Hana & Alice

Hana and Alice have known each other since childhood. Alice is the more lively of the two. All too often it’s up to Hana to put back together things that the headstrong Alice has destroyed. But Alice has her good sides, too. After all, it’s Alice that helps Hana find her first love.
True to her own belief in love at first sight, Alice proceeds to pursue the object of her desire – with the wilful Hana in tow. Alice suggests this boy’s friend, Miyamoto, for Hana, with the result that the reluctant Hana indeed begins to show an interest in the high school pupil in question.
April arrives and the two girls are at last also pupils at the same high school as their heart-throbs. In order to get closer to her inamorato, Hana joins a club of comic storytellers. Hana waits, hoping for her big chance with Miyamoto, who doesn’t even know the name of his admirer. Finally she feigns memory loss to her not-quite-lover in order to get what she wants. Although Hana’s ploy does indeed bring them together she finds herself obliged to invent still more white lies, setting off a chain reaction.
In his latest film, director Shunji Iwai uses the device of the classic love triangle to tell a complex tale of youthful friendship, first love and growing up.