Tag Archives: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

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Cloudburst

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Cloud

by Hope Madden

The films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa distinguish themselves with a sense of human dread in a larger, inhuman, often digital landscape. They unsettle with notions of something or someone beyond that organic veil able to exact harm. Sometimes the realm is more unworldly than digital, but the result is often the same: there is something out there, and it might even be us, but it’s not good.

The third of the filmmaker’s 2024 features, Cloud, makes its way to American screens this weekend. Riffing on the same idea, Kurosawa follows Yoshii (Masaki Suda), an online reseller who’s made some enemies.

The detached young man goes through his day nabbing and reselling bulk items—knock off designer bags, “therapy machines”, defective espresso makers—while quietly impressing at his day job in the factory. But once his manager pegs him as leadership material, Yoshii quits, uproots his spendy girlfriend (Kotone Furukawa), and leaves Tokyo for someplace a little roomier and more isolated.

Because there are signs that Yoshii should probably not let his true whereabouts known to his buyers.

Kurosawa sews together pieces of a mystery in what feels more like a character study for about two thirds of the film’s running time. An assortment of oddballs orbit Yoshii, but his gravitational pull is never entirely clear until the filmmaker takes a wild turn in Act 3.

The result feels like two separate movies, one meditative and mysterious, the other, slaphappy and frenetic. And while they don’t pair especially naturally, the fun of the final act makes up for the tonal stumble.

Kurosawa’s pervading themes of loneliness and disconnectedness in a connected world take on an almost satirical edge in Cloud. As forces close in on Yoshii, his own personality becomes less and less evident while those around him take on comedically odd characters. Rather than elegant melancholy, Cloud devolves merrily into sloppy chaos. And it’s a blast.

This may not be the film he’s remembered for, but we already have so many of those (Pulse and Cure, obviously, but so many more!). Still, for a step outside the expected and an unexpected burst of giddy, messy violence, Cloud shouldn’t be forgotten.

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Dropping a Bombshell

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Wife of a Spy

By Christie Robb

Wife of a Spy really tested the limits of my historical knowledge, which is lamentably focused on Western Civ. I probably studied the American Revolution five separate times and know quite a bit about the British Empire and what we erroneously call the “Age of Exploration,” but as for what was going on in Asia in the 20th century? Shoot.

My knowledge is pretty limited to some communist revolutions and America dropping bombs.

In order to get Wife of a Spy, it’s useful to understand:

  1. Japan invaded northeast China and Inner Mongolia in the 30s and set up a puppet state (the State/Empire of Manchuria), which they more or less controlled until the end of WWII.
  2. The Japanese army in Manchuria conscripted millions of people as slave laborers and subjected them to medicalized torture, including vivisection without anesthesia.
  3. They also spread fleas carrying the bubonic plague from low-flying airplanes over villages and cities and dropped typhoid germs into wells to test out biological weapons.

Wife of a Spy starts in 1940 as Japan becomes increasingly nationalistic. The wealthy and cosmopolitan businessman Yusaku Fukuhara faces scrutiny as to his loyalty from childhood friends who are now in the military. Yusaku and his wife Satoko (Yu Aoi) wear Western dress and conduct business with American and British citizens. They draw criticism for drinking foreign whiskey and forgoing kimonos.

On a trip to Manchuria to search for trade goods and cheap medicine, Yusaku discovers evidence of the atrocities being conducted there. He is determined to blow the whistle internationally. He says his allegiance is to “universal justice” rather than to his country.

Satoko senses her husband’s distress and growing alienation and uncovers the evidence that Yusaku has been hiding in his office safe. But is she willing to risk her blissful domestic life and creature comforts to become the wife of a spy/traitor? Or will she turn Yusaku over to the authorities?

Wife of a Spy doesn’t waste a lot of time explaining the historical context of the film (thus the exposition dump above), but it does a beautiful job of visually immersing us in the historical period. Director/co-writer Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s film focuses on the ripple effect that these atrocities have on the lives of the everyman/woman.

For the most part, the reactions of the characters seem realistic. They are haunted or traumatized or incredulous. Satoko’s reaction is a little harder for me to accept. I’m with her until she makes her biggest decision. What follows seems entirely too sunny and chipper.

Regardless, the quiet menace present in the air at the beginning of the movie grows throughout and, as in any good spy film, we’re left wondering if we put our trust in the right people and if we truly understood what just happened.