Plan 75

In a near-future Japan that looks very much like the present, the government program Plan 75 encourages senior citizens to be voluntarily euthanized to address the country’s demographic crisis. The plan is simple: There are sales representatives to guide people through the process and those who enroll are given a jpy 100,000 handout —so they can make the most of their final weeks of life— and can opt for mass cremation to avoid the expense of a funeral. Michi is a 78-year-old with no relatives. Though she’s well past retirement age, she’s been living alone and working as a hotel chambermaid, until her employers find an excuse to lay off all their elderly staff. In parallel stories, a youthful Plan 75 salesman has his resolve tested when his estranged uncle signs up for the scheme. Meanwhile, a Filipino care worker trying to raise money for her daughter’s medical treatment takes a job handling corpses at one of the mass crematoriums.

Chie Hayakawa

Born in Tokyo in 1976, she studied photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her short film Niagara was selected at the Cinéfondation/Cannes Film Festival 2014 and won the FIPRESCI Award at Vladivostok International Film Festival. Her short film version of Plan 75 was the opening segment of the feature anthology Ten Years Japan which screened as a world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in 2018, followed by theatrical releases and an international festival tour. Plan 75 marks Hayakawa’s feature film directing debut.