Happy Hour by Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Walker Cinema is screening Happy Hour on Saturday, October 24, at 1 PM. It's part of the exhibition Ryūsuke Hamaguchi: Effect and Cause, which is running at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. The screening is copresented by the University of Minnesota's Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies and the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment in Asian Studies.

Happy Hour is a 2015 Japanese film that runs 317 minutes—over five hours—and it follows four friends from Kobe as they navigate work, domesticity, and romance. It's a long, emotionally rigorous saga that forces the characters to reevaluate their bonds, and its expansive duration gives Hamaguchi room to unspool character and story with rare detail. The film is shown in Japanese with English subtitles, and there's a 20-minute intermission built in.

If you're not familiar with Hamaguchi, he's the director behind Drive My Car, which won the 2022 Academy Award for Best International Feature and became the first Japanese production nominated for Best Picture. His filmography ranges from the Tōhoku Documentary Trilogy to Evil Does Not Exist, which won the Venice Grand Jury Prize. Happy Hour is one of several of his films being screened as part of the Effect and Cause exhibition, which also features Drive My Car, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, and Evil Does Not Exist.

The screening starts at 1 PM on Saturday, October 24, at Walker Cinema. Tickets are $15, or $12 for Walker members, seniors, and students.