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Happyend at GFT

19 – 25 September, 2025

Set in a dystopian near-future Tokyo, Neo Sora’s striking debut feature explores a group of teenagers rebelling against societal expectations. The film offers a vivid coming-of-age portrait, following best friends Yuta and Kou as they confront a world where AI surveillance is tightening under the yoke of oppressive authoritarianism.

Infused with raw energy and pulsing with a techno soundtrack, Happyend is a hopeful, youthful vision of resistance and joy in the face of control.

Why they love it at GFT: “One of the very best films to play at last year’s London Film Festival, fractures political and national as well as tectonic feature heavily here. We are warned at the start that ‘something big is about to happen’ in this glimpse of a near-future Japan, where authoritarianism is taking an increasing chokehold over the population. All of this makes this film sound very serious. But it really isn’t — it’s playful, warm, relatable and very funny. These national/political shenanigans play out largely in the background as we follow the story of five high schoolers in their final year hanging out, playing pranks, falling out and rebonding. For them, authoritarianism largely comes from the rule of the headmaster and his increasing use of surveillance to ‘control’ his students. The parallels between the micro and macro fractures here are subtly laid out, when it would easy to reach for the bludgeon. Lia Ouyang Rusli’s sublime and varied score provides the perfect accompaniment.” – David Gattens, Finance/Commerical Director

‘An expert tonal balance between the bittersweet, elegiac qualities of the end-of-school drama, with compassionate observation of the maturation process’ – Hollywood Reporter

Japanese with English subtitles.

Buy tickets

GFT 12 Rose Street, G3 6RB

This section: Cinema