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Amber, the agent of happiness, travels in the Himalayas of Bhutan and researches the happiness of people. He is looking for fulfillment during his distant mountain journey. I don’t know if this should be called “Agent of Happiness”? Not contentment in the sense of barely having everything, but real contentment with our lot. That’s what Amber tries to discover as she travels twice a year to this tiny Himalayan kingdom and tries to find out what the citizens think about various things. It uses a combination of tools to talk to people old and new, urban and rural, traditional and more modern – all in order to determine what the public feels and communicate this to the government, which is willing to listen and learn about these attitudes to help it maintain its own position. people are in a good place – mentally and physically. This documentary shows people whose aspirations are very different – sometimes depending on age, ability, location, education/professional skills – but mostly the feeling is that they appreciate their surroundings. Even if their livelihood is seen by the West as more basic, agricultural, undeveloped; their own perception of existing high in the mountains with beautiful scenery, fresh air and the blessings of their gods offers the elusive feeling that less is more and fulfillment. Not everyone is happy, of course, but there is a clear lack of “demand” for change, as respect for the king and the status quo seem to permeate all demographics, shouting that nothing is broken, so don’t fix it. There are quite a few characters here, some more fun and some downright grumpy, and Amber has a lot of work to do at times to get reasonable answers to her questions so she can usefully extrapolate the data. In a society that hasn’t advanced technologically, it still seems like everyone has access to the internet and a proud tradition of educating everyone about their decision-making skills—and yet, there’s still a widespread sense of that magic word. Happy. Cows seem to help too!
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