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Short Film Review: Hey, Night (2021) by Taha Long

"I lost my lighter. I lost my cat"

The way people's lives occasionally connect can be as intriguing as the outcome of these meetings. focuses on this concept in his 13-minute strong, which brings together two strangers whose chances of meeting were quite thin to begin with.

In the dead of the night, a lonely Asian-American cop, Tony, realizes that he has left the window of his small apartment open, and that his cat has gone missing. Frustrated, he begins searching for her. Meanwhile, a Latino taxi-driver, Arlo, has picked up a couple who cannot stop making out in the back seat, even when her daughter calls her and she starts telling her a tale before she goes to sleep. After they are gone, she goes into a park to have a cigarette, but realizes that she has forgot her lighter. She ask for a light the only person also in the park at that time, who happens to be Tony.

Taha Long directs a film that is essentially about loneliness, with the two protagonists highlghting two different aspects of the concept, since Tony is alone because he seems to have no one in his life, and Arlo, because she has to work long hours to support her family. One could say, though, that they are both lonely due to their jobs, since Tony also has to work in the night. In the end, though, the way they meet, due to each one's issues, and the open, but evidently “good” finale, close the movie in a rather optimistic note, that will probably leave a smile to anyone who watches the short.

Also of note here is Alejandro Miyashiro's cinematography, particularly in the way he captures the taxi “arc” with the shots of the couple making out and the driver's slighlty annoyed reactions providing the best moments of the movie, in visual terms at least. Mitsuhiro Honda's editing induces the movie with a relative fast pace that works nicely for the narrative style, while the way the two stories are presented and eventually join is ideal, as much as the presentation of the ending.

as Tony and as Arlo give rather different performances, with the former being rather laconic and the latter quite eloquent, particularly in her narration of the bedtime story, which benefits the most by her rather pleasant voice. This antithesis works well for the narrative, also because Tony's only words in the film become more impactful due to his previous silence.

“Hey, Night” is a simple but quite appealing short, highlighting Long's storytelling and eye for composition.

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

My name is Panos Kotzathanasis and I am Greek. Being a fan of Asian cinema and especially of Chinese kung fu and Japanese samurai movies since I was a little kid, I cultivated that love during my adolescence, to extend to the whole of SE Asia.

Starting from my own blog in Greek, I then moved on to write for some of the major publications in Greece, and in a number of websites dealing with (Asian) cinema, such as Taste of Cinema, Hancinema, EasternKicks, Chinese Policy Institute, and of course, Asian Movie Pulse. in which I still continue to contribute.

In the beginning of 2017, I launched my own website, Asian Film Vault, which I merged in 2018 with Asian Movie Pulse, creating the most complete website about the Asian movie industry, as it deals with almost every country from East and South Asia, and definitely all genres.

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

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