Cloud

Ryôsuke Yoshii's (Masaki Suda) boss at a Tokyo manufacturing plant, Sôichi Tonoyama (Masaaki Akahori), is astonished when the young man not only turns down a managerial promotion, but quits his job altogether. Yoshii has become addicted to the high of selling goods he picks up on the cheap for a hefty profit online, but he skates on the thin ice of illegality and resentment builds among fellow resellers and buyers in "Cloud."

Laura's Review: B

Japan's submission for the 2025 International Oscar from writer/director Kiyoshi Kurosawa ("Cure," "Creepy") once again explores how technology affects our lives, this time as an accelerant to exploitative capitalism. Masaki Suda is integral to the success of the film, his slide down a slippery slope where chasing profit is like a drug, keeps us teetering on his side even as we watch him cheat buyers and sellers alike, perhaps because Kurosawa weighted Yoshii's scales with Akiko (Kotone Furukawa, "Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy"), his materialistic girlfriend who sees him as a means to her own ends.

Kurosawa gives us a procedural breakdown of Yoshii's business, showing him buying thirty presumably outdated 'therapy devices,' then listing them for sale for 200K yen a piece, ten times what he paid for them all. He sits back from his computer screen and watches and after a minute, the first nibble turns into a sellout. We see relief and exhilaration wash over his face. Later Yoshii is approached by fellow reseller Muraoka (Masataka Kubota), who asks him to invest 1 million yen in a new online auction app so they are assured profit without the hassle of selling, but Yoshii tells him he doesn't have that kind of cash. Meanwhile, Akiko tells him she wants to give up her apartment, clearly angling for an invite to move in, which she not only gets, but is surprised with a much larger house in a remote mountain village where Yoshii intends to expand his business.

But Akiko is ready to move back to Tokyo after a rock is thrown through their upstairs bedroom window, something Yoshii's new employee Sano (Daiken Okudaira), a local kid, explains as motivated by jealousy towards people from Tokyo with money. Yoshii's attempt to file a police report boomerangs back on him when police inform him a truck driver has reported delivering what appeared to be counterfeit designer bags to his address, prompting him to borrow a car and ditch his merch back in the city at a loss. But Yoshii springs back, noting a crowd waiting for a store with a new celebrity collectible to open and convincing the owner to sell him the entire stock, much to that crowd's dismay. And while Yoshii has become distrustful of Sano after finding the young man using his computer, Sano warns him that there is an active group online wanting Ratel, his reseller name, dead because of his business tactics. Sano's warning comes to outrageous life just as Yoshii is about to make his biggest financial kill.

In the film's press notes, Kurosawa notes that he was inspired by seemingly random murders in Japan which ended up being traced to petty revenge killings and he takes that premise and runs with it, putting a spotlight on the often nefarious dealings of online retailers. He creates a world of warehouses and cramped apartments, only to have Yoshii move into a lovely forest setting which he essentially turns into another warehouse space and after it is literally invaded, the action will move to a larger space for what will turn into an all out war or Western shootout with grotesque threats of torture, Yoshii receiving support from a surprising accomplice while being attacked by a group whose revelation will be even more surprising.

Sado processing sales like a dopamine hit powers his character's motivational arc while the film's climax thrusts him into pure survival mode even as he never forgets to check the status of those collectible sales. Furukawa morphs from sweet if somewhat manipulative into an outright golddigger, a symbol of a materialistic society. She also offers comic relief with ineptness in the kitchen which Kurosawa neatly twists into the byproduct of her boyfriend's shoddy goods. Aside from the older salespeople Yoshii bilks, some supporting players are far more difficult to pigeonhole, though, none more so than Akahori, Kurosawa demanding we navigate some pretty complex psychological arcs, perhaps a salaryman's jealousy over the freedom of youth? Kubota is ambiguous enough for us to accept his part in a conspiracy and Okudaira's Sona could perhaps be seen as a student will to overlook abuse in exchange for a mentor, but there is no denying the extremity of Kurosawa's final act, incomprehensible violence that calls to mind the words of The Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten - 'Ever get the feeling you're being cheated?' Ratel's buyers do.

Robin's Review: C+

Yoshii (Masaki Suda) works in a factory but his real passion is as an on-line reseller. He finds sellers who are desperate, buys their goods for a song then jacks up the price to sell on-line. The plan is to earn enough money to start his own auction business but there are forces working against him in “Cloud.”

I have only had cursory exposure to the world of on-line reselling of goods so “Cloud” is like being immersed in a strange and foreign world. Here, director and writer Kyoshi Kurasawa takes us to the extreme world of “buy low and sell high.” Yoshii lives by this motto and goes to great lengths to make lucrative deals at the expense of the seller.

This practice, using the on-line moniker of “Ratel,” soon draws attention from those he bilked. The anti-Ratel activists are searching for him and they want revenge on the man who ruined them. Yoshii goes to great lengths to hide.

I am not sure of the intent of “Cloud.” It starts off by showing Yoshii making his deals for pennies on the dollar (or, whatever the yen equivalent is), taking pictures and posting the objects for sale. Then, he spends long periods staring at his computer screen and waiting for the sales to roll in.
His girlfriend, Akiko (Kotone Furukawa), is a decided weakness in the film. She is introduced to us demanding that she move in with Yoshii, give up her apartment to save her money, and quit her job – then she starts to complain that his place is too small. There is nothing redeeming in her character and is mostly a distraction.

The first half of “Cloud” is a bit of a social media lesson for someone like me who cringes from such things. It is fascinating watching the machinations of reselling and also shows how boring it is. The second half falls apart as the revenge plot unfolds and Yoshii must fight to survive. The two halves do not quite fit together well.

I think that being a stranger in this strange on-line land keeps “Cloud” at arm’s length for me. I could never sympathize with Yoshii, who has terrible taste in girlfriends and is also amoral. Not my kind of guy.

Sideshow Janus released "Cloud" in select theaters on 7/18/25.  Click here for theaters and playdates.