Cure

Cure (1997)

Runtime: 112 mesmerizing minutes

Directed by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Starring: Koji Yakusho, Masato Hagiwara, Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Anna Nakagawa, Yukijiro Hotaru

From: Daiei 

Not only had I never seen Cure before... this is my first Kiyoshi Kurosawa film! Some will take great umbrage at this admission but at least a request was made a little earlier in the year to check this out; I was happy to have fixed this grave error & finally viewed this mesmerizing picture.

Beforehand, I only knew the premise... random people have no memories of brutally murdering someone then carving an X into their upper torso. After that, it was all fresh for me. “The Devil made them do it” is offered as an explanation by the partner of our police detective lead Kenichi Takabe. That does seem like the best explanation early on... I'll try to be vague the rest of the way so I don't ruin Cure for anyone that wishes for their initial viewing to be a fresh experience. I can say that Takabe's wife Fumie experiences what we'll likely call “mental health struggles” now.

The movie does take its time in presenting the story, yet my attention never wavered. The beginning is a police procedural where the duo attempt to rationalize what seemed inexplicable. The story itself was engrossing, alongside the film-making craft on display, the score, the performances, the sound design during certain moments, the editing (which was especially key in a psychological horror like Cure), the finale... the movie had an uneasy, unnerving feeling from the opening minutes but this increased in intensity until it's a real pressure-cooker by the final act. Cure's the sort of movie that gets under your skin, one whose vibes will never be forgotten by me.

While not everything I hoped (or even announced) I will end up seeing this Spooky Season, Cure is one of a few films that's been in my virtual queue for years until the trigger was finally pulled. For certain, while it may be months before my next Kiyoshi Kurosawa, I'm certainly down for eventually checking out motion pictures like Pulse.