Happyend

In the future with advertisements projected on clouds, rampant prejudice towards anyone outside the mainstream, and surveillance technology monitoring actions and words, students fight back with pranks and sit-ins.

Unfortunately, the scope, vision, range, and dialogue of Happyend is rather limited. I enjoyed some of the pranks, the friendships, and the characters watching strangers from a distance and imagining conversations that they might be having with each other. However, beyond such things, there isn't much going on. It is an intriguing theme of loyal friends vowing to face the future together, but there needs to be more depth.

Japan in the not-too-distant future. Buildings are gigantic viewing screens, news headlines are beamed onto clouds, and the Prime Minister seeks swingeing powers to impose societal controls.

In Tokyo, a group of teenagers attend their last year of school, if only to use the music laboratory, with its exciting electronic equipment. Their friendships survive differing levels of mental maturity and political engagement.

It is difficult to pin down a central cohesive plot for the film, but the climax, such as it is, involves the headmaster's imposition of a surveillance regime, and the reaction of non-Japanese pupils when they are excluded from a lecture by the Japanese Self-Defence Forces.

It is unusual - at least in those that make it to the West - to see a Japanese film with a multi-ethnic cast. But it is strange that while one of the characters, a fourth-generation immigrant of Korean ethnicity, is a frequent target of comments about being 'not Japanese', another of the group, who is black, never attracts such comments.

Acting honours go to Shirô Sano as the exasperated, suspicious headmaster. Other actors are competent enough, with the exception of those playing the security guard and - especially - the headmaster's aide-de-camp, who turn in slapstick performances that sit uncomfortably with the overall tone of the film.

One final thought: although the school scenes are full of extras, when the characters are out and about in the city itself, the streets and bridges on which they walk and chat are always deserted. And I always thought Tokyo was very densely populated...

One of the worst QCinema films I had watched. Horribly paced and ungodly surface level but this has a good vision though.

I think this would have been better had the setup of this 'far-right' movement was developed, especially since this topic is very relevant in Japan right now. There is a lot of foreigner 'profiling', and proposal to create separate fares and prices specifically for tourist too. It just expects you to believe there is a Trumpian state in Japan, just cause.

The kind of racism in Japan is more rooted to isolationism AND a belief that their culture is being damaged by foreign influence AND their action is making it difficult for foreigners to settle in the country. Its quite different against American racism, which also have this belief of superiority but with need of active cleansing (ie the need for violent "walling") AND I just could not gloss it over.

There is a video of an African girl who describes how hard is the bullying in America is. I have cousins who could attest how horrendous Americans are in general (though their point of reference is Canada and out country).

The difference of racism between Japan and USA is that in Japan - they just wants you to be invincible and not be seen while in US, they want you to fight back, demonize you for it, and make sure you are trapped in that cycle.

AND another gripe is how they tackled the 'activism'. It is far too surface level. The fight for rights is so vague and underbake that I could not stop rolling my eyes. This kids wants to be free BUT for what? They can throw the clear racism of the regime/school but they could string a good argument of what is this fight is. A smart observation to make the action feel like it means something. A literal assault to the senses.- Its too meek. Its too refined.

The only positive I could give this film is its cinematography (which is really great for a novice director) AND the great scenes of friendship between the teens. Its one of the few things that feels natural AND shows a lived-on quality from the film. It also is the best paced section of the film.

This film is definitely meant as a 'mock-up' of a totalitarian/fascist state BUT I thinks it took far too much topics AND did not drive it hard enough to make an enticing film.

Not recommended.

PS: Neo Sara apparently is the son of famed Ryuichi Sakamoto, and had studied and lived in USA. I guess this is why it feels more American in hindsight. It is still bad storytelling to not setup an antagonist. This still makes sense since we are in Trump world BUT this would be very confusing in the future.

There's something quite Orwellian about this futuristic drama set in a Japan living under the threat of a once-in-a-century earthquake that could devastate the place. First to capitalise on this paranoia is the Prime Minister who passes a series of decrees that limit the movement and freedoms of most of the population. This proves especially troublesome for a group of high school students who, after pulling a prank on the principal, find themselves very much in his firing line. Initially their mischief, and their love of music, keeps the group together but when "Yuta" (Hayato Kurihara) and best pal "Kou" (Yukito Hidaka) start to drift apart, the dynamic of the group starts to change. "Yuta" is associating more with the focussed "Fumi" (Kilala Inori) and other students determined to rebel against the increasingly authoritarian regime whilst his pals are enjoying what's left of their final year. Things come to an head when some of the students stage a sit-in in the principal's office and the original group of happy-go-lucky mischief makers realise that adulthood is beckoning and there is no going back. The film itself is really nothing much to write home about, but what it attempts to deal with is more interesting: the State relying on a combination of fear and apathy by the general public; professionals who have to play the political game to keep their jobs and improve their school and the gradual realisation amongst hitherto joined-at-the-hip teenagers that they may have to go their separate ways. That's proving quite a wrench for not just the two boys here, but for some of the others whose hormones are rather uncertainly making their presence felt. The acting and writing is all adequate, nothing really more, but there are some fun scenes to compensate - usually from the kilt-clad "Ata-Chan" (Yûta Hayashi) and some of the expressions on the face of their head teacher (Shirô Sano) raise a smile too. Logistically, I'm not at all sure just how they could ever have carried out their mischief in the first place, but this isn't really a film that stands too much scrutiny. It's more of an introductory guide to life when things start to become a little more grown up.