5 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Bright Future

SpikeMarshall from from Bingley, 9th February, 2008

Bright Future's an interesting little movie, more allegory than film. It's beautifully shot, it amazes me how quickly and succesfully DV was used in Japan, and it has this really fragile thematic beauty which sort of counteracts against a plot which has no literal bearings. Asano is great in it, but Jo Odagari completely steals the show. It's essentially a story of the listlessness that young people have, a desperation to achieve something and their fight to either pursue it or be safe. It's really quite incredible.

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4 out of 4 people found the following review helpful:

But it's pretty dull now

Cato from , 14th April, 2009

Might well have been caled 'The Case of the Reappearing Jellyfish' in this almost monochromatic film where colour occasionally stands out in the form of e.g. a shirt. Directed by a Kurosawa, presumably the son of the great Japanese master, this thoughtful but rather gloomy film ends with optimistic panache.

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Another amazing experience from Kiyoshi Kurosawa

EditorInChimp from , 11th January, 2010

Kiyoshi Kurosawa makes another bid to step up and be as vital and revolutionary a force in Japanese cinema as his revered father with a genuinely oddball, beautiful trip that blooms in the memory in the days and weeks after you watch. So, this film doesn't have the epic sweep and carefully composed sturm-und-drang of Akira Kurosawa's celebrated oeuvre and it is a huge stretch to put Kiyoshi in such company simply by familial association. But if he continues to create films at this high standard he's assured of carving out a very impressive canon of his own. A plot description seems a fairly redundant way to describe a film like this, where the tone, atmosphere and more importantly the viewer's own emotional response is at the forefront. It's certainly not about a story that can be easily divided into three chapters. What it is about is mordant humour, eloquent absurdism, and a genuinely keening desire for lonely, alienated people to connect in clumsy and honest ways. It's also maybe about the imminent collapse of society, or flummoxed inter-generational relations, or the isolating effect of technology, or the latent violence in even the most rational-seeming people, or absent fathers and wayward sons, or the required salinity levels to sustain jellyfish, or recycling, or crippling shyness, or just how we get ourselves to the end of each day, and how we'll do it all again tomorrow. I know not everyone will be quite so enthralled, and may even be tempted to switch off during the grainy, digital video longeurs of the vital tone-setting early scenes. But, anyone who loves honest, unique and personal cinema and has had enough of the now standard issue sub-Wes Andersonisms of American 'independent' (major studio subsidiary, of course) cinema will find much to admire here. And, more precious, maybe even something profound and affecting, an increasing rarity in today's filmmaking climate. Then rent 'Pulse', a genuinely chilling masterpiece awaits.

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Bright Future

standardman from , 18th August, 2009

I picked this up because Tadanobu Asano is one of my favourite actors as I've heard a lot about director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It's a very strange film and I suspect it'll put off a lot of people but those who stick with it will discover an enigmatic, deliberately paced movie with beautiful imagery and surprising range.

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Nicely shot, interesting idea

bornANDbled from from Wraxall, Bristol, 7th October, 2008

The flim is basically about 1 guy who's friend entrusts him with a project to aclimatise a salt water jellyfish to fresh water. Sounds boring but the film is really about a man who dreams of a brighter future, however he is slighlty slow and after his friend commits suicide on death row he's left to a mind numbing world on his own whilst still continuing with the jellyfish project. He ecounters friendship with his dead friends dad, meets a group of youths that appeal to the lose cannon side of his nature. The flim is nicely shot, almost has that depressing indie feel to it. Its problems lie with the slow pace, sometimes this moves agasint the film. Certain incidents such as the 2 friends hating their boss, the boss's murder, the friends suicide aren't relly explained and are left for you to decide. The strangest moment of the film comes at the end, when you're left unsure whether it was an excellent way to finish the movie, fitting with the slow depressing pace, or a strage ending that doesn't explain much giving little closure.

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