Bright Future Review
The aimless youth film is pretty much a genre unto itself in Japan. There are literally stacks of these films ranging from genre pulp (i.e. Miike’s Fudoh) to the high concept art film (Tsukamoto’s Bullet Ballet) and pretty much every major Japanese director has at least one to his credit. Enter Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Bright Future. Never one to shy away from genre Kurosawa has taken the staples of the aimless youth film, fused them with some subtle structural elements from the classic monster film, and created a beautiful, thoughtful meditation on the clash between generations and cultures. Helping the auteur out along the way are two of Japan’s most compelling young stars in Tadanobu Asano and Joe Odagiri.
Odagiri stars as Yuji, a young man who we encounter sleeping on the job at a Tokyo hot towel laundry. “I’ve always had lots of dreams when I sleep” Yuji informs us in voice over, “The dreams are always about the future.” But no more. Yuji has surrendered his dreams to the slow crushing reality of a pointless job and a life that consists of little more than earning a paycheck to pay the rent so that he can have a place to sleep until the next paycheck. Life is no longer about dreams and hope, it is only about subsistence. His one friend is Mamoru, another out of place young man who works in the same factory. Though Mamoru is a few years older than Yuji they recognize each other as kindred spirits, recognize the same sense of aimless drifting, and build a sort of mentoring relationship with Yuji looking to Mamoru for wisdom and guidance. A major bonding point is Mamoru’s unusual pet, a phosphorescent red jellyfish both beautiful and deadly to the touch. Mamoru is attempting to help the jellyfish adapt to fresh water environments rather than its native salt, a task Yuji eagerly assists in.
As the film progresses and Yuji’s sense of dissatisfaction and anger grows stronger we head down a path that leads to violence and the death of Mamoru. Now this is where most directors would end the film, but here is where we get to the meat of what Kurosawa wants to accomplish. Yuji is left to care for Mamoru’s jellyfish while also forming a bond with Mamoru’s long absent father (played by Tatsuya Fuji), twin situations that allow Kurosawa to explore the tension between the old culture and the new. In Yuji Mamoru’s father sees the chance to redeem himself, a chance to be the father he should have been to Mamoru and he accordingly takes him in and begins to teach him a trade, to teach him the value of finding yourself a useful place in society, of the need, in essence, to stop struggling and simply fit in. Mamoru’s father represents the order of the old culture. The jellyfish, however, is the new. Beautiful and deadly it carries in it both the promise and the threat of youth and if it ever succeeds in making the move from salt water to fresh it threatens to upset the entire established ecosystem. Caught in the middle is Yuji.
Kurosawa has here made a film that relies entirely on the strength of his three principal actors and I cannot imagine a better cast for the film. Asano simply has incredible, uncharted depths – the man can do absolutely anything he wants and do it all devastatingly well – and both the Odagiri / Asano and Odagiri / Fuji relationship ring true and deep. The film is shot with bled out colors with digital cameras and the resulting grain and light bleeds suit the material perfectly and Kurosawa’s shots are, as usual, beautifully composed and filled with striking images. While not the most action packed of Kurosawa’s films – not that he ever feels the need to jam a lot of plot into his films – Bright Future is likely his most emotionally resonant, the best match of cast, material and technique and thus stands at the very top of Kurosawa’s filmography, with only Cure giving any hint of a challenge.
The Palm release features yet another strong transfer with flawless subtitles and – as a major selling feature – the entire 75 minute Ambivalent Future making-of doc. Now where most making-ofs are thinly disguised puff pieces or regurgitated EPK materials Ambivalent Future is exactly what a making of should be: a detailed, shockingly honest look at the film making process. We see Kurosawa rehearsing with his actors, blocking scenes, scouting locations. He talks openly about his aims and doubts making the film, his insecurity in working with as established an actor as Fuji, the first time Kurosawa has ever cast a major role with an actor older than himself. The actors and crew get just as much time and share just as much insight. Odagiri actually comes out and says openly that he never felt like he ever really had a handle on Yuji, that he was just muddling through the process trusting that Kurosawa would correct him if he did something wrong. Can you imagine a western actor making that same confession? It’s not like it doesn’t happen all the time but no one would ever admit to it, certainly not on camera. The only comparable documentary I can think of is Lost in La Mancha, the non-making-of for Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Ambivalent Future is absolute must viewing for any fan of Kurosawa’s work – really, it would make fascinating viewing for any serious cinephile – and is actually sold as a separate film in its own right in Japan, so its inclusion here is a huge bonus.
