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![](\"https:\/\/cdn.craft.cloud\/26ed9c78-feb7-4ee6-8ddf-262fd7bafb2d\/assets\/tco\/images\/Happyend.jpg\")
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From its opening moments, Neo Sora\u2019s Happyend <\/i>evokes a\u00a0world aflame with uncertainty. Title cards bearing cryptic phrases about old systems, restless enforcers, and crumbling frameworks give way to the declaration: \u200b\u201c<\/span>Something big is about to change.\u201d In context, the statement seems ominous, but it doesn\u2019t take long for the film to articulate that its near-future vision of Japanese society is in dire need of a\u00a0bouleversement. With the nation trembling in fear of a\u00a0cataclysmic earthquake, its authority figures are all too eager to violate citizens\u2019 rights under the guise of public safety. In the shadow of this ideological crisis, a\u00a0tight knit friend group of puckish highschoolers comes apart at the seams as they hurtle, in divergent directions, toward adulthood.<\/p>\n We first find best friends Yuta (Hayato Kurihara) and Ko (Yukito Hidaka) sneaking through the back door of a\u00a0club to hear a\u00a0DJ<\/span> set. When the police barge in shortly after, and the crowd disperses, Yuta remains, bopping in a\u00a0trance-like state. Outside the club, they\u2019re inventoried by officers with facial recognition software: \u200b\u201c<\/span>Shouldn\u2019t you be at school?\u201d becomes, \u200b\u201c<\/span>Let me see your papers,\u201d when Ko\u2019s status as a\u00a0fourth-gen Korean immigrant appears on the cop\u2019s phone screen. They all manage to slip away this time, running giddily through empty streets and dancing till the sun comes up, but the fault lines in this platonic pair are clear; Yuta is happy to shut out the world around him for the sake of a\u00a0good time, and Ko \u2013 more vulnerable in a\u00a0society whose longstanding racism towards \u200b\u201c<\/span>outsiders\u201d continues unabated \u2013 could easily end up paying the price for both their mischief.<\/p>\n When the boys vandalise the principal\u2019s prized sports car, the prank is dubbed \u200b\u201c<\/span>terrorism\u201d by school officials and a\u00a0new security measure is installed. A\u00a0high-tech surveillance network, aptly named \u200b\u201c<\/span>Panopty\u201d, consists of cameras linked to a\u00a0large screen looming in the courtyard, where students are docked points for misconduct. And this authoritarian system (riddled with glitches and oversights, of course) comes to represent the problems that grip the nation at\u00a0large.<\/p>\n Happyend<\/i> strikes a\u00a0remarkable balance between social satire and adolescent drama, finding points of alignment between the humour of everyday teen life and the absurdity of the bureaucracies that shape it. Sora\u2019s visual language of lyricism merges seamlessly with his knack for physical comedy, fusing together sight gags with gestures of intimacy in his ensemble and charging almost every seriocomic beat with the appropriate symbolic weight. The film\u2019s location of a\u00a0fraying coming-of-age story in a\u00a0politicized dystopia makes for a\u00a0fruitful juxtaposition. The children, after all, are the future, and widespread change often begins at the level of education. When a\u00a0group of radicalised youngsters finally manage to put their words to action in the final stretch, we\u2019re shown the possibility of a\u00a0better world; the path is long and the destination may not be in sight, but knowing it\u2019s there is half the battle, and \u2013 as Sora repeatedly demonstrates \u2013 sacrifice can be its own reward along the\u00a0way.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nGet more Little White\u00a0Lies<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n