{"id":25860,"date":"2024-09-04T16:05:10","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T20:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=25860"},"modified":"2024-09-04T16:06:36","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T20:06:36","slug":"metrograph-acquires-north-american-rights-to-neo-soras-happyend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=25860","title":{"rendered":"Metrograph Acquires North American Rights to Neo Sora&#8217;s &#8216;Happyend&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>(C)Music Research Club LLC<\/p>\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/m.imdb.com\/news\/ni64801997\/?ref_=nm_nwr_1\">Metrograph Pictures<\/a> has acquired the North American rights to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt29279903\/\"><em><strong>Happyend<\/strong><\/em>, <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm5586586\/\">Neo Sora<\/a>&#8216;s dystopian feature that premiered at the recent Venice Film Festival. The film is also slated to be screened soon at festivals in Toronto, Busan, and New York.<br \/><br \/>Sora had previously directed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt28490873\/\"><em><strong>Ryuichi Sakamoto\/Opus<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, a film about his late father, the musician, which had also premiered at Venice. Another of Sora\u2019s short films, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt12754146\/\"><em><strong>The Chicken<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, debuted at several festivals, including Locarno and New York. <br \/><br \/>In announcing the acquisition, David Laub, the head of Metrograph Pictures, lauded Sora as \u201csuch an exciting new cinematic voice, and <em><strong>Happyend<\/strong> <\/em>is a bold, unique, and deeply resonant film. It\u2019s set in the near future but it\u2019s really about our lives right now.\u201d<br \/><br \/>Laub added that \u201cNeo has crafted a moving and often humorous story of friendship and growing up set within a remarkably fresh and surprising world. We are thrilled to be <br \/>working with Neo and distributing this one-of-a-kind film.\u201d<br \/><br \/>With its setting in a dystopian Tokyo of the near future, <em><strong>Happyend<\/strong> <\/em>narrates the story of two high-school friends (played by Hayato Kurihara and Yukito Hidaka) who act out their anxieties over the threat of a catastrophic earthquake by playing pranks at their school. (Coincidentally, this week marks the 101st anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 that leveled much of Tokyo.)<br \/><br \/>The schoolmates\u2019 rebelliousness quickly leads to a crackdown by school authorities, who subject the students to surveillance cameras and other forms of social control. Then government authorities get in the act, spawning large-scale protests and unrest that further convince the students that government itself is a repressive institution.<br \/><br \/>Sora explained that he was inspired to make <em><strong>Happyend<\/strong><\/em> while \u201cimagining what a near-future might look like, drawing parallels with Japan\u2019s history of earthquakes unearthing social contradictions.\u201d He added that \u201cso much of this film comes from [my] own experiences growing up in New York, and the friendships that have been fundamental to my life.\u201d<br \/><br \/>Reviewing the film in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/happyend-review-neo-sora-japan-1235988818\/\"><em>The Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a>, David Rooney noted how it \u201ccaptur[ed] that transitional moment when seemingly permanent adolescent ties suddenly appear uncertain.\u201d Rooney wrote that \u201cthis is a melancholy drama laced with notes of anger and disquiet, but also resilience.\u201d<br \/><br \/>Rooney added that \u201cSora strikes an expert tonal balance between the bittersweet, elegiac qualities of the end-of-school drama, with compassionate observation of the maturation process, and the volatile microcosm of an education institution that becomes like a prison, pointing to broader political implications in the outside world.\u201d<br \/><br \/><em><strong>Happyend <\/strong><\/em>will open in Japan on October 5.<br \/><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/author\/edward-moran\/\">Check out more of Edward&#8217;s articles.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(C)Music Research Club LLC Metrograph Pictures has acquired the North American rights to Happyend, Neo Sora&#8216;s dystopian feature that premiered at the recent Venice Film Festival. The film is also slated to be screened soon at festivals in Toronto, Busan, and New York. Sora had previously directed Ryuichi Sakamoto\/Opus, a film about his late father,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20471,30],"tags":[24080,24079,24078,23632,15511,18547,17492,24077],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Metrograph acquires North American rights to Sora&#039;s &#039;Happyend&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Happyend : Near-future Tokyo, the threat of a catastrophic quake looms. 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