Japanese romantic dramas often delve into the agonies and ecstasies of unrequited love, especially when the protagonist is a pure-hearted teen. Occasionally, though, they depict the tale of lovers who are made for each other, until they aren’t.
Based on a novel by Masahiko Katsuse, Hana Matsumoto’s “The End of the Pale Hour” follows the latter story arc with one big difference: A crucial fact is withheld until well into the film and, once revealed, it changes everything we thought we knew about the central couple.
Found in “The Sixth Sense” and its many imitators, this narrative strategy is by now all too familiar. But Matsumoto, a 23-year-old former actor making her second feature as a director, frames this story so that the reveal makes psychological sense. When we finally know what the protagonist knows but has long been trying to deny, everything clicks into place, like a Rubik’s Cube that is solved with one clever turn.