Kiyoshi Kurosawa Archives | Deep Focus Review

Cloud

Brian Eggert — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 19:09:44 +0000

Note: Janus Films and Sideshow will distribute Cloud in limited release, starting on July 18, 2025. It will expand to other markets, including Minnesota, in the coming weeks. Listen to the audio version of this review. Kiyoshi Kurosawa warns that something dreadful awaits those who prey on thrifty, unassuming online shoppers in Cloud, an unpredictable thriller about a shady reseller whose minor crimes come back to haunt him. Kurosawa, the Japanese director whose approach to genre adheres to no rulebook except his own, navigates a predatory capitalist underworld with a masterful control of tone. What begins as a portrait of a small-time grifter unravels into a study of how even the most modest offenses accumulate into something more nefarious—a transformation from petty transgressions into an all-consuming and inescapable criminal enterprise. Kurosawa considers how the desire for profit—or on a much more basic level, survival—instills a rampant need to exploit bargain shoppers for everything they’re worth. Cloud dissects how a world in which income means life gives way to opportunistic self-preservation. And yet, the corruptive nature of capitalism, and those caught in its wake, perpetuate a system of irresistible deals and prospective dividends. From this framework, where Kurosawa crafts both an […]

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Wife of a Spy

Brian Eggert — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 02:45:03 +0000

In Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, a husband and wife make an amateur silent film and show a few friends in a private screening. Shot in black-and-white, their little movie is full of shadows and intrigue. The wife plays a thief who tries to break into a safe, and when someone she loves catches her in the act, she tries to escape and meets a tragic end. Their old-fashioned noir thriller suggests a romantic, stylistic alternative to the wartime espionage in Kurosawa’s film. Set in Japan in 1940, Wife of a Spy underscores the disparities between reality and fiction, embroiling its protagonist in a real-life melodrama that deviates from noir traditions. It’s a film that proceeds in the light of day since, in reality, spies hide in plain sight; they don’t lurk in shadows or wear domino masks. The wife isn’t the mysterious figure seen in her onscreen counterpart, and her end, while tragic, isn’t followed by “FIN” and sweeping music. Rather, Wife of a Spy considers real-world practicalities like apolitical capitalism and the encroachment of nationalism on the individual. If the husband and wife’s amateur film is a classical noir, Kurosawa’s film more closely resembles Chinatown (1974). Kurosawa’s […]

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Cure

Brian Eggert — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 13:14:00 +0000

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure takes its time implanting itself in your mind before completely taking you over, not unlike the mysterious killer at the film’s center. It resembles a traditional policier for the first hour, following a personally troubled but dogged detective out to uncover the truth behind a series of seemingly unrelated killings. Each victim has been slain with an “X” slashed into their neck and chest; in each case, someone different has confessed to the murder. Even so, there’s a lingering question about the connection between these murders and whether “the devil made them do it.” With a plot unfolding at a menacing yet measured pace, Cure relies on ambiguity and questions, subtle characterization, and an elusive atmosphere. It builds the mood slowly, starting like a typical 1990s serial killer potboiler but progressing in the key of a dark tone poem. Still, unlike similar material released by the Japanese studio system or any mainstream film industry, Cure is not merely an escapist yarn about a cop with an inextricable connection to a killer. That’s only the launchpad for something more sophisticated and undefinable. Kurosawa elevates the serial killer film by dwelling on theme and presentation, offering a picture that […]

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