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Format: Theatrical Release
Nov 2004
Not Rated
Recording Mode: (unknown)
115 min.
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Details
Movie Description
Tadanobu Asano and Joe Odagiri star as two friends who work part-time in a laundry factory in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's highly original BRIGHT FUTURE. Odagiri is Yuji Nimura, a messy, lazy slacker who has odd dreams at night of a future of hope and peace. His best friend, Mamoru Arita (Asano), meanwhile, is obsessed with his pet red jellyfish, a poisonous creature he is training to be able to survive in fresh water. After mysteriously presenting the marine invertebrate to Yuji, he even more mysteriously viciously murders his boss and willingly accepts his fate. While Mamoru is in prison, Yuji grows attached to the jellyfish and to his friend's estranged father, who repairs old televisions, radios, and lamps in his own cluttered shop. The very busy Asano (ICHI THE KILLER, THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI, LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE) and Odagiri are excellent in the lead roles, filled with a quiet ennui and disassociation from the rest of the world. Longtime actor Tatsuya Fuji provides outstanding support as Mr. Arita, who becomes a kind of surrogate father to Yuji. Kurosawa, the director of such successful thrillers as DOPPELGANGER, PULSE, and CURE, here alternates between beautifully shot scenes and grainy set pieces, steady camerawork and handheld moments, keeping the audience perpetually off balance yet mesmerized. BRIGHT FUTURE, which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, is a slow-paced, introspective, intelligent film that has a dark underbelly lurking just beneath it, like the potential lethal bite of a jellyfish.
Film Notes
IN THEATRES: NOVEMBER 2004 (NY/LA)
Industry Reviews
"[A] consistently unpredictable film....One of the more hopeful films the director has made to date, not to mention an ambitious new departure in style."
Film Comment - Chuck Stephens (09/30/2004)
"BRIGHT FUTURE casts its spell by drawing out the horror of everyday existence bit by bit, and then tossing in some otherworldly weirdness that makes the hair on the back of your neck try to run for cover."
New York Times - Manohla Dargis (11/12/2004)
"[T]he most spellbinding aspect of BRIGHT FUTURE is that the surrealism sustains its own squiddish logic, concluding with one of the most breathtaking film finales of the year."
Entertainment Weekly - Lisa Schwarzbaum (11/26/2004)
"Confounding the supernatural genre, Kurosawa is a thoughtful stylist looking at fate..."
Chicago Sun-Times - Bill Stamets (03/04/2005)
"There's a dreamy, Lynchian quality to this wayward urban tale of two disaffected friends..."
Sight and Sound - Kate Stables (02/01/2008)
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