Review | The 8-Year Engagement film review: tear-jerking Japanese romance based on an incredible true story
Soft core porn director turns to romance in this tale of a young man standing by his fiancée, who wakes from a coma with no memories of him. The no-nonsense approach and happy ending are a refreshing change in the genre
3/5 stars
Tear-jerking romances in which one member of the couple inexplicably falls ill or dies are a dime a dozen in Japanese cinema, so it may come as a breath of fresh air that the sick partner in The 8-Year Engagement actually recovers and lives happily ever after with her love.
This is hardly a spoiler, given that the film is marketed as being based on the incredible true story of Hisashi Nishizawa and Mai Nakahara, who were engaged to be married in 2007 before a rare brain inflammation sent Mai into a years-long coma. When she awoke in 2011, she had lost most of her memory – including memories of the fiancé who stayed by her side.
Filmmaker Takahisa Zeze, perhaps best known for directing ’90s soft core porn, spends about two-thirds of the film’s 119 minutes on Mai’s time in hospital and treatment, highlighting the severity of her condition and Hisashi’s admirable optimism and devotion to his partner.
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Played by Takeru Sato, Hisashi is earnest and naive to a fault, and if this wasn’t based on a true story, viewers may have found the character unbelievable. As Mai, Tao Tsuchiya has the unenviable task of portraying someone in mostly a vegetative state, but in brief early scenes and the third act, her charm shines through.