Customer Reviews

Cure

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kyua (Kyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)

Veteran director Kyoshi Kurosawa (Serpent's Path, the recently-optioned Pulse) weighs in with this 1997 offering, and the best way to describe it is giallo gone Yakuza. It has all the highlights of good giallo, from an overly gory mystery storyline to broad cinematic shots in the best Argento style to characters who sometimes just say the silliest things imaginable to one particular plot twist that makes absolutely no sense to anyone until you've seen the movie fifty times. And with the Japanese so much farther out on the bleeding edge of extreme horror than the Italians these days, you can bet a Japanese giallo is going to be two hours of bang-up knockdown bloody fun. And oh, my, it is.

Cure (the English title) revolves around a series of brutal murders with one thing in common: the throat of each victim is slashed in a large X. Kenichi Takabe (Koji Yakusho of Tampopo, Warm Water Under a Red Bridge, etc.), the inspector assigned to the murders, soon discovers that they all seem to center around an odd amnesiac (Masato Hagiwara). He's not the murderer, but each one of the murderers-yes, they're all different people-came into contact with him not long before killing their victims.

While the style is giallo all the way, the pacing is Japanese New Horror. Kurosawa starts things off in the nastiest way possible, then gives us the finding of the amnesiac and some buildup in the characters of Kenichi and his reluctant partner in this, Makoto Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki of The Eight-Tomb City and Full metal Yakuza fame) before the murders kick off again and everything rolls into high gear. There are more than enough snippets to satisfy gorehounds and a fine, albeit slowly-paced, mystery for fans of more explicit mysteries (I'm sure I'm not the only one who spent the latter half of the film drawing comparisons to Silence of the Lambs). But the true fanatic audience of this film are going to be the giallo lovers, those who eagerly await every new film from Dario Argento. For them, Kurosawa is sure to be a fantastic find. Hopefully, everyone else will come up to speed eventually (perhaps when the American version of Pulse, directed by... ulp... Wes Craven, is released next year). *** 

A series of grisly murders are committed and they are linked as all victims have a deep "X" cut into their throats. There are strange circumstances with each murder as the murderer is found close to the crime site, and none of the murderers have anything linked to the other besides the carved "X" in the throat. Kenichi Takabe (Koji Yakush) is the detective in charge of the murder investigations and he suspects that the "X" is linked to each murder, but there is no physical evidence to confirm his suspicions. Detective Takabe has help from Makoto Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki), a clinical psychiatrist, in order to uncover the malevolent truth behind the murderers. Takabe is also suffering from the hardships of having a sick wife and being overworked. These two factors begin to affect Takabe's life and his feelings as he is becoming more involved in the macabre investigations.

Cure provides a suspenseful atmosphere as it dives into the human psyche. This atmosphere is skillfully created by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who opens the door to notions of amnesia, personality disorders, interpersonal relationships, and fear. These psychological aspects are meticulously dissected by Kurosawa as he tells his story about the detective Takabe and his problems with his job and private life. In the end, Cure offers a suspenseful and absorbing cinematic experience.

Cure is that good. No use repeating all the reasons, which are covered in other reviews. The highest compliment I can give Cure is that it stays with you after you leave the theater. Let's face it, for experienced viewers most horror movies - at best - provide modest suspense and a few jolts, and are forgotten by the time you leave the theater.

Cure will stay with you.

This is a serial killer movie, but unlike any you have ever seen before. Before watching this, you should know a few things:

1) It has been compared to a lot of movies, but any resemblance to any of these other movies is brief and superficial in many cases, as this film charts a course of its own.

2) This film proceeds at a deliberate pace. It takes its time developing the story; viewing it requires patience and constant attention. This is not a movie for the attention-deficit crowd.

3) The movie is one big jigsaw puzzle. Virtually every scene is an important piece of the puzzle, and you have to figure out where it fits in. As I said, it requires constant attention and analysis.

4) The last scene in the restaurant is very important. I am not giving anything away by saying that the main person in this scene does something he has never done before, and that this is an important clue. I am also not giving anything away by saying watch what the person in the background does in the last two seconds before the credits roll, as this is also an important clue. Once you have begun to unravel the secrets of this movie, the rest is easy. It may take two or three viewings before things become clear, but the effort is worth it. This is a movie that really gets under your skin, and the more you figure out what is going on, the creepier it gets.

CURE is an entirely engrossing cop procedural drama coupled with more than just a healthy hint of THE X FILES that scores kudos for its relentlessly plotted creepiness tied to the intensity of the murders.

Inspector Takabe and Criminal Psychologist Sakuma believe they are on the growing trail of a serial killer forcing others to commit grisly murders, but one fact doesn't add up: the killers have no recollection of what they've done. Enter Mamiya, a psychology student turned 'mesmerist' who plants suggestions in the mind -- latent impulses upon which everyone he comes into contact with will eventually act upon.

Vindicated by his capture, Takabe and Sakuma begin their quest to understand how Mamiya has accomplished what he's done, risking both their lives and sanity in order to bring the entire bloody affair to an end.

Extremely well done and grippingly paced, CURE is a great flick to pop in and sit ready to pull the covers up over your eyes!

To the moronic reviewer and the people that mistakedly marked the release date of this film as 2001, Cure is not a Ringu rip off at all. If anything, Ringu's style was ripped off from Cure (both are great films in my opinion). Cure was released in 1997 (Ringu in '98) and garnered international recognition for now-famed director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. The film isn't really horror or suspense as much as it is simply a look into the human mind. The cast does a wonderful job, and the direction is top notch. I recommend it.

I have to chime in with those here who rate this as a modern masterpiece. I especially have to echo one reviewer's comments that "a film like this would only work if everything was done perfectly, and it is" (paraphrasing). Yes and yes. It absolutely is, I can't find a single false move. Towards the end I was starting to cringe, knowing that Kiyoshi would probably take the easy way out and break the steadily-building dread & ambiguity. He doesn't. He builds it all the way to the end, and then caps it off with a final shot that is liable to leave me mystified for years to come. Some people will not "get" this film. They will froth & fume, and claim that there's no easy explanation, no clarifying revelation here to bring everything into the brightness of day & banish the uncertainty. These viewers should do themselves a favor and stick to Freddy/Jason flicks, where easily-digestible horror film cliches can be found in abundance. Cure is that rare spell-binding work that finds a new form to express more vividly the ambiguities of life, identity, and morality. It doesn't strike me as having been a priori a horror film, but rather a very clever philosophical one that along the way exposes something already horrific there in the society we live in.

A smooth, controlled descent into madness, one of the most haunting films I've seen.

Cure is the perfect horror movie; the only one I've yet seen. That's an odd thing to say about a movie that isn't exactly scary at any given moment, but it's true. Cure's power lies in the cumulative impact of the movie as a whole; halfway through I was thinking "Is this it? Where can this really go from here?" but later as the credits rolled I was overcome with dread. Cure manages the near-impossible; it starts with a mysterious situation and makes it more and more mysterious the more you find out about it. You're always given just enough information to suggest something unspeakable (and unfilmable) beneath the surface - the movie pushes you right up to the edge of an abyss, without ever seeming to show you the abyss itself, but at the end it becomes apparent that the movie - and you - have at some point been swallowed whole by it without even noticing. It's hard to explain to someone who's never seen it; suffice it to say it's a stunning and singular achievement. I know the movie doesn't seem to affect some people much, and this seems to have tagged it in some quarters as a would-be horror movie for intellectuals who look down their noses at "real" horror movies. To which I can only say: I watched this without any expectations, good or bad, and my reaction was totally from-the-gut. This movie got inside me in a way in a way more traditionally "scary" movies never have. Every moment is perfectly judged; this movie could only work if it never put a foot wrong, and amazingly, it never does. See it. See it alone. Give it your undivided attention. Kurosawa has achieved a cinematic perfection exceeding anything the other (great) Kurosawa ever made. I am not exaggerating. This is one for the ages.

I ran into Cure on the Independent Film Channel whilst laying in bed channel surfing one night, and was hooked. I purchased a crap copy off of ebay because I couldn't stand telling friends "you gotta see this movie that's... well... unavailable here in the US."
I'm so pleased to see that it's finally getting a proper stateside release (as opposed to being held up by a Hollywood hijacking a la Rungu/Ring), and I'll be grabbing my official copy immediately.

Cure is a flick that'll either bore the pants off of you, or make your brain hurt a bit. If you're not the sort who's interested in being challenged by a film, pass on this one. If, on the other hand, you don't particularly care for being spoonfed, this may well be the movie for you.

One quick rebuttal (and a potential *spoiler*) for the review that cites "gratuitous violence" in this flick:
The moments of violence portrayed in this movie are blunt; devoid of any stylized Bad Boys bang-pow soulessness. Cure's lensing of a pipe bludgeoning, for instance, is wince inducing because it's so stark and matter-of-fact; it feels like a frighteningly accurate representation of the act. Watching it can't help but remind you that what just occurred is indeed brutal. I appreciated the honesty, and would rather more movies go this route than continue with the cartoonish guiltless-carnage that permeates so much of Hollywood. Perhaps we've become numb to the fact that a-killin' is supposed to be ugly, and it's gratuitous when directors NEGLECT to depict it so.

It seems that all Japanese screenwriters have needed to do in the last 10-15 years to win the praise of 'artistiques' and commoners alike is ask "who am i?" Asking questions and not answering them, though, (especially when those questions are what elevate your film from gratuity to meaning) is a style of storytelling which I think should, for the most part, be avoided henceforth. If I hear "watashi/boku/ore wa... dare????" in a pleading tone one more time....

The premise of Cure is adequately intriguing. The aesthetic elements, which others have touched on, are also well-handled--especially since their utter pointlessness is not revealed until you've sat through much of the movie already. Its not unlike a child being told Santa doesn't exist on Christmas Eve; the tension which the film spent building disappears with the "whatever-you-want" ending.

"A-ha! But you didn't understand the ending!" Not quite. The ending itself is easy to understand; what makes no sense is the motivations of the characters. And that is where this film ultimately falls apart. [[semi-spoilers below]]

If no suitable motivation is given for characters to 'turn evil,' then, aside from simply being confusing, the only viable message is that "evil exists in the world," and superficial variations thereof. Interestingly enough, this oh-so-amazing theme is what most of the reviews here cite as 'deep and thought provoking.' Watch your step--you may fall into the chasm of my YAWN.

Others will say there are plenty of motivations. Surely, there is a connect-the-dots sequence of events. But how ever *you* may draw those lines, I can draw equally plausible ones from other "evidence" (haha) in the film. What made him change? The impaired wife? The occultism he was drawn into?

You tell me your interpretation, and I'll tell you mine, and we'll all just get along in this fun world of film! It could be X! It could by Y, or even Z!

...it could be any letter of the alphabet because the director/writer retreats from making a definitive statement. And frankly, if I want paint thrown on the canvas randomly, I can do it myself. I don't think the point of art (and surely not entertainment!) is to ask questions and not answer them. That is called life, and I get plenty of it everyday.