ASAKO I & II Netetemo Sametemo
IRISH PREMIERE
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
120 minutes. Japan. 2018. Subtitled. Colour. D-Cinema.
Official Selection, 2018 Cannes Film Festival
Based on Tomoka Shibasaki’s best selling novel Netemo Sametemo, Japanese independent director Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Happy Hour) delivers a hauntingly irresistible vertigo of a modern romance with a rather uncanny premise! Asako (the wonderful Erika Karata), a reserved and sensible student in her 20s meets young, handsome Baku (Masahiro Higashide).
It’s love at first sight and an intense, mystical relationship forms. But one day, Baku vanishes. Two years later, Asako, having moved to Tokyo, meets Ryohei (also played by Higashide), Baku’s perfect double. Although they look identical, the two men are opposites: Baku a free spirited introvert; Ryohei, more cheerful, and open-minded. Together they are two-sides of one man. Beautifully shot in low light this is a compelling representation of love as a mystical experience, told with surprising modernity and delicate lyricism.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi (b. 1978 in Kanagawa, Japan) studied film at the Tokyo University of the Arts. His films include Passion (2008), The Depths (2010), Touching the Skin of Eeriness (2013), and Happy Hour (2015) which won Best Actress & Special Mention for the Script at the Locarno International Film Festival. Asako I & II (2018) is his latest feature.
