BLUE HOUR

Trapped in her career and love relationship, a 30-year-old TV commercial director returns to her countryside home in the company of a free-spirited girl friend. In a bittersweet reunion with an alienated family, her childhood memories of freedom and yearnings creep in the “blue hour”, transcending into a lyricism of self-realization – at once whimsical, agonizing and yet hopeful. The film was presented at the Hong Kong International Film Festival 2019 and the Shanghai International Film Festival 2019.

Born in 1982 in Ibaraki prefecture, Yuko Hakota is a Japanese director who, after graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2005, has shot numerous commercial videos for Toyota, Shiseido, and Google, among others. “Blue Hour” is her first feature film.