Kurosawa Kiyoshi and "Akarui Mirai" at Tokyo Filmex

[Don Brown]

Just got back from the opening day of Filmex and the screening of Kiyoshi 
Kurosawa's latest work, "Akarui Mirai".  Kurosawa himself and cast members 
Fujii Tatsuya, Odagiri Joe and Asano Tadanobu appeared on stage before the 
screening.  It was the first time for all three actors to work with 
Kurosawa.
  The film was shot with digital cameras, but loses none of the usual 
bleak, dark tones of Kurosawa's earlier work.  Some apparently lower-res 
shots looked to have been taken with a regular video camera, but overall 
the murky shadows and bleached grays and yellows were reminiscent of Kairo 
and conjured a none-too-flattering view of Tokyo.     
  Although extremely grateful for the opportunity to star in Akarui Mirai 
(Odagiri and Fujii are the fulcrum of the film) Odagiri Joe mentioned his 
initial doubts about his appropriateness/worthiness for the role, seeing 
that he's an ex-Kamen Rider star who has never starred in a movie before 
(with the exception of his recent role as Iijima Ai's boyfriend in Platonic 
Sex) and is perhaps best known as a "tarento" on a multitude of TV variety 
shows.  Kurosawa later explained that Odagiri's character was someone who 
has yet to find their niche and purpose in life, and the fact that Odagiri 
himself is relatively unexperienced and unproven as an actor crossed over 
well into the requirements of the role.
  The post-screening Q&A was rather brief, but did throw up a few 
interesting points.  I didn't catch the name of the MC/interviewer, but the 
interpreter was Kinejapan's own Fujioka Asako.
  Regarding the Hollywood remake of Kairo, Kurosawa said that he knows that 
people are working on it, but it is nowhere near the filming stage.
?Kurosawa has just finished working on his next film, "Doppelganger".  
Although he didn't offer much about it, he did say that it will be a major 
departure from his recent works, in that it will be a comedy.  We won't be 
seeing this one for a while yet.
  Akarui Mirai doesn't open in Japan until the spring movie season next 
year.  I could finally see why the English title used to be "Jellyfish 
Alert", but this is a film thematically closer to Ooinaru Genei and Ningen 
Goukaku rather than Kurosawa's horror work.  In the context of his other 
films this is a more positive effort, although set in Kurosawa's lonely, 
ominous universe.  In his own words, the "bright future" of the title is 
one where an individual finds the courage to shine brightly despite the 
enveloping darkness around them.
Don Brown

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