Plan 75

The opening scene of "Plan 75" is very scary. It consists of a suicide attack on a Japanese nusring home to draw attention to the fact that elderly people (in the eyes of the perpetrator) put too heavy a burden on the Japanese economy and the younger generations.

After this shocking opening the film slows down. The Japanese government starts a program in which citizens from age 75 onwards can opt for free euthanasia. The film folows two participants and three employees of this program.

The film deserves high praise for the courage to select such a controversial topic. Speaking of the Dutch context, beginning with a situation in which euthanasia was only possible in the last stage of an incurable illness the scope of euthanasia has grown wider and wider. As a result the judgement of the patient has grown in importance versus the judgement of the physician.

In "Plan 75" there is no judgement of a physician at all. Everybody above 75 who wants an euthanasia can get it for free. It then becomes crucial that the free will of the participants really is their free will, and in this respect the film succeeds in sowing the necessary doubt. The main motives of the two participants are poverty, loneliness and a feeling of guilt towards the younger generation. The first two may result from cuts in government spending on social welfare, the last one has more to do with social pressure than with free will.

Maybe even more interesting than the participants are the employees of the Plan 75 program. In the film there are three of them: a recruiter, a call center agent and someone sorting out the belongings of the already dead participants. What is it like to recruit someone for his own dead? What sort of people have 5 minute conversations with participants with the explicit assignment to prevent withdrawals (to which participants are legally entitled) at all costst? The disturbing answer is that the employees are normal, even nice, people doing their job and earning a living. It nearly reminded me about what Hannah Arends had to say about the banality of evil.

Only when they are confronted with an ethical complication the employees wake up and begin to ask themselves questions. In the film the recruitment employee gets his own uncle as one of his clients and the call center agent meets with her own client in real life (what the program strictly forbids).

As I said at the beginning of this review, after a scary opening scene the tempo of the movie slows down. One can even ask the question if it doesn't slow down too much. I am not a fan of movies going in the overdrive, but this movie presents a very controversial topic in a way that makes it almost natural. On the other side one can also argue that this is precisely a strong point of the movie. It is for everybody to decide for oneself on this issue. I have not made my final judgement on this point yet.

In my reviews I like to make comparisons with other movies. For "Plan 75" a comparison with "The ballad of Narayama" (1958, Keisuke Kinoshita & 1983, Shohei Imamura) is very obvious. These films are about the Japanese mythical custom of "Ubasute" in which an elderly person (in the films of age 70) is carried to the top of a mountain to die. The elderly people in these films are putting pressure not so much on the social welfare system (the films are situated in the middle ages) but on the food supply.

Given the above comparisons one can wonder if "Plan 75" is a film specific to the Japanese context. I am afraid it is not. Yes, Japan is one of the most aged countries in the World, but it certainly is not the only aging country. Yes, the Japanese people do have a collectivist culture with a tradition of self-sacrifice for the group. Remembering the discussions around old people occupying an intensive car bed during the Covid crisis also this sentiment is not only applicable in Japan.

I really like the premise of this film. Given Japan's problems with an ageing population this was the perfect country for this movie to be set.

I feel though that it was a missed opportunity. This is because there was no real in-depth conversations about why the country needed to introduce Plan 75. Similarly it wasn't shown how the country was benefiting from it.

No one debated the morals and ethics of it either.

I kept waiting for people to discuss the core issues of Plan 75 but it never came. Instead we see people living depressing lives who consider Plan 75 because living has become so hard.

Why not have someone who is doing quite well but shocks their family by choosing Plan 75 because they see it as doing the right thing for the country?

Or show some young people that need medical attention but cannot get it because all the medical resources have been consumed by the elderly and hence why Plan 75 has become so important.

Anyway I really wanted to like this movie but unfortunately it missed the opportunity to delve into the deeper aspects of what Plan 75 would mean.

A difficult subject of the loneliness and desolation of growing old when you are on your own and aggravated by a social & government encouragement of sacrifice any financial burden on the younger generation because you are now not contributing to society (this is not actual circumstances but we may not be far from it yet). It follows the story of 3 main characters (it actually touches much more than 3 different roles/characters in the story) of how this government funded Plan 75 (which because of it success, it is being considered for lowering from age 75 to 65!) is being marketed like a 5-star flan with compensation of money to use before volunteering to die, the gross act of dyibg itself in mass partitioned premises, the disposal of the bodies possessions, mass cremations and ashes lanong in landfills. The main 3 characters include a 78 lady who faces life alone and has to decide to choose the Plan or not, a young guy who markers the solan and a worker who has to handle the dead bodies and their possessions. It's a slow moving story but a hauntingly rewarding one. Remember - if you are lucky, you grow old. Even if you have children, you may be lonely. Even if you have friends, they may die first. A thought provoking story indeed.

This film gave plenty of time to the audience to contemplate on the complex theme of aging in a growing society focused on youth. The film opens on a scene based on the true story of the Japanese man who massacred 19 disabled patients in their hospital beds, believing that he was providing mercy for his victims and a sacrifice that would benefit the nation. Introducing viewers to this very dark event and connecting it to the ethics of care for aging citizens, strikes the dystopian, yet realistic, and societal critical tone for the rest of the film. The scenes have very slow and long scenes showing mundane acts, such as making food, filling out paperwork, and with wide camera shots that has the audience feel more like they are surveilling the characters. There are few moments of character development and it feels slightly detached, when you don't always know a character's full history. However, it puts you into the exact moments the characters are going through seemingly in real time, which adds to the realism of the film. Whether or not the main characters are surrounded by people in a given scene, the lack of nondiegetic sound or music (which would influence how you feel), creates a sense of extreme, heartbreaking loneliness. Considering how Mishi is struggling with her decision to go through with Plan 75, her internal thoughts stay secret which is poignant in thinking about elderly solitude and the painful emotions that arise from that topic. Plan 75 depicts aging as an ongoing ethical question instead of just using senior citizen character to invoke emotion. 6.5/10.

Plan 75: A future Japan where the elderly are offered voluntary euthanasia to deal withe strain of an ageing population. They'll even throw in free cremation and interment. As the narrative unfolds though we see there are subtle pressures placed on older people, they are still working into their 70s, even at manual outdoor jobs, they lack security of tenure in their homes. They are not made into Soylent Green but even their last moments lack the dignity which was offered in that film. They also face violence, the opening scene a middle- aged man shoots his wheelchair bound parent and then commits suicide. The widespread nature of the threat is subtly alluded to. While senior citizens are seen as disposable, immigrant Filipino workers are used as cheap labour as caregivers. Some deeply personal stories are related as characters challenge roles which seem preordained. It's a plausible scenario as Plan 75 also offers a kind of Anti-Samaritans talkline where lonely old folk may discuss their woes. A disturbing film which ypu will mull over long after the credits have rolled. Directed and co-written by Chie Hayakawa. 8/10.