Bright Future (DVD)

Acclaimed director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Pulse) departs from the horror genre for this mystical story of urban ennui. Friends Mamoru and Yuji, played by Tadanobu Asano (Zatoichi, Last Life In The Universe) and Joe Odagiri (Out Of This World, Azumi) are aimless young men stuck in dead-end jobs in a dreary factory in Tokyo. Mamoru, the more antisocial of the two, is obsessed with his pet project of acclimating a poisonous jellyfish to fresh water by gradually changing the water in its tank. One night, he inexplicably murders the boss' family and is sentenced to death. Yuji, left to continue the jellyfish experiment, befriends Mamoru's estranged father, Tatsuya Fuji (In The Realm Of The Sense, The Man In White), and the two form a bond. But, Yuji's attachment to the jellyfish is even stronger, and problems arise when he accidentally releases the poisonous creature into the canals of Tokyo.