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(some mild SPOILERS?)
Cure follows Detective Takabe (Kōji Yakusho) as he investigates a series of murders where victims end up with an X carved on their necks and chests. The weird thing is that in each case, the murderer is found close to the victim, with no recollection of what happened and sometimes no clear remorse. "He was someone I didn't like... I couldn't stand it anymore", says one of them after killing his partner.
There really is no mystery as to who's causing these murders, since we find out fairly early that a mysterious man called Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara) is behind it all. The man, who seems to be suffering from severe memory loss while aimlessly wandering around, seems to have some sort of mental influence in people, forcing them to let their emotions and anger out.
So the film unfolds in two halves, the first of which plays in a more or less straightforward, procedural way, as we see Takabe and his psychologist partner Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki) play a cat-and-mouse game to find whoever's causing the murders. After Mamiya is captured halfway through the film, the cat-and-mouse game is transferred to their minds as we see Takabe become increasingly more frustrated with the man, which leads him to often let his emotions and anger out.
I thought this was a really interesting watch. I really liked the way the film unfolded, first with the thrill and mystery of what's happening, only to become a more psychological and nuanced look at how we process our frustrations and how we handle our angers; whether it comes from being unable to close a criminal case or dealing with a mentally ill relative. I liked how director Kiyoshi Kurosawa handled those themes, while keeping an almost clinical and distanced direction.
The performances were mostly solid, with Hagiwara probably having the best one as the ambiguously cold Mamiya. His performance and the way the story handles him defies most of the conventions of these kind of thrillers, but it works really well. As far as that is concerned, I really liked that ambiguity, but I think the film could've benefitted from letting a few more things out towards its conclusion, especially regarding the subplot of Takabe's wife. Still, this was a very effective psychological thriller.
Grade:
CURE
(1997, Kurosawa)
A film with a title that starts with the letters C or D
(1997, Kurosawa)
A film with a title that starts with the letters C or D
"All the things that used to be inside me, now they're all outside. So... I can see all of the things inside you, Doctor, but the inside of me... is empty."
(some mild SPOILERS?)
Cure follows Detective Takabe (Kōji Yakusho) as he investigates a series of murders where victims end up with an X carved on their necks and chests. The weird thing is that in each case, the murderer is found close to the victim, with no recollection of what happened and sometimes no clear remorse. "He was someone I didn't like... I couldn't stand it anymore", says one of them after killing his partner.
There really is no mystery as to who's causing these murders, since we find out fairly early that a mysterious man called Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara) is behind it all. The man, who seems to be suffering from severe memory loss while aimlessly wandering around, seems to have some sort of mental influence in people, forcing them to let their emotions and anger out.
So the film unfolds in two halves, the first of which plays in a more or less straightforward, procedural way, as we see Takabe and his psychologist partner Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki) play a cat-and-mouse game to find whoever's causing the murders. After Mamiya is captured halfway through the film, the cat-and-mouse game is transferred to their minds as we see Takabe become increasingly more frustrated with the man, which leads him to often let his emotions and anger out.
I thought this was a really interesting watch. I really liked the way the film unfolded, first with the thrill and mystery of what's happening, only to become a more psychological and nuanced look at how we process our frustrations and how we handle our angers; whether it comes from being unable to close a criminal case or dealing with a mentally ill relative. I liked how director Kiyoshi Kurosawa handled those themes, while keeping an almost clinical and distanced direction.
The performances were mostly solid, with Hagiwara probably having the best one as the ambiguously cold Mamiya. His performance and the way the story handles him defies most of the conventions of these kind of thrillers, but it works really well. As far as that is concerned, I really liked that ambiguity, but I think the film could've benefitted from letting a few more things out towards its conclusion, especially regarding the subplot of Takabe's wife. Still, this was a very effective psychological thriller.
Grade: