th at 18.40.