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ASAKO I & II

February 5, 2023

Moderator: Michel Pichot

Panelists: Spencer Everhart (Film) and Naoki Kanaboshi (Culture)

Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Year: 2018

Country: Japan

Asako lives in Osaka. She falls in love with Baku, a free-spirit. One day, Baku suddenly disappears. Two years later, Asako now lives in Tokyo and meets Ryohei. He looks just like Baku, but has a completely different personality.

Festival Premiere

2018 Cannes Film Festival

Official Selection

Awards

Audience Award, Nominee

2018 San Sebastián International Film Festival

Best Film, Nominee

2018 Hochi Film Awards

"Hamaguchi exhibits a careful, un-showy command of the frame, and a talent for creating small, sometimes comic surprises through editing. Gently and leisurely, he charts the mundane rhythms of the romance, to the point where a viewer might wonder where the movie could possibly be going, if anywhere."

-- A.A. Dowd, AV Club


"This is a film by turns nostalgic, romantic and melancholic – with the gentlest of heightened conceits that shakes its emotional foundations."

-- Michael Leader, Sight & Sound

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