Plan 75: Is this Cannes-winning Japanese nugget inspired by a true story?

Plan 75: Is this Cannes-winning Japanese nugget inspired by a true story?

Plan 75, released in theaters on September 7, was noticed a lot at the last Cannes Film Festival, from which it left with a nice award.

Awarded a Special Mention Golden Camera at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it was presented in the Un Certain Regard section, Plan 75 will be taking us to Japan in the near future.

Population aging is rapidly accelerating. The government considers that the elderly after a certain age become a useless burden on society and establishes the program “Plan 75”, which offers logistical and financial support for them to end their lives.

A Plan 75 candidate, Michi, a government recruiter, Hiromu, and a young Filipina nurse, Maria, find themselves faced with a deadly pact.

This dystopian romp is from Chi Hayakawa, who is making his feature directorial debut. He already had this project in mind in 2017 and made a short version of it in the film Anticipation Japan, which combines five short films where five filmmakers imagine what Japan will be like in 10 years.

This segmented film was born with the impulse of producer Eiko Mizuno-Grey. “I thought that Plan 75 was a perfect match for this project and I applied for a short version of Plan 75,” explains the director.

This experience allowed him to work with Hirokazu Kore-eda, who was the executive producer of Anticipation Japan. In his segment, he focused on one character, where Plan 75 is a choral film that follows five heroes.

A climate of intolerance

If Plan 75 is a science fiction movie and there is no euthanasia system in Japan, Chi Hayakawa still relied on his country’s climate of intolerance towards socially weak people, including the elderly.

The idea of ​​not bothering anyone is a strong concept in Japan, which further burdens the elderly, who feel useless and a burden on society.

“Plan 75 does not exist in reality, but everything depicted in the film exists, for example, due to the inadequacy of the pension system, a large number of elderly people have to work.

They struggle to find housing, feel alienated from society, and are reluctant to seek social assistance out of shame.The director condemns.

From a true story?

Chi Hayakawa was inspired by a real story to build his story: The Sagamihara Massacre. This news spread in 2016 focused special attention on the director.

At the facility for the disabled, a former employee of the center, then 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, stabbed 19 residents and wounded 25 others.

Inspired by the ideas of ableism and eugenics, the killer advocated euthanasia for the disabled, which he said was of no use to society.

“In a world where the economy comes first, I can’t help but think that there are actually a lot of people who share this idea.

In our society we blame and exclude vulnerable people. Not only the disabled, but the elderly and the poor”Chie Hayakawa is worried.

Plan 75 was released in theaters on September 7.

Source: allocine

You may also like