“Thoroughly moving and decidedly delicate, the film is a major work of emotionally charged, poetic existentialism, and a beautiful tribute to the enigmatic experience of being in love.”

Is happiness something that is owed to us, or are we responsible for seeking it out for ourselves? This is the question that Kohei Igarashi asks throughout Super Happy Forever, a film that bears quite an ironic title since our introduction to the protagonist makes it clear that he is about as far from interminably happy as anyone could be. Set in a small seaside resort along the Japanese coast, the film follows Sano as he visits this place, which is where he first met his wife five years before. She has died in the interim, making this trip far from pleasant, and we follow him as he attempts to come to terms with emotions that he has yet to fully process, as this journey back to the source of their romance may help in the mourning process. A simple but evocative drama about human connections and how they guide and shape our perspective, Super Happy Forever is a remarkable piece of filmmaking, handcrafted by a director intent on working with the most raw and direct of emotions. This results in a story focused on investigating the difficult but essential steps towards recovering from any kind of traumatic incident.  These emotions are reconfigured into a quiet and engaging exploration of the daily challenges of someone caught up in the past, but insistent on trying to find a way forward.

Super Happy Forever is a remarkably simple film, and one that we can view as essentially the story of two summers. The location remains the same throughout the film, with the story oscillating between the present day and five years earlier. In the time between the protagonist’s separate visits to this idyllic hamlet, his entire perspective has changed – what was initially a holiday from the humdrum of his daily life becomes a journey of recovery as he returns to work through the grief of losing the love of his life. The film establishes itself as a demonstration of the poetry of everyday life and its unexpected peculiarities, none of which can ever be predicted. Igarashi is focused on the art of human interaction, and the joy that can come when encountering a kindred spirit. The first act of this film is quite a sombre affair, showing the protagonist aimlessly wandering the streets as he reflects on the past, which soon takes over the film as we are taken back in time to his first trip. Gradually, with the introduction of Nagi into his life, everything starts to fall into place – the small and seemingly irrelevant cues that we find at the start of the film are gradually revealed to be vitally important as the protagonist reminisces on the past, and we suddenly understand the significance of the clothing he wears, the places he visits and, perhaps most notable of all, his search for a red hat that becomes the central motif representing both their heartfelt romance and his eventual attempts to grieve this enormous loss.

Grief is not a subject that is at all foreign to cinema – many artists have attempted to tackle this intimidating topic since it’s a nearly universal experience and something to which many of us can relate in some way. However, the director was not content to handle it more traditionally, instead choosing to assemble it as an episodic glimpse into two distinct periods, each one taking place at a different part of the protagonist’s journey. Super Happy Forever takes the form of a collection of small memories, some of which occur at the very start of the relationship between the protagonist and his eventual wife, while others are situated in the aftermath of her death. In the process, Igarashi demonstrates the importance of cherishing every moment, since it becomes clear that the most resonant memories to the main character are those that would typically be considered minor or unimportant, yet are the ones he holds closest to his heart, as they captured the simple beauty of life and the incredible but inexplicable process of falling in love. Every detail is significant, and we find that the film refuses to take a heavy-handed approach, despite the intensity of the subject matter. Instead, it employs an unfurnished, direct method of telling this story, utilizing elegant but impactful emotions in which authenticity is prioritized and a different perspective on grief is investigated.

Super Happy Forever starts as the story of a solitary individual trying to navigate his surroundings while immersed in a state of grief, and it continues in this direction for quite some time before we are given access to his memories. After this point, it grows into a two-hander, still following the protagonist, but at a time when he was able to express himself in a more joyful and open-minded manner, rather than being burdened by the grief that his younger version did not anticipate he would be experiencing quite so soon. The film is built on the two central performances, with Hiroki Sano and Nairu Yamamoto making a formidable pair. The director is focused on crafting characters that are genuine and earnest, rather than archetypes that may be more exciting from a dramatic perspective, but which would go against the more organic nature of the story and the overall tone of the film. The performances throughout this film are sincere and adhere to the sense of naturalism that drives the entire narrative – there are very few moments of intense or hysterical emotions, and the actors are instructed to maintain a simple, almost stoic sensibility as they explore these characters. Sano in particular has the challenge of playing his character in two different periods, moving between a carefree young man on holiday, and his older version as he grieves a major loss. The peripheral characters eventually bear very little relevance, since this is ultimately the story of two people who seem to be the only ones who share a very distinct worldview, which is ultimately what brings them together and makes their eventual parting simultaneously sorrowful and meaningful.

Throughout Super Happy Forever, we come to learn that this is not a film that announces itself or its intentions, and instead chooses to be a subtle, quiet rumination on the human condition, as seen through a simple but effective story of a budding romance that eventually turns into a journey of grieving in only a few years. We follow the protagonist as he sets out to navigate a hostile world filled with happy people, genuinely believing himself to be the only one struggling with existential quandaries and a desire to overcome this internal pain. The film attempts to show his efforts to make sense of the banalities of everyday life, which tend to become amplified in times of grieving, especially when someone becomes fixated on the small details and how they evoke certain memories. A masterful excursion into the mind of a complex protagonist with whom we should all be able to relate in some way, Super Happy Forever is a tenderly funny and heartwarming character drama that carries a sense of lingering melancholy, which is most noticeable in the many quiet moments that give insights into the lives of these characters. There are complexities contained within these silences that speak to both the process of falling in love, and grieving the loss of a loved one, and while the film doesn’t offer any definitive guide on how to mourn, it provides a vivid depiction of the serpentine path towards recovery. Thoroughly moving and decidedly delicate, the film is a major work of emotionally charged, poetic existentialism, and a beautiful tribute to the enigmatic experience of being in love.