Asako I & II

This one terrified me, not in a way a horror film terrifies you (this is by no means horror to the scaredy cats like myself out there btw), but in a way a well-made drama can see you, like really see you, and suddenly make you feel exposed and vulnerable and utterly naked all at once. Asako is the darkest part of myself personified. I don't know how Hamaguchi knows that. The mean and manipulative things she does here are things I would do, too, if I cared less. But no one was supposed to know that. It is both terrifying and thrilling that Asako (and ✨movies in general✨) can do that.