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Cloud (film)
2024 Japanese thriller film From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Cloud (クラウド, Kuraudo) is a 2024 Japanese psychological thriller film written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and starring Masaki Suda.[3][1]
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The film premiered out of competition at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, on 30 August 2024.[4] It was selected for the Best International Feature Film as the Japanese entry at the 97th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.[5]
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Plot summary
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Yoshii (Masaki Suda) is a factory worker who moonlights as an online reseller. He is first seen ripping off a supplier of health devices, which he later sells online at a substantial markup. After turning a profit, he turns down a promotion from his boss (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa) in order to expand his reselling business instead. He resigns from his job and moves into a larger house in a suburb, which he also uses as an office and warehouse, and asks his girlfriend Akiko (Kotone Furukawa) to move in with him. He also hires an assistant, Sano (Daiken Okudaira), to help run the business.
Tension escalates as Yoshii becomes more ruthless in his dealings. He is harassed both online and in real life, and meanwhile, Akiko, feeling increasingly neglected by Yoshii’s coldness and preoccupation with his business, moves out. Yoshii fires Sano after he suggests potential new products to target.
As everyone in Yoshii's life leaves, his disgruntled suppliers and customers grow more emboldened through an online forum. When Yoshii’s new address is found, some of them decide to band together to enact revenge. An angry mobster is also joined by Yoshii’s jaded senior and former boss from work (Masataka Kubota). They arm themselves and threaten Yoshii at his home. Yoshii escapes into the woods, leading to a cat-and-mouse chase. He manages to shake them off and, on his way back home, runs into Akiko. The two plan to salvage what’s left and flee. However, the group finds Yoshii again, and this time, succeeds in kidnapping him.
The group intend to burn Yoshii alive and stream it online. Akiko secretly follows them. Sano, revealed to have shady connections himself, tracks Yoshii’s phone via GPS and intervenes. He guns down several attackers and rescues Yoshii. Yoshii asks him why he'd go so far after having been fired as his assistant. They engage in a deadly shootout with the assailants and eliminate them. Outside, Yoshii meets Akiko, who had returned shortly after the house was attacked. Yoshii goes to embrace her, only to realize she intends to shoot him dead to get his credit cards. However, inexperienced in firing a gun, she is shot by Sano.
The final scene shows Sano and Yoshii driving into the distance. Sano urges Yoshii to keep working and making profit, promising everything Yoshii ever wants, even “things that can destroy the world”. Yoshii mutters, “So this is how you’re going to hell”, leaving Sano’s true nature and their situation ambiguous.[6][7]
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Cast
- Masaki Suda as Ryosuke Yoshii, an internet reseller[6]
- Kotone Furukawa as Akiko, Yoshii's lover[6]
- Daiken Okudaira as Sano, Yoshii's assistant[6]
- Amane Okayama as Miyake, a man who resides in an internet cafe[6]
- Yoshiyoshi Arakawa as Takimoto, who owns the factory where Yoshii works[6]
- Masataka Kubota as Muraoka, who brings Yoshii into the online resale business[6]
- Yutaka Matsushige[8] as the yakuza
- Masaaki Akahori as Tonoyama Souichi, factory president[8]
- Maho Yamada as Chizuru, Tonoyama's wife[8]
- Mutsuo Yoshioka as Yabe[8]
- Yusei Mikawa as Inoue[8]
- Toshihiro Yagi as Hojo, a police officer[8]
- Yoshiyuki Morishita as Murota[8]
- Tetsuya Chiba as the hunter[8]
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Release
Cloud premiered out of competition at the 81st Venice International Film Festival.[4] The film was released in Japan on 27 September 2024.[9] and it was selected as Japan's entry for best international film for 97th Academy Awards.[10]
It was also selected in Gala Presentation at the 29th Busan International Film Festival to be screened on October 3, 2024.[11] It has been selected for the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024 under the World Cinema section.[12]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 52 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Writer-director Kiyoshi Kurosawa returns to the theme of technology being a haunting force with disturbing success in Cloud, a slow-burn examination of social media that ends with a bang."[13] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[14]
Accolades
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See also
References
External links
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