Viz Pictures was kind enough to send along a copy of the domestic DVD release of the Japanese film Happily Ever After. Based on the manga series created by Yoshiie Gouda, this dark comedy stars Miki Nakatani (Train Man: Densha Otoko) and one my favorites, Japanese television's Hiroshi Abe. This movie tells the story of a married couple's insanely unconventional relationship, and comes from director Yukihiko Tsutsuki, who also headed up 20th Century Boys.
We don't want to spoil the movie for you, but we thought we'd bring you a quick review so you'll know if you'll want to pick it up or not. I think you will.
Hit the jump to read our review of Happily Ever After.
Happily Ever After
Directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi
Viz Pictures, 115 min.
Originally released May 12, 2009 This movie has a lot of angry table flipping, which is always good. And we're talking slow-motion, dramatic table flipping. Food flies for no good reason. The flipping is the fault of the badly-tempered, former thug Isao, who is open to being pissed off at any opportunity. His poor wife Yukie is left cleaning up the messes every time, and their neighbor actually has a tally board to count every time the tables are flipped.
Yukie has a terrible life. It was never good, though. If her mean husband wasn't reason enough to feel sorry for her, you'll see that she also had a tortured past -- one that's so bad it's almost unbelieveable. She gave up looking for happiness a long time ago, and things couldn't seem worse than present day, what with all the table flipping and her crap job at the roach-infested noodle house.
Everyone wants Yukie to leave Isao, but she can't bring herself to do that. You see, the only moderately good point in her life was when Isao saved her from spiraling downward in her younger years. He was a yakuza thug, and she was...well, she was at her worst. She'll love him forever for what he did for her, but it seems that Isao has forgotten the love that he used to have for her, and now spends his days playing pachinko and being worthless/abusive. An even darker turn changes things for both of them later.
If you couldn't guess from the name, Happily Ever After is a dark comedy. This sometimes eye-popping love story takes you to emotional extremes through not only heart-tugging situations, but also through stellar acting. Hiroshi Abe is always fantastic, and his portrayl of an old ex-yakuza in this film makes you want to reach into your television and wring his neck. Miki Nakatani is the real star here, though. She actually won the 31st Japanese Academy Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for her work as Yukie in this film.
This love story is pretty unconventional, and being as dark as it is, invites as many laughs as it does sympathetic aww-ing. The couple's situation really stuck with me. They're both dirt poor and come from terrible pasts, but somehow there's still something there that keeps them together. Does the film's name ruin the ending? We'll leave that for you to see, but as they say, it's the journey and not the destination, and this is definitely one crazy journey.
Review verdict: Recommended.
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Oh, wait, I suppose I could read the article.