That guy who saw the future in his dreams

The meaning of Bright Future (2002, Kiyoshi Kurosawa) is the red jellyfish is a metaphor for this period of time in the development of males somewhere between finishing high school and before maturing turning twenty-five. This same period is also exemplified by Nimura’s dreaming pattern arc. When he was young he used to dream happy dreams a lot. Now he has stopped dreaming. Then finally he is terrified by the dream he shows us on the path that he doesn’t know where it leads. 

     The film’s theme is concerned with intergenerational rifts between men. Bright Future is a proto mumblecore coming of age cosmic ghost feelgood elegiac tale about reconciliation between fathers and sons that celebrates it’s time to move forward.

 

Before I could articulate it I instantly knew was hyped exhilarated thrilled with the ending and before my brain could catch up I just knew those rowdy jd’s with the white shirts out of nowhere sublime this is the ending headscratcher applause inducing long take leading shot with that pop song as the end title credits roll on tell us these are the jellyfish. Of course they are. 

     The irony about the red jellyfish is Mamoru’s dad’s arc at first the dad has no desire interest in them then he develops a caring curiosity fascination so far as he has to go to one which of course is fatal venomous. Cut to he’s now a ghost and has made up with his son Mamoru who neither ever connected bonded with in life now to spend eternity at peace together. That’s some heavy only the Japanese could muster sentiment.

     Why does Mamoru ruin the shrimp brine buckets? I think it’s because foreshadowing the same thing his dad is going to say Nimura needs to face reality. I think it’s kind of this reveal that all along the point was to raise the red jellyfish pet and acclimate it to the freshwater so it could leave home through the canals of Japan to the ocean. Again the three phases motif of the developmental process.

 

Bright Future advocates juvenile delinquency it says the rebellious phase is essential for growth. This is phase two. Temporary. Then you gotta move on or it’s prison or dreaming.Their boss is so lame. The way he wants to ingratiate himself into their lives and hire them on permanent status keep them at that same job evokes an existential dead end. So they each independently of one another spontaneously react by deciding to murder him. We know it’s Mamoru who gets there first and also ends up killing the boss’s daughter. 

     At that café when Arita talks to his other son Mamoru’s brother that kid’s attitude shows why being rebellious running wild rumspringa break is healthy through how this snotty twerp weasel is so unbearably obnoxious the way he talks to his father is more brutal than any murder torture assault scene elsewhere in a Kiyoshi Kurosawa film. It takes a while to get there but the balance in Bright Future is sympathy for the elders as well. The image system at work this time will be the junk in the repair shop. That’s old people in our society. All those lines of dialogue about how they’re not garbage they’re better made than the worthless stuff in stores nowadays. This film is about finding the value in the overlooked youth and elderly lost in modern society. It’s about those with no future and those with a bright future.

     And if I wanna go for one of my patented way out there readings could be what if Mamoru had a plan from the beginning to raise the red jellyfish to get Nimura to mature into a man and to get his father Arita to learn his own value and that same red jellyfish that the dad touches is the same one that Mamoru gave Nimura so that he and his father could acclimate to being able to relate to one another in a meaningful way on the other side. The dad’s arc is appreciating his reality and standing up to Arita. That’s what a father is. That’s what he was lacking. 

 

Okay what about the look of Bright Future. It’s HD I want to guess a CineAlta who else was shooting on that at this time. Episode II – Attack of the Clones (George Lucas) was also shot the same year as Bright Future 2002. Rodriguez. I wanna say parts of Ali (2001, Michael Mann) but definitely Collateral (2004).

     Dude the close-ups of the jellyfish in the aquarium in HD is easily evidence for a strong case of HD over film that level of detail and this is coming from someone who’s a loyalist to film. But also wait what there’s mixed in shots of MiniDV how fun is that. Again I been trying to describe Kurosawa’s shots of urban Japan cramped geometrically intricate compositions with powerlines telephone wires houses streets junk and in this it’s exceptionally well captured with the CineAlta.

     Disorganized tacked on rant this was released the year after Ichi the Killer (2001, Takashi Miike) and how is Tadanobu Asano in both if not the coolest the coolest costumes of any Japanese actor or anywhere else ever. Dude is legend.