VENICE, Italy—Ryôsuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda) arrives at an older man's house. The man is trying to get rid of some therapy machines, and Yoshii graciously offers to take them off his hand for 30,000 yen. He has no idea what the devices are worth, but he’ll go off instinct and hopefully make a quick buck.
Except Yoshii is a wolf in sheep’s clothing: He knows exactly what the devices are worth, and he’s going to profit massively, selling them for 200,000 yen a piece. He works at a clothing factory, but he spends all of his free time reselling—staring at his computer screen waiting for prices to drop and opportunities to present themselves so he can pounce. Whether it’s video games, concert tickets, or limited edition figures, nothing is off limits; profit is all that matters.
Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa has long been fascinated by the way tech impacts our lives, and in Cloud, which just premiered at the Venice Film Festival, he examines those people you love to hate—resellers—with spellbinding effect. At least for the first hour.
