Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2014

It’s quite amazing, really, this unintentional triptych of films chronicling a love affair at nine-year intervals. Jesse and Celine (Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy) met in 1995 in Before Sunrise, which was meant to be a one-off. Both 23, they walk and talk all night while waiting for a train out of Vienna. They fall in love. They part. 2004 brought us Before Sunset, in which they meet again, at 32, when he visits Paris to promote a book he wrote about the Vienna experience. This one was about second chances. Again they walk and talk a lot. In fact, all three movies are pretty talky, but somehow don’t seem so because what they’re saying is thoughtful, honest and convincing. (Hawke and Delpy co-wrote the second two with writer/director Richard Linklater). Now it’s 2013, they’re 41, and finding out that there’s a lot of work involved in keeping love alive after the initial glow fades. Is it the best of the three films? That’s kind of beside the point. They’re symbiotic. But the banter is riskier, more uncertain, and more real. More I will not reveal. You don’t watch these movies; you witness them. Can’t wait for 2022. (108 min)