Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Cloud

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Yoshii with a gun pointing towards the camera

What would online life be like if actions had consequences like they do in the real world? That seems to be the motivating energy behind Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud (Kuraudo), an overlong but fascinating thriller yanking a thread that’s visible from the start, though it takes a while to realise that it’s there. Ryôsuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda) has a traditional job in a factory making stuff. His boss likes him and wants to promote him, setting him off on a safe, decent and traditional career. But there is more to Yoshii’s life than the day job. He also has a side hustle buying distressed goods at knockdown prices and selling them online for a … Read more

Wife of a Spy

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The wife and the spy go shopping

There’s a real lack of urgency in many of the films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Sometimes it works in his favour, sometimes against. Against, I’m feeling, with Wife of a Spy. Though there are plot bombs dropped towards the end, and fascinating ideas bubbling away in there to, this high-tone mix of lush period drama and fine acting is undercut by Kurosawa’s tendency to soft-pedal. Spies, a time of national emergency, marital infidelity, Wife of a Spy doesn’t lack for hot subject matter and, for the non-native viewer, it also offers a window on a world we don’t often see – Japan during the Second World War, when patriotism took on an almost mystical … Read more

To the Ends of the Earth

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Yoko with a portable camera

The Japanese writer/director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira) first made his name with horror movies, but even though he’s moved away from the genre at a superficial level, there’s often something dark lurking beneath what often looks like a bright and clean surface. Exhibit A: To the Ends of the Earth. It looks like a film about a young female Japanese TV reporter and her all-male crew making a travelogue in Uzbekistan. Yoko (Atsuko Maeda) has been hired because she’s pretty and professional and able to muster up that peculiar level of boggle-eyed enthusiasm for her assignment that Japanese TV requires. On-camera she’s all wild gesticulation, her voice squeaking away at an … Read more