Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami travels to Japan for this film about a young hooker who becomes involved with an old professor. Any movie that starts with a long, inert first scene is gonna be slow, but this one takes the prize. First is a restaurant with 2 locked-down cameras for 10 min. Second is in a cab for 15 min, while listens to 8 voicemail msgs. You get the idea. At one point the old man fell asleep behind the wheel of the car for more than a minute. All sequences take place in real time with static camera and low key performances. I had plenty of time to answer a few emails and not miss a thing (even in subtitles) and may be the only person in Richmond to see this. It does have a pretty surprising shaggy dog ending.
