North American Premiere
In Kohei Igarashi’s haunting, mysterious film, Sano (Hiroshi Sano) and his friend Miyata (Yoshinori Miyata) return to the seaside town where Sano met his wife Nagi (Nairu Yamamoto) five years ago. Nagi is now deceased, and the trip is part of an attempt to exorcise Sano’s grief. Eventually, the director takes us back in time, showing the couple’s first meeting…
Kohei shoots in long takes, portraying the action in a cool, distanced manner that allows for contemplation even as the story remains engrossing. Sano and Nagi’s strange, felicitous first meeting is key to the film’s themes of chance, personality, and the strange and often cruel ways they intersect. Hiroshi Sano gives a fine performance, exuding dazed grief in the film’s opening section and altering his technique with the leap back to happier times. Super Happy Forever is a deceptively casual film: beneath the placid surface lies something dark and unnameable yet somehow recognizable.
Supported by
Media Partner
Community Partner
Hiroshi Sano, Yoshinori Miyata, Nairu Yamamoto, Hoang Nhu Quynh
Japan/France
2024
In Japanese with English subtitles
At SFU Woodwards
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Kohei Igarashi, Kenshi Otaka, Misaki Kawamura, Satoshi Takata, Go Kitahara, Takashi Omatsu
Producer
Makoto Oki, Yusaku Emoto
Screenwriter
Kohei Igarashi, Koichi Kubodera
Cinematography
Wataru Takahashi
Editor
Keiko Okawa, Kohei Igarashi, Damien Manivel
Production Design
Masato Nunobe
Original Music
Daigo Sakuragi
Kohei Igarashi 五十嵐耕平
Born in 1983 in Shizuoka Prefecture, Kohei Igarashi directed his first feature film Voice of Rain That Comes at Night (2008) while studying at Tokyo’s Zokei University and went on to win the Korean Critics’ Prize at Cinema Digital Seoul 2008. His second feature film Hold Your Breath Like a Lover (2014), his final work at the Graduate School of Cinema and New Media at the Tokyo University of the Arts, competed at the 67th Locarno International Film Festival. Takara, La nuit ou j’ai nagé (2017), co-directed with French filmmaker Damien Manivel, was selected at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. In 2023, he presented the short film Two of Us at the San Sebastian Film Festival, a sort of prequel to Super Happy Forever.
Filmography: Voice of Rain That Comes at Night (2008); Hold Your Breath Like a Lover (2014); Takara, La nuit ou j’ai nagé (2017)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Straight Story
David Lynch goes a different direction in this linear Midwestern about a septuagenarian (Richard Farnsworth) who drives nearly 400km on a lawnmower to visit his ailing brother (Harry Dean Stanton).
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World
Sasha Waters' documentary takes us through the life of America's best-selling late twentieth century poet, a private woman who shared her innermost thoughts and made them indispensable.
Franz
Veteran Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland takes the bull by the horns to craft a Kafka biopic that's Kafkaesque and then some, artfully layering scenes from Kafka's life and works along with ironic present-day footage for a truly surreal counterpoint.
American Doctor
One of the most powerful documentaries of the year, this puts us smack in the open wound that is Gaza, filtered through the eyes of three American surgeons (of Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian backgrounds) compelled to do their utmost to alleviate harm.
Election
Tracy Flick (Reece Witherspoon) is running for Student President, but Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick) has other ideas... This remarkably sour millennial comedy from Alexander Payne (The Holdovers; Sideways; The Descendents) hits twice as hard today.
90s Surprise Film
The 90s movie we have all been missing... Join us for a celebratory wake for this year's 90s, Baby series! What you will be seeing is top secret (no, not Top Secret!, that was 1984) but it will be at least 26 years old and it will be new to this series.