I don’t think so. Cure is his most Shohei Imamura-ly impressive vision. Every long shot scene is acted out so well, and holds enough concrete meaning that the silent, and meandering shots come off as more necesarry than half of the film Bright Future, which seems to make an attempt at centering disenchanted characters in a disenchanted society, but it all felt very uninspired. The very ending is it’s moment, I think, and says way more than what the rest takes into consideration, I think. It’s more like a fad-film to me, and something Kael may have lumped in with the Come Dressed as the Sick Soul of Europe Party. Although, where those films falter, Kurosawa always shows the inner feelings, and turmoil of his characters, which he does kind of arbitrarily in Bright Future.
So, Cure, Pulse, and Doppelganger, I think are better than Bright Future. For one thing, two of them have Koji Yakusho, so he just acts the shit out of those movies, and for another, Kurosawa is a good suspense builder. “Dread” is omnipresent through those films, and only in Pulse does he seem to drive himself into that wall of Society Japanese Horror cliche crap.
Tokyo Sonata is probably his best. I Also like Kairo a lot, it is infinite better than the US remake. I completely disagree about “the cliché crap of Kairo”, it was inspired on “Serial Experiments: Lain”, an anime series, and basically argues about the awareness of individuals about the virtual reality and the real. I can’t even see the cliché in repetition of technics since this was a 2001 movie. i am assuming you are talking about the more contemporary asian horrors.
BTW, I think Bright Future is as good as Cure.
Maybe I was too quick with that statement. Yeah, I’m relating the use of the “ghostly” presence in that film with others like Ringu, and Grudge (not the remakes). I’ve yet to see Tokyo Sonata, and it sounds like people dug it. At least more than Loft.
I LOVE Bright Future. A lot. But I’ll have to get back on whether or not it succeeds Cure, as I haven’t seen it in awhile.
I’d make a case for Seance, which is a really beautiful, haunting, deeply sad film and includes a really amazing homage to Bergman—it’s also KK’s most subtle work. Also, Kairo’s meditation on loneliness is touching and indicates how KK’s thinking is powerfully metaphoric.
I’ve only seen BRIGHT FUTURE, which was quite good. Sounds like I need to check out CURE & TOKYO SONATA.
“Is Bright Future the best work of Kiyoshi Kurosawa?”
I think it may be . . . but Kurosawa films are eccentric enough that I think an argument could be made in support of just about any of his fillms being his best. I’ll go “out on a limb” and suggest Charisma as an alternate because it’s his most singular work.
Carlos VS
Is Bright Future the best work of Kiyoshi Kurosawa? Yes or no, Why?