Nearly everyone’s been scammed on the internet – it’s a rite of passage at this point, to direct ire at some faceless person through a screen. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud asks who the person on the other side of that screen is and turns out it’s just some guy named Yoshii living in a cramped apartment hoarding everything from knockoff designer handbags to anime figurines encased in glass.
Yoshii doesn’t consider himself a scammer. Rather, he’s a reseller of desirable goods, mostly so he can make enough money to do as little as possible. He works part-time, but when his boss wants to promote him to manager, he refuses. Then, when vaguely threatening things begin happening, he decides to pack up his operation and move to the woods with his girlfriend. Unfortunately, the reach of the internet is inescapable.
Cloud Lulls You Into A False Sense Of Safety
When Things Go Haywire, It Becomes A No-Holds-Barred Thriller
Yohsii’s life is pretty mundane – in between selling goods on the internet under username Ratel, he doesn’t really do much. His business is a form of gambling with a little extortion sprinkled in, but he takes pride in his work, staging photos for products he sells and hiring an assistant to ensure his business runs smoothly.
Kurosawa wants us to become absorbed into Yoshii’s rote lifestyle, only so he can shatter it at just the right moment. It recalls his other 2024 movie, Chime, where abject horror interrupts ordinary moments. There are elements of that here, like when the film goes silent as an unidentified figure walks past Yoshii on the bus, where it’s hinted that he was eavesdropping on Yoshii’s conversation, or when he’s nearly caught by a trip wire while riding his motorbike.
It would be unsettling if it weren’t so outlandish, the ways the internet and social media make their way into our everyday lives.
The director even manages to squeeze in a highly effective jumpscare before things really go off the rails, as if Kurosawa is saying that our everyday lives could be breached by insidious outside forces at any moment. If that sounds too serious, it’s not. Cloud balances tone well, moving between comedy and drama before leaning fully into the absurd.
When Yoshii’s online identity is compromised, his misdeeds and petty behaviors catch up to him and the aggrieved parties in question begin popping into his life in surprising ways. It would be unsettling if it weren’t so outlandish, like the ways the internet and social media make their way into our everyday lives.
It’s not just the internet, though. It’s the way that the constant screentime has trained Yoshii to be antisocial, unaware of the brusque behavior that rubs so many people in his life the wrong way. Does Yoshii deserve to be in the middle of a fight for his life because of this? Not necessarily. But that it happens at all is deeply funny.
Masaki Suda is perfectly bewildered as he faces relentless violence, while Daiken Okudaira as his assistant Sano is a calming presence in the otherwise chaotic back half of Cloud. Kurosawa leaves much to the imagination when it comes to the machinations behind the events, only heightening the illogical nature of it all.
The action isn’t elegant. It’s erratic and loud and ugly. When Yoshii, Sano, and all those who Yoshii has crossed paths with on the internet and real life come together, it’s a symphony of chaos. It’s also a damn good time, even if Kurosawa leaves us with the haunting notion that we’re all too connected, just one click away from finding opportunity or something much more dangerous.
Cloud premiered at the Venice Film Festival and screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The film is 123 minutes long and not yet rated.