Hey Yú | 如魚得水
Pacific Northwest
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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.
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