HAPPYEND
113 MINUTES | DRAMA | 2024
Synopsis
In HAPPYEND, set in a near-future Tokyo where the threat of a catastrophic earthquake pervades daily life, two rabble-rousing best friends are about to graduate high school. One night, they pull a consequential prank on their Principal, which leads to a surveillance system being installed in their school. Stuck between the oppressive security system and a darkening national political situation, the two respond in contrasting ways, leading them to confront differences they never had to face before.
Credits
DIRECTED BY: Neo Sora (RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS)
PRODUCERS: Albert Tholen and Aiko Masubuchi (RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS), Eric Nyari (BLACK BOX DIARIES), Alex C. Lo (THE SETTLERS), Anthony Chen (THE BREAKING ICE)
CAST: Hayato Kurihara, Yukito Hidaka, Yuta Hayashi, Shina Peng, ARAZI, Kilala Inori, PUSHIM, Ayumu Nakajima, Makiko Watanabe, Shiro Sano
PRESS QUOTES
“The movie never loses sight of the personal, involving us from the start in the experiences of Yuta, Kou and their friends, while bringing a light yet lingering touch to larger fears affecting all of us.... A sure-footed movie that is set in the future but fully plugged into global political anxieties of the present.”
The Hollywood Reporter
“The best of the three is Neo Sora’s fiction feature debut, following quickly on the heels of his highly acclaimed doc about his father, “Ryuichi Sakamato: Opus.” He proves to have an incredibly confident eye, shooting his young performers in Tokyo against a backdrop of concrete roads and buildings in a manner that’s both mesmerizing and slightly terrifying.”
Roger Ebert
“That fertile tension—between the film’s concerns with a dystopian future and its faith in something as ancient as our capacity to organize and resist—is Happyend’s prime success, and what accounts for its rebellious spirit.
MUBI Notebook
“A crisp and understated piece, with Bill Kirstein’s cinematography making the most of nocturnal cityscapes and of sterile empty spaces in the school classrooms and corridors…. A gentle, piano-based score by Lia Ouyang Rusli carries its own echoes of Sakamoto stateliness, not over-reverentially but with grace.”
Screen Daily
"An ambitious, emotional story about growing up"
Moviebreak
“An important step in a career that seems to be on the rise.”
Movieplayer
“Written in a minimal and elliptical language”
Il Manifesto