First impressions of Blue Sun Palace
One of my favorite films of 2025, and perhaps the most promising directorial debut, focuses on women struggling for survival, companionship, and hope in the dangerous context of a massage parlor.
What would you do if your day job, one that calls upon your capacity for intuition and tenderness, one focused on therapy for the whole person (physical, mental, and emotional healthcare), made you vulnerable to sexual violence?
That is the daily danger faced by employees of massage parlors. And as many of those workers are already members of endangered immigrant communities, communities often targeted for hate crimes, it can seem almost impossible for them to create an environment for well-meaning customers that will offer them rest, meaningful therapy, and restoration.
And what about them? Who will restore their spirits after a day of exploitation and insult? Many—perhaps most—who work in such contexts are doing so temporarily, in the hopes of finding enough sure footing to pivot into some other kind of line of work. But it’s likely that many find themselves stuck there, facing a constant array of challenges to their financial stability and emotional well-being.
That is the danger zone within which we are immersed in Blue Sun Palace, the directorial debut of Constance Tsang. This is tense, intimate, persuasive filmmaking—the kind of cinema that activates curiosity, concern, and empathy compassion in ways that can change minds, hearts, and, to some small but meaningful degree, the world.
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