Borrowing its title from the nebulous internet entity that has forcefully entered our daily lives in recent years, Cloud delves into the sinister undercurrents of modern society where digital anonymity fuels real-world malice.
The story centres on Ryosuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda), a factory worker in Tokyo who makes extra money reselling goods online under a pseudonym. After a successful haul, he quits his job and relocates to the countryside with his girlfriend, hiring a local young man to help with his reselling business. However, Yoshii’s seemingly idyllic life is shattered by mysterious attacks from unknown assailants, dismantling his peace as he discovers multiple enemies targeting him.
The Garden Cinema View:
Kiyoshi Kurosawa returns to select themes from his masterful Pulse (2001) with this slippery morality play on the seedy underbelly of internet reselling. Cloud revels in unpredictability and an ever-shifting tone (and even genre). A slow-burn pace in the first act, and the ratcheting tension recall something of the bleak chills of Pascal Plante’s Red Rooms. Then the mood snaps, perspectives switch, and Cloud morphs into an anarchic (sort of) action film. The overall effect might feel less joined-up when compared to Kurosawa’s best work, but events are tied together by a prevailing critique of exploitation, loneliness, and mob-justice. And there is a sense that, in his late 60s now, Kurosawa retains an uncanny knack of responding to the zeitgeist.
