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Happy Hour
A group of thirty-something women find their friendship tested by their differing attitudes to work, love and sex in the city of Kobe, Japan.
Drama 2015 318 mins Not rated
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Overview
A group of thirty-something women find their friendship tested by their differing attitudes to work, love and sex, in this astounding drama of extensive duration (five hours!). Four friends; a nurse, curator, cafe worker and housewife move through the entanglements of their work and romantic lives attempting to find some balance. The women talk frankly, often to the point of social humiliation, and the unfolding of various infidelities feels painfully true, as does the incomprehension of the men who love them.
Slowly building a multilayered portrait that deepens over time and will delight fans of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, with some drunken confessionals that would make Hong Sangsoo blush, this urban drama also has much to offer followers of Lena Dunham. A gut-wrenchingly honest film about female desire - smart, sometimes sad, and, by turns, pretty damn sexy.
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