Happyend (2025)

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.