“Charmingly fun and humorous for the first half. Serious, emotional and deep for the second. ‘Happily Ever After’ captures the essence of Yoshiie Gouda’s popular manga series ‘Jigyaku no Uta’ with an awesome performance by Miki Nakatani and Hiroshi Abe.”
© 2007 HAPPILY EVER AFTER Film Partners. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Happily Ever After
DURATION: 115 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Dolby Digital, Color, Japanese language with English Subtitles
COMPANY: Viz Pictures
RATED: Not Rated
RELEASE DATE:Â May 12, 2009
Directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi
Based on the manga “Jigyaku no Uta” by Yoshiie Gouda
Produced by Hiroki Ueda, Yuji Ishida, Shin Nakazawa
Director of Photography: Satoru Karasawa
Music by Hiroyuki Sawano
Editor: Nobuyuki Ito
Lighting by Masahiro Kimura
Production Designer: Naoki Soma
VFX Supervisor: Koichi Nozaki
Starring:
Miki Nakatani as Yukie
Hiroshi Abe as Isao
Toshiyuki Nishida as Yukie’s father
Based on the comic strip series by Yoshiie Gouda, HAPPILY EVER AFTER is a visually striking, dark comedy that follows the devoted wife Yukie and her unemployed ex-gangster husband Isao. Isao’s uncontrollable temper often results in the dinner table being overturned and their meal on the floor. Everyone advises Yukie to leave Isao, but her love for him is unconditional because he was the one who initially saved her from misery with his unconditional love.
Directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi (Memories of Tomorrow), HAPPILY EVER AFTER is vividly brought to life by the powerful co-starring of Miki Nakatani (Train Man: Densha Otoko) and Hiroshi Abe (Godzilla 2000).
“I’m Poor & Miserable… but it’s OK, as long as you’re here…”
The popular manga “Jigyaku no Uta” (Happily Ever After) created by Yoshiie Gouda was featured in the weekly business leisure magazine “Shukan Houseki” (1985-1990) and has spawned a total of five books and a collection that has sold over 500,000 copies in Japan.
The popular black comedy was taken from the pages of the manga to the big screen in 2007 and was directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi (“20th Centruy Boys”, “Trick: The Movie 2” and popular TV drama series “Black Jack” and “Ikebukuro West Gate Park”) with cinematographer Satoru Karasawa and composer Hiroyuki Sawano. And would star the popular singer/actress Miki Nakatani (“Keizoku”, “Manatsu no Merry Chrismas” and “Otousan”) as the main character Yuki, Hiroshi Abe (“Trick”, “HERO”, “News no Onna”, “Antique” and “At Home Dad”) as Isao, her live-in boyfriend and former Yakuza member. Also, starring Toshiyuki Nishida who is well-known in Japan for his fishing comedy films “Tsuribaka Nisshi”.
The film focuses on Yukie, as we get to see her difficult life as a teenager and a difficult life as an adult woman. Similar to Yoshiie Gouda’s manga series, the story is full of laughter and humor in the beginning but in the second half of the film, the story becomes quite serious.
The first half focuses on Yukie, who is a waitress for a Japanese restaurant. She’s tries to make do with her life, trying to make money and live a happy life with her boyfriend Isao. Unfortunately, Isao is a former yakuza member who is unable to find work and has a nasty temper that prevents him from having a stable job.
Isao pretty much spends his time with his thug friends, playing pachinko, taking money from his wife and her employer and getting drunk. Each time he comes home for a meal, certain things quickly tick him off that he is known to toss the table and the food and storm off. He also had his pinky cut off (this is done when a yakuza leaves the yakuza world and in Japan) and in Japan, those without a pinky become an outcast in both the yakuza world and normal society which leads to difficulty in getting a regular job.
Despite being poor and despite how badly her boyfriend treats her, she is content. Her aunt who lives next door can’t understand why she wants to be with him and she constantly makes a “tadashi” mark indicating how many times Isao has thrown the table. Yukie’s employer is a man who loves her, willing to give her money despite the business not doing that great. But despite professing his love for her (and falls upon deaf ears), Yukie is very much in love with Isao and will do anything for him.
The second half of the film focuses on three stories and two relationships. Yukie’s younger life as a teenager and her friendship with Kaoru-chan. The second story about how she met Isao and how they became a couple. And the final story focuses on the present time between the couple who are at a crossroad at their relationship but due to circumstances, how do each of them react to their current situation.
We learn from a short glance from the past of Yukie’s young life as she has worked hard as a young teen to make money (she lives with her father) and trying to balance school but things change when Yukie’s father is arrested and sentenced to 18-years in prison for a bank robbery. Often ridiculed by her classmates because she is poor and often called ugly by her classmates, she finds a friend in Kaoru-chan, a larger girl who is also from a poor family.
The other story of Yukie focuses on her after her move from Osaka to Tokyo and how her life didn’t go as well as she would have liked. In fact, life was much more difficult for the young adult and her life and how things changed the moment she met Isao, who somewhat saves her from her current life which was fully of misery and shows us why she loves him so much.
“Happily Ever After” is definitely an interesting film as it may seem that you are watching two different styles of film.  The first half is in essence a dark comedy which will definitely make you laugh and the second half is quite dramatic and may make you cry. In an American sense, it may be unusual to have the first hour and second hour so different from each other but its how the manga was written in Japan and in many ways, it was necessary to understand how a woman is able to bare so much trouble but yet still remain in love. In essence, “Happily Ever After” has a total of four different stories and the film is quite captivating as we watch how everything plays out for it’s final fourth story and what remains in the future of Yukie and Isao.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Happily Ever After” for the most part is an interesting film that showcases a variety of scenes of Yukie’s life. Her younger life tends to feature storms and overcast, her young adult life is depicted in what seems to be during the bubble economy of Japan and the adult life of Yukie and Isao shows the status of their current lifestyle as we see a home that has been patched up. Vibrant colors when Isao is playing at the pachinko parlor and we get some beautiful scenery when we see Yuki and Isao during a normal time of their lives, especially as the two look towards the beach.
As for audio, audio is presented in Dolby Digital and you will hear good panning of audio especially during the time when Isao keeps flipping the tables, the rear surrounds are utilized during those scenes. There are some instances of LFE during the first half but for the most part, the film is front and center channel heavy as the film is more of a dialog-driven film and most action sequences happen during the first hour. The film is presented in Japanese with English subtitles.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Happily Ever After” contains a few special features such as:
- Original Japanese Trailer – The original Japanese theatrical trailer.
- VIZ Pictures Presents – Trailer for previously released titles from VIZ Pictures.
- J-Culture Tip Sheet – Included inside the case is a 4-page booklet explaining certain scenes from the movie. Such as why Yukie carries a five-yen coin, what a “tadashi” is, why Isao plays a lot of pachinko and why he is missing a pinky and more.
“Happily Ever After” was an entertaining film. Many of the Japanese audience, especially those who were familiar with the original manga series, were quite appreciative of the live film adaption of Yoshiie Gouda’s original work.
From an American perspective (but with a lot familiarity of Japanese films, especially the main talent featured with the film), Miki Nakatani and Hiroshi Abe absolutely delivered with their wonderful performance of this complex couple. To see Hiroshi Abe and his transformation and overall look as a former yakuza member was well-done. Right down to his hair which I found quite interesting to see.
I was surprised to see Toshiyuki Nishida (who plays the role of Yukie’s father) in the film (his “Tsuribaka Nisshi” films are simply well-loved comedy classics in Japan) and can definitely see many audience members from Japan going to theaters knowing that he’s in the film. But everyone plays their part quite well and although, I haven’t read the original manga series, I’ve read a plethora of film reviews from fans who were pleased with the live adaption of “Jigyaku no Uta”.
But for me, what I found more interesting is how the film is split-up in to different parts to tell the story of Yukie and Isao.
“Happily Ever After” tries to show us how Yukie and Isao can co-exist in their current relationship when she is the only one giving, and Isao is just not their for her emotionally, financially. Pretty much, he just co-exists by living in the same home and that is it.
Of course, situations change but it was quite interesting to see the film go backwards to the past of establishing the relationship of Yukie and Isao. The other story that focuses on Yukie and her friend during her teenage years is important to the storyline but felt it was a tad bit long and could have been trimmed as the relationship with her best friend, for me, personally did not have to be explored that deeply (nor did the film have to end the way it did).
“Happily Ever After” is another film from VIZ Pictures that really captures the essence of Japan but visually from another perspective. A good combination of dark comedy and drama, “Happily Ever After” is an entertaining film worth checking out!