‘Plan 75’ profiles sci-fi program: euthanasia for the Japanese elderly

By Diane Carson

Science fiction achieves maximum impact when it addresses current issues, especially sensitive ones. With that in mind, Japanese writer/director Chie Hayakawa’s debut feature “Plan 75” proves as unnerving as it is relevant and ominous. For a government endorsed program supports entirely free, publicly sanctioned euthanasia for citizens over 75, hence the title, “Plan 75.”

In fact, in an eerie, alarming real-world parallel, in 2023 Japanese intellectual Yusuke Narita, born in Tokyo and now an Assistant Professor of Economics at Yale, proposed mass suicide as a solution to the aging population ‘problem.’ He did add, “Whether that’s a good thing or not, that’s a more difficult question” and that his comments had been “taken out of context” (quoted in The New York Times, February 12, 2023.) But this is not the first time individuals have broached that appalling idea.

Fearlessly, then, “Plan 75” confronts the crisis head on through 78-year-old Michi Kakutani who loses her hotel cleaning job, has no family, won’t stoop to welfare, and struggles to find an apartment given her unemployment and the demolition of her current building. Michi and several friends pursue the Plan-75 option as representatives tout its $1,000 unencumbered grant and befriend possible clients. To balance perspectives, the narrative follows three facilitators: Hiromu whose elderly Uncle Yukio is a client, Filipino Maria who empties handbags and sorts items left by those passing, and Yoko, assigned to Michi.

The encouragement for Plan-75 includes a daily, friendly fifteen-minute conversation though clients cannot meet with implementers lest the lonely elderly get emotionally attached and change their minds. In other words, this program includes delicate, promotional marketing which Rémi Boubal’s music astutely counters with minor key musical choices. Above all, however, the film belongs to Chieko Baisho with her exquisitely restrained presentation so eloquently conveyed through silence and Baisho’s nuanced, nonverbal reactions, her face a repository of a lifetime of experiences. Lest this sound too somber, know that the tone and staging are thoughtful, even heartening. In Japanese with English subtitles, “Plan 75” screens at Webster University’s Winifred Moore auditorium Friday, August 18 through Sunday, August 20, at 7:30 each of those evenings. For more information, you may visit the film series website.