Asako I & II

Do we ever really get over our first love? Asako is about to find out, in this quirky romantic drama from Academy Award Nominee Ryusuke Hamaguchi.

Baku is an attractive, impulsive dude with a wild side. When Asako meets him, she is swiftly smitten and the duo’s sexual chemistry fires off the charts. Then, one day, Baku vanishes. Asako is crushed but moves on. Two years later, she meets Ryohei, a more conventional chap who is warm and honest but physically Baku’s perfect double. Is it wrong to date someone because they are identical to an ex-lover? Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy) adapts Tomoka Shibasaki’s novel in his own charming and unpredictable style, mixing stillness and humour with bursts of energy. His characters are unafraid to lay down harsh emotional truths, confronting the choice between the kind of love that’s good and enriching and the kind that’s explosive and destructive.