The A.V. Club by Lawrence Garcia

This is a film that, through its deceptively mellow means, manages to plumb the depths of what it truly means to love amid the uncertainties of self, others, and everything else besides.

The New York Times by Glenn Kenny

Asako proceeds from a premise that flirts with the mystic, but Hamaguchi executes it with elegantly rendered realism. (It is adapted from a 2010 novel by Tomoka Shibasaki.) The result is a picture that is simultaneously engaging and disconcerting.

Los Angeles Times by Justin Chang

A peculiarly potent story about life’s unexpected little ruptures — those odd coincidences, repetitions and shifts in perspective that can set off aftershocks in the human heart.

Paste Magazine by Andrew Crump

Asako I & II is an easygoing movie, at least if the film’s exterior is taken at its words. Under the hood, it’s roiling.

The A.V. Club by A.A. Dowd

Hamaguchi exhibits a careful, un-showy command of the frame, and a talent for creating small, sometimes comic surprises through editing.

Slant Magazine by Chuck Bowen

Like Happy Hour, Asako I & II is a parable of the grace — and, yes, happiness — that spring from resignation.

IndieWire by Eric Kohn

Hamaguchi finds ways of crystallizing the movie’s themes, lingering on contemplative moments that position the entire story as a metaphor for the contrast between the fantasies and realities of relationships, as well as the messy negotiation required to navigate those extremes.

Boston Globe by Ty Burr

The movie keeps you guessing, mostly in pleasure, at both its meanings and its methods.

Film Threat by Alex Saveliev

Higashide effortlessly switches between the two polar-opposite men, both utterly convincing.

The Film Stage by Giovanni Marchini Camia

As with the several other slight departures from realism, the artifice added to the story proves distracting. Without being successfully integrated, such choices fail to bestow the narrative with depth and pathos as intended, but only draw attention to the flimsiness of the its construction.

TheWrap by Steve Pond

There are moments of real beauty in the film, which is an unassuming and contemplative excursion into how we love, and why. But like the fireworks that greet Asako and Baku’s first kiss, its pop is a modest one.

Variety by Maggie Lee

Hamaguchi extols his source for a compelling representation of love as a mystic experience. However, what gets transferred to the screen becomes more like banal indecision.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

This is an amusing essay in amorous delusion.

The Playlist

This strange, deliberately naïve film plunges a high-concept romance into a banal, lifeless world.

Screen Daily by Jonathan Romney

While Higashi proves adept at embodying both extremes, Karata proves a rather insipid centre to the film, not just because of the actress’s bland pertness but because of the passivity of the character.

Screen International by Jonathan Romney

While Higashi proves adept at embodying both extremes, Karata proves a rather insipid centre to the film, not just because of the actress’s bland pertness but because of the passivity of the character.

The Hollywood Reporter by Stephen Dalton

A banal and patronizing cautionary sermon for lovestruck ladies torn between heart and head, sexy-dangerous bad boys and dependably dull husband types.