SCENE FROM HAPPYEND

NEO SORA: HAPPYEND (2024) - NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

TRAILER

Dystopia with a light touch

The grim prospect of increasing repression and surveillance in contemporary Japanese society is lightened for the viewer in this gentle sci-fi picture of Tokyo's near future because the high school students focused upon are so vibrant and light hearted. Their spirit revolts, and we're reminded that popular rebellion never ceases to be an alternative. Meanwhile, loud, rhythmic techno never seemed so much fun.

Fun anyway for the lighthearted Kou (Yukito Hidaka) and Yuta (Hayato Kurihara), childhood friends who are linked up in high school to promote the music they love and they are talented amateur DJs. High school seniors, they're linked with a posse that includes Tomu (Arazi), Ming (Shina Peng) and Ata-chan (Yuta Hayashi),the latter a fashionista who sports a billowing skirt to go wiith everyone's uniform of a white shirt and sometimes a black blazer But then, after a prank that is not appreciated, they run afoul of their repressive and humorless Principal (Shiro Sano), who delves into the world of high tech to institute a facial recognition surveillance system that not only identifies and observes the students' every move, but detects and assigns "points" to designated "infractions," which include human things like hugging.

The film doesn't go into tedious explanations of the technology of the surveillance but presents it as a fait accompli that the students are shocked and astonished to notice in action and wryly comment upon with a mixed sense of its absurdity but also its outrageousness.

Meanwhile we see how the menace of natural disasters, particularly earthquakes, clearly one of Japan's greatest threats, can be used to plunge the younger generation into a state of hypervigilance so they have no time for themselves. They're constantly receiving earthquake alerts on their phones, and the Principal can use these warnings to restrict freedoms on the excuse that it's an emergency.

n truth, while things begin lightheartedly, they turn increasingly dark as the repression grows at the school. But the kids are determined to rebel and this reveals their hope and independence of mind. The first thing that happens is that after the repression of an unauthorized techno party, one night the boys pose the Principal's new yellow sports car on its end for all to see in the schoolyard from every floor above. The Principal calls the cops. Fumi (Kilala Inori), an activist, announces that police are "bureaucrats with weapons" just protecting the country's moneyed interests. (That's a useful angle, but Happyend doesn't get didactic on us.)

Japan's racism emerges in the investigations that follow which focus on Kou as chief suspect of the car upturning for no reason that he is of Korean descent. (We don't see much of this in Japanese movies.) Defining the car prank as "terrorism", a laughable threat, the Principal denies Kou the promised university recommendation. Atta-Chan speaks for the others when he makes a series of provocative gestures at the multiple surveillance cameras and racks up ten demerit points in an instant. But then the repression advances. The Music Research Club used by the DJs is labeled a fire hazard and the kid's equipment is ordered to be removed. Their simpatico homeroom teacher suddenly disappears and ihis place is permanently taken by a colorless, boring type.

There's a big earthquake and the Principal says this means more danger of theft, hence more surveillance and repression. His car, still upended, gets more damaged by the event. Fumi draws Kou into street protests. There is conflict with the ever-playful, smiling Yuta, who never wants to be serious and the activists therefore begin to find irresponsible. Yuta is hurt when Tomu, who is biracial, declares he's going to college in the US where he has relatives. The old unity and camaraderie of the group is being tested. Their tolerance ends when a "self-defense" instructor is brought in to give a course at the school and he orders all "non-Japanese" out of the class, which includes Kou, who repeatedly insists that he is not required to carry his permanent residency document around with him. Now it's suggested he has no right to defend his country and is friends.

As David Rooney suggests in his Venice Hollywood Reporter review, Sora combines elements subtly here. On the one hand there is the "elegiac" graduation drama and a "compassionate" depiction of growing up, but also there is the "volatile microcosm" of a school that is becoming "like a prison." And it all points to broader political implications implied by all this. This isnt as serious a film as Bonello's Nocturama, but in playing with more conventional genres it may wind up seeming ultimately more real. This is a refreshing, like Nocturama more international alternative to the usual sentimental Japanese graduation dramas. With Happyend Sora brings a fresh eye to Japanese cinema and we will look forward to what he does next.

The filmmaker debuted with a stylish tribute to his father, the late Ryuichi Sakamoto Opus (included in last year's NYFF); here he turns successfully and promisingly to feature filmmaking and his own personal focus.

Happyend, 113 mins., debuted at Venice in the Orizzonti sectioin, showing also at Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Zurich, Busan, Hawaii and London BFI. Screened for this review as part of the NYFF. To be released in Japan Oct. 4, 2024.

Showtimes
Sunday, September 29
6:00 PMStandby Only
Monday, September 30
9:15 PMStandby Only
Tuesday, October 8

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.