Photo/Illutration A scene from “Super Happy Forever” ((c)2024 NOBO/MLD Films/Incline/High Endz)

Kohei Igarashi’s hugely popular “Super Happy Forever” only got made because of two unknown actors who believed in themselves and their ability to make a cracking good movie.

What they lacked was a director, so they plucked up their courage and got in touch with Igarashi, and finally talked him into making the movie.

It was screened Aug. 28 at a venue on Lido island in Italy, opening the independent Venice Days section at the 81st Venice International Film Festival.

As the end credits started rolling, the audience burst into loud applause.

In late 2018, Igarashi, best known for “The Night I Swam” (2017), among other works, received an email from two unfamiliar actors.

Having had his films screened at international festivals, Igarashi was already an up-and-coming director who had global recognition.

“The two of us are planning to make a film from scratch,” the message said.

Intrigued, Igarashi met with them after the turn of the year.

At the time, both Hiroki Sano and Yoshinori Miyata had little movie acting experience.

“We wanted a goal,” Miyata recalled. “We wanted to make our representative work.”

They decided to contact Igarashi because they loved his previous works.

As Igarashi talked with the duo, he became impressed with their straight-ahead outlook and said he would help them.

For starters, the director asked them to write a plot for their proposed movie. He then asked them about their private lives to flesh out the original screenplay.

Before long, Igarashi, along with producers and a co-screenwriter, as well as Sano and Miyata, began holding regular meetings as the project moved forward.

While the production team scrambled to raise funds, it produced a pilot short film to promote the feature-length version of the movie.

The screenplay for the feature film was also praised, and the project received subsidies from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, as well as other institutions.

Shooting began in 2023. The story of love and loss is set in a seaside town in the Izu Peninsula.

Sano and Miyata play childhood friends staying together at a resort hotel.

“We are glad we mustered up the courage to invite the director to helm the project,” Miyata said after the screening in Venice.

“Super Happy Forever” is currently showing nationwide.

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