ZAMEK Culture Centre

An innocent prank involving the principal’s car at a prestigious Tokyo high school sets off a chain of suspicion. Two friends, already dreaming of escaping the school walls, and Japan itself, become the main targets of a new surveillance system: a network of cameras that turns students’ everyday lives into a dystopian spectacle under the watchful eye of authority.

The long-awaited feature debut by Neo Sora is a portrait of generational anxiety and a near-future vision of Tokyo’s metropolis. Its protagonists are young Japanese navigating a world where every move is recorded and where a harmless joke becomes an act of political rebellion. Pulsating with electronic music, filled with inventive formal solutions, and posing difficult questions about the future of the Land of the Rising Sun, “Happyend” is a breakthrough in Japanese independent cinema - a long-anticipated new voice and a striking example of creative defiance. Drawing on the legacy of Japanese protest movements, Sora crafts a nuanced manifesto for a generation refusing to remain indifferent. The film brims with the energy of youth - those searching for happy endings that contemporary Japan so desperately needs.

HAPPYEND, dir. Neo Sora, Japan 2024, 113’