DIRECTOR: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
STARRING: Masaki Suda, Kotone Furukawa, Daiken Okudaira
RUNNING TIME: 2 hrs 3 minutes
LANGUAGE: Japanese
Ryosuke Yoshii is an ordinary person, who supports himself by reselling things on the internet. He carelessly earns grudges by people around him and, in the end, he is dragged into a desperate struggle that risks his life.
***
Japan has picked Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cloud as the country’s submission for this year. Previously, Kurosawa won the Cannes Film Festival's Silver Lion for best director with Wife of a Spy in 2020. He has also won the Un Certain Regard jury prize at Cannes for Tokyo Sonata in 2008, as well as the Un Certain Regard award for best director for Journey to the Shore in 2015. Cloud made its worldwide debut at the Venice Film Festival, and it continues to Toronto next.
The film was picked by the Japanese Film Academy.
Cloud is produced by Nikkatsu Corporation and Tokyo Theatres Company. With Nikkatsu handling world sales, the feature has been acquired for France (Art House Films), Spain (A Contracorriente Films), Italy (Minerva Pictures) and Taiwan (Sky Digi Entertainment) so far.
Cloud is a horror drama and it was filmed in Tokyo, Japan.
To check out all previous submissions for Japan, click HERE.
STARRING: Masaki Suda, Kotone Furukawa, Daiken Okudaira
RUNNING TIME: 2 hrs 3 minutes
LANGUAGE: Japanese
Ryosuke Yoshii is an ordinary person, who supports himself by reselling things on the internet. He carelessly earns grudges by people around him and, in the end, he is dragged into a desperate struggle that risks his life.
***
Japan has picked Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cloud as the country’s submission for this year. Previously, Kurosawa won the Cannes Film Festival's Silver Lion for best director with Wife of a Spy in 2020. He has also won the Un Certain Regard jury prize at Cannes for Tokyo Sonata in 2008, as well as the Un Certain Regard award for best director for Journey to the Shore in 2015. Cloud made its worldwide debut at the Venice Film Festival, and it continues to Toronto next.
The film was picked by the Japanese Film Academy.
Cloud is produced by Nikkatsu Corporation and Tokyo Theatres Company. With Nikkatsu handling world sales, the feature has been acquired for France (Art House Films), Spain (A Contracorriente Films), Italy (Minerva Pictures) and Taiwan (Sky Digi Entertainment) so far.
Cloud is a horror drama and it was filmed in Tokyo, Japan.
To check out all previous submissions for Japan, click HERE.
FILM REVIEW:
(This review contains spoilers.)
“You don’t sell anything dubious, do you?”
Cloud, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, is about a young man named Yoshii, who is a morally ambiguous "reseller" who profits off suspicious deals in a high-stakes, fast-moving digital marketplace. The movie dives deep into the dark side of online transactions, examining how impersonal and ruthless digital commerce can be, as well as how it intersects with the violence of revenge and moral downfall.
Yoshii is an unremarkable worker by day, but online, as the handle “Ratel,” he becomes a heartless reseller, profiting off the desperation of others. In the opening scene, Yoshii mercilessly lowballs a manufacturer for a batch of “therapy machines,” which sets the tone for his moral ambiguity. His detached demeanor, even in the face of other people’s misfortune, reflects the coldness of a world increasingly mediated by digital transactions, where human connection is distant and profits take precedence. Yoshii is a gambler at heart, always on the verge of losing everything.
As the movie progresses, Yoshii's life unravels, leading to intense confrontations that feel like a modern-day yakuza tale. The slow build toward chaos allows viewers to get absorbed in this morally complex, lawless environment, sympathizing with Yoshii's predicament while acknowledging the damage he has caused.
Kurosawa, known for his atmospheric storytelling, paints a tense and unsettling picture of Yoshii’s world, a chaotic mess of piled-up goods, cluttered apartments, and a strained relationship with Akiko, his girlfriend. The film contrasts the high-octane energy of the reseller's hustle with the lurking menace of payback, all while exploring how greed and disconnection have taken root in the digital age.
All the people that hate Yoshii are accumulating like clouds in the sky, reinforcing the sense that his actions, anonymous and seemingly inconsequential online, have real-world consequences that are slowly and ominously closing in on him. Yoshii, so detached and indifferent to the harm he's caused, may not even recognize the gravity of the situation until it's too late. In a way, those clouds represent, not just the people he's wronged, but also the repercussions of his choices, growing larger and darker with each dishonest transaction. The accumulation reflects the inevitability of his downfall, suggesting that no matter how hard he tries to outrun his past or hide behind his online persona, the storm is coming.
REVIEW: B
(This review contains spoilers.)
“You don’t sell anything dubious, do you?”
Cloud, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, is about a young man named Yoshii, who is a morally ambiguous "reseller" who profits off suspicious deals in a high-stakes, fast-moving digital marketplace. The movie dives deep into the dark side of online transactions, examining how impersonal and ruthless digital commerce can be, as well as how it intersects with the violence of revenge and moral downfall.
Yoshii is an unremarkable worker by day, but online, as the handle “Ratel,” he becomes a heartless reseller, profiting off the desperation of others. In the opening scene, Yoshii mercilessly lowballs a manufacturer for a batch of “therapy machines,” which sets the tone for his moral ambiguity. His detached demeanor, even in the face of other people’s misfortune, reflects the coldness of a world increasingly mediated by digital transactions, where human connection is distant and profits take precedence. Yoshii is a gambler at heart, always on the verge of losing everything.
As the movie progresses, Yoshii's life unravels, leading to intense confrontations that feel like a modern-day yakuza tale. The slow build toward chaos allows viewers to get absorbed in this morally complex, lawless environment, sympathizing with Yoshii's predicament while acknowledging the damage he has caused.
Kurosawa, known for his atmospheric storytelling, paints a tense and unsettling picture of Yoshii’s world, a chaotic mess of piled-up goods, cluttered apartments, and a strained relationship with Akiko, his girlfriend. The film contrasts the high-octane energy of the reseller's hustle with the lurking menace of payback, all while exploring how greed and disconnection have taken root in the digital age.
All the people that hate Yoshii are accumulating like clouds in the sky, reinforcing the sense that his actions, anonymous and seemingly inconsequential online, have real-world consequences that are slowly and ominously closing in on him. Yoshii, so detached and indifferent to the harm he's caused, may not even recognize the gravity of the situation until it's too late. In a way, those clouds represent, not just the people he's wronged, but also the repercussions of his choices, growing larger and darker with each dishonest transaction. The accumulation reflects the inevitability of his downfall, suggesting that no matter how hard he tries to outrun his past or hide behind his online persona, the storm is coming.
REVIEW: B
