Disappointing
As a longtime and avid consumer of Japanese media, I have noticed over the years the decline of good storytelling in movies and television. I don't know why, especially when the subject matter is interesting or thought-provoking. This is the problem with "Plan 75", which had so much potential and could have been told as a biting social-commentary drama or a horrific dystopian sci-fi tale (think Soylent Green).
The twin challenges of dealing with an aging population combined with low birthrates are nothing new to Japanese audiences or even in other Western countries. And so the premise that a government would resort to a drastic measure to manage the problem, on the face of it, doesn't seem all that much beyond the realm of possibility. That's the underlying idea of "Plan 75", and precisely because it is plausible makes it all the more intriguing.
Unfortunately, the execution of the story was very flawed. The screenplay is the main culprit - it fails in many ways that an experienced script writer would have noticed or avoided. For one, most of the characters - despite all around good performances by the actors - are too shallowly painted to allow the viewers enough time to empathize with them. There were also some strange choices to focus or not focus on certain character backgrounds that really did not help to relate them to the audience.
Another problem is the narrative flow of the movie, with multiple threads that merge at the end but did not result in any meaningful pay-off. "Babel" (2006) did this much better, and I would suggest viewers watch that to see how weaving different story lines into a cohesive conclusion is done right. Unfortunately for "Plan 75", instead we get disjointed subplots that could have been much better explored and which at the end feels forced and unearned.
And finally there's the overarching logic of the story - there does not seem to be any. On too many occasions, characters inexplicably do things that do not make sense. Yes, people can and do make irrational decisions. That's not the issue here. The problem is that in the movie, without some kind of logic that viewers can relate to (even flawed logic), key actions are simply head-scratching and we the audience are left simply either guessing or confused in a bad way. That's not an artistic or provocative technique; it's just not very good storytelling.
I would normally give this movie at best two stars, but I added another two stars only because of the actors and the timely issue being addressed.
The twin challenges of dealing with an aging population combined with low birthrates are nothing new to Japanese audiences or even in other Western countries. And so the premise that a government would resort to a drastic measure to manage the problem, on the face of it, doesn't seem all that much beyond the realm of possibility. That's the underlying idea of "Plan 75", and precisely because it is plausible makes it all the more intriguing.
Unfortunately, the execution of the story was very flawed. The screenplay is the main culprit - it fails in many ways that an experienced script writer would have noticed or avoided. For one, most of the characters - despite all around good performances by the actors - are too shallowly painted to allow the viewers enough time to empathize with them. There were also some strange choices to focus or not focus on certain character backgrounds that really did not help to relate them to the audience.
Another problem is the narrative flow of the movie, with multiple threads that merge at the end but did not result in any meaningful pay-off. "Babel" (2006) did this much better, and I would suggest viewers watch that to see how weaving different story lines into a cohesive conclusion is done right. Unfortunately for "Plan 75", instead we get disjointed subplots that could have been much better explored and which at the end feels forced and unearned.
And finally there's the overarching logic of the story - there does not seem to be any. On too many occasions, characters inexplicably do things that do not make sense. Yes, people can and do make irrational decisions. That's not the issue here. The problem is that in the movie, without some kind of logic that viewers can relate to (even flawed logic), key actions are simply head-scratching and we the audience are left simply either guessing or confused in a bad way. That's not an artistic or provocative technique; it's just not very good storytelling.
I would normally give this movie at best two stars, but I added another two stars only because of the actors and the timely issue being addressed.
- keikoyoshikawa
- Sep 25, 2022