Bright Future Movie Review

If you see one Japanese-urban-ennui-with-a-jellyfish story, see Bright Future, a curious story of how a bad job can wear you down to the breaking point.

Two go-nowhere factory workers are content to make moist towelettes by day, sit around their apartment by night. One fellow is slowly acclimating a jellyfish from salt water to fresh. That's the extent of the excitement.

One day, the jellyfish roommate snaps and kills the boss. He's sentenced to death, leaving the jellyfish to the other guy along with a boatload of confusion. Non-murdering roommate befriends the killer's father. The film comes to a conclusion as the jellyfish finds its way into the local water supply. Oops.

Bizarre and meandering, Bright Future's commentary is blatantly obvious and ironic, right from the title. These guys have no future, much less a bright one. It's clear from the very start. And frankly this is a genre that's starting to get overplayed: Life is rough in Tokyo unless you're fabulously wealthy -- rough enough to kill people for no reason and strange enough that randomness is actually the norm.

But maybe there is hope for our jaded hero in the end. After he's made peace with the old man and learned to love the jellyfish, will his act gel together to the point where he can become a productive member of society? Hell if I know. I'm just a jellyfish.

Aka Akarui mirai.