CureVirtually every sentient being interprets and acts upon the world based on a series of patterns...rules by which we live and use to define ourselves and everything around us. It dictates our behavior, but paradoxically gives us the feeling of free will. But what would happen if someone were able to psychologically "hack" the behavior of other people, and force them to do something that runs counter to their existing "programming"? Cure answers this question by way of a police procedural and psychological thriller about a hypnotist "spree killer" who subconsciously drives others to commit murders, leaving them with no recollection of the crime afterward.
|
|
Written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Cure is filled with a pervasive sense of dread and helplessness in the face of an invisible and uncontainable threat, like his later work, Pulse. While Pulse deals with the incursion of ghosts into the world of the living and the apocalyptic results, Cure explores how language, intonation, and other subtle triggers can make people's sense of control evaporate like mist on a sunny morning. The protagonist of Cure is a police detective named Kenichi Takabe (Kōji Yakusho), who is as puzzled by a string of seemingly unrelated murders being perpetrated in the city. Each victim has been marked with a bloody "X" across their neck, even if they were killed by other means. Takabe is also coping with a wife (Anna Nakagawa) who is suffering from some kind of psychological impairment, resulting in obsessive-compulsive behaviors (like turning on the washing machine without any clothing in it) and other quirks. Takabe's stress is visible on him from the start, and this case only fans the flames of his anger into an inferno of rage. Takabe's partner in this investigation is a psychologist named Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki), who tries to help Takabe make sense of the killings, even if it is only to corral his premature conclusions at first. The mystery about how or why these killings are occurring is answered early on in Cure, beginning with the unusual introduction of a man called Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara). Mamiya seems to have some serious short-term memory disorder, and approaches a kindergarten teacher named Tōru Hanaoka (Masahiro Toda) on the beach, repeatedly asking him where he is, what day it is, and so on. Hanaoka tries to help the confused Mamiya and brings him to his home, where Mamiya repeatedly asks Hanaoka to tell him about himself, over and over again. After a couple of scenes, Hanaoka is arrested after having killed his wife (Misayo Haruki), marking her like the others; and--like the others--he claims that he has no memory of the event. The audience should conclude that Mamiya is the source of this horrible spree killing, but Cure prefers to keep further details close to the chest...even about whether Mamiya is conscious of the fact that he is doing this or not.
The mystery of Cure is a large part of its entertainment value, but more than this is the way that it constantly makes the audience second guess certain things which seem true and then are suggested to be otherwise. This is felt strongest in Takabe, who given the way that the narrative is introduced, is presented like a heroic, driven cop who is determined to see justice done, and that he is meant to catch the killer before the credits roll. But Takabe has been struggling to get a kind of lead connecting the killings for some time before the start of Cure, so his capabilities as a competent hero detective are already brought into question. Even after the stunned Hanaoka is arrested and breaks down at discovering that he murdered his wife, Takabe's mounting stress compels him to basically browbeat the widower before Sakuma steps in to stop him. Takabe is clearly losing control of his professional demeanor, and this comes out like a shotgun blast after Mamiya is taken into custody and Takabe begins to interrogate him. Mamiya's curious way of asking about something that was explained to him moments before makes him appear to be deliberately antagonizing people, and this is how Takabe's anger at the suspect is explained at first. But the question that lingers from here on out is just how much of Takabe's behavior is influenced by his exposure to Mamiya, if any? The perception of Takabe as a heroic protagonist starts to fall apart; but how much of this has to do with Mamiya, and how much was already there beneath the surface? The previous scenes with Mamiya intimate that the bizarre young man in a knit sweater seems to use subtle verbal and physical cues to influence others, ultimately culminating with him using a lighter to mesmerize his victim. Although Mamiya doesn't appear to brandish his lighter with Takabe, is such a prop strictly necessary for mesmerism? In his investigation, Sakuma shows Takabe a very old video of the first recorded instance of mesmerism in Japan, which includes a hand gesture that appears to form a cross over a woman's neck, yet is missing a prop like Mamiya's. Takabe later discovers that Mamiya was a student of psychology and mesmerism, but despite this, there is no accounting for why he seems to have suffered from some kind of debilitating form of memory loss. Is he faking it to afford him the opportunity to brainwash his victims? Or has his exposure to something mankind wasn't meant to tamper with left him scarred, like the savage burn across his back? Even as Cure approaches its final act, things become only more confusing and unclear as to whether Mamiya is the sole propagator of this malicious form of "soul conjuring" or if it is more like a plague that can no longer be contained. But this ever-expanding mystery and confusion actually represents the best aspects of Cure; it requires the audience to let their fear at the fragility of their own psyches add another dimension to the unsettling ending, and admit that control is nothing but a mass hallucination that we all share...that at any minute--through a word or phrase--we might fall prey to an overpowering madness against which we cannot resist.
Recommended for: Fans of a chilling psychological horror movie that explores how mind control exploits the flaws in our perception of reality and ourselves. Cure may have been among the earliest of a wave of Japanese "horror" movies from the late Nineties, but save for a few grisly scenes, its level of overt violence is comparatively tame. What is far more sinister is the way that it insinuates its message about how our civilization is more fragile than we would like to admit that makes it haunt its audience long after the credits roll.
The mystery of Cure is a large part of its entertainment value, but more than this is the way that it constantly makes the audience second guess certain things which seem true and then are suggested to be otherwise. This is felt strongest in Takabe, who given the way that the narrative is introduced, is presented like a heroic, driven cop who is determined to see justice done, and that he is meant to catch the killer before the credits roll. But Takabe has been struggling to get a kind of lead connecting the killings for some time before the start of Cure, so his capabilities as a competent hero detective are already brought into question. Even after the stunned Hanaoka is arrested and breaks down at discovering that he murdered his wife, Takabe's mounting stress compels him to basically browbeat the widower before Sakuma steps in to stop him. Takabe is clearly losing control of his professional demeanor, and this comes out like a shotgun blast after Mamiya is taken into custody and Takabe begins to interrogate him. Mamiya's curious way of asking about something that was explained to him moments before makes him appear to be deliberately antagonizing people, and this is how Takabe's anger at the suspect is explained at first. But the question that lingers from here on out is just how much of Takabe's behavior is influenced by his exposure to Mamiya, if any? The perception of Takabe as a heroic protagonist starts to fall apart; but how much of this has to do with Mamiya, and how much was already there beneath the surface? The previous scenes with Mamiya intimate that the bizarre young man in a knit sweater seems to use subtle verbal and physical cues to influence others, ultimately culminating with him using a lighter to mesmerize his victim. Although Mamiya doesn't appear to brandish his lighter with Takabe, is such a prop strictly necessary for mesmerism? In his investigation, Sakuma shows Takabe a very old video of the first recorded instance of mesmerism in Japan, which includes a hand gesture that appears to form a cross over a woman's neck, yet is missing a prop like Mamiya's. Takabe later discovers that Mamiya was a student of psychology and mesmerism, but despite this, there is no accounting for why he seems to have suffered from some kind of debilitating form of memory loss. Is he faking it to afford him the opportunity to brainwash his victims? Or has his exposure to something mankind wasn't meant to tamper with left him scarred, like the savage burn across his back? Even as Cure approaches its final act, things become only more confusing and unclear as to whether Mamiya is the sole propagator of this malicious form of "soul conjuring" or if it is more like a plague that can no longer be contained. But this ever-expanding mystery and confusion actually represents the best aspects of Cure; it requires the audience to let their fear at the fragility of their own psyches add another dimension to the unsettling ending, and admit that control is nothing but a mass hallucination that we all share...that at any minute--through a word or phrase--we might fall prey to an overpowering madness against which we cannot resist.
Recommended for: Fans of a chilling psychological horror movie that explores how mind control exploits the flaws in our perception of reality and ourselves. Cure may have been among the earliest of a wave of Japanese "horror" movies from the late Nineties, but save for a few grisly scenes, its level of overt violence is comparatively tame. What is far more sinister is the way that it insinuates its message about how our civilization is more fragile than we would like to admit that makes it haunt its audience long after the credits roll.