Review of the Thai gay film The Blue Hour

A unique work between teenage angst and fantasy

The screenwriter of the very interesting Boyslove series NOT ME, Anucha Boonyawatana delivers a bold work with The Blue Hour (that is, the blue hour, that moment just before sunrise or sunset when the sky takes on a bluish hue). In the lead role is actor Gun Atthaphan Phunsawat, who also played the lead role in NOT ME.

We follow Tam (Gun Atthaphan Phunsawat), a troubled gay teenager. Rejected by his family, who do not accept his homosexuality and see him as a bad seed, and beaten up by his classmates, he is deeply vulnerable and melancholy. One day, he decides to meet Phum (Oabnithi Wiwattanawarang), a boy he has been chatting with online. The meeting place is unusual: a disused, abandoned swimming pool. They get to know one another, then grow closer in the surrounding building. Like Tam, Phum has a number of cracks. The attraction between them is obvious; they begin to live out a passion and create a world that belongs only to them. One night, Phum takes Tam into the heart of a strange dump. He is going to tell him about his past, everything he has lost, and his desire for revenge…

A rare film

The film is highly unusual and has remained completely outside the circuit, receiving, for example, neither a theatrical nor even a VOD release in France, and not even being selected for major LGBT festivals. Yet it is a genuine cinematic curiosity, and director Anucha Boonyawatana establishes a completely unique tone, sensitivity, perspective, and atmosphere here. She begins with teenage angst and loneliness, taking us into winding territory.

The entire film is steeped in a strange rhythm, shrouded in mystery, and increasingly blurs the boundaries between reality and projections. Without warning, it frequently shifts from a melancholy teenage chronicle to something more ghostly, morbid, even threatening. The Blue Hour thus partly ventures into thriller territory and even plays with horror motifs to explore the psyche of its suffering main character.

A poetic and captivating experience

Although it is a feature film that must be earned through its narrative and aesthetic choices, as well as through its languid and almost hypnotic rhythm, those who succumb to it will undoubtedly retain something of it within themselves for quite some time. This teenage romance with an air of unreality leaves us with a haunting mystery after making us feel a whole range of contradictory emotions and sensations. One can only hope that, at some point, this gem will be (re)discovered and brought to the fore.

Film produced in 2015 / In the absence of a legal release, a Google search will turn up versions of the film with English subtitles