no less enigmatic, broad-reaching and majestically paced than a jellyfish.
Bright Future (2004)
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Reviews Counted: 19
Fresh: 13
Rotten:6
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Theatrical Release: Nov 12, 2004 Limited
Synopsis: Tadanobu Asano and Joe Odagiri star as two friends who work part-time in a laundry factory in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's highly original BRIGHT FUTURE. Odagiri is Yuji Nimura, a messy, lazy slacker who has odd dreams at night of a future of hope and... Tadanobu Asano and Joe Odagiri star as two friends who work part-time in a laundry factory in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's highly original BRIGHT FUTURE. Odagiri is Yuji Nimura, a messy, lazy slacker who has odd dreams at night of a future of hope and peace. His best friend, Mamoru Arita (Asano), meanwhile, is obsessed with his pet red jellyfish, a poisonous creature he is training to be able to survive in fresh water. After mysteriously presenting the marine invertebrate to Yuji, he even more mysteriously viciously murders his boss and willingly accepts his fate. While Mamoru is in prison, Yuji grows attached to the jellyfish and to his friend's estranged father, who repairs old televisions, radios, and lamps in his own cluttered shop. The very busy Asano (ICHI THE KILLER, THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI, LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE) and Odagiri are excellent in the lead roles, filled with a quiet ennui and disassociation from the rest of the world. Longtime actor Tatsuya Fuji provides outstanding support as Mr. Arita, who becomes a kind of surrogate father to Yuji. Kurosawa, the director of such successful thrillers as DOPPELGANGER, PULSE, and CURE, here alternates between beautifully shot scenes and grainy set pieces, steady camerawork and handheld moments, keeping the audience perpetually off balance yet mesmerized. BRIGHT FUTURE, which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, is a slow-paced, introspective, intelligent film that has a dark underbelly lurking just beneath it, like the potential lethal bite of a jellyfish. [More]
Starring: Jô Odagiri, Tadanobu Asano, Tatsuya Fuji, Takashi Sasano
Starring: Jô Odagiri, Tadanobu Asano, Tatsuya Fuji, Takashi Sasano, Marumi Shiraishi
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Screenwriter: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Composer: Pacific 231
Studio: Palm Pictures
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Reviews for Bright Future
Gradually establishes a sense of foreboding that is hard to shake, though it's not without its darkly humorous moments.
Kurosawa's mysterious film about Japan's disaffected and alienated youth.
No stranger to the bizarro social metaphor, [Kurosawa] somehow paints the film's title as honestly optimistic, winkingly ironic, and completely doom-laden at the same time.
It's a haunting, spooky journey into a world that embraces trippy ambiguity.
The most spellbinding aspect of Bright Future is that the surrealism sustains its own squiddish logic, concluding with one of the most breathtaking film finales of the year.
More high -- but strangely touching -- weirdness from acclaimed Japanese auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Pretty to look at, but it's a slow-moving, meandering work that isn't as complex or mysterious as it appears.
...an enchantingly cryptic, ethereally photographed slice of somber surrealism that should definitely appeal to fans of David Lynch and Luis Buñuel.
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a prolific and sui generis talent from Japan, this quietly creepy film contains a hint of politics and a wealth of shivers.
The writer-director's story sense is far too distracted, clouding the film's themes and even its basic plotline and allowing only the most glancing insights into its characters.
Bright Future can be off-putting -- neither of the two protagonists attempt to engage the camera, and more woe is expended on mourning Mamoru than considering his victims.
That the film succeeds on the level of a thriller as well as of a philosophical reflection is a proof of Kurosawa as perhaps the best Japanese filmmaker of his generation.
Though admirers of the director's eerie, elegant horror tales Pulse and Cure will find Bright Future rather more lugubrious, Kurosawa's latest turns out to have a surprising emotional pull and a truly transcendent final shot.
Kurosawa strains to find a parallel between jellyfish and his characters' disaffections.
A remarkable companion piece to Gus Van Sant's similarly haunted, lyrical, allegorical Elephant.
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