I also saw this at the San Francisco International Film Festival this year, but had an opposite reaction from that of the previous reviewer. I found this to be a simply gorgeous and completely abstract hour of images, music and some poems. During the Q&A, we found out that it actually had to do with the conflicts between many nations in Asia. However, I'm sort of ignorant to that, especially as abstractly presented here, so I just went along for the psychedelic ride! I. Loved. It!
It may have also benefited from having been paired with "The Year of Living Vicariously" which is, at worst, a talking head gab-fest! I found it quite a relief to just sit back and drift off into the imagery of "Tokyo Magic Hour" after having spent the previous hour of buzzing language and flying subtitles. (I don't want to speak to the catalog description or references to Derek Jarman, as I can't really say that I am a big Jarman fan to begin with.)
It may have also benefited from having been paired with "The Year of Living Vicariously" which is, at worst, a talking head gab-fest! I found it quite a relief to just sit back and drift off into the imagery of "Tokyo Magic Hour" after having spent the previous hour of buzzing language and flying subtitles. (I don't want to speak to the catalog description or references to Derek Jarman, as I can't really say that I am a big Jarman fan to begin with.)