Screen/Society--"Plan 75" (Chie Hayakawa, 2022)

"Plan 75" (Chie Hayakawa, 2022, 112 min, Japan, Japanese with English Subtitles, DCP) In a 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 debut, the lives of three ordinary citizens-an elderly woman no longer able to live independently (the legendary Chieko Baisho, in a moving late-career performance), an initially eager Plan 75 salesman (Hayato Isomura), and an immigrant care worker (Stephanie Arianne)-intersect in this new reality as they confront the crushing callousness of a world ready to dispose of those no longer deemed valuable. Hayakawa's view is far from grim, however, as these characters soon learn to fully reckon with their own lives and what it truly means to live. -- Winner of a Caméra d'Or Special Mention Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Plan 75 was Japan's official submission for the Oscars' Best International Feature. "This is an ultra-delicate whisper of a drama... And yet the anger that fringes such bittersweet moments gradually accumulates into a palpable and lingering rage at how good we've become at branding cruelty as compassion." - David Ehrlich, IndieWire "With stinging precision, Hayakawa Chie reveals a culture that seems almost mobilized to destroy its own soul." - Diego Semerene, Slant Magazine View Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ4VP9kApGM Co-sponsored by the Human Rights for the Dying and Dead initiative. Parking Info: https://artscenter.duke.edu/parking