Hana and Alice (2004): Friends dancing the ballet of deception

ByFabian Bullitt

2004 • Shunji Iwai • 1.78:1 • Jump to Gallery ↓

Directed by Shunji Iwai, Hana and Alice follows two teenage friends whose everyday lives become complicated when one of them develops a crush on a classmate and draws the other into an increasingly elaborate fabrication. What starts as an innocent lie gradually turns into a shifting emotional triangle shaped by friendship, performance, and teenage uncertainty.

Originally a series of short internet advertisements, this film is a coming-of-age story characterised by the director’s signature lo-fi, sun-drenched romanticism. Despite the melodramatic teenage love triangle at its core, the film works as an eccentric, thoughtful human comedy. It is a hazy, pastel-hued dream world that comes together to form melancholic, poetic snapshots of youth.

Imbued with an earnest, youthful spontaneity, Hana and Alice offers a compassionate, light-hearted, and deeply empathetic portrayal of female friendship, where romantic illusions may shatter, but the bonds forged in dance class endure everything, even the most far-fetched lies.

Technical Specs:

  • The Story: A teenage girl becomes entangled in an elaborate deception involving her friend and a shared love interest, only for the staged romance to gradually blur the line between performance, fantasy, and genuine emotion.
  • Actors: Anne Suzuki, Yu Aoi, Tomohisa Yamashita, Ryo Katsuji, Sei Hiraizumi.
  • Director: Shunji Iwai
  • Year: 2004
  • Cinematographers: Noboru Shinoda & Shinichi Tsunoda
  • Origin: American Cinema
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
  • Genre: Drama & Romance / Coming-of-Age
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