Hey Yú | 如魚得水
From the Archives
•
01-Oct-2020
Locked down at home, Kent scrambles to make a last minute sign for his co-worker’s virtual surprise party. “Hey Yú (如魚得水),” directed by Athena Han, perfectly captures a common mode of our times — being distracted, overwhelmed, and failing to live up to other’s expectations. Living alone in Vancouver, almost 40 years old and single, all of the sudden one day things get hectic. A reminder email eight minutes before a work obligation anniversary celebration sends Kent rushing to make a sign. As he searches for supplies, he gets a call from his parents, themselves celebrating an anniversary, a phone call that he tries to entertain but can’t really focus on. (“when are you going to have a family of your own? they ask, Kent barely listening.”) All the while, something strange is happening in his fish bowl, a mysterious multiplication of goldfish. Han’s film is a mood, it builds rich tension from its melding of ordinary and out-of-the-ordinary stressors, and culminates with a wonderfully surreal final image.
Up Next in From the Archives
-
Flyover
A day in the life of a modern Midwestern community as a farmhand hunts for the cow he scared away. Brian White directs “Flyover,” a tender tale painting the lives of, and around, a farm in Missouri. During what seems to be just another one of their day-to-day duties, three farmhands blissfully co...
-
The Right to Remain Silent
A young man tries to cheer up his roommate by getting beer but a run-in with an ex-girlfriend complicates the picture. Matthew Koebele’s “The Right to Remain Silent” contains the melancholy and suppressed drama of an unexpected encounter. Paul looks for his watch while his roommate, Carter, reads...
-
Drowned Lands Part 1: Ascent
