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Flawed yet alluring, Bright Future slowly draws the viewer into an enigmatic world of surreal imagery and entrancing ambiguity.
All Critics (21) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (6) | DVD (4)
Alienated youth is one of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's favorite themes. Bright Future is an alternately comic and macabre portrait of a deranged friendship. Sep 29, 2017 | Full Review…
Alienated youth is one of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's favorite themes. Bright Future is an alternately comic and macabre portrait of a deranged friendship.
Richard Porton
Gradually establishes a sense of foreboding that is hard to shake, though it's not without its darkly humorous moments. Jan 28, 2005 | Rating: 3/4
Gradually establishes a sense of foreboding that is hard to shake, though it's not without its darkly humorous moments.
John Hartl
The movie has a curious and cumulative power. Jan 14, 2005 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
The movie has a curious and cumulative power.
Ty Burr
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. Nov 17, 2004 | Rating: B+ | Full Review…
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.
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Pretty to look at, but it's a slow-moving, meandering work that isn't as complex or mysterious as it appears. Nov 12, 2004 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…
Pretty to look at, but it's a slow-moving, meandering work that isn't as complex or mysterious as it appears.
Robert Dominguez
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. Nov 11, 2004 | Rating: 4/5
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.
Manohla Dargis
Kurosawa's weird look at the empty lives of modern youth is mysteriously eye-catching but nothing deeper. Sep 17, 2009 | Rating: B | Full Review…
Kurosawa's weird look at the empty lives of modern youth is mysteriously eye-catching but nothing deeper.
Dennis Schwartz
no less enigmatic, broad-reaching and majestically paced than a jellyfish. Nov 21, 2007 | Full Review…
no less enigmatic, broad-reaching and majestically paced than a jellyfish.
Anton Bitel
a genre that's starting to get overplayed Mar 8, 2005 | Rating: 3/5
a genre that's starting to get overplayed
Christopher Null
Kurosawa's mysterious film about Japan's disaffected and alienated youth. Jan 27, 2005 | Rating: B- | Full Review…
Kurosawa's mysterious film about Japan's disaffected and alienated youth.
Bill White
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. Jan 27, 2005 | Full Review…
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.
Andrew Wright
It's a haunting, spooky journey into a world that embraces trippy ambiguity. Dec 10, 2004 | Rating: A- | Full Review…
It's a haunting, spooky journey into a world that embraces trippy ambiguity.
E! Staff
Japanese fillm about two solitary friends and, initially at least, a jellyfish. Even after watching the whole thing quite carefully, I'm not really sure what the film's trying to say. There's a plot, and action, character development, it's intriguing, and very lovely in places and .... hmm, still no.
Super Reviewer
I'm not a big fan of movies that have been edited down for time but this is a rare case where the edit works since it speeds things up, though some scenes could have been longer but I'm not complaining. I'd still like to see the original 2 hour film to see what was left out. It's a surreal film, you're not really sure of what you're watching for most of the film but what goes on is very interesting and it keeps you hooked so you never feel bored watching it (outside of some scenes at the beginning that felt long). And plus Tadanobu Asano is THE MAN, so that makes it a must watch for me.
Right now it's a go.
[font=Century Gothic]In "Bright Future", Mamoru(Tadanobu Asano) and Yuji(Jo Odagiri) are two friends who work in a factory in Tokyo to maintain their slacker lifestyles. Yuji prefers to spend his spare time asleep when he dreams of utopias. When he is not asleep, he goes bowling or to the arcade. Mamoru keeps a red jellyfish as a pet which is poisonous. After being offered permanent positions with the company, they become friendly with their boss.[/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Bright Future" starts out creepy before its eccentricities just make it annoying. There is little idea as to what motivates the characters. The film might be a statement about the aimlessness of youth but that does not explain the significance of the jellyfish.[/font]
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