Working outside of his native Japan for the first time, a location switch to Paris, Kyoto and back again hasn’t done anything to diminish Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ability to deliver rich feeling with a gentle hand. In striking contrast to the environmental nihilism of Evil Does Not Exist, All of a Sudden offers a soothing antidote in the form of an open-hearted rallying call for compassion. Not that it’s ignorant of the state of the world–much of the film’s three hours sees two platonic soulmates consider capitalism’s effect on ageing populations, declining birthrates, and dwindling resources–but it asks us to not accept hopelessness as the only option. Consider the alternative: to lean on and love one another.  

If that all sounds a little sentimental and didactic, Hamaguchi’s careful restraint avoids those trappings. “Some things we desire elude us, others are handed to us when we least expect it,” theatre director Mari (Tao Okamoto) surmises. The unexpected miracle central to this miracle of a film is a chance meeting between Mari and Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira), a director of a care home attempting to implement a technique called Humanitude, which aims to provide residents with the dignity that a for-profit system often eliminates.

Certain staff members, including head nurse Sophie (Marie Bunel), are reluctant to accept this new policy. In several prolonged team meetings–that are as simply staged and engrossing as the spirited town hall centrepiece of Evil Does Not Exist—they protest the three training sessions a year that will occupy precious caregiving time. But Marie-Lou is determined, and finds her breakthrough when she crosses paths with Mari on her commute home. Theatre’s ability to heal and connect has been a perennial theme of Hamaguchi’s, and again, the stage serves as fertile ground for empathy. Mari invites Marie-Lou to see her experimental play inspired by the work of Italian psychiatrist Franco Basaglia. Afterwards, the pair walk around Paris, switching fluidly between French and Japanese while just as fluent in immediately understanding each other.

Mari confesses a terminal cancer diagnosis that has given her months to live at best, and yet she meets her impending deadline with the widest smile, finding fulfilment in her final days through art. That infectious joy resonates with Marie-Lou and the pair soon spend sleepless nights talking about everything from their education backgrounds to Isao Takahata. Hamaguchi’s trademark talky set piece arrives in the form of a 3AM lecture about capitalism’s control of time, democracy, and the Earth, complete with diagrams drawn on a whiteboard. All of a Sudden unfurls at a leisurely pace it more than earns, with modest cinematography and extended takes that allow Hamaguchi and co-writer Léa Le Dimna’s rich screenplay to breathe. The beauty of the film’s extended runtime is that it offers the space to luxuriate in the emotional intimacy and warm company of its ensemble, whose supporting characters are just as vividly realised as the leads. A care home staff member taking a break on the night shift to pen song lyrics is shot with just as much patience and reverence as Marie-Lou and Mari eating noodles on a hilltop. The pair both confess that they wish their nights together would never end. By the full-circle epilogue, it’s hard not to share that same sentiment: three hours doesn’t feel like enough. 

The spectre of death hangs over Marie-Lou and Mari’s friendship, and yet All of a Sudden is pure and life-affirming. Despite the cruelty that the world might throw our way, there is so much hope and goodness out there that we can accept with a loving embrace. If the current system exists to rob us of days better spent with the people we love – all we can do is make the most of the little, and beautifully precious, time we have.