DVD Review – Cure
Finally, the last of my Halloween Asian horror reviews! Unfortunately, the movie sucked. There are spoilers.
Cure (Japan, 1997)
Cure is billed as a horror movie, but it’s really more of a psychological thriller. I wanted to like Cure, I really did. The concept is, as far as I know, unique among suspense films. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get into it; despite the interesting idea behind it, the movie is a jumbled mess.
Takabe is a police detective with a face like a basset hound and Richard Gere hair. His wife is disabled; she seems to have short-term memory loss so severe that she can go to the convenience store and get lost on the way home. It’s a stressful situation for Takabe, who secretly feels that his wife has become a burden instead of a partner. As if that weren’t weird enough, he’s stuck on a really bizarre case: a string of serial murders with one connection; every victim has an X cut into their throat, severing both carotid arteries. In each case, the murderer is apprehended quickly, because they make no attempt to hide or cover up the crime. They’re all normal people: a doctor, a loving husband, a cop. All of them seem to have no memory of the events leading up to the murder, and are horrified by their actions afterward.
In his investigation, Takabe turns up another connection between the killings. Shortly before each murder, the perps had encounters with a scruffy young drifter named Mamiya, who seems to have no short-term memory whatsoever. Takiya finally gets his hands on Mamiya, who plays dumb. But Takabe knows he is hiding something.
With the help of a police psychologist, Takabe learns that Mamiya is a former psychology student who is obsessed with hypnotism. He’s not actually an amnesiac at all; he uses that as an excuse to approach people and hypnotize them into killing others. But Takabe seems immune to his powers, which fascinates Mamiya. Mamiya eventually escapes from police custody. Takabe chases him down and kills him, then apparently takes up Mamiya’s mantle, mesmerizing others to make them kill.
The main problem with Cure is that is explains nothing. Nothing. I am all for open endings and for some mystery to make the viewer think, but Cure doesn’t make a damn bit of sense. Why is Mamiya all about hypnotism? Why does he want to make other people- total strangers- kill? Why can’t he hypnotize Takabe? Why does Takabe kill him? Why would the detective take over Mamiya’s work? What the Hell does the title mean? Takabe learns that the Japanese are traditionally leery of hypnotism. At one point, the police psychologist shows Takabe an old film of a woman undergoing hypnotherapy, and explains that the woman later killed her son, cutting his throat in an X. They make much of the fact that you can’t see the hypnotist’s face in the film – but nothing ever comes if it. They make the vaguest suggestions about an underground secret society of murderous Japanese hypnotists, but the hint is so obscure you can’t even be sure that’s what they’re getting at.
The movie isn’t particularly well-shot, either. There are numerous long-distance shots – entire scenes are shot from far away, so the characters look like insects while they converse in voice-overs (there’s lots of talking in this movie, but none of it really tells the audience anything) and long, slow scenes that had no apparent purpose other than padding Cure’s running time.
Because the movie gives us nothing concerning Mamiya’s or Takabe’s motivations, the actors don’t have much subtlety, or even much to do at all. Koji Yakusho is alternately mopey and angry as Takabe. Masato Hagiwara, is annoying as Hell, but since that’s the nature of the character I guess he did what he could with what he was given.
Cure could have been good, or at least entertaining in an outrageous, Dan Brown-y way; the idea is neat. But the writers just didn’t put in enough effort. It’s fine for a movie to leave a few untied strings, but when there are far more questions than answers, we have a problem.
Recommend-o-meter: Cure doesn’t fulfill its potential. Don’t waste your time.
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