Againstthewind
Victory
- Jul 10, 2022
- 230
Information summed up from various articles and film reviews, as I know some cant be bothered to read a long article.
Plan 75 is a 2022 drama film directed by Chie Hayakawa.
Plan 75, Chie Hayakawa creates a plotline for this film creating the idea of a policy the national government would create: voluntary euthanasia for the over-75s. Instead of being burden, a bother, a resource-draining nuisance, anyone aged 75 can simply place themselves in the calm, efficient hands of the state and painlessly slip away. Those with money and family can do so at the end of a two-day premium package, after spa treatments and special meals. Those without are given enough cash to pay for basic funeral costs before lying down on a campbed in a dark, silent room divided by curtains where they quietly acquiesce to being gassed to death.
Japan is ageing faster than any other country in the world, boasting one of the highest life expectancies. Women typically live to 87 and men to 81. Almost 40% of its population is over 60, a figure expected to continue expanding as the population shrinks. Couples in Japan now have an average of just 1.3 children – far below the 2.1 children societies need to remain stable.
Over the past decade, Chie says, the Japanese concept of self-responsibility has become an obsession. "It means that we have to take care of ourselves instead of relying on the government or being a burden to society – and it has created a kind of hatred towards the elderly and the weak." The pressure, she says, comes from the government and the media. "They create shame among those who need welfare, meaning those who need it don't apply for it – which makes their lives even more desperate. But it also infects the younger generations, building up a huge resentment towards all older people."
Hayakawa says that when the film came out in Japan, lots of online commentators felt the scheme was exactly what their society needed. More disturbingly, when she was researching the character of Kakutani, she interviewed 15 elderly woman: most said they would also welcome Plan 75. "They wanted it for the security it would give them," says Hayakawa. "Not because they want to get rid of themselves right now, but because they feel a lot of concern about being old and don't want to be a bother to anybody, including their kids or family. They said that when they got dementia or they felt very sick, they wanted this option."
Young people don't hate their elders. They are inhuman but not inhumane: they are compassionate and kind towards the older people they usher towards an early death. It is, in a very real sense, what the historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt called "the banality of evil".
Article links - to well put together articles by journalists who analyse the message in the film, rather then the whiny people who get uncomfortable talking about suicide
www.theguardian.com
www.indiewire.com
Plan 75 is a 2022 drama film directed by Chie Hayakawa.
Plan 75, Chie Hayakawa creates a plotline for this film creating the idea of a policy the national government would create: voluntary euthanasia for the over-75s. Instead of being burden, a bother, a resource-draining nuisance, anyone aged 75 can simply place themselves in the calm, efficient hands of the state and painlessly slip away. Those with money and family can do so at the end of a two-day premium package, after spa treatments and special meals. Those without are given enough cash to pay for basic funeral costs before lying down on a campbed in a dark, silent room divided by curtains where they quietly acquiesce to being gassed to death.
Japan is ageing faster than any other country in the world, boasting one of the highest life expectancies. Women typically live to 87 and men to 81. Almost 40% of its population is over 60, a figure expected to continue expanding as the population shrinks. Couples in Japan now have an average of just 1.3 children – far below the 2.1 children societies need to remain stable.
Over the past decade, Chie says, the Japanese concept of self-responsibility has become an obsession. "It means that we have to take care of ourselves instead of relying on the government or being a burden to society – and it has created a kind of hatred towards the elderly and the weak." The pressure, she says, comes from the government and the media. "They create shame among those who need welfare, meaning those who need it don't apply for it – which makes their lives even more desperate. But it also infects the younger generations, building up a huge resentment towards all older people."
Hayakawa says that when the film came out in Japan, lots of online commentators felt the scheme was exactly what their society needed. More disturbingly, when she was researching the character of Kakutani, she interviewed 15 elderly woman: most said they would also welcome Plan 75. "They wanted it for the security it would give them," says Hayakawa. "Not because they want to get rid of themselves right now, but because they feel a lot of concern about being old and don't want to be a bother to anybody, including their kids or family. They said that when they got dementia or they felt very sick, they wanted this option."
Young people don't hate their elders. They are inhuman but not inhumane: they are compassionate and kind towards the older people they usher towards an early death. It is, in a very real sense, what the historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt called "the banality of evil".
Article links - to well put together articles by journalists who analyse the message in the film, rather then the whiny people who get uncomfortable talking about suicide
When 75 is time to die: the horrifically plausible film imagining state-run euthanasia in Japan
Japan’s ageing and lonely population is reaching crisis point. What’s the solution? The director of Plan 75, about a programme of voluntary suicide, explains why her film is ‘far from impossible’
‘Plan 75’ Review: Haunting Japanese Heartbreaker Imagines a Dystopia That Could Start Any Day Now
Chie Hayakawa's raw and sobering debut imagines a near-future Japan in which the elderly are encouraged to volunteer for euthanization.
www.indiewire.com
Plan 75 Review: Japan Suffers Existential Crises in Engrossing, Plausible Dystopia
In Plan 75, Japan suffers two existential crises: the very real economic and societal strains of its aging population and, worse yet, a severe loss of empathy. It’s set in an alternative present where older people are at best ostracised from society; at worst they're targets of violent hate...
thefilmstage.com
