Blue Hour

Film description

Sunada is a 30-year-old married woman employed at a lucrative position in advertisement industry. She sometimes drinks too much at corporate events, she begins to get bored in her marriage, and what the world expects from women is not exactly climbing the career ladder, however spectacular. She left behind a rather boring family home at the province: a spontaneous return there with a childhood friend will give har an occasion to confront her past – and not only.

The blue hour is the moment just before sunrise, when the contours of objects emerge from darkness and the reality balances on the edge of awakening, full of both electrifying anxiety and beauty. In Yuko Hakota’s vigorous debut black humour meets nostalgy and irony encounters existential reflection. Featuring the contrast between the life of Japanese province and the customs of middle-class women in Tokyo, the director avoids clichés and easy diagnoses. Her heroines present feminine types hardy found in mainstream movies: the charismatic Kaho and the Korean film star Shim Eun-kyung use their acing skills to tell a tale about different shades of loneliness and combine bustling internal energy with pressing frustration carried beneath the skin.

Jagoda Murczyńska