Cure (film)

Cure (キュア) is a 1997 Japanese neo-noir psychological horror film written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, starring Kōji Yakusho, Masato Hagiwara, Tsuyoshi Ujiki and Anna Nakagawa. The story follows a detective investigating a string of gruesome murders where an X is carved into the neck of each victim, and the murderer is found near the victim of each case and remembers nothing of the crime. It is considered a progenitor of the explosion of Japanese horror media in the late 1990s and early 2000s, preceding other releases like Hideo Nakata's Ring and Takashi Shimizu's Ju-On.

Originally entitled Evangelist (伝道師), the film's name was changed due to the Tokyo subway sarin attack perpetrated by Aum Shinrikyo that happened while the film was in production. To avoid suggesting a religious cult connection to the crimes in the story, it was retitled Cure at the suggestion of a Daiei Film producer. The film was released to strong critical acclaim in Japan and internationally, with critics praising Kurosawa's direction as well as the visuals and atmosphere. In 2012, South Korean film director Bong Joon-ho listed the film as one of the greatest films of all time. This is Kurosawa and lead actor Yakusho's first collaboration.

Plot
Kenichi Takabe, a Tokyo Metropolitan Police detective, is involved in the investigation of a bizarre series of violent killings by seemingly random perpetrators. In each case the murderers have been caught close to the scene of the crime. Each one has mutilated his or her victim by carving a large "X" into the neck or chest of the deceased. Although all of the perpetrators readily confess and remember their deeds, none seems to have substantial motives or explanations for their actions. Takabe is at a loss for answers. His private life also seems to falter, as his wife Fumie suffers from phases of schizophrenia and frequently gets lost in the neighborhood.

Takabe, together with his friend and colleague, forensic psychologist Sakuma, eventually decides that one man is the common thread connecting the murders, as each person he comes in contact with commits a killing shortly thereafter. The man, Mamiya, appears to have extreme short-term memory loss; he seems constantly confused about what day it is, where he is and what his name is. He claims to recall nothing of his past. In custody, Mamiya constantly evades Takabe's questions by asking about the detective's identity and private life. Sakuma has Mamiya transferred to prison care ward. During questioning, Takabe gradually loses his composure and at one point expresses resentment towards Fumie in front of a deeply amused Mamiya.

During their investigations, Takabe and Sakuma discover that Mamiya used to study psychology, with a particular interest in the subjects of mesmerism and hypnosis. Takabe suspects that Mamiya has no memory problems at all and is in fact a master of hypnosis capable of planting homicidal suggestions in strangers' minds by exposing them to repetitive sounds, the motion of water or the flame of a lighter. Takabe has Mamiya charged with incitement to murder and commits Fumie to a mental hospital after experiencing a vision of her suicide.

Sakuma discovers a videotape of a mysterious man, speculated to be the originator of Japanese mesmerism, and shows it to Takabe. A female subject in the video had been under treatment for hysteria and was hypnotized by the man, possibly the one referred to in Mamiya's mesmerism literature as Suejiro Bakuro, who gestured an "X" in midair. The woman later killed her son in a manner similar to Mamiya's crimes. Sakuma believes the current crimes have a connection to the earlier events, describing Mamiya as a missionary of ceremonial murders. After showing the tape, Sakuma is revealed to have unconsciously drawn an X in black paint on his wall and starts to experience hallucinations of Takabe menacingly cornering him. Several days later, the police discover Sakuma's body handcuffed to a pipe in his home and conclude that he committed suicide.

Mamiya escapes from prison, killing a policeman in the process. Takabe tracks him to a deserted building and shoots him. Mamiya, moments before dying, draws an X in the air with his finger in front of Takabe. Exploring the desolate building, Takabe finds and plays an old phonograph cylinder that contains a recording of a male voice, thought to be that of Bakuro, repeating what seem to be hypnotic instructions. Shortly after, Fumie's already decomposed corpse is found by a nurse, with an "X" savagely carved into her throat.

The film ends ambiguously at a restaurant where a waitress serves Takabe, then suddenly draws a knife after speaking to the detective—suggesting that the latter now wields the same power as Mamiya.

Cast

 * Kōji Yakusho as Kenichi Takabe
 * Masato Hagiwara as Kunio Mamiya
 * Tsuyoshi Ujiki as Shin Sakuma
 * Anna Nakagawa as Fumie Takabe
 * Yoriko Dōguchi as Dr. Akiko Miyajima
 * Yukijirō Hotaru as Ichiro Kuwano
 * Denden as Oida
 * Ren Osugi as Fujiwara
 * Masahiro Toda as Tōru Hanaoka
 * Misayo Haruki as Tomoko Hanaoka
 * Shun Nakayam as Kimura
 * Akira Otaka as Yasukawa
 * Shôgo Suzuki as Tamura
 * Touji Kawahigashi as Psychiatrist
 * Hajime Tanimoto as Takabe no shachô

Release
Cure was shown theatrically in Japan on December 27, 1997, by Shochiku subsidiary Shochiku-Fuji Company, which was known for distributing many western movie, such as The Last Emperor, Thelma and Louise and Tom and Jerry: The Movie. The film was shown in the United States at the San Francisco International Film Festival on April 25, 1998. It was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1999 as part of a career retrospective on Kurosawa. The film received a theatrical release in the United States by Cowboy Booking in 2001.

The film was released on home video for the first time in the UK as part of The Masters of Cinema Series on April 23, 2018. The Criterion Collection released the film on Blu-ray in the United States.

Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Cure has a 94% approval rating based on 63 reviews, with an average score of 7.50/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Mesmerizing and psychologically intriguing." Tom Mes of Midnight Eye described the film as "a horror film in the purest sense of the word". Meanwhile, A. O. Scott of The New York Times noted that Kiyoshi Kurosawa "turns the thriller into a vehicle for gloomy social criticism." Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club said: "Kurosawa, a prolific genre stylist who specializes in low-key thrillers and horror films, undercuts the lurid material by keeping a chilly, almost clinical distance from the events and unfolding the story in elliptical pieces." For Screen Slate, Stephanie Monohan wrote: "Arguably overshadowed by other films in the turn-of-the-century J-Horror canon like Ringu (1998) and Audition (1999), Cure lives on as one of the more powerful works of the era."

Kurosawa, speaking about the success of Cure, stated: "I watched a lot of American horror movies growing up, and I had wanted to make a movie in that genre for some years. Then the growth in popularity of genre films made it easier for me to get the project financed and produced. So, the circumstance was the key factor to the success of Cure, and it has continued to play an important role in my career ever since."