This is a serendipitous find and what a find it is. Sometimes one needs to go back in order to proceed forward. Admittedly, this is a movie that goes way back and by today’s standards in the BL world might be considered ‘old’ and maybe thought of as remote. Its reviews were less than stellar, which is incredulous, and I think based on a misunderstanding of what this movie was all about. I hesitate to reference it as a BL, however. More aptly, it certainly is a gay film. A gay film highlighted by elucidations from the inner thoughts of a mind of a tortured young gay boy, struggling with his ‘coming out.’ If you see it as that, it will have more meaning.

To be sure it is a stream of consciousness movie of a troubled young gay boy. An allegory. If you observe it as a parable of his journey to discovery, albeit, dark and problematic, it will make a little more sense. If it does not, then simply drink in its utterly fascinating and captivating tale of the imagination and madness of a teenage boy.

Admittedly, this movie is confusing and will require your complete attention or perhaps a second go-around. It is that complex. It is that deep and full of hidden meanings. To understand this movie, you need to understand its title. The blue hour is the time between sunrise or after sunset when the sun is low on the horizon and the sky takes on a soft blue color. It has different names in divergent cultures, but it is generally described as the ‘magical hour or known as the time between the ‘dog and the wolf’. The Thai call it Onthakan and is the time between dream and reality or good and evil. The movie’s premise is that and hence its hues and feel is somber with variations of the color blue along with dark shadows that you cannot quite make out.

It is a story of Tam (Gun Atthaphan), a lonely teenager who is bullied at school and emotionally abused at home because he is gay. He meets a young man and begins a relationship and a journey with Phum (Oab Oabnithi). It does not take long for the viewer to figure out that something is amiss in this connection. Is Phum even real or a figment of Tam’s imagination that allows him to begin to accept his own reality of who and what he is?

If you take this movie literally, you will lose your mind along with Tam. If you take it figuratively, you begin to sense and see that what he is experiencing are his journeys of reformations. Then maybe the story will begin to make sense to you. It is a kaleidoscope of thoughts. Each of the scenes represents something in Tam’s mind that is either rational or irrational. For example, is Phum real or simply a part of his mind that allows him to be sexually active and have impure thoughts and desires. Does he also represent all the traits inside him yet to come out or things he wishes he possesses? The half empty pool is not quite completely dirty yet still not completely clean either. Is that Tam’s mind? What about the shadowy figures on the walls and who they might represent? The movie takes you on his journey of self-discovery that is neither hopeful nor completely hopeless. There are indeed morbid scenes as well. Do they represent reality or a deep hatred of his family for what they have done to him and a more ‘wishful thinking’ fantasy?

This is an exceptionally well-acted movie both by Gun and Oab. These were nebulous roles, open to interpretations. Being so unrestricted, the characters are not clearly defined and are changing like one’s emotions. Given the time when this movie was made, both were very young, and they truly displayed intensely remarkable talent as their reference points to whom these characters were are extremely undefined. Not exactly a BL yet not exactly clearly defined as it its archetype. Each I am sure had to dig deep into their own expectations of what they thought the roles were as it is so unclear as to what the standards were. This is truly one of the best dramas from Thailand I have ever seen. It goes through a remarkable depth in characterizations in such a way that is not necessarily linear but more like a hallucination.

I get why people will find this utterly confusing and perhaps not coherent. Unless you understand the meaning behind the concept of the blue hour and realize that what you are watching is a stream-of-consciousness from a very confused teenager, you will be utterly lost. And perhaps disoriented. All of it is representational and is meant, I think, a way to show the agony of what a teenager especially one struggling internally with real bullying issues and maybe emotional traumas at home, is deeply and secretly fantasizing about and plotting in the deep recesses of his troubled mind. How much is real vs fantasy is left up to you. Remember, he is functioning, if you will, in the blue hour, of his own life. He cannot distinguish between what is good and evil or right and wrong. He wants sex but cannot yet obtain it. He is angry and upset and perhaps dismayed by his family’s non-acceptance of him and his belief that they have rejected him and do not understand him and therefore he ‘hates’ them. The bullies are torturous to him and perhaps want to rid himself of those individuals as well in the worst possible way. And he dreams of a glorious romantic ending going out with a person who understands him fully because it is him. All of it jumbled yet making sense to him as he is in his blue hour.

This indeed is a movie that is not for everyone. It can be depressing perhaps. For me, I found it enlightening as it is so symbolic. Yes, dark. But cathartic.

It is a story that needs to be told as it is the antithesis of a BL. Many face a reality similar to this, but perhaps not as deep nor as dark, obviously. They might constantly live just on the edge of their blue hour. Maybe this movie can help us recognize that these individuals do exist and possibly in some small way, we can help them to see either the sunrise or accept the sunset. And to not be afraid of either one. We can help them either enter into the light more easily or provide a light for them to see into the coming darkness.

Rating: 4.9 out of 5

Streaming on- Amazon Prime