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PLAN 75
Director: Chie Hayakawa Cast: Chieko Baishō, Hayato Isomura, Taka Takao, Yumi Kawai, Stefanie Arianne MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:53 Release Date: 4/21/23 (limited); 5/5/23 (wider); 5/19/23 (wider) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 4, 2023 Plan 75 is set in Japan at an unspecified point in the future. Considering the modern-day technology on display and depending on the sociopolitical whims of an increasingly uncertain world, the story of writer/director Chie Hayakawa's film could be set 10 years (as the short from which this is expanded was) or 10 months into the future. That's part of what makes this portrait of the potential for apathy within humanity and the chilliness of government bureaucracy so unsettling. The story involves a government policy, established after a mass shooting at a retirement home results in people essentially placing the blame on the elderly victims, that allows anyone 75 years of age or older to request assisted suicide. This idea isn't born of compassion. It's one of economic pragmatism, because members of the older generation are taking jobs, using up various resources, and living in spaces that could otherwise benefit the younger, more "productive" members of society. There's a particular callousness in this, because the policy avoids the fact that senior citizens aren't able to retire because of the hefty price of living any kind of life. Beyond that, there's a sort of defeatism in accepting that the economy as it stands, one in which all of this is seen as the norm, must be protected at all costs. The premise feels a bit too accurate to dismiss as a matter of science-fiction speculation. Hayakawa's story revolves around the lives of three people who become directly affected by the policy. One is Hiromu (Hayato Isomura), a salesman working for the Plan 75 agency who meets with seniors who have decided to die, sacrificing their lives for the supposed betterment of the country, and tries to enlist potential clients at a local bank. When his uncle (played by Taka Takao) arrives at the agency on his 75th birthday, Hiromu decides to get to know his estranged family member while he still has a chance. Another is Maria (Stefanie Arianne), a woman from the Philippines who works at a retirement home. With a daughter in need of life-saving surgery in her home country, Maria takes a better-paying job at Plan 75, collecting and sorting personal items of the dead in a process with eerie overtones. The final figure here is Michi (Cheiko Baishō), a 78-year-old woman who works at a hotel, has her own apartment, and spends time with friends. She seems an unlikely candidate for the program, until the gears of society and the economy begin to crush everything she has. Making her feature debut, Hayakawa presents this tale in the form of a subdued slice of life, which makes it both believable and filled with a particularly restrained tenor of despair. If the way of the world makes it seem as if the premise of Plan 75 could unfold, the filmmaker's approach gives us a considered, disturbing, and sympathetic look at how life would continue in the midst of such horrific indifference and acceptance. Copyright © 2023 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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