Bright Future

Mamoru and Yuji are two young men working at a hand-towel factory. What binds them is a rage neither knows what to do with, and the poisonous jellyfish Mamoru keeps at home. When Mamoru kills his boss and is arrested, the jellyfish passes to Yuji, and through a growing relationship with Mamoru's father, Yuji starts looking at his life again. This is Kiyoshi Kurosawa working outside the genre that made his name with Pulse and Cure. The unease stays anyway: as the luminous jellyfish spreads through the freshwater canals, the image turns beautiful and menacing at once. Kurosawa does not diagnose a generation's aimlessness here. He sits down next to it. It was his first feature selected for the Cannes main competition. Who it's for: Viewers who like Kurosawa's way of building atmosphere, and films that neither explain nor resolve. Who it's not for: The characters' motives are left deliberately vague and the ending settles nothing, which can be maddening if you want closure.