"This is one of the very best films by the extremely talented Kiyoshi Kurosawa for those of you who don't know the name or the work, he's no relation to Akira Kurosawa. He's an absolute master of light, framing and pacing, and he has so much control over all three that there are moments in his movies when the slightest gesture in the corner of the frame will send a shiver down your spine. Kurosawa doesn't exactly work in the horror genre. Rather, his films are filled with a strange dread. In many of them, something has arrived, no one knows exactly what or how or for what purpose: Reality is untouched except for a small, unsettling detail or two, which mutates into violence and irrationality. Kurosawa is a real student of cinema. Along with Shinji Aoyama, Makoto Shinozaki and a few other directors, he's the former pupil of the great Japanese critic and historian Shigehiko Hasumi. Each of them has absorbed the lessons of older American cinema and taken them to interesting and unusual places. Kurosawa, for instance, is a great admirer of Robert Aldrich, and if you didn't know it you'd never guess as much from simply looking at his movies. But it makes sense: They're both making movies about the world in a state of emergency, creating a troubling poetry of violence and upset. I can recommend every Kurosawa movie I've seen: Séance, Charisma, Doppelgänger, Bright Future and the more recent Retribution. Along with Pulse, which is about ghosts on the Internet, Cure is his most terrifying movie. The excellent Kôji Yakusho (he and Kurosawa have worked together many times) is a detective confronted with a seemingly inexplicable phenomenon: a series of murders in which the perpetrators are standing by unaware of how or why they did it, with red X's carved on the necks of the victims. There are startling images and moments in this picture that will haunt you for a long time to come, and I suppose I should say that it's not for the faint of heart. But be brave, because it's worth it. Kurosawa is a major filmmaker."
Wow what a movie. really intense and suspenseful and keeps you at the edge of your seat to the end. I absolutely loved this movie, hope Criterion gives it a proper blu ray release. Would love to hear directors commentary on it as well.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure is, in the end, a little more enigmatic than I would have liked, but is still an engrossing thriller in which a police detective tracks and confronts a strange amnesiac who may be connected to a rash of strange ritual murders by random people compelled into violent action. Did the Devil really make them do it? Or is the truth less supernatural? I'm not sure I have definite answers for you. Parallel to this, the detective also has a wife at home who is struggling with memory problems herself, and I thought this would be more relevant to the story. It is, but it isn't. So while the premise is disturbing and the atmosphere and mystery kept me glued in place, I'm not quite as enthusiastic about Cure as I want to be.
sorry but it was lame. the writing was not quite convincing. because everyone knows that killer has hypnotic powers but keep chatting with him. and the way the killer's talk... my god, really? so cringeworthy.
if the set-up is paranormal, ok, maybe we can overlook some stuff but the movie still lacks something. it is not effective.
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Adamov10
Martin Scorsese's Review of 'Cure'Reviewed by Martin Scorsese
"This is one of the very best films by the extremely talented Kiyoshi Kurosawa for those of you who don't know the name or the work, he's no relation to Akira Kurosawa. He's an absolute master of light, framing and pacing, and he has so much control over all three that there are moments in his movies when the slightest gesture in the corner of the frame will send a shiver down your spine. Kurosawa doesn't exactly work in the horror genre. Rather, his films are filled with a strange dread. In many of them, something has arrived, no one knows exactly what or how or for what purpose: Reality is untouched except for a small, unsettling detail or two, which mutates into violence and irrationality. Kurosawa is a real student of cinema. Along with Shinji Aoyama, Makoto Shinozaki and a few other directors, he's the former pupil of the great Japanese critic and historian Shigehiko Hasumi. Each of them has absorbed the lessons of older American cinema and taken them to interesting and unusual places. Kurosawa, for instance, is a great admirer of Robert Aldrich, and if you didn't know it you'd never guess as much from simply looking at his movies. But it makes sense: They're both making movies about the world in a state of emergency, creating a troubling poetry of violence and upset. I can recommend every Kurosawa movie I've seen: Séance, Charisma, Doppelgänger, Bright Future and the more recent Retribution. Along with Pulse, which is about ghosts on the Internet, Cure is his most terrifying movie. The excellent Kôji Yakusho (he and Kurosawa have worked together many times) is a detective confronted with a seemingly inexplicable phenomenon: a series of murders in which the perpetrators are standing by unaware of how or why they did it, with red X's carved on the necks of the victims. There are startling images and moments in this picture that will haunt you for a long time to come, and I suppose I should say that it's not for the faint of heart. But be brave, because it's worth it. Kurosawa is a major filmmaker."
greennui
Superby directed, edited and the underlying ambient music was a nice touch.samoan
Wow what a movie. really intense and suspenseful and keeps you at the edge of your seat to the end. I absolutely loved this movie, hope Criterion gives it a proper blu ray release. Would love to hear directors commentary on it as well.jmars
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8igbiqSiskoid
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure is, in the end, a little more enigmatic than I would have liked, but is still an engrossing thriller in which a police detective tracks and confronts a strange amnesiac who may be connected to a rash of strange ritual murders by random people compelled into violent action. Did the Devil really make them do it? Or is the truth less supernatural? I'm not sure I have definite answers for you. Parallel to this, the detective also has a wife at home who is struggling with memory problems herself, and I thought this would be more relevant to the story. It is, but it isn't. So while the premise is disturbing and the atmosphere and mystery kept me glued in place, I'm not quite as enthusiastic about Cure as I want to be.rhitwick
Superb!I wonder why its not in top 500 horror movie list!
grit
Yeah, that dude is wack dawgdeckard.
sorry but it was lame. the writing was not quite convincing. because everyone knows that killer has hypnotic powers but keep chatting with him. and the way the killer's talk... my god, really? so cringeworthy.if the set-up is paranormal, ok, maybe we can overlook some stuff but the movie still lacks something. it is not effective.