Masaki Suda Archives | Deep Focus Review Movie Reviews, Essays, and Analysis Mon, 21 Jul 2025 14:57:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://www.deepfocusreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/cropped-DFR-Favicon-5-32x32.png Masaki Suda Archives | Deep Focus Review 32 32 Cloud https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/cloud/ https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/cloud/#respond Fri, 18 Jul 2025 19:09:44 +0000 https://www.deepfocusreview.com/?post_type=reviews&p=29218 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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]]> https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/cloud/feed/ 0 The Boy and the Heron https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/the-boy-and-the-heron/ https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/the-boy-and-the-heron/#respond Thu, 13 Jun 2024 11:59:00 +0000 https://www.deepfocusreview.com/?post_type=reviews&p=23457 Returning to feature-length animation after a supposed retirement, Japan’s premier animator, Hayao Miyazaki, demonstrates why he’s an absolute original with his new film, The Boy and the Heron. It’s another transportive wonder, filled with imaginative ideas and bizarre characters who sometimes defy understanding. He contains them within a circuitous narrative that takes its young hero into a fantasy realm, where the story continues down a labyrinthine path before doubling over on itself. “My, a lot of strange things happen in this place,” observes a character. “So many things.” That’s true enough; the film is loaded with bizarre creatures and astonishing magic. The dreamier surroundings mark a return to storybook escapism after his last picture, The Wind Rises (2014), a rather grounded story steeped in Miyazaki’s interest in aeronautics, Japanese history, and early life around his father’s airplane parts company. The Boy and the Heron follows the tradition of the filmmaker’s most celebrated works, journeying into another world where entrenched themes of self-discovery materialize. That he combines his searching narratives with such creativity and vision is what makes Miyazaki’s films exceptional.  The story begins three years into World War II when a hospital fire claims the life of Mahito’s mother. A […]

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