A spiritual sequel to Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s Happy Hour (2015), the most significant Japanese film of the 2010s. After Hamaguchi moved his base from Kobe to Tokyo, most of his film staff and actors who remained in Kobe regrouped to produce this work. This ensemble drama tells stories of an older sister and a younger brother who strives excessively for love. The older sister stumbles upon an amnesiac boy and claims that he is her son, while the younger brother, in pursuit of his creative career as a rapper, pushes his wife into a predicament. The two stories eventually intersect and move toward an irreversible point in the plot. Non-professional actors live out their fictional lives faithful to themselves, and a typical story about a family gets ripped apart from the inside out. Third Time Lucky is an unconventional drama reminiscent of John Cassavetes’ Love Streams (1984). (MIURA Tetsuya)