Happyend
In an earthquake-rattled near-future Tokyo, a multiethnic band of politically aware teens protest their high school’s draconian and demerit-based new surveillance system in the latest from SIFF alum Neo Sora (2023’s Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus).
Tickets
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Thursday, May 22, 2025
- Limited Availability
- On Standby
- Matinee
Friday, May 23, 2025
- Limited Availability
- On Standby
- Matinee
Happyend is a not-too-distant future film focused on a wry multiethnic band of teens in Tokyo who protest the growing rules that bolster a police-run state. Surveillance has increased since the teens propped up the hapless school principal’s flashy sports car upright on its end. Weirdly, all the new rules are made with the excuse of "earthquake safety." So why were the young characters locked out of the school music room housing all their punk rock instruments?
The wily teens are impressively sophisticated in following the burgeoning protest movement to circumvent oppressive civic rules. Cell phones are weapons and facial recognition cameras are everywhere.
Director Neo Sora (son of composer Ryuichi Sakamoto), who lives in Tokyo and New York, also directed the well-received concert film Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus (2023). With Happyend, he uses an inventive music soundtrack and visual settings based on severe concrete buildings of futurist Tokyo.
It’s a meaningful film for those who want to follow the struggles of politically aware teens who also must deal with parental relations, overriding bothers related to college acceptance, and Japan’s inconsistent rules governing people of different ethnic backgrounds.
—Mayumi Tsutakawa
- Director: Neo Sora
- Principal Cast: Hayato Kurihara, Yukito Hidaka, Yuta Hayashi, Shina Peng, Arazi, Kilala Inori, Pushim, Ayumu Nakajima, Makiko Watanabe
- Country: Japan, USA
- Year: 2024
- Running Time: 113 min.
- Producer: Albert Tholen, Aiko Masubuchi, Eric Nyari, Alex C. Lo, Anthony Chen
- Screenplay: Neo Sora
- Cinematographers: Bill Kirstein
- Editors: Albert Tholen
- Music: Lia Ouyang Rusli
- Website: Official Film Website
- Awards: Göteborg Film Festival 2025 (Youth Jury Dragon Award)
- Filmography: Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus (2023)
- Language: Japanese
- Has Subtitles: Yes
- Format: DCP
- US Distributor: Metrograph Pictures
- International Sales: Magnify