Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Cloud” (Kuraudo, 2024) offers a harrowing social critique through a keenly observed character study of a young man bored by his life. He hates employment and seeks freedom. So, he pursues a path with the easiest and the finest returns. Although this sounds like a bulk of youth, Kursoawa’s script paints his portrait with an undeniable specificity. While being a taut psychological thriller, it offers a lot to unpack within its two hours of runtime. Let’s break down these themes and get the ending explained.
Spoilers ahead.
Cloud (Kuraudo, 2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis
“Cloud” is a Japanese psychological thriller, written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who’s widely known for his work on the crime horror classic, “Cure.”
What happens in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud?
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Cloud” follows Ryosuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda), who is stuck in a dead-end blue-collar job at a factory. One day, his boss (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa) offers him a promotion with a pay raise. Yoshii isn’t keen on it since it will require him to take on an additional responsibility. Instead, he is more interested in his reselling hustle, which he runs from his small apartment in Tokyo. He always has his eye on whatever’s popular. Once he finds something, he purchases those things in bulk and resells them at higher prices. His entire business strategy is run on a scarcity technique, which increases the demand and gets the products sold in no time.
Much like Yoshii, his girlfriend Akiko (Kotone Furukawa) is stuck in a job that doesn’t pay her enough to keep up with the changing economy. So, she plans to move in with her parents. Yoshii invites her to share his apartment, but she refuses since it is cramped. It makes him feel less of himself. Later, Muraoka (Masataka Kubota), his school senior, persuades him to join his reselling business. It gives Yoshii just the kind of push to make an impulsive decision to quit his job without any specific long-term plan. He also tells Akiko to quit her job and plans to build his reselling business from the ground up.
How does Yoshii build his business?
Yoshii decides to move away from Tokyo to a spacious house in a small town that can offer him more storage space and please Akiko, who does not want to stay in his tiny apartment. He hires Sano (Daiken Okudaira), a local, wide-eyed young man who does as he is told. Shortly after moving in, Yoshii feels like someone is snooping on him at night. Suddenly, someone throws something heavy through his window. He goes to the police station, where a cop claims a local hooligan may have thrown it since they are angry at a Tokyo man encroaching on their town’s businesses.
The cop does not help Yoshii find the culprit. Instead, he asks Yoshii to share a bag from his business, knowing well that Yoshii is running a scam business selling counterfeit products at higher prices. Yoshii claims that all bags have been sold. Then, he immediately returns home to find online buyers at a significantly reduced price. Since that doesn’t work, he takes all the bags to Tokyo and keeps them in a storage room. He then tries selling sewing machines, but presumably to no avail. One day, he notices a high demand for a specific type of doll in Tokyo. So, he purchases a bulk of them from a shop in the hopes of reselling them at higher prices. By the time he returns, Akiko leaves out of boredom.
Cloud (Kuraudo, 2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Who attacks Yoshii, and why?
After Akiko leaves, Yoshii fires Suno for using his computer. He tries selling the dolls he recently purchased but finds it hard amid a plethora of comments speaking out against his fraud. While he is alone, a group of people gather around his house and threaten to kill him. They are all men whom he wronged in one way or the other, whether that’s his past boss or the senior whom he left behind. They kidnap him and plan to torture him. However, before they can do anything, Sano shows up there with a gun and shoots one of the assailants.
Sano uncuffs Yoshii and risks his own life to save Yoshii. He doesn’t mind getting into a violent shootout and killing others for his boss. Amid all the chaos, Yoshii also kills a few men, including his former boss and the man who pushed him toward the reselling scam. The two men victoriously walk out of the place of the shootout. Outside, Yoshii meets Akiko, who had returned shortly after the house was attacked. Yoshii walks up to hug her, only to realize that she wants to shoot him dead. However, inexperienced in firing a gun, she gets shot by Sano..
Does Yoshii meet his fate?
The final moments of “Cloud” show Yoshii solemnly reflecting on all that happened up until Akiko’s death while Sano drives him in a car. He is clearly heartbroken by her death. Yet, Sano motivates him to keep pursuing his goals and getting richer so that he can get everything he wants. Yoshii hears that and realizes he is doomed. The scene is more representational than literal, meant to portray Yoshii descending into a hellscape with his equally unscrupulous partner in crime. That is likely why the final moments are shown in a dreamlike, hazy state, where Yoshii becomes one with his hypnagogic surroundings.
The entire second half of the film, from the moment of the attack, can also be interpreted as Yoshii meeting his tragic fate. He is surrounded by the manifestation of guilt about his past. This theory makes sense since he gets attacked when he is completely by himself. So, the attack might just be a way to emphasize Yoshii’s deteriorating mental health when his guilt and his feeling of being a failure start eating him.
Cloud (Kuraudo, 2024) Movie Themes Analysed:
Disillusionment, Unemployment, and Masculinity
“Cloud” follows characters who are disillusioned while living in a capitalistic society that breeds an endless desire but does not always offer the means to fulfill them. That imbalance alone leads them to discontent. Yoshii and Muraoka try to fight it with illegal means. Then, Suna joins Yoshii in his business after going through a slump of unemployment in his small town. It happens to be the same town that Yoshii moves to fulfill his dreams. He thinks his scheme will always strike gold, but his ill-informed business plans fail.
Whether intentional or not, most of their decisions reflect the effect of living in a world where all sorts of imbalances lead to a similar sense of disillusionment. It all ties in with the male characters struggling with self-worth. They act recklessly after they are made to feel small or made aware of their insignificance.
