Small Hours of the Night (2024)

Small Hours of the Night

A filmmaker’s role is to create stories that entertain people and keep them interested by not always answering the questions they pose. This principle drives Daniel Hui in making Small Hours of the Night, an intriguing experimental drama that touches on many difficult subjects. The movie revolves around a long conversation between a man and a woman it turns out to be an interrogation with a police officer and a criminal respectively.

During this talk, she defends herself while he listens carefully trying to understand what she means when her defence sometimes becomes vague. In the middle of these instances, there are other parts added by the director to deepen (or confuse) this thought-provoking story. Through his fascination with Singapore’s criminal justice system and the historical context serving as background for his film, Hui examines guilt vs innocence as well as freedom vis-a-vis threats against it during this absorbing yet often challenging drama.

Small Hours of the Night does not easily fit into any specific category upon first glance neither does it reveal what it is about immediately. There is such richness in storytelling here that one can spend time getting used to all references made throughout this work without feeling obligated to do so too quickly or at all even if necessary be the case sometime later on down line somewhere along way somehow someway or another before too long after awhile sooner rather than later towards end where things start making sense eventually perhaps never really until forever ends but still keeps going further beyond where we were initially starting from here.

It’s complex but invigorating cinema which provokes thinking about topics new potentially for many people who watch films like these occasionally every now or then at some point in their lives possibly once every blue moon when pigs fly over rainbow bridge through pot gold under leprechaun’s whiskers near four leaf clover inside unicorn farting rainbows close by magic beans sprouting beanstalk leading up jack o lantern sitting atop haunted mansion next door behind seven seas across ocean between two trees with shiny apples hanging off branches within easy reach beside lovely lady hiding snakes behind her back beneath stone engraved words this way that away somewhere over yonder across wide open field covered tall grass under clear blue sky filled fluffy white clouds shaped like animals dancing around campfire singing songs emerald city where wizard lives surrounded yellow brick road guarded silver army talking scarecrows walking lions flying monkeys riding bicycles chasing wicked witches melting houses landing munchkins playing trumpets wearing top hats waving wands granting wishes blowing kisses everyone going crazy having fun forever and ever amen hallelujah blessed be name lord jesus christ savior world without end.

What sets Small Hours of the Night apart from other films is its refusal to adhere strictly to a clear categorization or an obvious meaning. The density with which Hui tells his story asks for rather than expects the viewer’s active engagement with the references made throughout the film. This results in challenging but rewarding cinema that prompts deeper consideration about topics we may not have encountered before. Stylistically as well as thematically proficient, Hui frequently revisits certain motifs so as to shed light on their significance.

Fragmentarily narrated, “Small Hours” presents us pieces of a larger narrative puzzle which we eventually fit together into a beautiful mosaic. These are underpinned by jarring juxtapositions of images and sounds that create a cacophonous representation of the indeterminate space between past and present; while stark black-and-white photography conjures up nightmarish scenarios – though not necessarily horrifying ones characterized by cold sterility and suffocating claustrophobia. Repetition (both visual and aural) engenders an endless feeling dread culminating in cathartically chilling closing moments this unsettling yet affecting work concludes on

The film is a two hander; Irfan Kasban and Yang Yanxuan Vicki play the interrogator and the subject of his questioning respectively. The characters in this film are weird – we never get them, and they’re always at arm’s length. By not telling the audience much about who they are at first, it forces us to come up with our own theories, none of which we can be sure about by the end. The performances are very subtle, with Hui using his actors in interesting ways as he explores these big ideas.

A lot of the dialogue is done through unseen voices the camera will just linger on one person while the other talks so these people spend most of the film in shadow. It’s very rare for both characters to be in the same frame together, and a lot of what Yang and Kasban do involves reactive acting where their facial expressions or gestures say as much if not more than their spoken lines. Small Hours of the Night may be a character study but it is also a film that intentionally doesn’t fully define its characters because they’re not based solely on individuals but rather representatives of both sides (criminal & legal) populations.

Small Hours of the Night clearly has an historical context (which requires viewers to look outside Singapore’s history), but it keeps everything very vague. By making it so that this story could happen anywhere at any point in time (past/present/future etc.), Hui manages to make some quite big points about not only law systems but people too. It looks great with no colour, jagged angles & lots of shadows which gives off a depressing kind of vibe throughout visually speaking.

Sound is used specifically here often coming in rhythmically which draws attention beauty found mundane things alongside everyday routine being cyclical highlighted as another theme when we stay with these guys for what feels like forever night time! Dread is evoked heavily by Hui who also doesn’t shy away from leaning into or building on certain inherent story based ambiguities. Going all over the place, and jumping around in time periods Small Hours of the Night is a standout well put together film that delivers somewhat Kafkaesque journey tinged with modern paranoia allowing for this movie to exist right between past present which is investigated so energetically by one of todays most vibrant Asian filmmakers.

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