It’s surreal to think of death in pragmatic terms. Despite it being a certainty, nobody actually wants to think about what would be more efficient, “Benefits”, “options”, and “features” aren’t the sort of words that get bandied about when talking about shuffling off this mortal coil…

…but what if they were? Might that make one’s demise a little more palatable?

PLAN 75 is director Chie Hayakawa’s debut feature film. The story introduces us to future where Japan has begun offering a program to seniors 75 years-and-older: Walk into a government office, sign on the dotted line, and they will help you end your life – even offer you a $1000 bonus in-advance as a “thank you”!

The film is a gentle existential walk through the idea of confronting death head-on. Watching the people that the plan targets cheerfully talk about the specifics of their final days the way most of us talk about spa packages is darkly comic…but also relatable in a strange way. After all, if you could know that you would be given five star treatment and pampered right before you need to peace-out, wouldn’t you be tempted?

However, Hayakawa’s film isn’t about to sell its audience a bill of false goods, and takes great pains to illustrate the trauma and transference that comes with saying goodbye to people in our community on a schedule. People one wouldn’t expect to be affected are still affected, not to mention the inevitability of a bureaucrat being handed the Plan 75 application of a person they know.

The beauty of PLAN 75 is the way it takes a subject as dark as death and makes it so soft and beautiful. Make no doubt – this is a film with sad moments, and yet it’s hard to qualify it as a “sad film”. It is empathetic, warm, thoughtful, and even hopeful at times…all while wondering “what if?”

Whether it’s sudden or slow, death comes for us all. There are knowns and unknowns that we cannot count on for certain until they arrive. PLAN 75 is a cheeky attempt to take control of something so out of control…and witness what contingencies still remain even then.