Asako I & II (2018)★ 7.3/10

Watching this after “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” and “Drive My Car,” it feels like an Eastern storytelling of a French story. This peculiar love story has Hamaguchi’s usual calmness and restraint, and it feels a little mundane. The film uses bizarrely repetitive shots to create a realistic image, mirroring people’s perception of dreams. This repetitive technique enhances the story's fantastical and mysterious feel.

Watching my second Ryusuke Hamaguchi film, it completely changed my view of the director of "Drive My Car." He brings depth and philosophy to simple emotional themes without touching on social background or ideology. It’s hard to articulate the emotions in the movie in words, as everything is expressed through visual language. Thus, I recommend watching this movie.

A river can be dirty yet beautiful. Love is like that too, continuously flowing but sometimes encountering rocks, which stir up the sediment of life. The image of "perfect love" is always distant, and when approached, it shatters.

For the first time, a film has so clearly told me: the essence of pure love is indifference. The more selfish you are, the purer it becomes. Therefore, films about love should be a kind of mundane horror movie. Innocent lovers crush your boundaries in silence, and then like a phantom, they catch up to you again. Amidst the completely altered landscape, you know you will once again succumb to their curse. Asako is a pure, ideal version of a ghost and also a neighborly version of Tomie.

Representing the younger generation, this film is the most powerful response to the notion that "the core of cinema is drama." The love depicted by the director is no longer the passionate, sentimental, ephemeral, or unforgettable kind, but rather a thorough nihilism dominated by emptiness. Living in the present with a detached coldness, unburdened by the past, and devoid of expectations for the future, love, or lack thereof, becomes insignificant. In the past century, films provided positive encouragement, but presently, perhaps it's quite the opposite.

This is a very unique film, and one that I find highly perplexing. You can't hold it to the standards of realism with its meticulously crafted, magical atmosphere. Asako's infatuation with Baku is like a dream thathaunts her relentlessly, symbolizing how the extreme pursuit ofidealism can have a destructive effect on one's daily life. Asako, with her pristine demeanor, is not a malicious femme fatale but merely fixated on an ideal purity. This is in line with the Japanese spirit, whereimpurity is the original sin in Japanese mythology. It's congruent with the film's mystical allegorical quality (in this sense, Ryusuke Hamaguchi indeed draws inspiration from Kurosawa).

When the river rises, you are the first house to suffer. When the earthquake hit, I am the first chandelier to break. When you love someone, you can kiss her after a car accident, hug him when you cover a blanket, eat a bowl of noodles with him on the Shinkansen, and dare to wander the world with him when he reaches out his hand. Love also only needs to be told to continue to sleep when getting off high speed. Fall in love with the same kind, stay with a different kind, marry with gratitude, miss with the favorite. Knowing that the disaster is coming, I still hug you with my hands full of foam.

Un río puede estar sucio, pero ser hermoso. El amor también es así, fluye continuamente, pero a veces se encuentra con rocas, que alteran el sedimento de la vida. La imagen del "amor perfecto" siempre es distante y, cuando se llega a él, se rompe.

Um rio pode ser sujo, mas bonito. O amor também é assim, flui continuamente, mas às vezes encontra pedras, que agitam os sedimentos da vida. A imagem do “amor perfeito” está sempre distante e, quando abordada, se estilhaça.

Pela primeira vez, um filme me disse com clareza: a essência do amor puro é a indiferença. Quanto mais egoísta você for, mais puro se tornará. Portanto, filmes sobre amor deveriam ser uma espécie de filme de terror comum. Amantes inocentes destroem seus limites em silêncio e então, como um fantasma, te alcançam novamente. Em meio à paisagem completamente alterada, você sabe que mais uma vez sucumbirá à maldição. Asako é uma versão pura e ideal de um fantasma e também uma versão amigável de Tomie.

Representando a geração mais jovem, este filme é a resposta mais poderosa à noção de que “o cerne do cinema é o drama”. O amor retratado pelo diretor não é mais o tipo apaixonado, sentimental, efêmero ou inesquecível, mas sim um niilismo completo dominado pelo vazio. Viver no presente com uma frieza desapegada, livre do peso do passado e sem expectativas para o futuro, o amor, ou a falta dele, torna-se insignificante. No século passado, os filmes proporcionaram um incentivo positivo, mas atualmente talvez seja exatamente o oposto.

Por primera vez, una película me dijo claramente: la esencia del amor puro es la indiferencia. Entre más egoísta eres, más puro se vuelve. Por lo tanto, las películas sobre amor deberían ser un tipo de película de terror mundana. Los amantes inocentes traspasan tus límites en silencio y luego, como un fantasma, te alcanzan otra vez. En medio del paisaje completamente alterado, sabes que sucumbirás a su maldición otra vez. Asako es una versión pura e ideal de un fantasma y también una versión cercana a Tomie.