Happyend w/ Neo Sora

This episode contains spoilers of Happyend.

Neo Sora joins the show to discuss filmmaking and radical politics.

Neo is a Japanese-American filmmaker and Palestine solidarity activist based in Tokyo. His latest film Happyend was premiered at last year's Venice International Film Festive and Toronto International Film Festival, and is currently showing in theaters across Japan (The film is expected to hit theatres outside of Japan in 2025. Look out for screenings in your area such as this one in Amsterdam).

However, unlike most of the popular Japanese content circulating outside of Japan, such as the Attack on Titan manga & anime series discussed in the previous episode, the politics of Happyend is revolutionary and pro-people.

The film's plot revolves around the personal friendship between two characters Koh and Yuta who struggle over their differences on how they view the world around them, as well as their collective struggle with their schoolmates against the Repressive and Ideological States Apparatuses of Japanese imperialism represented by their school, police, and digital surveillance.

In this episode, we discuss Neo's politicization in the 2010s following the Triple Disaster of March 11, 2011 and how his political development is tied to his artistic development as a filmmaker. We discuss his cinematic influence and the history of radical cinema in Japan and beyond, and the importance of seishun eiga (films involving youth and secondary school students) to the narrative arc of Happyend and its possibility as a conveyer of radical politics, and much much more!

Intro: Cielo by Huma Huma

Midtro 1: HAPPYEND Theme (Opening) by Lia Ouyang Rusli

Midtro 2: LOVE Theme Phone Piano Sketch by Lia Ouyang Rusli

Outro: The Eat Shit Song by Okabayashi Nobuyasu (The video is a different but better version with English subtitles)