Happy hour masks the weakness in relationships

The film focuses on four women in their thirties and forties, describing the interpersonal interactions in their lives. Among them, almost all the events of the movie revolve around "marriage". At the beginning of the story, one person has been divorced, the other is in a divorce lawsuit, and the marriage of the other two is stable; at the end of the story, the dismissed divorce lawsuit has separated the couple, and the two stable marriages are in crisis. Such a narrative line inevitably made me secretly sweat: Why should women's lives revolve around their relationship with men?

But don't forget, the four of them are not four broken stories, but friends with considerable friendship, even if they seem to be solid friendships, they will also experience the test. Well-meaningly creating parting relationships ties in with what I think is the core concern of the film: disturbing the apparent calm of "relationships", forcing new ways of self-knowledge and interpersonal communication. To put it more bluntly, marriage is only a kind of relationship, friendship is also a kind of .

Ryusuke Hamaguchi is very clear: Sometimes, to start a meaningful conversation to disturb a seemingly waveless surface, you need to create an awkward situation first. There is a rather awkward conversation before and after Jun, one of the protagonists, leaves on the boat (due to a failed lawsuit). It is worth noting that both conversations followed a rather lengthy activity/event—one was a workshop titled “Finding the Center of Gravity” led by performance artist Ukai; the other was a young writer Nose ( Ms. Nozei)'s unpublished work reading session. Basically, I think these two events constitute the stability of the film, but they are also shaking the existing stability. One after the other is the starting point for other subsequent events.

To be honest, the clips of the workshop really made people feel uneasy while watching the movie. Several monotonous shots were constantly alternated, so we could only concentrate on watching the workshop students who were looking for the center of gravity in the shots, but those It's irritating, and for some reason, it's the same old-fashioned course content as group health activities - such as: standing in pairs with back-to-back support, and then the number of people from two, three, five to ten people; and face to face to find common ground. "Center line"; even, forehead to forehead trying to "send" and "receive" messages without making a sound - with unclear activity descriptions, everything seems to depend on tacit understanding and interpersonal trust However, due to the physical contact during the activity, the students were either alone or unable to form a group with strangers, which completely challenged the stability of tacit understanding and trust. In addition, according to the process and practice, there will be a bridge of thoughts and feelings before the end of the event. However, it is difficult to distinguish the authenticity of these words, and they are completely preserved by the camera. It can almost be concluded that this is a failed workshop. But performance artist Ukai's insensitivity to interpersonal relationships sublimated my inexplicable anxiety into curiosity—what can such an activity do? Why did it take so long?

Then this failed workshop even held a celebration banquet, and the director gave the answer during the equally unpredictable eating and chatting process. Yu Feeding's still inattentive question accidentally caused the students to resonate with each other. He smiled faintly, and everyone's atmosphere became enthusiastic. It's not so much that Ukai caused conflict, it's more that people didn't have meaningful conversations in the process of communication, so that the two groups of people who were inexplicably linked together (the four heroines and the other group were Ukai's fellow villagers) all looked like Re-acquainted with each other like strangers, but there is a tone of repression and trust that does not exist between real strangers flowing in the dialogue. If Yugai, as his sister said, "It's empty inside, because the sound of the head knocking is very nice", then the relationship that everyone is about to be empty seems to resonate with this empty and nice sound and lose control. I guess the director conveyed the idea: self-righteous calm is dangerous, and through the words of Sakurako asked the huge question: "Who really understands me? Do I understand myself?" It's actually weird. It is precisely because such a strangeness is our consensus that we are enough to change it. But some conditions are required, and the director is in front of the awkward dialogue, so the filming of a long event is also one of the possible conditions.

The four heroines are Xiaochun, Akari, Fumi, and Sakurako. Xiaochun knew the four of them separately, and then introduced them to each other. After Xiaochun's divorce lawsuit failed and disappeared, Mr. Kouhei, who really heard his wife's thoughts during the proceedings, tried his best to find his wife, and the other three friends faced this person who was still Xiaochun's husband according to law. Shocked by his weird thinking logic, unable to communicate normally. He said that everything about him "follows the rules, and so does marriage, so Xiaochun can't run away. If you want to leave, you have to follow the rules." To the reading aloud of Nose that the four of them had agreed to participate in together.

If there is a reason why Nose should read one of the chapters of the upcoming short story collection seriously and without pitch fluctuations, it is because the short story about the hot spring itself is very pleasant. Talking about the confusion caused by leaving the table without warning, I think the most important point is that we must listen to this novel in person before we can carefully chew on Mr. Fairness who is the right to play and talk to the talker ─ Originally just a A listener, but he had been interviewed by Noh because he was a researcher in the field of biology—every move. To my surprise, this conversation showed his "normal" side. What's even more amazing is that before the director said through Sakurako, "So this person can also have a normal conversation!" Just like everyone else, in this disapproved dialogue process, questioning, waiting step by step, and finally realizing that Mr. Fair's conversation is actually very, very appropriate, and when I came up with this idea, I also realized. This seemingly too long segment is definitely worth recalling, because the director asked us to use our own criteria for "what is normal"-explain our own thoughts on the content of the novel, pay attention to the protagonist of the topic at the novelist, pay attention to Time to invite the audience to ask questions——In my opinion, Mr. Fair did a good job and challenged our first impression head-on, which made the right and wrong become blurred in the awkward dialogue that took place at the celebration dinner after the reading session. This extended effect also created a huge confusion in the hearts of Sakurako and Fumi, which further brought the conflict to the surface and disintegrated the stable illusion of the original marriage. So I suddenly realized that the director didn't criticize Mr. Fair's "follow the rules", but "what are the rules?" is what he wants to challenge. Rules are sometimes real and sometimes flowing. What Ryusuke Hamaguchi is doing is to expose the inner weakness of those real rules. Flow will generate new meanings, new interpersonal interactions, and new self-awareness.

The director is not trying to celebrate the happy time, if the happy time is gone, let it go!