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Happy Hour

Play trailer Poster for Happy Hour 2015 5h 17m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 15 Reviews 91% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
Three women search for their friend after she goes missing.

Critics Reviews

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Vadim Rizov AV Club 12/01/2016
A bracing, adventurous experience. Go to Full Review
Dan Sullivan Film Comment Magazine 09/26/2016
Buoyed by four captivating performances from its unheralded actresses, Happy Hour is a fascinating, towering confection of contradictions. Go to Full Review
Ryu Spaeth The New Republic 09/02/2016
In Happy Hour, and particularly in that beautiful scene on the ferry, the world is not just gliding by-it is being slid into place before our eyes, as if for the first time. Go to Full Review
James Mottram South China Morning Post 06/10/2022
4.5/5
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s slow-burning, five-hour meditation on friendship, marriage, contentment and connection. Go to Full Review
Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com 08/26/2020
4.5/5
With great warmth and poignancy, Hamaguchi's Happy Hour is perhaps one of the most satisfyingly nuanced portraits of the profundity lurking beneath the day-to-day grind. Go to Full Review
Robin Clifford Reeling Reviews 07/25/2019
A-
Filmmaker Hagamuchi does not waste the five plus hour film time and allows us to get to know, intimately, each of the ladies, their lives, hopes and fears Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Rosie D. @Rosieeeee Feb 15 The amateur feel of the cast creates an interesting sense of distance. I get that Hamaguchi wanted that raw, unacted vibe, but this kind of script needs serious acting chops to pull off. It demands a level of precision that some of the cast just couldn't reach. This just made the five-hour slog even harder to get through. Interesting experiment, but really tested my patience. See more Tua S @Tua2001 Oct 20 To say this is one of the best movies I have ever watched in my life would be an understatement. It made me feel things, notice things that I never knew could be felt and noticed. And even after watching it for five hours it left me begging for more. Most importantly it made me want to take a trip with my friends ASAP. See more Sam F @Sam_Fisher 04/11/2024 There's not even a handful of directors who are able to glue you to a screen for several hours and still have you beg for more, and Hamaguchi is one of them. See more Siriporn P @Malee 07/06/2022 Too long. If it's tighten it should be more fascinated. See more 05/31/2022 Excellent. Four Japanese woman (and a teen girl too!) and one more beautiful, sexy and smart than the other. kobe, I am coming!! Seriously. ONNA made me fall in love. No bad editing of this on Wiki. Warning: it is only five hours. I wish it were TEN. signed: xfansd lover of all things oriental and editor supreme. See more 09/11/2020 I wish I could go back in time and tell 16 year old me that his burgeoning interest in "indie" films will someday lead to him watching a 5 hour highly mannered yet low-stakes drama about Japanese women on the cusp of middle age, and that he's going to like it! That's where cinephilia takes you, young fella! ... Anyway, there are a lot of interesting things in this film. How, for example, the characters are so restrained emotionally that the only way they can truly express themselves is by falling down. The veneer of composure makes it all the more entertaining when real truths are uttered. Also interesting is what a dominant role patriarchy plays in the lives of all the characters. It's like an unseen character and it's stifling, for both the men and women. And the men are all heels. It's comical, intentionally or not. However, I docked a half star for the reading scene alone. It might have been realistically boring and squirmy, sure, but it felt unnecessary to let it go on so long. See more Read all reviews
Happy Hour

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Movie Info

Synopsis Three women search for their friend after she goes missing.
Director
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Producer
Tadashi Nohara, Hideyuki Okamoto, Satoshi Takata
Screenwriter
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Tadashi Nohara, Tomoyuki Takahashi
Production Co
NEOPA
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Japanese
Runtime
5h 17m
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1)