Watched on 2008/02/01
花とアリス ／ Hana and Alice
みっちゃんの選出作品 Mi-chan's selection
Warning: Plot and/or ending details might follow.
注意 : 以降に、作品の結末など核心部分が記述されています。
私は、たとえ気に入った映画でも、同じ映画を何回も観るタイプではないのですが、この『花とアリス』は4回観ました！そして、DVDを返却する前に、私と同じく“蒼井優ちゃんファン“の母親に観せながら一緒に観たので、計5回です！これは自己最多記録ですっ。そんなにどこが好きかと言うと・・・
- 蒼井優ちゃん演じるアリスの、覇気のないしゃべり方、何にやる気があるのか分からない感じ、などなど「ああ、思春期だなぁ」とリアルに感じられて、とても上手だなぁとホレボレした。
- アリスの父親役・平泉成が実にいいです！何度観ても泣けます！思春期のムズかしく、めんどうくさい女の子の扱いに手を焼きながらも接するその姿は「ああ、女の子のお父さんってこうなんだよなぁ」と、実感としてうなずけます。特に「アリスがうなぎをほおばって食べているのを笑っているシーン」と「帰り際、電車を先に降りた時 “ほら、そこ席空いたから座りなさい”」と促すシーンはもう、胸がフルフルきました（涙）
- 同じ電車の別れ際のシーンでアリスがぶっきらぼうに「・・・ねぇ、今度いつ？」と尋ねる姿も、もう胸がフルフルです。お父さんとのデート中はブスッとしてツマらなそうにしていたのが、この最後の一言で、アリスが父親と会えるのをどれだけ心待ちにしているのかが一瞬で伝わり、もうたまらんです。。。。。
女の子とお父さん
こうして感想を見てみると、この映画で私が好きなのは蒼井優ちゃんと平泉成のシーンだということが分かりました（笑）いやいやほんとに、この二人の演技、たまらんです！このシーン観たさに、6回目も観るだろう〜な〜♪
内藤 道子
少女という生き物独特の美しさを丁寧に描いた映画だと思います。その美しさは、未完成故の残酷さを潜ませているんですね。
アリスの母親、父親との関係も興味深いものでした。自分勝手にしか生きられない母親、不器用で、娘の気持ちを理解できない父親・・・。未完成なのは子供だけではないですね、大人だって、みんな未完成、だけど、未完成の大人はあまり美しいものではありません。
なんでだろう。
人間は、生物で、未完成で、だから、面白い。
私は、花とアリスが美しい大人に成長することを願っています。
藤平 久子
First, I have to say - once again - that I can't comment on the script, as I couldn't follow enough of the Japanese. (It's becoming a habit - see our other Japanese, French and Russian movies!) That said - and it may severely detract from my understanding - I was left to ponder the look, feel, technique etc, and for me this film falls down on all those.
The director is Shunji Iwai. It took me a while to remember a previous film of his, "Love Letters", which I do remember liking but can't actually remember. Since watching "Hana and Alice", I've discovered I've seen "Fried Dragon Fish" (I remember Tadanobu Asano, but that's all) and "April Story" (which I seem to remember forgetting as soon as I'd left the cinema).
So, script aside, what was left for me with "Hana and Alice"? Cinematography that has a flattened, almost solarised, light, which gives exteriors an interior feel - I assume to make this more of an "interior" film, but I was longing for some real daylight. Editing that was like someone with ADD on valium - jumpy in inexplicable places, suffering longuers in others. A performance by the celebrated Aoi Yu which sometimes seemed as un-lit as the photography.
In terms of performance, co-star Anne Suzuki, who didn't get as much kudos as the "cute" Yu, outstrips Yu significantly, and was the best thing about the movie. She was acting, while Yu just gave us her presence.
Iwai is popular both in Japan and in festivals in the UK but, to me, he lacks any real punch while suffering from a surfeit of technique. (That includes his other films as well.) Here, for example, he plays with pairs of people throughout the film - people walk one following the other, and interact with another seperately, less so in groups (apart from the ballet school scenes). It's a neat idea for a film about friendship - Hana and Alice, both and a third school student etc - but takes you nowhere without identifying some emotional strength behind it. (While the scenes with Alice's father - see the shot on the bridge, above - were the ones which seemed most approaching that strength, for me, they weren't enough.)
Maybe there's some real boundary which, as a British viewer, I couldn't cross to find any filmic emotional truth here (maybe it's all in the script?). But judging by other people's love of this movie as expressed on the Internet - and not just Mi-chan's love of it (above) - I'd say not: it's just me who didn't like it.
- Andrew