Happy Hour

Not many movies clock in at over 5 hours, but then Happy Hour is not just any movie. This is a tour de force in human insight, understated emotions, and excellent script work by master director Hamaguchi and his two co-writers Tadashi Nohara and Tomoyuki Takahasi. If one is to draw parallels in film history, both Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage and Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas are natural points of reference, interspersed with clear criticism of some problematic aspects of the Japanese society.

We meet four female friends living in Kobe, and follow them for just over 24 hours. The women are all in their mid-thirties, struggling each in their own way when it comes to relationships, family, and sex. When one of the friends loses her court case of obtaining a divorce from her husband, the other three are forced to rethink their own ways of living. Happy Hour requires patience from the viewer, but despite its long running time, the film never feels boring. The action builds up patiently; but when the playtime is over, not a single minute seems superfluous. The use of non-professional actors supplies that extra level of authenticity, and the friendship between the women is alternately heartbreaking and touching.

Jon Sæter

Director

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (f. 1978) from Kanagawa is one of the biggest names in Japanese cinema. With an education from Tokyo University of Arts, Hamaguchi has cited the films of John Cassavetes as being one of his greatest sources of inspiration. He is known for Happy Hour (2015) and Asako I&II (2018), and with his two 2021 films he won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale and Best Screenplay at Cannes.

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