Actions are rarely without consequences, even if takes a while for them to materialize. One unfortunate or regrettable decision may bring with it an undue and disproportionate response, but a pattern of illegal or unethical behavior will eventually incur some sort of justice, even if it’s merely cosmic and not literal or cut-and-dry. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud selects a hero who rips off other people for a living and does it quite well, until what he’s done – and the people he’s angered – starts to catch up with him.
Ryosuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda) has a menial factory job where his boss thinks he should be in leadership, but, when tapped for a promotion, he has to be honest – he’s just not leadership material. That’s mostly because he has a side hustle, one that’s proven to be quite profitable. He’s always on the prowl for goods whose value he can see and others can’t, or for marks to trick so that he can buy up as much stock of an item as possible to resell it at a considerable markup. After he quits his day job to scale up his operation, he soon finds his previously impenetrable environment at risk of infiltration from multiple directions, all with an axe to grind with the man who cost them a great deal.
The setup of this film is rather straightforward, with this reseller sitting by his computer using an alias and turning an impressive profit with each shrewd decision he makes. He’s smart enough not to use his own name but still can’t foresee that someone is going to be upset enough by what he’s done to them that they’ll seek revenge. Hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet keeps him safe for a while, but it only reveals the layers of vulnerability he has since he’s left an electronic trail that has allowed those who have it in for him to find each other and work as a group to hunt him down.
Cloud comes from Kurosawa, a filmmaker whose 2024 calendar alone has included The Serpent’s Path and Chime. His distinct vision allows for Ryosuke to be a sympathetic protagonist whose schemes are apparent and accessible to the audience, and whose world slowly begins to close in on him in a visceral way. The nonchalance that he feels in conducting his routine operations that he’s sure will pan out positively create a false sense of safety that should lure viewers into the trap that he falls into, always wanting to go bigger when laying low would likely have assured him an easier path and likely evaded detection.
Suda, who recently voiced the Gray Heron in the Oscar-winning The Boy and the Heron, is a major part of why this film works. Ryosuke isn’t particularly likeable, concerned only with making more money, but he still demonstrates some level of affection for those around him, particularly his girlfriend Akiko (Kotone Furukawa). He’s someone caught up with this way of life who couldn’t stop even if he wanted to, and watching that tireless, self-destructive drive is inherently interesting. How he responds to those who have come to hate him is also intriguing, though best left to audiences to discover with no prior information.
This is a film that doesn’t engage with complicated ideas but tackles its simple premise in a potent manner. It’s unassuming and works because of that, allowing its protagonist to gradually enter a terrifying world without even realizing – though he likely should have – that things could ever have turned out like this. Just ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and subsequent screening at TIFF, Cloud was announced as this year’s official Oscar entry from Japan, representing a subtle, effective cinematic style that smartly navigates the repercussions of unchecked ambition and the role of fate and luck along the way.
Grade: B+
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Cloud makes its North American premiere in the Centrepiece section at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and is the official Japanese selection for Best International Feature at the upcoming Oscars.