Happy Hour (2015 film)

Happy Hour
Poster
Directed by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi
Written by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi
Tadashi Nohara
Tomoyuki Takahashi
Starring Sachie Tanaka
Hazuki Kikuchi
Maiko Mihara
Rira Kawamura
Release date
  • 12 December 2015 (2015-12-12) (Japan)
Running time
 317 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese

Happy Hour (ハッピーアワー, Happī Awā) is a 2015 Japanese film directed by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi.

Plot

The film follows the lives and loves of four middle-class women in their thirties who are friends and who live in Kobe. When one reveals she is undergoing divorce proceedings, the others begin to rethink their relationships.

Cast

  • Sachie Tanaka, as Akari
  • Hazuki Kikuchi, as Sakurako
  • Maiko Mihara, as Fumi
  • Rira Kawamura, as Jun

Production

The film was first developed while Hamaguchi was an artist in residence at KIITO Design and Creative Center Kobe in 2013.[1] It came out of an improvisational acting workshop he held for non-professionals, with many of the film's performers having participated in the workshop.[2]

Reception

The four lead actresses shared the best actress award and the film earned a special mention for its script at the 2015 Locarno Film Festival.[3] The film was voted the third best Japanese film of 2015 in the Kinema Junpo poll of critics.[4] Upon its release in the United States, Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote that "Hamaguchi is a genius of scene construction, turning the fierce poetry of painfully revealing and pugnaciously wounding dialogue into powerful drama that’s sustained by a seemingly spontaneous yet analytically precise visual architecture",[5] and selected the film as one of the best ten films of 2016.[6] Dan Sullivan in Film Comment stated that "Buoyed by four captivating performances from its unheralded actresses, Happy Hour is a fascinating, towering confection of contradictions".[2] Ben Konigsberg in The New York Times wrote that "If 'Happy Hour' doesn't quite deliver all it promises, that may only be because it promises quite a lot".[7]

References

  1. ↑ "濱口竜介監督作品『ハッピーアワー』ロカルノ国際映画祭にて最優秀女優賞受賞／脚本スペシャルメンション授与 KIITO". KIITO (in Japanese). Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  2. 1 2 Sullivan, Dan. "Review: Happy Hour, Ryusuke Hamaguchi". Film Comment. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  3. ↑ Office, Press. "Palmarès 2015". pardo.ch. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  4. ↑ "キネマ旬報 ベスト・テン". Kinenote. Kinema Junpo. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  5. ↑ Brody, Richard (24 August 2016). "A Five-Hour Japanese Film Captures the Agonizing Intimacies of Daily Life". The New Yorker. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  6. ↑ Brody, Richard (9 December 2016). "The Best Movies of 2016". The New Yorker. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  7. ↑ Kenigsberg, Ben (23 August 2016). "Review: In 'Happy Hour,' the Effects of One Divorce on Four Women". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
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