Screening times:
Thursday, October 30, 6:30 PM
Sunday, November 2, 8:00 PM
Neo Sora | Japan, USA, Singapore, United Kingdom | 2024 | 113m
Japanese with English subtitles
Best friends Yuta and Kou are about to graduate high school in a near-future Tokyo while the threat of a catastrophic earthquake informs their daily life. One night they pull a prank on their principal, which leads to a surveillance system being installed in the school.
Between the oppressive security and a darkening national political situation, Kou feels increasingly frustrated with the world they live in while Yuta seems completely unaware, more interested in sensational pursuits. Finding an empathetic ear in a passionate student activist, Kou’s political consciousness blossoms. Assuming that Yuta would never understand his newfound interests, Kou begins to avoid his friend. For the first time in their lives, the two are forced to confront differences that they never expressed before.
Director Neo Sora has made a drama set in the world of young people that references the James Dean classic Rebel Without a Cause and Taiwanese New Wave films like A Brighter Summer Day and Rebels of the Neon God while also drawing on his own youthful experience.
“There's a fact of life of living in Japan that you’re reminded of pretty consistently, which is that in the near future, there's going to be a devastating earthquake,” he says. “I started imagining what the world, and in particular, Japan, would be like in the near future, socially and politically. How would that pervasive fear affect people psychologically?”
“This dry, semi-dystopian drama looks terrific: director Neo Sora’s elegant framing captures playful visual details. And there’s a satisfying depth and contemporary relevance to the themes that the picture touches upon.” - Wendy Ide, Observer (UK)
“It’s a very stylish, thoughtful, heartfelt movie in which regular teen heartbreak might be quite as important as any political commentary.” - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (UK)
“Sora deftly calibrates the angst of his young characters — and the collective edginess of a nation, while nodding to the joys of the teen genre.” - Lisa Kennedy, New York Times
Tickets $12 ($11.40 cash at the door if available)
