The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is in full swing, and I watched Cloud directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. A psychological thriller that, to my surprise, had me splitting my sides from laughter. 

The movie focuses on Yoshii, a Japanese reseller who goes by Rattel. HIs job is simple enough: buy items and flip them for a profit. Kurosawa portrays the murky world of reselling, where legality is a sliding scale. As Yoshii drifts between sharp business acumen and outright scams. He unknowingly attracts con artists and his long winding trail of collateral damage. 

Whether Yoshii is truly the cause of his victims’ misfortunes or merely the final straw, the blame inevitably falls on him. Cloud thrives on this ambiguity. We glimpse only fragments of the victims’ lives, leaving the question of hero and villain entirely to the viewer’s interpretation. To those who believe they’ve been wronged by Yoshii—or by his online persona, Rattel—such nuance is irrelevant. They want revenge, and it doesn’t matter who they must go through to get it.

The film’s ending is a twisted, brutal finale—darkly satisfying yet open to interpretation. Whether you walk away seeing it as a happy ending or a tragic one depends entirely on where your sympathies lie. Kurosawa once again proves his mastery in blurring the lines between comedy, cruelty, and the human desire for retribution.