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The Case of Hana & Alice Director Q&A at Glasgow (Updated)

An earlier version of this story wrongly gave the date of the screening as February 28. In fact, the screening is on April 28.

Shunji Iwai's feature film Hana to Alice Satsujin Jiken (The Case of Hana & Alice) will have a screening at the Glasgow Film Theatre on Thursday April 28 at 6 p.m. The screening will be followed by a live Q&A with the director. Tickets can be booked at the above link.

The Case of Hana & Alice is an animated prequel to his live-action 2004 coming-of-age film Hana & Alice. The original film showed the friendship between two high school girls; the anime film explains how they first met.

The animated film is summarised on the website as follows:

Alice is off to a fresh start. Having just settled down with her recently divorced mother, she's set to begin school at a new college. Upon arrival, she quickly falls victim to bullying, but after running into Fuko, an old ballet partner, she finds solace in returning to dance. It is during such a dancing session that she overhears about the enigmatic affair of the Ishinomori High murder. When Alice discovers that her next-door neighbour Hana, who's been holed up inside her apartment for months, holds the missing pieces to an unsolved murder, she decides to pay her a visit.

The previous live-action Hana & Alice film was the breakthrough performance of the two lead actresses, Yū Aoi (live-action Rurouni Kenshin films, Tekkon Kinkreet, Redline) and Anne Suzuki (Steamboy, Pokémon 4Ever, live-action Initial D). They both reprise their roles as Alice and Hana respectively as voice actresses in the anime film.

Iwai also directed the live-action films All About Lily Chou-Chou and Swallowtail Butterfly, and took a lead role in Hideaki Anno's 2003 live-action Shiki-Jitsu (Ritual)

Iwai directed The Case of Hana & Alice, wrote the screenplay and composed the soundtrack. The Japanese-language trailer is below.