(Yoru no henrin)
Directed by Noboru Nakamura
109 minutes
In Japanese with English subtitles

What a beautiful little surprise this flick is. Totally unexpected, and it's shocking it's not better known. It has a piercing drama, and in terms of cinematography it echoes shades of Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love... but this film was made 35 years before. Super strong color scheme, amazing images, glorious set designs, atmospheric and moody as hell.

This film tells the story of a young girl from the countryside who has moved to the city and is holding down two jobs. Factory work during the day, and working in a bar at night. She meets a guy who she falls for, but very soon he turns out to be a  scoundrel. I won't go into the story much more than that, because I would rather let the movie unfold for itself. But I will say that even though it starts from a man's point of view, as the film unfolds it begins to transcend and we begin to understand that it is actually a female oriented film. In a way it's the story of a woman's journey towards independence. All soaked in incredible color schemes, with neon lights glaring in the rain, along with an amazing soundtrack that varies between alienated dissonant compositions to deep bluesy melancholic tunes.  

Her journey isn't an easy one, and is often filled with torment. But that is also what creates more depth in the movie. The performance by the main actress is nothing short of astounding, she is able to hit all the emotional registers to make a story like this work. She is the heartbeat of the movie, and everything rests on her shoulders. Like I said earlier, it seems Wong Kar-Wai based a lot of his plot, visual, and audio cues on this devilishly gorgeous film.