Akarui mirai (2003)

Director:

Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Writer:

Kiyoshi Kurosawa (writer)

Release Date:

3 December 2003 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Two young guys work in a plant that manufactures oshibori (those moist hand-towels found in some Japanese restaurants)...

Plot Keywords:

Jellyfish | Dream | Employer Employee Relationship | Assault | Father Son Relationship

Awards:

5 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Jô Odagiri	...	Yûji Nimura
Tadanobu Asano	...	Mamoru Arita
Tatsuya Fuji	...	Shin'ichirô Arita
Takashi Sasano	...	Mr. Fujiwara
Marumi Shiraishi	...	Mrs. Fujiwara
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hanawa	...	Ken Takagi
Hideyuki Kasahara	...	Shin
Ryo Kase	...	Fuyuki Arita
Miyako Kawahara
Chiaki Kominami	...	Kaori Fujiwara
Ken'ichi Matsuyama	...	Jun
Yoshiyuki Morishita	...	Mori
Sayuri Oyamada	...	Miho Nimura
Ryô	...	Lawyer
Sakichi Satô	...	Manager of Recycle Shop
Tetsu Sawaki	...	Kei

Also Known As:

Bright Future (International: English title) (USA)

Runtime:

France:92 min (Cannes Film Festival) | Japan:115 min | USA:92 min | South Korea:115 min (DVD version) | UK:88 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS-Stereo

Certification:

UK:12 | Netherlands:12 | South Korea:12

Company:

Digital Site Corporation

Trivia:

The large group of jellyfish in the Tokyo River was filmed in an aquarium and digitally added to the film.

Quotes:

Mamoru Arita: Nimura, here's the plan.
[thumb toward the breast piece]
Mamoru Arita: When I do this, it means "Wait".
[thumb and the index finger toward the outside piece]
Mamoru Arita: And this means "Go ahead".

Illuminating the darkness of the lower depths...

Kyoshi Kurosawa is becoming one of my favorite current filmmakers, and the further he gets from conventional horror and shock, the better I think he is.

Deeper meanings mingle with absurdist humor, and the kind of chance occurrences that enliven the fiction of Paul Auster and Haruki Murakami also figure heavily in Kurosawa's films; cinematically, everything from Lynch or Fellini to Don Siegel can be a touchstone for further exploration.

BRIGHT FUTURE is like an improved CHARISMA - more refined, less loony, and considerably more poetic, but K Kurosawa's many concerns - trashing of the environment, a sense of depersonalization (and discreet nihilism) in younger/future generations, the erosion of a society's cohesiveness (especially when that erosion originates within, and not from some external source) - are handled very well - the last shot offers his darkest humor, with the cross-generational understanding becoming something quietly heroic evoking certain past masters of Japanese film. A sense that - if younger generations have drifted towards a nihilism that could destroy them or you, it is balanced by an equally withering take on the older generations that somehow let them down; this film in many ways visualizes the idea of getting over it, and moving on with life (after presenting some of the consequences for not doing so).

Tadanobu Asano's presence here is somewhat hyped (definitely on the DVD cover), undoubtedly due to his ascendant global stardom, but his performance is eclipsed by co-stars Joe Odagiri and Tatsuya Fuji, who both deliver dynamic performances of great range and control.

Mysterious, poetic, open to many interpretations, and one of Kyoshi Kurosawa's finest.