Plan 75 (2023)
Director: Chie Hayakawa Run Time: 112 min. Release Year: 2022
Starring: Chieko Baisho, Hayato Isomura, Stefanie Arianne, Taka Takao, Yumi Kawai
Country: Japan, France, Philippines, Qatar
Language: Japanese
About the film:
Caméra d’Or Special Mention at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival
Official Selection of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival
Japan’s entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards
In a near dystopian future, Japan’s government launches PLAN 75, a program encouraging the elderly to terminate their own lives to relieve its rapidly aging population’s social and economic burdens. In Chie Hayakawa’s remarkable and sensitive feature film debut, the lives of three ordinary citizens intersect in this new reality as they confront the crushing callousness of a world ready to dispose of those no longer deemed valuable.
Legendary Japanese actress Chieko Baishō stars as a 78-year-old Michi who considers signing up for the program after losing her meager but fulfilling hotel job and the means to live independently. A young Plan 75 salesman Himoru initially believes in the program’s benefits and serves as the human face of the program. And Maria, a Filipino care worker living overseas, reluctantly accepts a position with PLAN 75 to send money home to her ailing daughter.
On the surface, the plan and its hawkers exude a kindness that serves as the film’s chilling vision of bureaucratic indifference and our increasing loss of interconnectedness. However, Hayakawa’s view is far from grim, as these characters soon learn to fully reckon with their own lives and what it truly means to live.
About the filmmaker:
Chie Hayakawa is a Japansese filmmaker making her feature directorial debut with Plan 75 (2023). Born in Tokyo, Hayakawa studied photography at School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her short student film Niagara (2013) was selected in the Cinéfondation program at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, won the FIPRESCI Award at Vladivostok International Film Festival, and two Grand Prizes at International Women’s Film Festival in Seoul and PIA Film Festival. Her short film version of Plan 75 was the acclaimed opening segment of the feature anthology Ten Years Japan (2018), executive produced by internationally acclaimed director Hirokazu Kore-eda. The anthology premiered at the 2018 Busan International Film Festival and screened at venues and festivals around the world.
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