Happyend
Two close school friends attempt to make a difference in Neo Sora’s social satire set in a futuristic, authoritarian Tokyo.
Image courtesy of Modern Films.
What makes this work from Japan such a very odd piece is its tone. Even so, the story that is being told, one that was written by the man who is also the director here, Neo Sora, is built on a concept that is well established and has worked well in other films. We are told at the outset that Happyend (which indeed appears here as a single word and not as two) is a story set in the near future and it is no great novelty to be given such a tale which, despite its setting, makes deliberate and disturbing comparisons with the here and now. That is surely Sora’s intention and, although the film was made last year, a number of the comments heard in it may seem even more timely in 2025. The chosen setting may be Tokyo in a near future age but audiences can readily make their own current connections when hearing remarks such as these: "Cops are bureaucrats with weapons who protect the wealth of a country and its rich" or "That tyrant is finding an emergency to try and run a dictatorship”.
The central characters in Happyend are a group of high school students who are about to graduate and the main specifically futuristic element resides in the latest techniques to be found in the scope of the surveillance technology which will be installed in the school. This is done after a prank by the two students who are key figures in the story: Yuta (Hayato Kurihara) and Kou (Yukito Hidaka), the latter being a Korean living in Japan and Yuta’s close friend since kindergarten. The school principal (Shirô Sano) swanks about his posh new car and Yuta and Kou seize a chance to upend it. These two are the ringleaders of a group which also involves two other boys, Ata-Chan (Yûta Hayashi) and Tomu (ARAZI) and includes a girl, Ming (Shina Peng). Their rebellious acts only lead to claims being made that greater control is needed: the prank with the car is viewed as akin to terrorism and an up-to-date surveillance system which automatically imposes penalty points on those that it identifies as miscreants is now installed.
Much of the film takes place inside the school but the authoritarianism involved in the running of it is all too clearly an echo of what is happening in the country generally. The fact that earthquakes are far from unknown (a school alarm gives warning of them) is taken as an excuse by the President to announce an emergency decree which leads to significant street protests. The student group may be aware and concerned, but the strongest activist among the students and the most radical too is a girl named Fumi (Kilala Inori), a newcomer who is attracted to Kou. In part the rebellion by the youngsters is just standard adolescent behaviour, but the increasingly authoritarian world depicted – one in which books have become a novelty – is one which is recognisably threatening. While realisation of that can encourage activism, it can also result eventually in the pressure imposed causing some to give up the fight including Yuta himself. As one of the youths puts it: "If we're going to die, let's have fun”.
The filmmaker here, Neo Sora, is the son of the late composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and his most well-known work is the 2023 Opus film about his late father. Consequently, it is unexpected to find him switching here to making a full-length dramatic feature. Any description of the theme of Happyend suggests that it will be a strong, impactful work and the fact that it does not turn out that way despite having a very able cast is surprising. It may be part of the warning note sounded in the film that the rebels for the most part succumb to the pressure on them and fail to get very far with their resistance. But, in spite of that and even if the amateurish methods they use on occasion suggest a touch of ironic black comedy, one feels that the film’s portrayal of a bleak future world (not, alas, so very different from what we see developing around us) ought to have a stark force. However, that element is totally lacking here. Spread out over 113 minutes, the film lacks edge and only comes more sharply into focus in that respect in the scenes featuring Fumi the most politically self-aware of the youngsters. Kilala Inori handles this role with real skill. That the film should give a prominent role to music is perhaps to be expected given Neo Sora’s background and at least the inclusion early on of scenes in a techno club is apt enough in that they represent the kind of energetic sounds that appeal to youngsters. However, weirdly enough given the subject matter, Sora also opts to make frequent use of a music score by Lia Ouyang Rusli which is distinctly romantic in tone and entirely out of place here.
Happyend has won no less than seven awards so clearly some people find value in its approach and may be content to regard it as an engaging and convincing coming of age tale. Nevertheless, in my own case I found that I could only regard it as a film in which the major concern was the threat of authoritarianism and that in consequence it was badly in need of the dramatic power that was missing. Because of that I could only regard it as a work that left no lasting imprint and faded from the mind the moment that it was over.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Hayato Kurihara, Yukito Hidaka, Yûta Hayashi, Shina Peng, ARAZI, Kilala Inori, PUSHIM, Ayumu Nakajima, Makiko Watanabe, Shirô Sano, Yuta Koga, Motomasa Okui, Eigi Kodaka.
Dir Neo Sora, Pro Albert Tholen, Aiko Masubuchi, Eric Nyari, Alex C. Lo and Anthony Chen, Screenplay Neo Sora, Ph Bill Kirstein, Pro Des Norifumi Ataka, Ed Albert Tholen, Music Lia Ouyang Rusli, Costumes Shigeo Ômori.
Zakkubalan/Cineric Creative/Cinema Inutile/Giraffe Pictures/Spark Featured/Sons of Rigor Films/Purple Tree Content-Modern Films.
113 mins. Japan/USA/Singapore/UK. 2024. US Rel: 20 June 2025. UK Rel: 19 September 2025. Cert. 12A.
