ASAKO I & II
After the love of her life mysteriously vanishes, a lovelorn college student attempts to move on, finding hope when a potential new beau eerily resembles the disappeared.
After entrancing audiences with the acclaimed HAPPY HOUR, director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi returns with a mystery surrounding the whimsical, star-crossed romances that befall the young Asako (Erika Karata). All it takes is a casual glance from the mesmerizing Baku (Masahiro Higashide) for college student Asako to immediately fall for the debonair bad boy. The two are instantly inseparable, even staging an impossibly passionate tableau after a countryside motorcycle accident leaves them sprawled on the street in an intense embrace. Yet when the mysterious Baku suddenly leaves, the despondent Asako flees to Tokyo in hopes of starting over. Supported by the bubbly Maya (Rio Yamashita), Asako begins to heal until she has a run in with the affable, but dull, Ryôhei, a dead ringer for her first love. Intoxicated with the resemblance to Baku, Asako begins to build a relationship with Ryôhei under false pretenses that most certainly can only end in tragedy. Capturing the fickleness that is love or lack thereof, Hamaguchi explores what it takes to truly connect with someone in a world filled with chaos and uncertainty.
CAST: Erika Karata, Masahiro Higashide
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