Neo Sora’s dystopian coming-of-age movie Happyend dares to ask a query no soul has ever requested: What if George Orwell’s traditional novel 1984 had a child with Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes’ 2001 movie Ghost World? Broadly, writer-director Sora’s 2024 movie explores the troubling intersection of political turmoil and quickly advancing applied sciences and their affect on a rustic’s youth inhabitants.
It does so with a melancholic steadiness, dissecting the devolving relationship between Tokyo-based highschool seniors Kou and Yuta — performed by first-time actors Yukito Hidaka and Hayato Kurihara, respectively — whereas a near-future Japan anxiously prepares for a cataclysmic earthquake. Because it seems, seismic pressures (pun meant) in a charged nation drastically affect the teenagers’ interpersonal relationships, empathy, id and general worldview.
Happyend
3.5
/5
- Launch Date
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October 4, 2024
- Runtime
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113 minutes
- Director
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Neo Sora
- Writers
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Neo Sora
- Producers
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Anthony Chen, Eric Nyari, Albert Tholen, Aiko Masubuchi
Extra particularly, Happyend follows the aftermath of an elaborate prank pulled by Kou, Yuta and their buddies. Identified to rub elbows with bureaucrats, Principal Nagai (Shirô Sano) is sort of protecting of his flashy yellow sports activities automobile, a transparent standing image he is silly sufficient to go away parked on the faculty in a single day. The rambunctious Yuta decides it would be hilarious to face Principal Nagai’s lemon-hued prized possession upright within the faculty’s courtyard, as if it had been a 3,000-pound domino (it is unclear how the gang efficiently carried out such a stunt). Principal Nagai deems the prank an act of terrorism, igniting a fascist rule of kinds that mimics that of Prime Minister Kito.
After an earthquake ideas the automobile onto the concrete, a seething Principal Nagai installs a Massive Brother-like surveillance system referred to as “Panopty” on the faculty. An unlimited LED display paying homage to the Shibuya Crossing shows college students’ each transfer within the courtyard, and the hawkish system deducts “factors” for minor offenses like hugging or flipping off the cameras. Mother and father are notified at 10 factors. This hyper-invasive monitoring is each an oppressive spectacle and a looming menace of an all-consuming dictatorship inside the partitions of the college. The movie’s most radical leftist pupil, Fumi (Kilala Inori), instantly connects the principal’s more and more tyrannical and unjust methods to these of Japan’s prime minister, particularly noting that each figureheads try to rationalize their strategies as problems with security. “Precisely the identical tactic as Prime Minister Kito,” Fumi says. “That tyrant is faking an emergency to try to run a dictatorship.”
Within the midst of those techno-fascist techniques, Kou’s political id and values evolve, whereas Yuta’s hyperfixation on DJing and underground EDM music stay his prime priorities. In the end, an impending pure catastrophe, weaponized know-how, the ideologies of two fascist regimes, opposing upbringings and a brand new life chapter on the horizon come collectively to problem the lifelong friendship between the 17-year-old boys.
Traditional Teen Insurrection Prevails in a Crumbling Techno-Dependent World
Aesthetically, Happyend‘s mildly futuristic Tokyo is like an anti-Blade Runner. Not like the retro-futuristic Los Angeles of the 1982 dystopian cyberpunk movie, Tokyo’s grey, post-industrial look in Happyend feels oddly desolate. In Sora’s movie, digital developments — together with breaking information lasered into the sky and regulation enforcement’s use of cutting-edge facial recognition know-how — have been used to additional isolate humanity and restrict freedoms. Notably, the teenagers of Happyend are much less concerned with know-how than the teenagers of at present: They are not chronically on-line or glued to their telephones, and the college’s DJing gear — which the core gang makes use of of their “Music Analysis Membership” — is pretty up to date.
Fumi opts for bodily books over digital ones, rejecting the tech that has solely aggravated a rustic in disaster. Her dismissal of digital know-how solely enhances her political opinions, particularly as it’s more and more used to help the nation’s militarism. Police use telephones to scan an individual’s face, instantaneously revealing private knowledge, together with citizenship. “The cops are bureaucrats with weapons who shield the wealth of a rustic and its wealthy,” Fumi says.
Soar’s imaginative and prescient of a near-future Japan pulls from real-world Japanese sociopolitical points, together with anti-Korean racism and xenophobia. In a information section, Kou’s Zainichi Korean household has been in Japan for 4 generations, however that does not cease an officer from labeling him a “foreigner” and demanding to see his Particular Everlasting Residency Card. Kou’s mom’s restaurant is vandalized, the phrases “non-Japanese” staining its exterior in pink. And whereas Kou is often harassed by police and othered for not being a “naturalized citizen,” these distressing experiences have by no means impacted the Japanese-born Yuta (even when each minors are caught by authorities at a makeshift membership). Kou’s constantly somber presence is a results of his upbringing and lived experiences. Kou’s mom clearly loves him, praying he secures a university scholarship and shrinking herself earlier than authority figures in hopes of clearing her son’s identify, particularly when he is in hassle with Yuta.
In distinction, the wide-eyed and aimless Yuta is an undeniably massive persona whose innate “all the pieces shall be nice” mentality emerges within the worst of instances. It is not that he is an optimist, however moderately, he is all the time been privileged. Nonetheless, the viewers is made keenly conscious that his rich mom isn’t essentially the most attentive father or mother; she leaves her teenage son house alone whereas she travels to the U.S., and may’t keep in mind his birthday. Yuta’s mommy points aren’t to be dismissed, however they do not induce a reevaluation of his nonexistent political id (his hypothetical Hinge profile would learn “not political”). The truth is, he needs issues to remain the way in which they’re, even when his buddies are topic to discrimination. As Yuta stays stagnant, Kou’s political consciousness grows along with his curiosity in Fumi. Not like a subplot in Ari Aster’s 2025 neo-Western Eddington, Kou would not attend protests (that are inevitably labeled “riots”) to get the lady. Nonetheless, Fumi opens Kou’s eyes to a world brimming with injustices, and he is now not afraid to make statements like “the police solely shield these in energy.”
Sora’s personal political awakening occurred following the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy plant catastrophe of 2011. He is significantly fascinated with how earthquakes have been traditionally pivotal for Japanese society, however Happyend hardly revolves round pure disasters. As an alternative, the movie is a reasonably hushed portrait of a nation within the midst of trauma, whose scanty plot and minimal motion make for a pensive viewing expertise and a low rewatch worth. For some, this will not be sufficient.
Nonetheless, Happyend‘s strengths emerge via its parallel-heavy script and intelligent particulars, like a menacing recreation of Jenga sitting on a desk. Regardless of its Orwellian themes and doom-and-gloom setting, Happyend is seemingly hopeful about its central duo’s future, simply as it’s in regards to the idea that individuals can change for the higher within the midst of multifarious turbulence.
From Movie Motion, Happyend can have a restricted U.S. theatrical launch starting in New York on September 12, 2025.