Asako I & II

Asako I & II follows a young woman in Osaka who falls for Baku, a free-spirited man she meets at a photography exhibition. Their relationship takes hold quickly, but Baku vanishes from her life without explanation, leaving her shaken. Two years later, now living in Tokyo, Asako encounters Ryohei, a quiet, ordinary young man who is physically identical to Baku yet entirely different in character. Drawn to the resemblance, she keeps quiet about it and begins a relationship with him.

The film is a Japanese-French co-production directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who wrote the screenplay with Sachiko Tanaka. It was his first feature of the period covered here, preceding Drive My Car and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. Masahiro Higashide plays both Baku and Ryohei, with Erika Karata as Asako and supporting roles from Koji Seto, Rio Yamashita, Sairi Ito and Daichi Watanabe.

Released in 2018, the film runs 120 minutes. On IMDb it holds a 7.1 rating from around 6,100 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.8 from roughly 209 votes, indicating a modest but solid audience response. A critics' rating of 7.2 from 48 reviews places it slightly above the audience scores, suggesting a broadly favourable critical reception for this romantic drama.