Asako I & II (寝ても覚めても) by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
A Review of Asako I & II by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Fun fact: when this premiered at the New York Film Festival, I almost bought tickets to see it and the cast, but decided against it at the last minute because it only slightly overlapped with one of my classes. I genuinely wish I had just ditched that class and gone to see the film with the Q&A. Ah, missed opportunities. I learned my lesson with that year’s NYFF, since I also missed the Burning premiere that I tried to get tickets for desperately.
Anyways, if you could tell by my deliberately placed header, Asako I & II is a contemporary Japanese movie about romance. Our main character, the lovely Asako, is plagued by two men who look exactly the same. And she falls for both of them. This sounds like a recipe of falling for your old ex in disguise—I’ve been watching too many K-Dramas lately, if you can’t tell. That is not what happens here.
I have a burning hatred of romance and any movie that depicts romance in any shape or form (especially when it’s such a good movie and they throw in a romantic subplot just to appeal to the masses. That gets my gears really grinding), which explains my life a little too much, but I actually wasn’t mad at this movie. There were some times I found myself cringing a bit, but it wasn’t corny or over the top. If it was I would’ve clicked the little “x” button immediately and peaced out of this review.
Let’s just deep dive straight into this one, alright?
Plot / Story
At the beginning of the film, we meet the youthful but elegant Asako. She’s in love with a man named Baku, who her friend keeps warning her against dating. He’s flighty and disappears a lot, and so one day, when he disappears and never comes back, Asako doesn’t forget about him. He’s that old flame who just disappeared, one that she truly never gets over.
Which leads us to the second arc of the film! She’s dating a man who looks exactly like Baku (played by the same actor, of course) but is the exact opposite personality of him. This is Ryohei, a sweet man who is head over heels in love with Asako for reasons that aren’t very clear to us as viewers. He really, really wants her.
But then Baku comes back. He’s a successful model and actor now, and, of course, Asako hasn’t forgotten about him. That leads to a chain of events that’s kind of sad for all parties involved, just because she never got over her old flame and he’s kind of an asshole.
That’s it. That’s literally the entire story. There’s not much else to it, to be honest. Very straightforward film.
I think the double ghost story of sorts works for the romance aspect, which is why I thought it wasn’t as bad as a normal romance film. I also, in a twisted way, thought that the fact that one guy is an asshole and the other is basically a saint. There isn’t much to the film outside of this, which I guess I like the straightforwardness of it? I don’t know how to describe this honestly, this movie is just okay.
My big complaint is that Ryohei just blindly loves Asako and he doesn’t seem to have a solid reason why? And then she just stays with him even though she isn’t over Baku? These characters are so selfish and blindly following what they want that it’s actually kind of annoying, something to the point that I was just rolling my eyes and going “why this happening?”
Cinematic Elements
The only I really have to say about this is that there are some really nice scenes that are visually appealing to the eye. Lots of playing with natural tones of color, lots of nicely formatted shots, and we get quite a bit of symmetry throughout (as soon in the image above).
The way it is set up, though, that I find really interesting is that the visuals at the beginning when she’s with Baku are more dreamy and romantic, then when we’re with Ryohei it seems to be more realistic and mundane. Perhaps that’s a way of looking things through the rose-colored lens, how everything seems better in the past than it does in the present.
Overall Thoughts:
Honestly, if you’re into this kind of thing, then this is the movie for you. The characters are very superficial, the supporting cast of characters just exists in the background, and there are no subplots or anything that makes this, well, interesting enough to warrant a rewatch. If you can watch it for free, go ahead, but otherwise I don’t think it’s worth the hassle and long run time. I wanted to see more honestly from the film, more heartbreaking moments of authenticity, but we just don’t see that at all.
It’s also really difficult to like Asako as a character when she’s so stoic and her real personality is hidden under subtle statements and hints about who she really is. She tends to have a blank face that doesn’t change that often, which is good acting from Karata, but frustrating for us as viewers when she’s our main protagonist.
The melodrama aspect of it also isn’t ramped up until the third and final arc, when Baku and Ryohei are now both a presence in Asako’s life. I think this is a promising movie and romance if we dug deeper into the authenticity of the characters and their motivations, rather than having them being flat and superficial as characters.
