Asako I & II

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Part of

Hamaguchi I & II

April 26 - 30, 2024

Hamaguchi followed up his five-hour-plus Happy Hour with this beguiling and mysterious film that traces the trajectory of a love—or, to be accurate, two loves—found, lost, displaced, and regained.

DIRECTOR
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
YEAR
2018
COUNTRY
Japan / France
RUNTIME
119 minutes
LANGUAGE
Japanese with English subtitles

A truly original Vertigo riff, based on a novel by Tomoka Shibasaki, Asako I & II is an enchanting, unnerving paean to the notion of love as a trance state. Asako (Erika Karata) and Baku (Masahiro Higashide) share an intense, all-consuming romance—but one day the moody Baku ups and vanishes. Two years later, having moved from Osaka to Tokyo, Asako meets Baku’s exact double. Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who gained plenty of attention for 2015’s five-hour-plus Happy Hour, has returned with a beguiling and mysterious film that traces the trajectory of a love—or, to be accurate, two loves—found, lost, displaced, and regained. An NYFF56 Main Slate selection. A Grasshopper Film release.

Asako I & II
Asako I & II

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