TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2024 REVIEW! Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s crime thriller Cloud is a hilarious thrill ride that makes its two-hour run time pass by in a flash. The film centers on Ryosuke (Masaki Suda), an online reseller under the name Ratel who scams unsuspecting buyers with fake goods to make a profit. The scammers’ schemes quickly produce a growing laundry list of vengeful enemies. These grudges have to be settled, leading to an adrenaline-filled third act that I did not see coming.
One piece of advice that I have for audiences going into this film is not to expect a Kiyoshi Kurosawa film. Cloud marks a striking departure from the director’s previous, and critics who have received this film poorly seem to be pointing to this shift from meditational horror to clear-cut thriller. Unlike Cure and Pulse, Kurosawa’s latest film is much more action-oriented. The first half of the film certainly conjures ghosts of Kurosawa’s past with an emphasis on duration and the long take. However, there is a noticeable shift in the latter part of the film, which thrusts the main plot into a commercial action flick mold. While I did not find this transition as jarring as others, it certainly was not seamless.

“…scams unsuspecting buyers with fake goods to make a profit.”
Because there is so much going on narratively and genre-wise, characterization seems somewhat undeveloped. For example, the relationship between Ryosuke and his girlfriend Akiko (Kotone Furukawa) is diligently crafted in the first act. Still, it slowly peters as the film progresses, despite her character feeling like a crucial piece of making sense of the ending. Similarly, the reseller’s second man (Daiken Okudaira) feels loosely sketched and shoved into a twist that doesn’t quite pay off.
This is not to say that Cloud is a bad film; it’s just a different one than most people expected. Kurosawa fans and novices alike will find lots to enjoy, and I am eager to give this one a rewatch soon.
Cloud screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.