Akashi follows a familiar plotline in Asian diasporic films. Its progaonist—a Vancouver-based artist named Kana—revisits Tokyo for the first time in a decade following her grandmother’s death. There, she uncovers a family secret involving her grandfather’s past affair, and also re-encounters her ex-boyfriend Hiro—who originally planned to move with her to Canada before suddenly disappearing.
This premise sounds rather similar to the plot of Celine Song’s 2023 film Past Lives, with its focus on a diasporic Asian woman navigating not only a relationship with a past flame, but also her own self-transformation as a result of spending time outside of her native country. Nevertheless, Akashi comes off as a bit less refined or elegiac compared to Past Lives.
Though the overall narrative of Akashi has potential, its two main strands—Kana discovering her grandfather’s affair, and Kana’s relationship with Hiro—feel somewhat disconnected. . The film also touches upon Kana’s identity as an artist—especially in juxtaposition to her family members, friends, and neighbors—but offers little insight into whether her return to Japan challenges that identity in any way. In an attempt at showing character development across time, Akashi toggles between flashbacks and the present day. However, these time transitions are executed in a confusing manner, and ultimately lead viewers to feel more confused about the characters rather than enlightened.
Furthermore, Akashi’s Japanese-language dialog feels rather unnatural. For example, many non-diasporic Japanese characters that Kana interacts with come off as unworldly and untraveled. This depiction seems unnecessarily harsh, and plays into stereotypes around how diaspora members might perceive those in their homelands.
Overall, Akashi feels a bit wanting. While it has plenty of material for a compelling narrative, the pieces of that narrative never fall completely into place. Indeed, Akashi seems to draw heavily from the experiences of director Mayumi Yoshida, herself a Japanese Canadian artist, who also plays Kana. While Akashi certainly validates that Yoshida has interesting ideas and experiences, it would benefit even more from cementing together its various narrative threads into a more thematically coherent, well-developed whole.
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Akashi (Japanese: あかし)— Japan, Canada. Dialog in Japanese and English. Directed by Mayumi Yoshida. Running time 1hr 40min. First released October 5, 2025 at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Starring Mayumi Yoshida, Hana Kino, Ryo Tajima, Chieko Matsubara, Kunio Murai.
This article is part of Cinema Escapist‘s dedicated coverage of the 49th Asian American International Film Festival. Akashi screens August 1 at 11:00am at Asia Society, preceded by the short film One Last Walk, with a Q&A to follow.