About the Film
A delicate yet deeply felt portrait of that ephemeral time of life that is adolescence, the 60-minute featurette “Moonless Dawn” is a young work from young director/writer Harika Abe, and when I say young I certainly don't mean green or juvenile, but on he contrary I mean fresh, with a flourishing creative drive and the pulse of its target audience. Winner of Moosic Lab 2018's Actor Award “Moonless Dawn” is now streaming via the Japanese Film Festival Magazine.
Synopsis
“Moonless Dawn” follows three teenagers dealing with pre-adulthood and the loss of reference points that it inevitably takes with it. Kou (Yuzu Aoki) is lost in a father/son relationship he simply cannot fix, where the father's alienation and despair constitute an unfair load on Kou's shoulder. Saki (Haruka Echigo) too has family turmoils; her parents are arguing all the time and the male figure's (father, stepfather?) explosions of violence towards Saki and her mother are a costant background of her days and nights. Yuka (Yuuka Nakako) on the other hand, looks like a confident and popular girl, but her heart is craving for something she thinks she can find having sex with random people. On a strange rooftop Saki and Yuka meet Kou who is behind the website of musician LOWPOPLTD that the girl follow, and the place soon becomes the three's refuge against everyday life bitterness. A bond is forming and some strength is maybe surfacing out of it.
