1
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This is a great opportunity to share with you

2
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
somebody's experiences and some other things I learn

3
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
while making a film exploring the true causes of happiness.

4
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The project started when a friend of mine called me on the phone

5
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and he said he read an article that morning

6
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in the New York Times about happiness

7
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and essentially the article said

8
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
we're very rich country but not a very happy country.

9
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We're number 23 on the list

10
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
no matter we have lots of money

11
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and this friend of mine..his name is Tom Shadiac

12
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
he is a guy in the right

13
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
he has make literally tens of millions of dollars

14
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
directing huge blockbuster Hollywood films

15
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
like the naughty professor, Bruce Almighty, liar liar, patch atoms

16
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
He said," Look, I know what its like to have a lot of money

17
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and I hang up with people who are more wealthy than me

18
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
who are more talented,more successful

19
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
better looking...and many of them are not happy.

20
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And in fact the people who sweep the floor in my house

21
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and who tend the garden on my estate

22
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
often have more a genuine smile on their faces

23
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
than the millionares

24
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that I work with everyday in Hollywood.

25
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I said" I know what does us make happy

26
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I wanna know what does

27
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
so he suggested that we make a documentary film exploring happiness

28
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
he said ," Look, I am not the documentary and you are."

29
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What do you think?

30
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It sounds great. And he said," I'll happy pay for it."

31
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What do you think about exploring happiness. Sounds it amazing.

32
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I immediately got online and discovered a couple interesting things.

33
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
One is that there's new science exploring happiness called positive psychology

34
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which some people would heard of by now

35
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Its the first time really

36
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that the western science has looked

37
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
very acutely at the idea of human flourishing.

38
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
For thousand of years we've studied what happened to people

39
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
who are having problems

40
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to mental illness and pathology

41
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But only recently do we study the other side of the spectrum.

42
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And one of the exciting things that I learn kind of immediately

43
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is that happiness is good for you.

44
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Your immune system gets boosted

45
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You are more creative

46
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You have better relationships

47
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You are healthier and

48
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you even live longer.

49
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And when I though of living long

50
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I was trying think who we'll gonna put

51
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in our movie beside the scientist

52
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I did not wanna make a movie of people talking about happiness

53
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I thought that it will really boring

54
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So I knew I wanted to find people who storage of life

55
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
could illustrate this scientific concept

56
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and I remember being a child

57
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and I love the guinness book of records

58
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There was often the oldest person in the world

59
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
came from Japan.

60
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And specifically from an island in the south called Okinawa.

61
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And I remember that and I though

62
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Ok, if happy people get to become old

63
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
maybe a lot of this elderly people in Okinawa are happy.

64
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And at that the time we couldn't find any research on it

65
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But because my producing partner is Japanese

66
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
He said,"Look, I 'll get excuse to see my Mom

67
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
why don't we go and check it out.

68
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So we went to Okinawa to find out

69
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
An absolutely beautiful place

70
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And the firt stop was at the community center.

71
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And what we discovered among other things

72
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is that its easy in Okinawa to feel tall.

73
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That's me and my film maker friends in the back row

74
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Class picture I was never in the back row

75
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The other thing we learn is that this tradition of meeting

76
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in the community center has gone on for probably thousand of years

77
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It looks like a modern building now

78
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But they've been doing this

79
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
since it was grasp up with palm leaves on the roof.

80
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And what I saw was crazy

81
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This people in their mid nineties

82
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
some were in the mid eighties

83
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but they were laughing and making jokes with each other

84
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and they were blasting a boom box

85
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's a traditional Okinawan music

86
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But it was blasting just like any teenager bedroom would be on the weekend

87
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and I sort of don't like buying souvenirs when I travel

88
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
cause the world has enough crap in it

89
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and it just feels like a waste sometimes

90
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but I saw this women dancing

91
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
once they gets up and do this hula dance

92
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and I though," I wanna take that back,"

93
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I wanna learn one of this dance steps

94
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
its kind of paying attention to one

95
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I was trying to figure out

96
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and then I looked at the other woman

97
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and she was doing a different steps

98
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It looks similar but different

99
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I couldn't figure out

100
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
so finally I said

101
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Hey, would you please teach me this dance step

102
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And the woman laugh and she said

103
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Oh, we don't have a traditional dance step

104
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in Okinawa you can do whatever you want.

105
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Now, I have been to.. I've been extremely lucky

106
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I've been about fifty different countries in the world

107
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And I have never discovered that a traditional dance step is freestyle

108
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But in Okinawa it is

109
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
My producing partner Eji in the middle

110
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
He had a great idea, he said

111
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Let's see what a hundreds years old person looks like

112
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
when they two or three years old.

113
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Where we'll be able to see the seed of a long

114
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and happy life at that early stage

115
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So we went to a pre school

116
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And the teacher apologized, she said," I am so sorry,"

117
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But today is one day every couple of weeks

118
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
we'll gonna spend outside of the class room.

119
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We'll gonna have a foot race through town.

120
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So we followed this fifty kids or so

121
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They started the race and we noticed that at the other..

122
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
at the end of the block

123
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
there was a group of grand mothers converging.

124
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And the grand mothers were there

125
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
as every kids crossed the finished lined the grand mothers hugging them,

126
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
they were clapping, they were cheering them on

127
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and if somebody's falling they skin their knee

128
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They'll be there to nurture them

129
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and it was a beautiful scene

130
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and I went to first grand mother just to make a small talk

131
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and I said," Hey congratulations on having such a speedy grand child."

132
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and she looked at the kid who I was referring to and she said

133
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Oh, that's not my grand child

134
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
She kind of looked at me up and down and she said

135
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
My grand children are older than you.

136
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so I looked at her friends, about fifty grand mothers there

137
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Whose grand child is that?