Message from richardrodriguez

[Anonymous]

I wanted to review the film Akarui mirai (Bright Future, 2003) by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. The film is interesting in that it deals with issues of growing up, entering adulthood, holding down a job, and dealing with all the stuff that almost always makes for a wonderful teenage coming of age movie. Only the two guys “growing up” are 24, Yûji Nimura, and 27, Mamoru Arita.

Plot: Yuji and Mamoru are great friends who work in a plant together. Their boss wants to hire them permanently and become a part of their everyday lives. He invites them to stay for dinner after they deliver a desk for his daughter. He visits them at Mamoru’s home, bringing sushi, and stays to watch the game. He is 55 and wishes the boys knew him when he was 25. He was a sight he brags. Yuji is disgusted by this as is Mamoru. It shows. Mamoru then decides he has bigger things to accomplish and quits. He leaves Yuji his prize possession, a poisonous red jellyfish he is acclimating to fresh water. Yuji is perplexed but takes the fish and stays on at his job and receives a bonus. Yuji goes looking for his friend, but he is unable to find Mamoru and so returns home. That night he visits his boss to retrieve a CD the boss “borrowed” and finds the man and his wife dead, murdered. He runs. There is a shot of the boss’s young daughter wandering the streets alone. We do not see her again. As the film progresses Mamoru is caught and sent to prison. And at this point his father, who he has not seen in five years, shows up to consult a lawyer. Yuji visits but is upset when Mamoru tells him never to return. In anger and frustration Yuji knocks over the red jellyfish tank and the fish slides to its death, falling between the floorboards into the Tokyo sewers. Then Mamoru hangs himself in prison and Yuji and Mamoru’s father Shin'ichirô Arita begin a quasi father-son relationship. They soon realize as do all those in Tokyo that the red jellyfish is alive and well, has multiplied and the horde are on their way back to the sea. Mr. Arita decides to chase the last one fleeing to sea. He picks it up and dies. Yuji holds him and the movie ends with a gang of boys Yuji committed a robbery with walking down a street bored and kicking boxes. They all wear black pants, white shirts with Che Guevara on them, and black Converse.

Now I think this is an interesting movie because it deals with issues of un/employment and a competitive job market, adulthood and the status quo, and isolation and/or prolonged adolescence in Tokyo. There has been a great deal written on these sociological/psychological phenomena, which are not exclusive to Japan, and yet in very specific ways are.

It seems that as Mamoru gets closer to thirty, to permanent work and to the responsibility of adulthood the more anxiety he feels. There is a separation anxiety that we usually equate with leaving your teens, which Mamoru seems to experience. Of course a similar occurs when you leave your thirties, but with Mamoru and especially with Yuji, only 24, the anxiety is closer to that felt in adolescence. Yuji for example is obsessed with bowling and with arcade games as opposed to his sister’s boyfriend, of the same age, who works in an office. Yuji and Mamoru exist in a developmentally delayed social class. They have not bought into the idea of work and twenties equals adulthood. They are both afraid of signing a permanent contract for fear that things will change, youth and the fun will end.
And for Mamoru there seems to be no release from this anxiety other than his committing a murder. The murder allows him to remain a child by being imprisoned and thus cared for for the rest of his life. In turn Yuji becomes son to Mamoru’s father continuing his own cycle of adolescence. Yuji does seem to have a way of dealing with his anxiety though. The red jellyfish. He searches, finds and ultimately follows it to sea, though he does not join it as does Mr. Arita. In fact Arita’s death also allows, or forces if you will, Yuji to deal with the anxiety of leaving adolescence. Yuji is let holding the dead body of Mamoru’s father. As he took Mamoru’s place, he now takes Mamoru’s father’s place. There is a lot more to say but....

As a teaching tool: our students really are leaving adolescence. This could be a wonderful way to address our students’ futures. It could also be a nice way to discuss the ways in which different cultures measure maturity, success and adulthood. Our students are also compared quite frequently to their highly successful Japanese counterparts. This may be a good way to address the myth that all Japanese/Asians are smart, successful love to learn and have wonderful “Bright” futures. There are a lot of disillusioned souls in this movie. American youth in a corporate centered capitalist society can relate to that, right?!