HAPPYEND

A Political Awakening Arrives Just in Time

Venue(s): Cinema Stranger
August 1 (Fri) - August 14 (Thu), 2025
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Official website: www.bitters.co.jp/HAPPYEND/
Theater website: stranger.jp/movie/7298/
Theater website: stranger.jp/theater/?anchor=access
Trailer: https://bit.ly/4eGWTHu

Advance tickets: Tickets will be available for purchase starting from 24:00 on Wednesday before the screening week.
Director: Neo Sora (空音央)
Duration: 113 mins

Neo Sora’s indie hit Happyend returns once again for encore screenings, this time at the quirky arthouse/café Stranger in Sumida, with all showings subtitled for two weeks. If you haven’t yet seen the film, here’s your chance to discover it in a future-forward setting.

Although we don’t see it happening, we know from the opening frames of Neo Sora’s narrative feature debut, Happyend, that the world may be ending. Set against the impending implosion of the environment and the increasing political oppression of the Japanese population, the  film-festival favorite explores the stories of five high school pals as graduation — and the apocalypse? — approach.

In what Variety called a “cooling compelling” first feature, the New York City-raised director returned to Japan to look at how today’s world is impacting the next generation. With Kobe standing in for Tokyo, the film’s protagonists go about their school lives as youth have always done — studying, worrying, partying, playing music and playing pranks. Until one prank brings the wrath of the administration, and a draconian surveillance system is installed in the school.

Kou (Yukito Hidaki) and Yuta (Hayao Kurihara), best friends since childhood, respond differently to the punishment, testing their relationship. But Kou is a Zainichi Korean, and his response is underscored by his long-suffering mom’s admonition that he toe the line until he graduates. Instead, he gets directly involved with political protest through a girl whose commitment is hardcore (she even reads books on paper!).

Not surprisingly, since Sora is the son of the late Ryuichi Sakamoto (and director of acclaimed documentary Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus), music is an enormously important force in the film, both as creative outlet and anxiety dispeller. Yuta and Kou are aspiring DJs and the gang has formed a Music Research Club in a schoolroom, which has always been their safe haven.

But their acts of rebellion soon lead to repercussions they can’t control, and gradually, their fears for the future comingle with the growing unrest on the streets. The government sends a military instructor to the school for training, but foreign students are not allowed to take part, further stoking racial tensions.

Happyend may be set in the near future, but it feels like the now. Fortunately, as a final, humorous act of rebellion at the graduation ceremony demonstrates, youth are resilient. Be it ever so!

Stranger