Asako I & II

At a photography exhibition, 21-year-old Chao Zi met the mysterious "Mai". Not long after the two started dating, Mai suddenly disappeared and there was no news. Two years later, Asako moved to Tokyo with regrets, and met her first love Mai again by chance, but the other party did not recognize her at all... Hamaguchi Ryusuke is good at depicting the intimacy between men and women in the city. This film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Akutagawa novelist Yuka Shibasaki. Through two similar encounters, it explores the heroine's contradictory view of love between longing for stability and longing for freedom.