Is It Still Possible to Achieve a Happyend Nowadays?

With the media having the coverage of domestic and global news in a swipe of our fingers, we see everything everywhere all at once. The endless catastrophic events and discourses push an atmosphere of anger, depression, escapism, cynicism, and nihilism. Happyend presents a solid gravity pulling the audience back to the ground of daily life. Rather than an explicit answer, it encourages us to cherish the intimate connections with others and go through this together. 

The stories happened in a Japanese city in the near future. The protagonists are a friend group of rebellious teenagers who love music, played by non-actors. The students in the school are of various ethnicities. Meanwhile, the xenophobia and the right-wing nationalism have been on the rise.

The identities of the friend group members are revealed slowly in the film. Ming is half Japanese and half Taiwanese and wasn’t fluent in Mandarin. Ming was embarrassed about being unable to communicate with her dad because of the language barrier. Tomu is mixed Asian and Black and is planning to go to America for college. As a very sympathetic, calm, and warm person, his upcoming leave set a melancholic hue for them. Even with just one line, the mention of the irritating procedure with large amounts of paperwork Tomu had to go through for moving abroad is a relevant touch. The main conflict revolves around the rising tension between Kon and Yuta, who grew up together and were close friends. Influenced by politically active classmate Fumi, Kon became more aware of social circumstances as a non-citizen, witnessing the protests and a ‘foreigner’ mark at his mom’s Korean restaurant. On the other side, Yuta comes from an affluent family and still lived as carefree as he always has been. He believed in living as happily as he could in this short life, and there is nothing we can do to change the situation. The urgency to face this political division seems to be prominent for the teenagers coming of age nowadays. 

For the prank that students did to his precious car, the headmaster introduced a surveillance system to the campus. Outside the school, advanced technological gadgets were also used to monitor and control citizens, and protests about the authoritarian rules continued on the streets. Without a linear narration, there are multiple events happening around the main group in this film. With the headmaster presented as the possible antagonist, the conflicts in the school echoed with the social problems in Japan. The imagination of the near future is a realistic extension of the now: the immigration and multiculturalism, the rise of conservatism, and the surveillance facilitated by technologies. Similar to Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s Asako I & II, the earthquake also is a ‘grounded’ feature in the film as a reminder of the presence of earth and the limitation of humans. For the director, Neo Sora, it refers to the big earthquake in 1923, which led to the genocide of Zainichi Koreans in Tokyo. 

Many scenery shots are in this film with humans occupying a small or no part of the screen, and none of them strayed away from the purity of portraying the luminous urban life. When Kon and Yuta were passing through the urban landscape, the wide shot made them only a small part of the whole concrete forest. The amazing soundtracks indeed remind me of Ryuichi Sakamoto, the director Neo Sora’s father. The cameo of famous and widely loved DJ ¥OU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U is simply adorable.

The ending scene was Kon and Yuta saying bye to each other at the bridge after their graduation. The frame paused, and the transcendent final score began to play, leaving me speechless. Even though we only see the world through a group of teenagers, it captures what urban life feels like. We feel the characters’ emotions by seeing them in the space and time, instead of listening to clear expressions. Every conversation is very precise and ‘effortless’ without relying on heavy dialogue. Without glossing over the sociopolitical issues, it remains lighthearted and pulls us back to the pure moments in our everyday life, reminding us of a sense of community and togetherness. The magnificent open end leaves a hopeful notion amid the ongoing contemporary crisis, reaching to a happy end.

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