Japan Cuts XVIII Review: In CLOUD, Money Is The Root Of All Evil
Kiyoshi Kurosawa is more new territory for me as of late, with several of his films running the course this year for Japan Cuts. Namely, Masaki Suda starrer, Cloud, enters the chat for this critic’s first dive into a filmmaker among whose renowed works include 1998 crime thriller Serpent’s Path, as well as its 2024 remake – both which are making the rounds at the fest.
Ryosuke (Masaki Suda) is a factory worker who decides to quit his job after three years in order to go into business for himself. The trade? Buying goods at retail price and selling them double on the internet through an an,onymous username. The catch? There’s no guarantee that the goods he’s selling to his customers are genuine articles, which isn’t much his concern. As long as he can make money and price it accordingly depending on the market, he’ll sell it.
After turning down a potential money-making business idea from a former vocational schoolmate to pursue his own lucrative prospects, it’s not too long until Ryosuke finds himself becoming targeted for harassment by unknown agitators. Soon, Ryosuke and and girlfriend Akiko (Kotone Furukawa) move to a new small residential/business facility outside of Tokyo where Ryosuke continues to grow his burgeoning business with the help of a local hire named Sano (Daiken Okudaira). Little does Ryosuke know that the terror he previously faced was only a preamble to an even deadlier conflict that awaits him.
What follows is an almost daunting cat-and-mouse psychothriller in Kurosawa’s Cloud, which has Ryosuke fighting for his life against a small band of obsessed trolls who’ve doxxed him and want to make him suffer. Kurosawa’s script makes fine work of slowly building the film’s momentum up to its initial tipping point with a slow burn formula to its pacing, developing our characters and the basis for why they’re in the story. Akiko will certainly have you guessing as well, as the loyal girlfriend whose behavior and expectations seem otherwise out of character at times, and you can’t really discern her angle until a little later. The same virtually goes for Sano, whose association with Ryosuke seems a little rocky midway into the film, as well as the role of Muraoka, played handsomely by Masataka Kubota.
Kurosawa’s reference to the title later in the film is also given a visual aid by the film’s finish which encompasses something of a more foreboding message in terms of the films themes; Greed, temptation, wrath, and envy are just several aspects of the film’s spiritual undertones, something Kurosawa is keen on iterating with Ryosuke and Akiko’s primary focus on making money, although there’s an air of something inherently genuine for our protagonist when it comes to his relationship – a setup for a climatic finish that feels less like the happy ending than one might expect.
Culminating the film’s intense plot is an explosive gun fight between Ryosuke and his enemies. Smartly crafted, suspensful and thrilling, with fantastic setpieces and tactful performances to boot, Cloud rounds out something special coming this year from Janus Films, and from a director still earning his keep.
Cloud enjoyed its North American Premiere for the 18th edition of Japan Cuts Festival of New Japanese Film. The movie is now available in the U.S. from Janus Films.
