Veteran Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa says he took on his latest psychological thriller Cloud with an attempt to make an atypical action film where ordinary people are led to violence under extreme circumstances.
In a masterclass of Kiyoshi arranged by the Busan International Film Festival on Sunday, the Japanese master of genre film talked about classic American action films he grew up watching in the 70s where ordinary people are pushed to the edge of life and end up pointing guns at each other.
“I wondered if I could turn a movie like the ones I saw in the ’70s into a story of Japan today,” says the 69-year-old director who was honored as the Asian Filmmaker of the Year in Busan, given to Asian film professional or organization that has made notable contribution to the development of Asian film industry and culture. “I wanted to make a story of ordinary people who are fiercely trying to live their lives and then being pushed to extreme circumstances in a life-or-death situation. Sometimes people who are not at all violent are pushed to these edges of violence in life.”
Kiyoshi explained that Cloud is not “a cool action movie.” Indeed, the film doesn’t have stylish action scenes or dramatic themes found in Asian genre films. Instead, it is filled with visual cues of psychic distress that reflects the haunting reality of digital communication and raises the question of ethics in a capitalist society.
The film tells a story of Yoshii (played by Suda Masaki), an Internet reseller who is entangled in an incident that spirals into an unexpected circumstance. Kurosawa described the film as an exploration of how petty grudges and frustrations built by the Internet can spiral into real-life violence.
The film’s unique tone of storytelling and a sense of aesthetics partly have to do with the nuanced performance by Masaki Suda who played the film’s lead character.
“There was very little description about the character in the original screenplay, and even when we met, I didn’t explain to Masaki about the character in great details,” he explained. “But Masaki understood what I was trying to capture in an instant, and it was only after he played the role that I began to understand the character more fully. There were so many touching moments, and his presence was indispensable to the film.”
Kiyoshi explained, for example, that in the first half of the film, there is a scene when Yoshii’s girlfriend Akiko tells him that there are so many things she would want to buy if she had a lot of money. Masaki agrees, by simply responding “sure” in the scene.
“In the script, I didn’t write down anything about how Yoshii would play the scene and say the line “sure” in that moment,” he said. “He didn’t ask either. Masaki played the character the way he understood it. In his response, his nuance was somewhere between the line of being genuine and confused. When I saw him playing the scene, I understood that this was Yoshii.”
In a conference room full of young film enthusiasts and aspiring directors, Kiyoshi also explained about how his film could be seen as a dark reflection of modern-day Japan after its economy collapsed.
“My films are fiction, but I’m sure that whether consciously or unconsciously my view on society will be reflected in my film,” he says. “I shot Serpent’s Path in the late 90s. I was younger then and more relaxed at the time. We were at the turn of the century, and there was a sense of optimism that the 20th century was coming to an end soon and everything would be new. There was a deep sense that we could do anything we wanted before the new era begins. But then the 21st century came, and it wasn’t what we had imagined. There were unresolved problems that persisted, and it is unclear what will happen in the future. Some 20 years have passed since then.”
Kiyoshi explained that he felt somehow responsible about the struggles that the Japanese society was facing since the turn of the century.
“I feel a sense of remorse about whether it was really a good thing that I had created all those fiction films with no responsibility whatsoever,” he said. “I’m not sure how to reflect those sentiments in my film now, but I think they will show in the film.”
A frequent guest to Busan, Kurosawa believes that the festival helps him connect with a new generation of audiences that are constantly changing.
“Ever since I started filmmaking many people said to me that no one will watch films anymore, that the industry is doomed,” he said. “But cinema is still alive and loved by so many people. Whenever I come here, it’s heartwarming to see so many young people faithfully watching films and preparing themselves to make new films.”
