Cover Neo Sora (Photo: Getty Images)
Neo Sora (Photo: Getty Images)
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Neo Sora, the son of music legend Ryuichi Sakamoto, who’s carving his own path with his new film, talks about stepping out of his father’s shadow—and why Hollywood’s diversity is at ‘surface level’
Living under the shadow of a celebrity parent comes with its pressures. In Neo Sora’s case, this is because his father happens to be the late Japanese music legend Ryuichi Sakamoto, who changed the course of Asia’s music development.
But Sora, a budding film director and screenwriter, is determined to forge his own path. He has already made significant strides down this road and has been nominated for Best New Director at the Asian Film Awards debut feature Happyend (2024). The film has already won the Asian Cinema Observer Recommendation Prize at Golden Horse and was shown at the Venice International Film Festival.
Happyend follows a group of music-loving teenagers in near-future Tokyo who, once carefree and full of hope, now face the harsh realities of high-school authoritarianism and the threat of a devastating earthquake that drastically alters their lives
Ahead of its Hong Kong release on January 23, Tatler sat down with Neo Sora, who was in Hong Kong to promote his film.
Above Neo Sora (Photo: courtesy of Aiko Masubuchi)
Neo Sora (Photo: courtesy of Aiko Masubuchi)
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What inspired Happyend?
Three earthquakes inspired the film. The first one was in Fukushima on March 11, 2011. I was a university student in the US then. It triggered the awakening of my consciousness towards the political structures of society, such as how capitalism and the government worked together and how democracy was not what it seemed. I started to participate in anti-nuclear movements.
The second one was the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923 in Japan. It killed so many people because of the fires it caused, but what’s often not talked about is that the earthquake sparked a horrible massacre of Korean people in Japan. The media, the police and the government spread awful rumours that Koreans [living in the Korean Peninsula under Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945] were poisoning the wells and setting people’s houses on fire. To “protect” themselves, the Japanese banded together as vigilante groups and started killing Koreans. More than 6,000 Koreans were killed, alongside Chinese people, some disabled people and some Japanese people who couldn’t speak the Tokyo dialect.
I learnt about this in 2014, right when Japan was experiencing a surge of hate speech demonstrations against Korean people. Korean schools in Japan were attacked by racists, and people were organising big marches calling for the killing of Koreans or foreigners. I realised this exact racist, colonial sentiment still existed in Japan.
The third earthquake is [metaphorical]: every year, we are told that another big earthquake is happening in Tokyo soon, but it [hasn’t] happened. If another earthquake comes and we don’t reflect on the root causes of the racism and xenophobia that we see in the form of colonial violence in Japan, what will happen?
I combined these thoughts and analysed my memories from my high school and university years, which was a politically charged period that caused my friends and me to drift apart. The rifts in our friendships were deeply painful, and I wanted to capture those emotions in this film.
A film still from ‘Happyend’ (Image: courtesy of Edko Film)
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How did you navigate the themes of authoritarianism and sociopolitical conditions, which can be delicate subjects in Japan?
Japan still has a lot of freedom of speech. This movie has some cultural funding from the Japanese government, and we never faced any censorship. I believe that much of the censorship in Japan is self-censorship, driven by a fear that content may become incendiary or overly political. I don’t think there is significant political censorship at this point.
Does the film present a Japanese point of view or take on a Western lens?
I was born and raised in the US. A lot of the details that you see about how the friends are hanging out with each other come from my own experience and political awakening that took place in the US. In that sense, I have perhaps a Western lens on certain things that a Japanese person who has never left Japan doesn’t necessarily have.
But the other thing that I wanted to question with the film is: what even is Japanese-ness? There are so many people today who might not look Japanese, who grew up in Japan and are definitely more Japanese than I am, for example. So this boundary between what is considered foreign and Japanese is very arbitrary, malleable and can be used by whoever in whatever capacity that they want to use it in.
Read more: Golden Globes 2025: 5 things to know about Hiroyuki Sanada, who won best actor for ‘Shōgun’
A film still from ‘Happyend’ (Image: courtesy of Edko Film)
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What drew you to filmmaking?
Both my parents as well as my friends were really into films. In middle and high school, my friends and I would sneak into a cinema on the way home from school in New York. Initially, I pursued linguistics at university, but after the professor I wanted to work with retired, I switched to philosophy and film. I realised I was already familiar with many films from my classes. Additionally, I loved drawing, music and photography, and I discovered that I could combine all these interests through filmmaking.
Which filmmakers do you look up to?
I first fell in love with German filmmaker Werner Herzog, especially his film Aguirre, the Wrath of God. I later discovered Taiwanese director Edward Yang, who shared the same admiration for that film, creating a beautiful connection. In university, I discovered Yang through Tsai Ming-Liang. Initially, I rebelled against classic Hollywood cinema, but eventually, I fell in love with it, drawing influence from directors like Ernst Lubitsch and [Alfred] Hitchcock.
In case you missed it: How Golden Lion winner Tsai Ming-liang is nurturing a new kind of filmgoers with his ‘odd’ films that have an underlying message
A film still from ‘Happyend’ (Image: courtesy of Edko Film)
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Did your parents, Norika Sora and Sakamoto, influence your career? You have refrained from discussing your father in recent interviews. Is there a particular reason for that?
There has been a trend of interviewers who overly emphasise and read my father’s influence on Happyend, which is inaccurate. For example, a lot of people compare the music in the film to his music, but the [film’s] composer Lia Ouyang Rusli is their own person and composer. In fact, Lia is more influenced by Joe Hisaishi than my father.
But of course, as with anybody else, I’m very much influenced by my parents. They really showed me cinema and taught me about music, and their love of both.
What change would you like to see in the film industry in the future?
In the US or Europe, there are more opportunities for Asian voices to be heard. But to some degree, it’s still at the surface level. The same Hollywood structures are funding Asian cinema and voices because of the success of films like Parasite or K-pop. On one hand, it’s positive because more audience members in the US and Europe are now open to Asian narratives. But on the other hand, if you look at the financial structure, the decision-makers are still white people. They realise that “diverse voices” are more marketable now. One of the reasons why you see at least one Chinese character in every Hollywood Marvel film is that they realise China is a big market. So it’s market dynamics that dictate the decision-making. I don’t think that’s true diversity.
What’s next?
I have a couple of movie ideas, which have to do with “Japanese” characters. I like humour and comedy. I would love to keep making movies that make people laugh.
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Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
