“Happyend,” Neo Sora‘s refined Japanese drama about youngsters preventing in opposition to techno-fascism in a not-too-far-from-our-own dystopian world, has discovered its personal blissful finish.
Metrograph Photos was initially meant to launch the movie, a 2024 Venice premiere that IndieWire raved about, till the corporate paused distribution operations as IndieWire solely reported final week. Metrograph reverted distribution rights again to “Happyend’s” unique gross sales firm, Enlarge, and now, Movie Motion has picked up the movie for launch beginning September 12. IndieWire additionally debuts the unique trailer for the movie beneath.
Right here’s the synopsis: “In a near-future Tokyo the place the specter of a catastrophic earthquake pervades each day life, two rabble-rousing greatest pals are about to graduate highschool. One evening, they pull a consequential prank on their Principal, which ends up in a surveillance system being put in of their faculty. Caught between the oppressive safety system and a darkening nationwide political scenario, the 2 reply in contrasting methods, main them to confront variations they by no means needed to face earlier than.”
Starring Kurihara Hayato, Hidaka Yukito, Ayumu Nakajima, Makiko Watanabe, and Shirō Sano, “Happyend” premiered within the Orizzonti part at Venice final yr earlier than taking part in festivals together with London, Marrakech, and New York. Movie Motion this yr additionally releases one other Asian title centered round surveillance, “Stranger Eyes” from Singapore, which additionally performed Venice.
“Happyend” options cinematography by Invoice Kirstein (who, in a complete change of tempo, additionally shot the “Imply Ladies” musical revamp from final yr) and music by Lia Ouyang Rusli (composer behind this yr’s A24 hit “Sorry, Child”). Author/director Sora is the son of late, nice Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. He directed the 2023 documentary about his father, “Opus,” and “Happyend” is his first narrative characteristic.
Extra on “Happyend” from David Ehrlich’s 2024 evaluate: “It is a pissed off portrait by a self-described leftist who isn’t shy about his misgivings with techno-fascism (particularly in a rustic that’s change into synonymous with the neon dream of a greater future), however Sora is much too loving to let anger information his hand.”
Movie Motion opens “Happyend” in choose theaters on September 12. Watch the trailer beneath.
