Great, simple and effective for this challenge. I like the fact that, like in real life, the viewer would strain, at first, to see though the bright light to the dimly lit background.
This is a great concept that falls just shy of having major impact on the viewer. For future reference, this could be made much better by using a layer approach exposing the sky more to gain an impression of depth and dimension in addition to increasing the drama of a night beach conversation. Still a very good impression is given even with the slightly over done lanterns. Another approach might have been to concentrate on the subject with a closer in look at a reduced exposure time or aperature. Very nice concept.