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Mamoru and Yuji are two directionless friends who work
in the same hand towel factory. Their boss ropes them into
a bit of furniture moving, which displeases them so much that
when he visits Mamoru's apartment they fail to stop him putting
his hand in Mamoru's poisonous jelly fish tank. Enraged, the
boss confronts Mamoru, only for Mamoru to quit his job. Yuji
goes around his bosses house, with a metal pipe to repay the
favour only to discover that Mamoru has already killed him.
Incarcerated, Mamoru asks Yuji to look after his jellyfish
who he is converting from salt to fresh water…
Bright
Future (2003) was written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
(no relation), who is best known for his urban horror films.
The
irony of the films title is that no one in the movie has a
bright future; in fact most of them hate their lives. Mamoru
(Tadanobu Asano) appears to kill his boss almost on a whim,
having no love for his own pointless life he fails to empathise
with anyone else. The killing is as brutal as it is meaningless
to him. When Yuji (Jo Odagiri) inherits the poisonous jellyfish
he also inherits Mamoru's father, who also spends his time
fruitlessly mending broken scrap in a salvage shop.
The
film winds its rather gentle and aimless way until the Jellyfish
gets out, whereupon, Yuji realises that it is following him
using the canals, at which point the film takes a more surreal
route. Yuji's earlier adulation of Mamoru comes to personal
fruition when he is treated like a son by Mamuro's father
and finally realises Mamuro's dream of training his jellyfish
to survive in fresh water, that is until the jellyfish becomes
plural and threatens Japan's food supplies.
To
be honest this is not a wholly successful film, it is a slow
burner that will not appeal to everyone. That said, the scenes
of the escaped jellyfish's and their representation of the
bright future (they glow) are handled beautifully. If the
film has a message it appears to be that it matters little
what you do, it's how you perceive your life that's important.
The
disc, as supplied, has no extras though according to the PR
blurb it should come with a Behind the Scenes featurette,
the Original Theatrical Trailer and Film Notes.
It is presented in either Japanese Dolby stereo, 5.1 or DTS,
with optional English subtitles. If you have the equipment
play the film in DTS as one of the most impressive things
about the film is its soundscape.
The
film is presented in 1.81: anamorphic aspect ratio. While
the soundscape is impressive the quality of the film is not,
with much of it looking like it was shot on a particularly
cheap video recorder.
Charles
Packer
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