The Japanese director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi takes gambits of bracing audacity. Hamaguchi’s new film Asako I&II is closer to two hours than five, but its shape and structure are no less radical — and once again presented in a style that seems deceptively, and therefore disarmingly, mild. You want to cozy up to Asako, with its pleasant mood and blithe, giddy romance. Even stranger, though, is where the film takes us next, as the original Baku returns and the identical men must vie for Asako’s affection. Of course, there is poetry in how this plays out, and Hamaguchi emphasizes the rhymes.

Source: National Post May 29, 2019 19:18 UTC