Philosophizing About Movies and Books: Asako I and II

Hello everyone and welcome to the next meetup David and Philip are offering. This time we will be thinking philosophically about the movie Asako I and II by director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (who is perhaps best known for his recent movie Drive My Car).

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7112154/

As far as we know, the book that Asako I and II was based on has never been translated into English. If you are able to read the book in Japanese, your insights will be invaluable and we certainly hope you can make it to this meetup!

Everyone can see the movie on the Criterion Channel. Criterion offers 10 days for free with no obligation to continue paying to receive the service. So this is one way to see this movie. Philip got it through his public library, and this might be another way for some people to see the movie.

Also, if anyone knows if the book has been translated into any other languages, please let us and the group know ahead of time. Philip in particular would be interested in translations into French or German, but cannot find any.

About the movie: It seems that many viewers interpret Asako I and II as basically a rom com. But the director himself has described it as a horror movie!

The movie is not in any way a traditional horror movie. So please do not dismiss the movie if you do not like horror movies. It is not "scary" in ways typical of of horror movie genre. And apparently many people do not see it as scary in any wayat all!

But at least one viewer (your co-host Philip) saw the movie and found it utterly terrifying (but terrifying in an Existentialist way). If it is a horror movie at all (and this is debatable) it is about the horror of making choices which we then have to live with. It is about the spilt second decisions that then shape the rest of our lives in ways we have no control over.

So at least one viewer (your co-host Philip) would describe Asako I and II as a great Existentialist Horror movie. But this is only one opinion and others may wish to assign it a different genre altogether.

If you can only watch the movie: Welcome!

If you are able to both watch the movie and also read the book: Welcome!