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IMDbPro

Asako I & II

Original title: Netemo sametemo
  • 20182018
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 59m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
4.1K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
8,903
111
Asako I & II (2018)
Watch Official Trailer
Play trailer1:26
1 Video
99+ Photos
DramaRomance
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 ... Read allAsako 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.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.
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
4.1K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
8,903
111
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
    • Writers
      • Tomoka Shibasaki(based on the novel by)
      • Sachiko Tanaka(screenplay)
      • Ryûsuke Hamaguchi(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Masahiro Higashide
      • Erika Karata
      • Sairi Itô
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
    • Writers
      • Tomoka Shibasaki(based on the novel by)
      • Sachiko Tanaka(screenplay)
      • Ryûsuke Hamaguchi(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Masahiro Higashide
      • Erika Karata
      • Sairi Itô
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 9User reviews
    • 64Critic reviews
    • 68Metascore
    • Awards
      • 7 wins & 13 nominations

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 1:26
    Official Trailer

    Photos965

    Asako I & II (2018)
    Asako I & II (2018)
    Asako I & II (2018)
    Asako I & II (2018)
    Asako I & II (2018)
    Asako I & II (2018)
    Asako I & II (2018)
    Asako I & II (2018)
    Asako I & II (2018)
    Asako I & II (2018)
    Asako I & II (2018)
    Asako I & II (2018)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Masahiro Higashide
    Masahiro Higashide
    • Baku…
    Erika Karata
    • Asako
    Sairi Itô
    • Haruyo
    Kôji Nakamoto
    • Hirakawa
    Kôji Seto
    • Kushihashi
    Misako Tanaka
    • Eiko
    Daichi Watanabe
    • Okazaki
    Rio Yamashita
    • Maya
    • Director
      • Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
    • Writers
      • Tomoka Shibasaki(based on the novel by)
      • Sachiko Tanaka(screenplay)
      • Ryûsuke Hamaguchi(screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The first commercially produced film directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi.
    • Connections
      References Magnificent Obsession (1954)

    User reviews9

    Review
    Top review
    8/10
    an auspicious discovery of a new Japanese auteur in the vein of Hirokazu Koreeda and Naomi Kawase
    Emergent Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, after his international breakthrough HAPPY HOUR (2015), is welcomed to Cannes' main competition for its follow up ASAKO I & II, an adaptation of Tomoka Shibasaki's 2010 novel.

    The story traces a threadbare template of a young woman Asako's (newcomer Karata in her first film) internal struggle between two men Bako and Ryohei (both played by Higashide), who look just like each other but equipped with polarized personalities. After a prologue setting in Osaka, delineates the evanescent passion between Asako and Bako, the meat of the story relocates Asako to Tokyo, two years after Bako vanishes from her life apropos of nothing, she works in a coffee shop and bumps into Ryohei, a sake company salaryman with an uncanny resemblance of Bako, only, Ryohei turns out to be a gregarious, straight-arrow type that is nothing similar to Bako's enigmatic, ethereal insouciance.

    Initially shocked to her core, Asako is gradually won over by many virtues Ryohei exhibits and after a tentative consent of his courtship, their wavering commitment is significantly cemented by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, 6 years later, the present day, they are still together and Asako truly grows into a deeper affection to Ryohei, but a reunion with Hayuro (Itô), her best friend in Osaka, augurs the ineluctable re-entry of Bako, now a celebrated heartthrob, into her life, just after she comes clean her relationship with Bako to Ryohei (who confesses that he has divined a thing or two in the past years) and gallantly waves adieu to that seemingly closed chapter in the life, when the crunch comes, her impulsive reaction betrays the complexity of her id, after a dreamlike nocturnal driving on the highway with her knight in shining armor, she comes to a sudden awakening, and has a daunting job to win over Ryohei's heart again, or maybe not, Hamaguchi imbues a realistic spin in their final shot, both looking right into the camera to their indeterminate future.

    Conceptually and thematically evoking Ozon's DOUBLE LOVER (2017), plus as its English title reveals, ASAKO I & II, Hamaguchi's conceit actually zooms in on Asako's dual oscillation (the idealized versus the realistic version of her affection) rather than on his literally doubled male protagonists, but through Karata's passive gaze, quiet performance and greenness, that oscillation is all to well buried underneath whereas Higashide lights up the screen with his compassionate incarnation of an ultimate good guy unfairly taking the short end of the stick in their lopsided relationship, thus the twofold revelations come off as a shade over-dramatic albeit Hamaguchi proves to be a superlative raconteur, it is not an easy job to weave a banal love triangle into an organic entity of compelling watching, and somehow, he manages that with great distinction, especially by conducting a tooth-comb of the narrative arc through supporting characters.

    Apart from his gazing-at-the-lens MO (Asako, first meets Bako, then with Royhei in two Shigeo Gocho's SELF AND OTHERS exhibitions, tacitly carries off the parallels), Hamaguchi also struts his stuff with an aptitude with lights and scenic composition, betokened by the gradation of sunlight shadowing the rain-dappled field in the aerial shot near the end. All in all, ASAKO I & II is an auspicious discovery of a new Japanese auteur in the vein of Hirokazu Koreeda and Naomi Kawase, that is something every cineaste should extol!
    helpful•19
    6
    • lasttimeisaw
    • Apr 5, 2019

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 1, 2018 (Japan)
    • Countries of origin
      • Japan
      • France
    • Official sites
      • Bitters End (Japan)
      • Elephant House (Japan)
    • Languages
      • Japanese
      • English
    • Also known as
      • 睡著也好醒來也罷
    • Filming locations
      • Osaka, Japan
    • Production companies
      • C&I Entertainment
      • Bitters End
      • Comme des Cinémas
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $25,559
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $5,690
      • May 19, 2019
    • Gross worldwide
      • $645,313
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 59 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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