Billed as sci-fi, Happyend is actually closer to films like Dazed and Confused or The Last Picture Show. It catches a bunch of Japanese youngsters just as they start the transition away from high school and on to the next thing. If there are the end of times coming down the track, they are not the impending annihilation of the planet after alien invasion but approaching adulthood.
There is a sci-fi element, though it seems to be there as a cover rather than as an integral part of the plot. We’re in an authoritarian world where ethno-nationalism has its feet in the zeitgeist’s stirrups. In the high school where our two main guys, Kou (Yukito Hidaka) and Yuta (Hayato Kurihara) are students, this spells regular grief for Kou. His Korean ancestry is brought up every time there’s an issue of any sort. At one point the food shack where his mother ekes out a living gets daubed with the words “Non Japanese” – which seems like a mild sort of racial slur (the legendary politeness of the Japanese extending even to xenophobic taunts?). From the look on her face as she tries to clean the spray paint off it’s not the first time this has happened.
It may be all this background that spurs Kou and Yuta – so thick in friendship it may be love – to play a prank on the stern principal (Shirô Sano), by standing his car on its rear end (a good trick if you can pull it off).
It causes more than a stir. Soon the school has been fitted with surveillance cameras to nip vandalism (aka youthful high spirits) in the bud, leading to Kou, Yuta and their gang being watched all the time, and penalised for any minor infringement of the school code.
Happyend charts the way that this central friendship comes under attack – politically, culturally and chronologically – as the guys grow up and grow apart. Meanwhile, a generation comes of age under this regime and moves on, adapting to the world it finds itself in and forcing it to adapt in turn.
Though the film sticks close to our heroes, it widens its gaze to analyse that process of accommodation – Fumi (Kilala Inori), a stern and politicised classmate who fancies Kou, who in turn is politicised by her and starts agitating for change. Yuta, meanwhile, sticks with his music, which Kou increasingly sees as a waste of time when there are more important matters to be dealing with. Off to one side Taira (Masaru Yahagi), a hectoring on-message teacher with a soft heart, attempting to act as some sort of conduit between the principal and the students. Ming (Shina Peng), a Taiwanese Chinese and Tomu (Arazi), a mixed race Japanese/Black student, flesh out the periphery of this unusually (for a Japanese movie) multiracial gang of friends.
Meanwhile, as this youthquake works out how much power it really has, earthquake warnings are regularly being posted – another opportunity for the government to tighten its hold on its populace. And another possibly overdone bit of metaphorical signalling.
Which one’s going to be Matthew McConaughey’s character in Dazed and Confused? The big noise unaware that he’s already at his peak – so young! It’s interesting to watch the whole thing from that angle, though it stands up well in its own right. The writer/director is Neo Sora, who grew up in both America and Japan. Before this he was probably best known for directing the documentary about his dad – Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus.
Sci-fi? Not really, or not at all, to be frank. But a good feature debut bristling with ideas – some under-developed, admittedly – but good ideas is a good place to start.
Happyend – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2026
