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Koji Yakusho, Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Anna Nakagawa, Masato Hagiwara

Oddball Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa directed this haunting police thriller about murder, mind control, and the power of charisma. Police Detective Takabe (Koji Yakusho) is tracking a series of ... read more read more...bizarre murders, all committed in exactly the same manner: a giant X is slashed in the flesh of the victims. But that's where the similarities end. In each case, seemingly well-adjusted people suddenly kill without understanding why. Baffled, Takabe consults his psychologist friend Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki), who finds no relationships among the perpetrators and rules out any connection with the media. The investigation eventually leads to a young drifter named Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara), who asks everyone he meets the same simple question: "Who are you?" Usually people respond with such stock answers as "doctor" or "police detective," to which the drifter responds with the same question. Part of Mamiya's reason for this bizarre behavior is that he has been turned inside-out; his interior world is completely empty. He has no memory, no identity, and he does not recognize his own self-image. Yet he does have an insidious, hypnotic ability to get inside the minds of others and unleash their repressed desires to murder. His victims' inability to answer Mamiya's maddeningly simple question shows their own tenuous grasp of their identity. Only Takabe seems to understand the other meaning behind Mamiya's query. His wife Fumie (Anna Nakagawa)'s own personality is slowly being destroyed by mental illness, making her act in increasingly inexplicable ways. Frustrated by Mamiya's sphinx-like ability to fend off the most rigorous interrogation, and yet drawn to his charms, Takabe undergoes a journey into the dark recesses of his own self, while slowly uncovering the secrets of the drifter's power. This film, which first brought international attention to Kurosawa, transcends the boundaries of its genre to become a riveting exploration of the collapse of identity in a postmodern age. It was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival as a part of the Director's Spotlight. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

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80% liked it

4,795 ratings

Critics

91% liked it

45 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 50 min.

Directed by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Release Date: April 25, 1998

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DVD Release Date: January 6, 2004

 

Stats: 241 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (241)

  • 366weirdmovies
    July 18, 2009
    366weirdmovies
    A detective seeks to solve a series of murders committed by ordinary people, each of whom has come into contact with an amnesiac. Very strange psychohorror taking place largely in the subconscious; nice creepy atmosphere, but it fails to build to a satisfying climax, with the f... read moreinal scene being a particular letdown.
  • rubystevens
    January 6, 2009
    rubystevens
    excellent hypnotic serial killer thriller. this is the creepiest film i've seen in some time. much better than average j-horror.
  • DrBenway
    May 2, 2008
    DrBenway
    On another level than homogenized japanese horror films, Cure is an involving crime drama and a moody thriller about serial killings committed through the power of suggestion. The lack of music during key scenes of violence is a bit unsettling as is the use of ambient sound dur... read moreing other scenes which add to the infectious, hypnotic theme.

    It's far too subtle for the die-hard horror crowd and too unconventional and violent for the art house crowd. Unclouded by narrative reassurance for morality themes such as good guy/bad guy found in Seven or Silence of the Lambs. If you enjoy deep, dark, traumatic, thoughtful psychological drama at its most heavy, tense and serious, Cure is for you.
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  • DragonEyeMorrison
    February 3, 2008
    DragonEyeMorrison
    Frustrating at times, and yet, hard not to pay attention to it. I can't say i got everything that K.Kurosawa wanted to say, but it kept me watching it all the way with both eyes and ears wide open. Koji-san performance is rock solid as usual.
  • ceWEBrity
    April 16, 2007
    ceWEBrity
    I adore Kiyoshi Kurosawa's style. I genuinely love it. I just wish he was better with the substance.

    Let's be honest with ourselves - none of KK's movies are really that deep or thoughtful, except probably Pulse. They don't really deserve multiple viewings. They are neat little... read more baubles that show off a masterful, mature sense of style and some fantastic performances. If there's one quality Kurosawa has, it's that he can draw A-class performances from any actor in any of his movies. But with all that aside, he can't write for shit. His body of work explores a lot of gripping themes, but consistently fails to expound on all of them. The more he gets out of these ideas, the better his movies are.

    Doppelganger, Cure, Seance, Pulse. From worst to best, that's how his films stack up. (I haven't seen Bright Future or Charisma, and I hear that his J-pop-horror brainchild Loft is downright awful.) Pulse did such a great job tying its messages into its atmosphere and style; Seance was enormously involving, if not a little dry. Cure left me cold and Doppelganger was straight-out dull and repetitive. I'm sorry, but three-minute long shots of people walking through a house with no dialogue or exposition isn't productive film making, as cool as the shot may look. And in Kurosawa tradition, Cure's non-ending is dissatisfying, frustrating and cryptic.

    If you're a fan of Kiyoshi Kurosawa like I am, this is imperative viewing, but it's not a very good movie on many other fronts.
  • lesleyanorton
    March 1, 2010
    lesleyanorton
    Japanese murder-thriller as an un-connected group of people suddenly take to murder in a similar and unexpected fashion. Not as blood-thirsty as I feared or as gripping as I hoped, but the culprit deserves all the retribution he gets, not for his heinous crimes but for being so... read more damned annoyingly smug throughout the film .
  • heavymetalcrusader
    February 15, 2009
    heavymetalcrusader
    I greatly admire the visual style of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. His landscapes convey dread and isolation better than no other. The ambiguity of this movie may be frustrating to some, but it ultimately helps the movie to succeed.
  • falcons84
    August 10, 2006
    falcons84
    Very slow, but excellent as a psychological thriller. The leads are great together in a cat-and-mouse chase, and the ending leaves you going "What...?" Definitely not your run-of-the-mill horror movie.
  • fb555928095
    April 3, 2012
    fb555928095
    From the director of the original Pulse, Cure is a stylish, philosophical, and bizarre piece of horror cinema that follows a detective trying to solve a case involving people who randomly kill in the same fashion but without any apparent motive or connection between them. Dark ... read moreand unsettling, Cure will keep you guessing as it progresses towards its brilliantly inevitable conclusion. A slow-building thriller, Cure is yet another example of why Kiyoshi Kurosawa has become one of the great modern masters of the horror/thriller genre.
  • sleepykiss
    March 23, 2010
    sleepykiss
    Impressive for a 1997 movie: very creepy, slow, reminds me a bit of the SILENCE OF THE LAMBS & THE EXORCIST 3.

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Critic Reviews

Jonathan Rosenbaum
October 17, 2011
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

It's unsatisfying as a story precisely because it aspires to create a mounting sense of dread by enlarging questions rather than answering them. Full Review

David Rooney
March 26, 2009
David Rooney, Variety

Tone and atmosphere mirror subject to perfection in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's hypnotic trip into the lower depths of the human mind. Full Review

Chris Vognar
June 6, 2002
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News

Tough to shake even when it feels more like an exercise than a movie. Full Review

Roger Moore
January 3, 2002
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

A fascinating artifact as well as a most engrossing thriller.

Ray Conlogue
October 8, 2001
Ray Conlogue, Globe and Mail

Cure has a cumulative power of horror which even seasoned filmgoers will not be able to resist. Full Review

Bob Graham
September 21, 2001
Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle

It's more psychological than a genre movie, and that is the source of both its greatest interest and its biggest problem. Full Review

David Edelstein
August 21, 2001
David Edelstein, Slate

A grave, magnificently creepy thriller. Full Review

John Petrakis
August 16, 2001
John Petrakis, Chicago Tribune

Once again [Kurosawa] takes on a familiar genre, the murder mystery, but he imbues it with so much angst and psychological juice that it takes on a life of its own. Full Review

Kenneth Turan
August 15, 2001
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

With its gift for infusing uneasiness into every frame, Kurosawa's moody, unnerving film continues to spook us even after the lights have gone on. Full Review

A.O. Scott
August 15, 2001
A.O. Scott, New York Times

Rather than resort to clever plot twists and reversals, Kurosawa constructs an elaborate psychological maze and then strands us in the middle of it. Full Review

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Cure Trivia

  • Name the movie this tagline is from, "The story of a man who thought he was the greatest lover in the world... and the people who tried to cure him of it".  Answer »
  • In My Big Fat Greek Wedding What does the father think will cure any illness  Answer »
  • The Cure for Insomnia (1987) is the longest movie ever made at a total running time of 85 hours (5,220 min) . It premiered in its entirety at The School Of The Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois from January 31 to February 3, 1987, in one continuous showing.   Answer »
  • What was the reason of the research done on sharks in the movie "Deep Blue Sea"?  Answer »
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