Lonely Blue Night
2020 · 15m · USA
Directed by Johnson Cheng
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A Chinese mother reunites with the daughter she left in the care of an American homestay family, and over the course of one dinner, the emotional consequences of that decision slowly surface.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Diana Lin in a mathematical wide-shot family drama withholding close-ups until a karaoke punch — that's a real formal idea, and the AFI audience award suggests it lands. The Farewell comp earns it.
Cheng's mathematical visual rigor with Diana Lin places this firmly in the Edward Yang lineage of withheld emotional revelation; AFI Audience Award, NBR, and Best of Staff Picks confirm the discipline lands. A film of evident craft.
15:08 Vimeo Staff Pick (Best of Staff Picks) plus AFI FEST World Premiere Audience Award, HBO APA Visionaries winner, National Board of Review winner — that's an exceptional festival profile, and the withhold-close-ups-until-karaoke structural discipline is the kind of specific craft choice that earns the punch. Diana Lin coming off The Farewell is a perfect anchor.
Reviews
Diana Lin's performance as the mother is brilliant throughout the film, but it's in that last scene that she really conveys the heartache beneath the surface of all she says and does.
For its meticulous structure, and for its very controlled and trenchant gaze, we would like to give special mention to Johnson Cheng's Lonely Blue Night.
Festivals
- AFI FEST 2020, Audience Award
- Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2020
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2021
- Atlanta Film Festival 2020