Asako I & II
Following the success of Drive My Car, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's often surprising romcom of 2018 is now getting a re-release.
The Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi has been making films since 2007 but for many his latest piece, the justly acclaimed Drive My Car, will have provided the first opportunity to acquaint themselves with his work. It is the case that he made a mark on the festival circuit in 2015 with his film Happy Hour but, since that lasted for over five hours, it is hardly surprising that it has not been much seen in cinemas even of the arthouse variety. He has also made a number of documentaries including a group centred on the Tohoku earthquake of 2011 and it seems clear that he is not an artist who can easily be pinned down when it comes to what we might expect of him. However, for British audiences more clues are now to hand since Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021) has just been released here and now Mubi brings us Asako I & II made in 2018.
Adapted from a novel, Asako I & II tells a story that could easily have been presented in very commercial terms as a mainstream love story. Spread over seven years or more, it starts in Osaka where young Asako (Erika Karata) experiences her first great romance when she meets Baku (Masahiro Higashide). Her friend Haruyo (Sairi Itô) warns Asako that Baku is a heartbreaker, but Asako is so smitten that she takes no notice. Before long she is crushed when Baku suddenly disappears, but then he reappears after all. However, six months later it happens again and this time he does not return. Jump forward two years and Asako has arrived in Tokyo and is serving in a coffee shop. Now she encounters a junior marketing executive who looks so like Baku that she believes that he is Baku (indeed this role too is played by Higashide). This man, whose name is Ryôhei, falls in love with her and eventually she responds and, finding him reliable, proceeds to settle down with him. But does she really come to love him or do her feelings depend on his looks being those of Baku? And, if Baku should re-enter her life, how would she react?
The early scenes of Asako I & II are a triumph because, although they suggest a work more popular in tone than one would expect from Hamaguchi, they capture youthful energy splendidly and - even more importantly - suggest the emotional impact of first love in a manner that echoes the romanticism found in Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). Then, when Ryôhei comes into the story, Hamaguchi very effectively invites the audience to ponder on just what it is that arouses Asako’s feelings. That in turn encourages one to think about the extent to which love is linked to appearance rather than to character.
All of this gains in depth due to the conviction of the actors. Higashide carries off his dual roles with confidence, Karata is fully persuasive as Asako and subsidiary figures are extremely well realised too, not least Rio Yamashita’s portrayal of Maya, an actress friend of Asako’s living in Tokyo. Maya’s acting ambitions lead to references to Chekhov and to Ibsen’s The Wild Duck and one is encouraged by that to find extra relevance here (if Asako tells the truth about her love for Baku and lets Ryôhei know that he looks like him, will this be as fatal as the truth-telling in Ibsen’s play?). But, if by this time Asako I & II has achieved a certain depth and intelligence, ultimately there is a sense that, even though it has escaped any feeling of being a mere commercial venture, the film does not fully live up to what it seems to be promising. Asako’s increasingly erratic behaviour ultimately works against our sympathy for her, but, if there is an emotional loss in that, as a thought-provoking tale about love and wherein it resides, this film not unlike last year’s I’m Your Man is genuinely intriguing.
Original title: Netemo sametemo.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Masahiro Higashide, Erika Karata, Sairi Itô, Rio Yamashita, Kôji Nakamoto, Kôji Seto, Daichi Watanabe, Misako Tanaka.
Dir Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Pro Yuji Sadai, Teruhisa Yamamoto and Yasuhiko Hattori, Screenplay Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Sachiko Tanaka, from the novel Netemo sametemo by Tomoka Shibasaki, Ph Yasusuki Sasaki, Pro Des Masato Nunobe, Ed Azusa Yamazaki, Music Tofubeats, Costumes Teruhisa Yamamoto.
Bitters End/C&I Entertainment/Comme des Cinémas/Elephant House-Mubi.
119 mins. Japan/France. 2018. US Rel: 17 May 2019. UK Rel: 12 February 2022. No Cert.
