Bright Future

"Bright Future" is a film that you'll only ever get a chance to see at a film festival. Is this because this is an unknown gem that simply will never have a chance to make it in the U.S. market because it's in a foreign language? No, in this case it's because this just isn't a very good film.

"Bright Future" is about two disaffected young Japanese men who are bored with their dead end jobs at an industrial laundromat. They both grow to hate their jobs, but while Yuji attempts to deal with the meaninglessness of his life by reaching out to Mamoru, his friend decides just to leave life behind altogether. Yuji is left with Mamoru's poisonous pet jellyfish, and, oddly, Mamoru's father, with whom Yuji finally succeeds in making a human connection.

Both their workplace and their apartments provide the director with ample opportunities to explore the textures of Tokyo, and the film does succeed in being richly atmospheric. Even the scenes in dingy industrial zones, which are mostly in a palette of greys, have the visceral look of Anton Corbijn's photography. The director also mixes different grains of video in a way that makes some shots look like scenes from a security video (which becomes extremely appropriate for the storyline). There is also a great scene in which kids are running around wearing strange glowing headsets that reminded me of Blade Runner, in a sort of "the future is now!" kind of way.

Unfortunately, the lack of character development in the lead role really hampered this film. Yuji goes from being murderously angry to withdrawn to the point of paralysis to friendly and engaged for no real reason. This makes it difficult to get engaged with the plot, since it revolves around Yuji. While Mamoru has less screen time, his personality and actions cohere better. Ultimately, while I enjoyed looking at the movie (and puzzling over the exact metaphoric interpretation of the jellyfish), it was not very engaging, and its non-entry into the general US film market should not be a cause for mourning.