Passion ultimately is like an enquiry that brings a specific movement in relationships to a conclusion at a given juncture, but hints at things still being in a circular formation—being, becoming, unravelling, and collapsing to start all over again.

“Passion” has a low-fi, hangout feel, flush with the youthful indie energy and forgivable pretensions of an artist who believes that filmmaking matters. Hamaguchi is still a student but already finding his voice.

Passion already finds Hamaguchi Ryûsuke to be a superb orchestrator of moods and tones.

Passion effectively historicizes its director's curiosities as a young filmmaker...essentially providing a time travel-trail of bread crumbs of the themes and ideas that would continue to pop up in his later films.