Welcome back for another review from the 2025 San Diego Asian Film Festival! For this film, we’re heading back to grade school. So make sure you’ve got your lunch and your homework as we dive into… How Dare You? (2025).
Title: How Dare You?
Director: Mipo O
Released: September 5, 2025 (Japan)
Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes
Yuishi (Tetta Shimada) is a 10-year-old who is about to have his entire life change in one afternoon of school. His teacher gave them an assignment to write an essay on “My Daily Life” and Yuishi chose his bathroom habits as the topic. He gets laughs but hangs his head when his teacher lightly scolds him.
Next up is Kokoa (Ruri) and her essay titled “I’m Done Listening to Adults”. In her essay, Kokoa lays out in great detail, with plenty of statistics to back herself up, the ways in which adults are ruining the planet. Yuishi is awestruck and instantly fascinated with both Kokoa and the topic of global warming.
Over the next few days, Yuishi spends time checking out books about global warming. He reads them but also makes it a point to make sure Kokoa sees him with the books as well. Kokoa is impressed that Yuishi has taken such an interest in global warming. Unfortunately for him though, she finds herself having more of a crush on their classmate who is a bit of a troublemaker, Haruto (Youta Mimoto).
But Kokoa is no fool. She knows that with both of the boys fawning over her, she can persuade them to join her green cause. She convinces both Yuishi and Haruto to make signs discussing the evil of cars, pollution, and consuming meat. Her plan is for them to go around town and plaster the signs on businesses and cars in parking lots.
While both boys initially embrace her guerrilla-style approach to activism, Yuishi begins to question his involvement. With each new day, the activist activities grow increasingly more dangerous.
How far is Yuishi willing to push the limits in order to win over Kokoa?
Mipo O shows that it isn’t true that children are a nightmare to work with.
The performances she gets from these kids is nothing short of remarkable, with special praise for both Tetta Shimada and Ruri. As the viewer, you feel as though you’re 10 again as you follow Yuishi along throughout his day. The choices made with the cinematography help us feel like we’re right there with Yuishi as we’re at his eye-level throughout. Whether it is navigating a library or going out to plaster cars with handmade posters, we see the world from his vantage point.
Ryo Takada‘s writing deserves some acknowledgement as well. Having children be the messengers on global warming could have gotten heavy-handed and dark. Luckily, Takada provided enough humor in the dialogue to keep things rather light and upbeat. Because at the end of the day, we’re seeing things from the children’s point of view. This leads to the clever way How Dare You? (2025) uses a story about children and global warming to explore parenting styles and the lasting impact they have on kids.
Again though, despite the heavy overall message behind it, How Dare You? (2025) manages to stay light-hearted throughout. It’s a breezy watch with some great child performances. If you ever get a chance, be sure to give it at least one viewing.