Upon unveiling his brand new film, director Kiyoshi Kurosawa took an opportunity to elaborate on what his intentions were when making it. This is another feature for the director in a long line of both acting and directing. 

His new film, Cloud, follows a man who earns a living reselling objects online but builds up grudges with multiple different people as a result of his attitude. Eventually, these grudges force him to reevaluate himself as it takes him down a dangerous path. 

Kurosawa spoke about the new film during the Busan International Film Festival and spoke about the nature of the story itself. 

One element that Kurosawa spoke to involved both the way he wrote the script as well as the way he approached directing the lead actor, Masaki Suda. Reportedly, for a key scene, Kurosawa wrote it very unspecifically and didn’t give explicit direction either. 

“But Masaki understood what I was trying to capture in an instant, and it was only after he played the role that I began to understand the character more fully. There were so many touching moments, and his presence was indispensable to the film,” he said. 

One other element he touched upon, as the Hollywood Reporter notes, was how one could interpret the story as a commentary on the economy of Japan. Kurosawa expressed that he works in the realm of fiction but stated that his views could leak into the final product. 

Specifically in regards to Cloud, he expressed his remorse for making the films with, as he said, “no responsibility whatsoever,” in the face of Japan’s economic hardships. 

He added on, saying that although uncertain how he would consciously go about expressing those, he does think his feelings in the matter will end up on display in the film in one form or another.