Credits

Director: Happyend

Synopsis

Best friends Yuta and Kou are about to graduate high school in a near-future Tokyo, where the threat of a catastrophic earthquake pervades daily life. One night, they pull a prank on their principal, which leads to a surveillance system being installed in the school. In this oppressive environment, Kou grows increasingly frustrated while Yuta seems completely unaware. Finding an empathetic ear in a passionate student activist, Kou’s political consciousness blossoms. Assuming that Yuta would never understand, Kou begins to avoid his friend. For the first time, the two are forced to confront differences that they never expressed before.

Biography

Neo Sora is a filmmaker, artist and translator living in Tokyo and New York. As part of artist-filmmaker collective Zakkubalan, Neo has shown installation and video artworks at the 2019 Singapore Biennale, the 2019 Dojima River Biennale, Watari-um Museum of Contemporary Art, and the 2017 Reborn-Art Festival, among others. After a fellowship at the 2022 Sundance Screenwriters and Director’s Lab, Neo directed his first fiction feature film, Happyend, which premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. His latest short film, A Very Straight Neck, won the Best Auteur Short Film at the Locarno Film Festival in 2025.